Day 232: Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Port to Port: Cedar Creek Anchorage to Tuckahoe Pt Anchorage
Underway: 6:31 am Motor Off: 8:13 pm Miles Traveled: 84 Stayed At: Anchor
First Things First: First (and last) 80+ mile day; first time seeing Pepsi in glass bottles since I was a kid.
Mile 187 to Mile 104: Our goal today was Belhaven at about Mile 135. A longish day at 52 miles but conditions were finally perfect for getting across several large bodies of water – the Neuse River, Pamlico River and Pungo River can get rough in windy conditions so we need to take advantage of the window that we have. We got up early and left before the sun rose. Several boats anchored with us had the same idea and left about the same time. In fact, lots of people had the same idea. I don’t know where they all came from, but by the time we were crossing the first part of the Neuse River, there were 9 boats – mostly sailboats in front of us and another half dozen coming up from behind. Grand Central Station. Everyone has been patiently waiting for a good day to travel.
Well, it turned out to be a great travel day. The wind, tide and waves were in our favor all day. Even with a quick stop for gas at Hobucken Marina, we were at the turn for Belhaven by early afternoon and we still had great conditions. So we kept going to an anchorage another 6 miles east to be done (for a little while) with the big water. But then we were speeding along at the beginning of a long narrow cut at 6.9 to 7.1 mph with the wind and current in our favor (on a warm, sunny day). So we kept going to an anchorage near a bridge at Mile 114. But we were still going almost 7 mph and we calculated that we could get to the next available anchorage at Mile 105 at the beginning of the Alligator River at about 7:45 pm – at sunset – so we kept going. We lucked out and kept our speed over 6.5 mph the whole way and, except for having to anchor 3 times to get the anchor to set, we were tired but secure by a little after 8 pm as the full moon was rising over the opposite horizon from the sunset. Now we only have two more big bodies of water to traverse – the Alligator River and Albermer Sound – before we start down the famous Dismal Swamp on our way to Norfolk, Virginia and Mile 0.
It all sounds easy and obvious after the fact, but we agonized over every change in plans throughout the day. Will the weather hold out? What will the next anchorage look like? Will it be crowded? Will we have enough fuel? Will the current die on us? What will the waves look like on the next bay? Will the wind shift? Although it was a perfect travel day, we didn’t really relax all day. We are ready to be done with these big bodies of water – we can’t wait for the Dismal Swamp.
