Mon Nov 12. We were up about 5 am and ready to set sail by shortly after 6, as soon as it was light enough. The river was really quite beautiful that early in the morning - calm and peaceful. We had a few options for travel this day, stop at the opening to the Albemarle Sound, or continue through the sound (about 15 miles), and get a full days travel in. The weather was lovely, if chilly, but the winds were good, so we decided to do the extra miles and go across the sound. A great decision as it turned out, as the wind was perfect for using the new sail (you pretty well always motorsail in the ICW) and we got up to 7 knots/hr at one point (I told you we don't go fast!). We decided to treat ourselves to a marina again that night, as a reward for the push! We stayed at the Alligator River Marina, North Carolina, along with the huge cruiser yacht 007! We think that it is owned by the movie company, but no Sean Connery or Daniel Craig on board (I asked!)LOL. We had an uneventful night and again by 6 am were getting ready to kick off the dock.
Tues Nov 13. Left the Alligator River Marina at 6:20 am to continue down the Alligator River and then through the Alligator River canal...a 20 + mile man made canal which is narrow and full of dead trees, stumps and dead heads. It is not the most beautiful thing to transit thats for sure! There were lots of power boats which zoomed up behind us and then passed us. Some are really polite and slow down before reaching us, and then calling to ask which side we'd like them to pass on. This gives us a chance to prepare and move quickly into their wake to minimize the amount of rolling around we do . Not everyone is polite though, and today we sure had our share of jerks who just push a huge amount of water at us, zoom past without so much as a how do you do and then leave a major wake for us to battle through. Creeps! Anyway, no sailing today, the wind was strong, but on the nose, and as the canal is so narrow, there is no opportunity to tack. While on the lookout for deadheads etc, we noticed something moving across the channel, and thought it might be an alligator! We continued to watch and it turned out to be a white tailed deer swimming across the canal!! It was still in the water, but standing when it caught a look at us, and before we could get a picture, it took off in leaps and bounds for the dense woods at the edge of the water! That was cool! Once we were out of the canal, we had about 10 more miles to go to get to Belhaven. The water opens up and it was quite lovely out - warming up, the wind had dropped and I was down to 1 shirt and no coat! Then we saw it! Dolphins ahead of our bow! Now THAT was awesome! We watched them surface a few times and then they fell back to entertain the trawler behind us! We knew the ocean was close by, but this was the first time it really hit home! Way cool! We anchored out here in Belhaven (much to Graham's dismay, he likes marinas!), and were able to take Beau for a good walk before settling in for the day. An early night for Larry (he didn't sleep well last night) and I'm close behind him. Tomorrow we head for Oriental NC, and may spend and extra day there as a rest day. Time for bed!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Intra Coastal Waterway, day 1
We kicked off the dock at Hampton about 10 am Sunday Nov 11, after having a terrific pasta dinner with Stuart and Elaine (sorry about the spilled wine...). They will be heading out around Wed (Nov 14), so we will be a few days ahead of them. Hopefully, they will catch up with us, it would be fun to have a travelling companion!
I was kind of jittery about setting out - you get complacent when you are in one spot for too long I find, and we had been in Hampton for about 2 weeks. Anyway, we planned a fairly easy day for our first day, as there are quite a few bridges and a lock to get through, which can make the passage slow. We thought we would stop at Great Bridge, where it is possible to tie up to docks between the bridge and the lock. However, that was not to be....there was no room for us at either of the docks...damn! It would not be a big deal, except that there really no good anchorages between Great Bridge and Pungo Ferry, a distance of about 18 miles. We don't go fast, thats about 3 hours, and it gets dark about 5 pm nowadays. So there we were, all by ourselves, sun going down, night coming on, weather COLD and every spot we tried to anchor - we went aground. The ICW isn't called "the ditch" for nothing! We were navigating with a powerful flashlight on the markers (the ICW is well marked that way!) and keeping close track on the chart. We finally decided to try hailing a marina (Pungo Ferry Marina) but no one answered! We were approaching a bridge when we saw people at the marina and were about to hail, when we were hailed on the vhf. A boat was leaving the dock, and we could come in and take their spot! Thank God! We managed to get on the dock (our stern stuck out, but we didn't care!) and the folks that helped us (and hailed us) weren't from the marina at all, but other boaters who had been in the same prediciment as us! We all agreed that the charts lie as far as good anchorages and depths goes, and then we retreated to the warmth of the cabin for a much deserved dinner! I was never so happy to be in a marina! We vowed that this would not happen to us again, as my nerves were shot by the time we got in!
