Potato heads
Began our trip south from Lankford Bay Marina to warmer areas. Not sure our final destination area - could be the keys, could be the Bahamas... but we tossed off the dock lines and headed off. First stop Herring Bay - but wind changed direction and it was much stronger than forecast (NWS didn't get it right... again), so we picked up the anchor at midnight on Sunday and headed down to Mill Creek in Solomons.
Monday, we headed south and anchored in Dividing Creek, where we stayed an extra day because of bad weather.
Wednesday we left Dividing Creek and sailed down to Chisman Creek off the York river. Nice little anchorage - much bigger than it seemed on the charts - but a long way in and a longer way out. At least wasn't going in the wrong direction!
Thursday we left Chisman Creek and headed for our first marina of the trip - Tidewater Yacht Marina at Mile 0 in Portsmouth.
Friday we took off down the ICW. Didn't pull out until 8pm because we knew we had to wait for the first bridge opening at 8:30 - which was held up a while because of Amtrak (the RR bridge is right on the other side of the Gilmerton Bridge and the Gilmerton bridge won't open until the RR bridge opens. Continued heading down, got to the Great Bridge Lock just as it was opening for traffic - so we went right in. Looked at a few possible anchorages for the evening - but all looked sketchy - so we tied up at Coinjack Marina.
Left Coinjock at 8am on Saturday morning headed down the ICW and into the Alligator river where we anchored right before the Alligator/Pongo river canal. Lovely anchorage, lovely sunset, no alligators!
Pulled anchor on Sunday at 7am to head down the canal into the Pongo river - short day as we stayed in the basin outside of Belhaven.
Left Belhaven early Monday morning, headed down the Pongo, crossed the Pamlico and into the Neuse river - which on Monday was calm. Got the sail up a bit which was nice both on the Pongo and Neuse as well as some stretches along the Albemarle Sound and Pongo rivers. Was planning to go into Oriental, but the wind was going to start coming out of the NE and rather strongly and Oriental looked a bit exposed, so opted for the South River.
Tuesday morning, October 8, we left the South River.... had a bit of a rough go of it coming out of the south river and around the rather large slough. The NWS called it a "moderate chop" with winds 10-15. Actually, winds were 15-20 with gusts over 25, seas 2 foot +. In the Chesapeake - this would have at least been a SCA if not a bit more, but here - only "moderate chop" - interesting. Finally turned going downwind got some sail up and headed for the canal down to Beaufort/Morehead City, where we got a slip at Beaufort Docks (very affordable!!)
Now, waiting for Milton to pass as we plan to go out and around down to Wrightsville Beach - a 12 hour passage outside.