Having sailed on the Chesapeake Bay for over 20 years, we are longtime fans of Spin Sheet. We have long since retired south to a home on the Albemarle Sound where we are members of the Osprey Yacht Club (ospreyyc.com) and the Albemarle Sail and Power Squadron(aspsonline.org) in Hertford, NC.
We were members of the Northern Star Hunter Sailing Association and the Sassafras River Yacht Club for many years and have occasionally followed their activities in your “Cruising Club Notes”. Quite a few years ago several of the members of NSHSA cruised down to the Albemarle Sound. Last summer we cruised up to our old haunts in the Chesapeake Bay for about four weeks.
We thought that your readers, especially the various cruising clubs, yacht clubs and US Power Squadron members in the Chesapeake area, might be interested in a cruising destination next season and an unbelievable sailing and cruising opportunity.
The 2016 Albemarle Loop offers free overnight boat slips (48 hours per visit) on the sheltered Albemarle Sound at nine various marinas. A boating club can cruise the Albemarle Sound area and enjoy nine marinas free for two nights each. Two of the town marinas are limited by a 34’ and 50’ bridges respectively which would limit some sailboats but the rest of the destinations are quite accessible. Where else can your boating clubs cruise for two weeks with free slips? The Albemarle Sound and its surrounding communities offer 400 years of American history and a chance to visit small North Carolina towns that reflect the old south like nowhere else. There is no cost to this!
Last year six of these communities started the Albemarle Loop program to introduce this area to boaters and it became so popular that there are now nine destinations. Snowbirds traveling south this Fall enjoyed the Loop and we expect we’ll be seeing them in the Spring. Boaters are discovering a diamond in the rough and a long time best kept secret.
We are glad to be able to pass this along to our old boating friends in the Chesapeake Bay and hope to see them cruising nearby next season. Find full details at albemarleloop.com
~Elana and Robert "Jock" Muir