I was kind of jittery about setting out - you get complacent when you are in one spot for too long I find, and we had been in Hampton for about 2 weeks. Anyway, we planned a fairly easy day for our first day, as there are quite a few bridges and a lock to get through, which can make the passage slow. We thought we would stop at Great Bridge, where it is possible to tie up to docks between the bridge and the lock. However, that was not to be....there was no room for us at either of the docks...damn! It would not be a big deal, except that there really no good anchorages between Great Bridge and Pungo Ferry, a distance of about 18 miles. We don't go fast, thats about 3 hours, and it gets dark about 5 pm nowadays. So there we were, all by ourselves, sun going down, night coming on, weather COLD and every spot we tried to anchor - we went aground. The ICW isn't called "the ditch" for nothing! We were navigating with a powerful flashlight on the markers (the ICW is well marked that way!) and keeping close track on the chart. We finally decided to try hailing a marina (Pungo Ferry Marina) but no one answered! We were approaching a bridge when we saw people at the marina and were about to hail, when we were hailed on the vhf. A boat was leaving the dock, and we could come in and take their spot! Thank God! We managed to get on the dock (our stern stuck out, but we didn't care!) and the folks that helped us (and hailed us) weren't from the marina at all, but other boaters who had been in the same prediciment as us! We all agreed that the charts lie as far as good anchorages and depths goes, and then we retreated to the warmth of the cabin for a much deserved dinner! I was never so happy to be in a marina! We vowed that this would not happen to us again, as my nerves were shot by the time we got in!
Thank you Hampton, It's been Real
Since last I wrote...well, we had a great time in Hampton. The museums were interesting, the Imax presentation of Transformers was awesome - if a bit on the long side for me : ), the shopping was plentiful and the friends were wonderful, as always!
We said "see ya on down the road" to Jan and Iain as they headed off down the ICW ahead of us - we hope and expect that we will meet up with them at some point. We wish them fair weather! As the experienced cruisers, they withstood hours of discussion, questions and advice requests from us (and others too!) Luckily for us, they are happy to oblige and share their wisdom, always with the provision that we all have to make our own decision in the end.
After the Caribbean 1500 departed, there was a real decrease in boat traffic, and we were feeling a bit lonely! Luckily for us, "Overdraught" (Stuart and Heather and dtr Elaine, 19) were still in Hampton, as Heather had to head home to Thorold, ON for work (what's that??), so Stuart and Elaine were hanging around, looking for stuff to do and people to do it with! We shared lots of laughs, movies, shopping trips, dinners and drinks, and I really hope that they catch up with us!
We moved Star Shadow closer into the harbour (internet connection was better in there!), but had a nerve wracking experience when at 2:30 am we were woken by someone banging on our hull yelling that we were dragging! YIKES!!! Indeed we had, though fortunately the anchor had caught again by the time we were awake! Anyway, the wind had really picked up through the night, and we had to decide what to. The channel in the harbour is rather narrow and it shoals up quite a bit at the shore, and we weren't sure that we could anchor again there, especially in the strong wind (in the middle of the night!), so we decided to go back to our original spot out in front of Hampton University until the morning. Of course we were all awake and rather wound up by then, so we had a cup of hot chocolate before heading off to bed again. By the morning, the wind had shifted again, and we were in a bad spot for the wind direction, so we had to move again. This time we went back to the harbour, and tied up to some old pilings - nice and close to the dingy dock, and without the worry about wind shifts and going aground!
