October 23, 2013
Jorge and I slept in this morning, no worries about anchoring, tides, currents, wind, etc. The morning was a little busy. We finished securing the dinghy on the davits as we did not want to tow it across the Albemarle Sound. Jorge transferred fuel into CS'ta Time's tank and the generator and then we walked to the gas station to fill up the jerry cans. We also stopped at a seafood market and bought fresh shrimp and tilapia for dinner.
After lunch we walked to the Albemarle Museum, a short two blocks away. We visited the exhibits of the history of the local region as well as their part in the Civil War.
I left a few fingernails behind in this relic.
Boy, we have come a long way!
Just a candid shot.
The guy in white is the oldtimer.
I didn't have a vase for my rose, so a beer bottle had to do.
Diana and Gilbert (Serenada from our home port of HYC) had texted us saying they were waiting for the highway bridge to open before they could get into the Elizabeth City marina. Unfortunately they came at rush hour and had to wait an hour. The slip next to us was vacant and we helped them tie up around 1730. It was great to see them! They joined us on our boat along with a couple we had rafted up with at the Dismal Swamp for happy hour, hence it was too late to be blogging after they left.
Serenada on approach to Elizabeth City wharf.
Jorge and I awoke at 0645. On my, we were supposed to leave at 0700. It was a scrabble to get going. We were crossing the Albemarle Sound and going to anchor in the Alligator River. The temp was quite cool, 12C inside the boat when we woke up however during the day the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, but the temp remained cool. The waves were about 3 feet at their greatest and wind gusts were to about 20 knots but the direction was good and sailing was great. Poor Gilbert and Diana, they must have felt abandoned when they got up this morning - about 6 boats left Elizabeth City.
Depths in feet (our keel is 5').
We had crab pots to deal with once again. Boy I will be sooooo glad to see the end of them! Once inside the Alligator River we had very shallow waters and dead heads to deal with again. As a matter of fact, we hit bottom twice before we bumped over whatever we hit. The third time we actually ran aground. We had to share the canal with a barge travelling north and because of his size, well we gave him too much room and came to a halt just off the channel. Jorge and the 46-hp got us unstuck and off we went.
Because of the direction of the winds predicted for tonight, we did not like the recommended anchorages and the one we did like, well we tried twice to get into it but again it was too shallow and we touched bottom both times trying to get into it. As there were no other spots to anchor in the canal we had no choice but to continue, into dusk and early night. Not an ideal situation with the dead heads and shallow waters but we had no choice. We really stuck to the center of the channel and watched the depth sounder constantly. It was 1930 when we turned the anchor light on having dropped the hook in an area hopefully going to protected from the winds. Needless to say, it was a very long day, some 66 nm or approximately 123 km, 12.5 hours. The canal was very calm so I was able to make dinner en route and just reheat it after we anchored. We did almost 2 days of travelling in 1 day, so Jorge say that calls for 2 bottles of wine!
Sunset in Alligator River.
Approaching the anchorage.
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