April 14th

We leave Elizabeth City still under power, wind still out of the south and it isn't until we hit the Albemarle Sound that we can make headway under sail. Finally, we can sail and its a glorious romp right across to the Alligator River on the other side. Here, we drop sail and again turn on the engine. We're heading into a pretty stiff wind right out of the south and the engine is working hard to keep us above 5 knots. The alligator bridge opens about a mile ahead of us and I said to Dennis well I guess we'll make the next opening when we get hailed by the bridge master. He says 2 gravelly words “Speed up!”. “Yes sir” and we coax another ½ knot out of the Volvo.

Not long after getting through the bridge, we hear over the radio that the bridge has broken down and is closed until further notice.

The further we went down the Alligator river, the harder the wind blew, by the time we made the turn west at the end of the bay we were down to about 2 ½ knots and bashing in to waves that often brought us to a standstill. After the turn west, it was a different story altogether. We were well protected from the south and we ended up getting a cozy anchorage just 30 yards from the woods.

But, we are in the boonies. We see nothing, hear nothing and there is no cell phone reception here. Slept like a log.

April 15th - Anchorage at Campbell Creek/Goose Creek

About noon, we hear over the radio that the Alligator Bridge is still broken. I can't help but think of the poor boats heading north, there is no where to hide on the south side of that bridge. If they'd been waiting for the bridge to open they would have had to turn back south into that howling wind for 5 miles before finding anywhere to anchor. We must have passed at least 6 boats heading north, and 2 more were in the anchorage not too far from us this morning.

We continued south, into a cold south wind (how can a south wind be so cold?), engine doing the work. We pick up the Alligator River/Pungo River canal and just keep going. We enter the Pungo River itself, passed by Bellhaven that had good right ups in the cruising guides, cross the Pamlico River and find another cozy anchorage in Goose Creek. Still no cell service. Well Dennis could just about get a bar if he stood on the coach roof with his phone in the air. Still contact was made.

 

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