Mile 49.9 to mile 102
We were worried about the wind situation for the day and night. The winds looked favorable for an Albemarle Sound crossing in the morning but would turn more south in the early afternoon and we would be against the wind. The winds were supposed to pick up significantly early into Sunday morning with gusting into the 30’s based on one weather model.
We had met a seasoned sailor at Coinjock the previous night, Bruce on S/V Slow and Easy. He was super nice and has been down the icw 16 times. He used to go to Hope Town in the Abacos but will stay in Florida this year and fly to Hope Town for a visit. He is 70. His wife is done with sailboat travel and his sailing friends are not healthy for the trip so he is by himself on a 45 foot boat enjoying every minute.
He felt that we would be fine tucked into the Alligator River and told us where he was anchoring. We helped him in the morning to push his stern out into the current and he was off. We followed shortly behind.
The Wind was from the WSW as we entered the Albemarle Sound. It was a warmer morning. The west wind created some chop but it was manageable. We pulled up the sails. We sailed for about two hours and around 11 am, the winds started to drop and to blow more from the South. At that point, we were almost to the Alligator river and it was much more calm in there. We were grateful for our sails stabilizing our boat on the choppy part of the trip.
The Alligator River Bridge at the mouth of the Alligator River is forever under construction. They are still building the new bridge. The bridge tender told boaters that the new bridge will open in 2029 and that they will tear down the old bridge in 2030. Cranes and pile drivers were working on barges. We watched the action for awhile as we had to wait for two other sailboats to join us for an opening.
We entered the Alligator river which seemed like a desolate place on this cloudy day. It is a hard life there for trees and many dead trees line the banks. Lots of young trees are trying to grow over the marsh grass. There is always a concern here that the anchor will lodge on a dead branch or tree so David attached a trip line so that we could pull our anchor from the front if needed. We anchored next to Bruce off Deep Point. Our friends Jeff and Deb have also used this anchorage. There was a boat fishing for speckled trout off a nearby point and it reminded me of Michael. I heard several splashes near our boat but we were not set up for speckled trout…yet.
We got the boat secure by 330 and settled into reading and knitting for a bit before dinner. Around five, the anchorage showed its beauty in the sunset. Later a tug pushing a large barge came by in the channel. A lot of commercial traffic runs at night.
