Our peaceful little anchorage from last night turned a
little “lumpy” as the wind shifted to the west during the night. But it was generally light wind and we were
not disturbed a great deal by the rocking motion of the boat in the waves. We did awaken early, though, and decided to
have breakfast and then prepare to raise the anchor and depart shortly after
sunrise. We were underway by 07:00, having heard that the Alligator
River Swing Bridge would be operational within 15 minutes. It had been closed for emergency repairs the
previous day, but was opening “occasionally” for commercial traffic and
whatever pleasure craft were waiting. So
we zoomed up to the bridge under motor and sail, arriving a little after 08:00
but they seemed to be having “technical difficulties” and the tug and barge
that had requested an opening at 07:00 was still waiting. There was also a sportfisherman and sailboat
waiting to come through from the other direction, plus Kite and Royal
Serf. They eventually admitted it might
be a couple of hours, so we set our anchor.
About 30 minutes later the bridge tender told the tug/barge to line up
for passage through (they have priority over recreational vessels) so we raised
our anchor and got in line behind the tug/barge. A few minutes later it became apparent that
someone had misjudged the situation, and the bridge was not opening. After motoring in circles for another 30
minutes, we again set our anchor and decided to wait until we saw the bridge
actually in motion. Our moment finally
came at 11:30 when the bridge started opening.
By that time another tug/barge had arrived from the opposite direction
and several other recreational vessels from both directions. The bridge tender was the traffic cop,
telling each vessel when it could pass through, starting with the first
tug/barge, then the second one, and finally the pleasure craft in groups.
Once through the bridge, Peter did a quick calculation of
the distance we had to go to the Coinjock Marina (35 statute miles) and figured
that if we made 5 knots we could be there by 18:00, so we decided not to change
our plan and Lyn called the marina to be sure there would be room for us when
we arrived. The wind had shifted, just
before the bridge opened, to an easterly direction and was freshening. Crossing the Albemarle Sound can sometimes be
a challenge because it is wide and relatively shallow (15 feet deep in most
locations), so the wind driven waves can become steep and close together. Today, this was not the case, as the wind had
freshened to around 10 knots and the waters were quite smooth.. Our direction across the Sound was north
northeast. Under a bright sun with few
clouds, we put out our jib close-hauled, and enjoyed a nice, smooth motor sail
at around 6.5 knots across the Sound. We
entered the North River and were able to keep our jib up for most of that
passage too, so we arrived at the marina by 17:00, an hour earlier than
originally predicted, and tied up for the night. Tomorrow, we should arrive in Norfolk, VA and
the Chesapeake Bay!
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| Sunset at Wrightsville Beach |
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| Sunset at Wrightsville Beach |
The Coinjock Marina has a world class restaurant (it says so
right on the menu) and they are famous for their 32-ounce prime rib. Peter didn’t think he could eat 2 pounds of
meat, so he ordered the sissy 1-pounder, and then only ate half of it. Lyn had a more modest appetite and ordered a
6-ounce sirloin with a special crawfish cake.
The food was actually quite good and we felt happy to be near the
beginning of the next phase of our voyage – exploring Chesapeake Bay. Fred and Renée, from Royal Serf came into the
restaurant as we were ordering dessert, and were seated at a table next to
ours. We discussed tomorrow’s leg of the
trip, and Fred said that the weather forecast was for stormy weather and he
thought he would wait a day. It seems
that most of the trip tomorrow is crossing Currituck Sound, and that is a
narrow channel of deep water across a wide body of shallow water, which allows
the wind to build up rough waves. Adding
to the excitement, in many parts of the channel, it is lined with submerged
pilings so if you stray from the channel or get blown off course, you run the
risk of punching a hole in your hull by hitting one of the hundreds of
submerged pilings. We checked the forecast,
and sure enough rain and a windstorm was forecast for tomorrow with gusts to 25
knots from the east. That would be a
cross-wind in the Currituck Sound, so we decided to stay another day. The forecast for Tuesday is much better, with
no rain and light winds. Another delay,
but who cares? Safety first.
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