Our new sail arrived ahead of schedule (!!!) and it is just great. We had also used the time in Hampton to arrange for our dingy to be registered (they are so picky about this in Florida, apparently in ON we don't have to have it registered, so we hadn't done it), and Doug was amazing in his efforts to get it done so fast! Thanks Doug! Also, Graham's first unit of school work was marked and ready to be sent to us via purolator (thanks Leslie, you are wonderful!). He was very relieved to get great marks - 100% in math and 80's and 90's in everything else! I hope this will help him realize that he is doing just fine school-wise. Clare has received several marks back from her grade 10 courses, and is excelling, as always! She totally impresses me with her ability to focus on the work and tune the rest of us out! She is able to submit her work online, so it saves the problem of having to have marks sent by purolator. I'm mighty proud of both of them. Clare's friend Kelly sent her a care package, which arrived on Nov 9, much to her delight! Not that she would tell us what was in it!
We were finally ready to head for the Intra Coastal Waterway!
We said "see ya on down the road" to Jan and Iain as they headed off down the ICW ahead of us - we hope and expect that we will meet up with them at some point. We wish them fair weather! As the experienced cruisers, they withstood hours of discussion, questions and advice requests from us (and others too!) Luckily for us, they are happy to oblige and share their wisdom, always with the provision that we all have to make our own decision in the end.
After the Caribbean 1500 departed, there was a real decrease in boat traffic, and we were feeling a bit lonely! Luckily for us, "Overdraught" (Stuart and Heather and dtr Elaine, 19) were still in Hampton, as Heather had to head home to Thorold, ON for work (what's that??), so Stuart and Elaine were hanging around, looking for stuff to do and people to do it with! We shared lots of laughs, movies, shopping trips, dinners and drinks, and I really hope that they catch up with us!
We moved Star Shadow closer into the harbour (internet connection was better in there!), but had a nerve wracking experience when at 2:30 am we were woken by someone banging on our hull yelling that we were dragging! YIKES!!! Indeed we had, though fortunately the anchor had caught again by the time we were awake! Anyway, the wind had really picked up through the night, and we had to decide what to. The channel in the harbour is rather narrow and it shoals up quite a bit at the shore, and we weren't sure that we could anchor again there, especially in the strong wind (in the middle of the night!), so we decided to go back to our original spot out in front of Hampton University until the morning. Of course we were all awake and rather wound up by then, so we had a cup of hot chocolate before heading off to bed again. By the morning, the wind had shifted again, and we were in a bad spot for the wind direction, so we had to move again. This time we went back to the harbour, and tied up to some old pilings - nice and close to the dingy dock, and without the worry about wind shifts and going aground!
Our new sail arrived ahead of schedule (!!!) and it is just great. We had also used the time in Hampton to arrange for our dingy to be registered (they are so picky about this in Florida, apparently in ON we don't have to have it registered, so we hadn't done it), and Doug was amazing in his efforts to get it done so fast! Thanks Doug! Also, Graham's first unit of school work was marked and ready to be sent to us via purolator (thanks Leslie, you are wonderful!). He was very relieved to get great marks - 100% in math and 80's and 90's in everything else! I hope this will help him realize that he is doing just fine school-wise. Clare has received several marks back from her grade 10 courses, and is excelling, as always! She totally impresses me with her ability to focus on the work and tune the rest of us out! She is able to submit her work online, so it saves the problem of having to have marks sent by purolator. I'm mighty proud of both of them. Clare's friend Kelly sent her a care package, which arrived on Nov 9, much to her delight! Not that she would tell us what was in it!
We were finally ready to head for the Intra Coastal Waterway!
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