Norfolk, VA to Carolina Beach, NC

Ship’s Log, October 22, 2009

From Wed. the 14th of Oct. in Norfolk, VA to Wed. the 21st in Carolina Beach, NC

10/14, Wednesday - Norfolk, Dismal Swamp - The lovely weather ended all too quickly. We were the only boat crossing the bay in the wee hours under very gray skies, but upon entering the Elizabeth River there were suddenly several tugs and barges, large military vessels and other military presence, and sailboats under power all moving this way and that. Then there are the bridges and locks. New bridges are built to a height of 65 feet above high tide but there are many older bridges still around. The ICW was built to accommodate boats so the remaining bridges needed to be swing, bascule or other types of opening bridges. Our height is 22 feet and alas, most of the remaining bridges fall in the 19 foot category so we have to ask them to open or wait for their schedule. We had several bridges to negotiate but they all opened on request and then a quick turn to the right and we were on the Dismal Swamp. A few miles in and we approached the first lock (scheduled) to wait with a few other boats. Once in one often makes friends with the next boat in the lock as you are now spending some quality time together. The boat in front of us was Skinwalker, a Marine Trader 49 with liveaboards, Wayne and Lynn Flatt. They recommended a lovely anchorage behind Goat Island after our second lock and invited us to raft up and have cocktails. The cocktails were great fun and we chatted for hours. They were very friendly and helpful, inviting us to tag along if we wished for the next few days.

10/15, Thursday to Elizabeth City– the previous day was just a bit too long to make it the whole way to Elizabeth City. Being rafted up we had to coordinate our departure time for the morning which was a gray, dreary, misty and a very mysterious day. The two boats negotiated the last 12 miles to E.C. where they opted for the free dock (no facilities) and since it was looking like several bad days we chose Pelican Marina (the only other place in town and unfortunately across the river) with a price of $35 a night including everything even the laundry facilities. The down side was the teensy amount of dock by the boat. We were now waiting for our opportunity to cross Albemarle Sound. It rained for two days but the wind never really raised its ugly head. This gave us time to catch up with boat chores, groceries, etc.

10/16, Friday – Still in Elizabeth City we had rain in the morning then took the dingy across and had a stroll around a very sad little town. With more rain and darkness approaching we turned down an invitation from Skinwalker for dinner and ended the day on our side of the river at the marina with cocktails with Dale and Anatha on their PDQ 34 sailing cat Mongoose Magic, followed by an early evening for an early departure.

10/17, Saturday - Albemerle Sound and the Pungo River - After several conversations at 6:40am about the weather we decided to brave the forces and were off the dock at 7am, in the dark. It was to be a long day – 70 some miles. Skinwalker was sitting out the river waiting while we battled our way out of the slip in the dark. There was a peek at the rising sun, the wind still promising falsely, still overcast and rainy but got we got across the Albermarle Sound before the wind did materialize. Then it was up the Alligator River and through the Pungo Canal both of which had dreadful scenery of scrab brush and ugly tres. We rafted up again at the other end of the canal in the Pungo River having a dinner of soup (Lynn) and salad (me) w/ Lynn and Wayne on Skinwalker. We have all thrown in the towel and are running our heat. It’s cold and miserable! Coulda stayed home for this.

10/18, Sunday, Pungo to Oriental / Greens Creek – 8am NNW at 10 – 15 to go up, cold – 45 degrees, still overcast but fairly protected routes. Gray, dismal and lumpy and depressing. Ran with the heat on much of the day and pulled in to Oriental following Skinwalker into Greens Creek. We dropped our hook between the set of “green’s” so we could dink to “town”. They went on in further up and decided to stay warm in their boat. We did go in dressed in all the layers we could muster and walked all 10 blocks. It was yet another sad town trying to be, but we did stop in at the Toucan Restaurant for early Sunday supper as it were. We are in the land of R. J. Reynolds. Smoking allowed. The hostess tried to seat us right next to the bar and I bolted for the other end of the room. Even so we still reeked of smoke afterwards. The food was nominal and we were watching some football team playing in the snow. Cold ride back to the boat and turned the heat back on.

10/19, Monday – Oriental to Beaufort - Folks that did not make the break from Annapolis when we did are still stuck there. Bill Knud, the guy whose boat went on the loose in Annapolis had invited us to visit and we thought about making the side trip to Washington, NC to do that but he was one of those still in Annapolis. The crew of Skinwalker have had it with the cold and decided to bogie on south. The sun was out and though it was still cold, it certainly made attitudes better – particularly mine. We went to Beaufort, a short ride, 25 miles, and the scenery was starting to be prettier. We dropped our hook in Town Creek on the back side of Beaufort. The book has a lovely photo of Beaufort showing lots of boats anchored off of town. We dingied over and found them all on moorings in a ripping current. Though our anchorage was less lovely, it was much safer. Again another town covered in an hour though cuter and probably more lively in the summer. I am really starting to be displeased with the book descriptions. Promises, promises.

10/20, Tuesday - Beaufort to Mile Hammock, Camp Lejeune. The wind died overnight and we quickly got get back on the ICW. The ride down was lovely as we are finally seeing the outer banks, dunes, marshes, pelicans and even a few porpoise in the canals. The homes are interesting. Many built right on the water (just try that in Maine!). One had the longest ramp to its dock over acres of shallow water, that I have ever seen. No shortage of money in this part of the state. Mile Hammock is actually in Camp Lejeune but cruisers are allowed to anchor there in its basin just off the ICW. We were the only power boat with about a dozen sailing vessels in the anchorage. We had a lovely golden, orange Carolina sunset – all to the background sounds of the military boys practice landing Blackhawks about ½ mile away and the booms and percussive sounds of Howitzers firing bouncing off the boat. After dark there were definitely some mystery boats on the ICW. Fortunately it all ended @9:30.

10/21, Wednesday - to Carolina Beach – the day of restricted bridges. As I mentioned earlier, some bridges open on request, some have schedules and they don’t budge a second one way or the other. If you miss it, too bad. Wait….and try not to run into anyone or anything while you all mull about in the water. Well we overslept a bit so we messed up our first bridge time. Not to be daunted as it was a beautiful day we dropped a hook and had a nice wait – lovely morning. The next bridge though we decided we could not make in time so, we backed down and cruised in very slowly. Had we boogied we might have made it – hard to tell. Our math showed otherwise, but it almost looked as if we could have. Then the third one was a real pain. No way we could make the 5 miles in ½ hour (we run at about 7.5 – 8 miles an hour) so taking our time we still had to wait an extra hour in a ripping current because of their timing. Dropped the hook right in the middle of the channel to wait and was it ever a challenge to pick up in the current that was running along with half a dozen boats that had arrived and were also milling around. Another 12 miles and we pulled into the resort area of Carolina Beach which just happens to have a natural anchorage in the middle of it. Condos and homes surround us but we are in a peaceful spot along with all of our sailboat “friends” from Mile Hammock who did the same leg of the journey today. And it is warm again!