Up early to prepare for departure. Waiting until 8am arrival of dockhands to help us leave the dock. Current still flowing south very quickly. Chris of Yar nervous that we will hit his boat. Dockhand had us drift out stern first and then reverse. We cleared the boats and dock without incident.
Chris was elated. They are pulling boat somewhere and going home for awhile.
We traveled down what I think were the “wiggles”in the north river. Reached the Albemarle sound and wind dropped a bit. We sailed across in about 2 1/2 hours and entered the Alligator river. The sound is a beautiful place to sail.
We looked across the sound for the Williamson’s house and sent pictures.
Loved the Alligator River bridge tender. He would answer the boats ”bridge”. He wanted document numbers for all the boats which no one expected. And it made it harder when he just said “document number.” And then there is the sudden concept of east and west when you are in port and starboard mode. ”Use the west gate!” And you get confused and forget that you are heading south which does give you a reference for determining which gate is west.
The Upper Alligator River was fairly wide with a following sea. Got colder as the afternoon progressed. Made it to anchor around 5pm. Beautiful sunset sphere of pink. In the swamp. No gators. 5 boats anchored here including Sea Gypsy. We met her crew on Coinjock. 81 year old and friend. He customized the boat with some junk metal to make a hut with solar panels over some lawn chairs in the rear cockpit.
