July 27

Well, the night was interesting.  It was hotter than stink today, and the wind died at dark.  That left us with a hot boat and no breeze.  I decided that we would run the small A/C unit off the batteries since we would be motoring all day tomorrow so they would recharge.  We have done this before with no problem.  We went to bed early, about 21:30 in a nice cool aft cabin.  About 01:30, I was aware that the A/C kicked on, but within about thirty seconds, went off again.  I got up and checked the battery monitor, and sure enough, we were down to about 11 volts which is where the inverter quits making 110v from the batteries.  I went back to bed and figured that with the cabin door shut, we had some time left before the cabin warmed up too much.  About 03:30 I awoke hot and sticky.  I opened the hatches and the doors to hopefully get a little breeze.  The voltage had rejuvenated to over 11, so I turned the inverter back on with the hopes I could run the 110v fan and make it tolerable.  The fan ran about ten minutes and the inverter shut down again.  So, I went above and slept until dawn in the cockpit.  Barb seems to be able to sleep through anything and stayed below. 

At the crack of dawn, little boats started running around the bay again making wakes.  I figured that if we were going to be uncomfortable, we might as well get underway.  I checked the battery voltage, and we were down to 9 volts.  I'm not sure why we used so much more after the inverter was off.  I woke Barb and started the motor.  (The engine starts off a separate battery, so this didn't affect that.)  I let the engine run at about 1500 rpm for almost an hour, and the voltage was still 9.  This worried me that I hurt the batteries by drawing them down so low.  At 9 volts, even the instruments and chart plotter don't work.  So, we decided to go around the corner to a marina and plug in the shore power.  Seapath Yacht Club has transient docks and was just a half mile away.  I found that by switching my main battery switch to ALL, the instruments worked so I could watch the depth and stay in the channel. 

We tied up on the face dock at Seapath, got the power hooked up, and the batteries were happily charging.  And, the A/C was running.  The temperature is forecast to be about 98 today, so we will probably just enjoy relaxing inside.  Barb did our laundry since the facility was just down the dock a few feet.  At lunch time, we walked about half a mile to a place called Crabdaddy's and had a nice lunch.  We also stopped at the post office a few doors down to mail a letter. 

Back at the boat, we relaxed and actually watched some daytime TV.  Yuck!  We had dinner on the boat and then watched a movie.  White Squall was what we watched.  If you haven't seen it, it is about a old square rigged tall ship that used to take about a dozen high school kids on a multi-month journey.  It taught them teamwork, and discipline as well as sailing.  On their way back to the states, they got hit by a terrible storm and the boat sank.  Six people died, including the captains wife.  At the end, the captain faces an inquiry to determine if he should keep his master's license.  The kids rally to his defense, and he keeps his license, although he never sails again.  Needless to say, I had some interesting dreams later. 

GPS N 34-12.450 W 77-47.900  Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 1721.

July 28

I awoke at dawn after a pretty good night's sleep despite the dreams.  There is a bridge within less than a mile of here that opens on the hour between 7am and 7pm.  Since I awoke early enough, I figured let's get going and catch the first opening.  We have four opening bridges to deal with today and may get held up at any one of them, so we might as well start early.  We pull away from the dock about 06:45.  It takes a little longer than I guessed to get the 3/4 mile to the bridge, but I hailed the bridge before we were visible to him in ICW to let him know we were coming.  My thought was that he might wait a minute to open if he knew we were coming.  As it turned out, we got there with about a minute to spare.  We slowed a bit, the bridge opened and we were on our way. 

The next bridge is about 6 miles away, so we should be there for their 08:00 opening.  The timing was perfect and we only waited about five or ten minutes to get through that bridge.  The scenery along this stretch of the ICW is similar to the previous leg.  Lots of homes along the side, some mansions, some modest, most with docks and boat lifts for their power boats.  Not more than a mile or so to the east/south you can see a pretty constant line of beach homes along the coast. 

In about 20 more miles, we came to our third bridge of the day.  We were a little early for this one and had to wait about 15 minutes.  While we were waiting, a trawler named Meander came up behind us.  We skipped the radio and just hollered at each other.  They remembered seeing us a couple of day ago as well as at the marina in Wrightsville.  They are also headed for Swansboro tonight and we are going to stay at the same marina.  We agree to have a drink when we get there.  I let them go through the bridge first since they will travel faster than us. 

Our next bridge is in the middle of a little different part of the ICW.  We pass through the property of Camp Lejeune, the large Marine Corp base.  This part of the waterway can be closed at times when they are doing live-fire training, or amphibious landing training.  There is no closure today, but we can hear explosions not too far away, we see several military vehicles and personnel, and there are numerous fighter jets racing about the sky above us.  Along the 12 miles or so of Camp Lejeune, we will pass through the last of our opening bridges today.  The Onslow Beach Swing Bridge is on the base, and is operated by the Marines.  It opens on the hour and half hour, and we are cutting it very close to making the 14:00 opening.  I have been going as fast as the boat will go for the last 45 minutes to try and make this opening.  As I rounded the corner about a half mile from the bridge, I hailed the operator to make sure he saw us coming.  Another trawler which had passed us was already waiting, and I hoped again that the operator might cut me minute's slack if need be.  But again, we got there just in time, slowed down and passed right through.  Three out of four with no significant waiting.  Gotta love that.

From here it is just another 5 or 6 miles to Dudley's marina where we will stay tonight.  We originally had planned to anchor out tonight, but we noticed that we don't seem to be charging the batteries at all from the engine today, so we need the shore power.  The A/C will be nice too.  Before we get to the marina, I went below to whack the voltage regulator that had given us trouble a few days ago.  No change.  We then switched the battery switch from the starting battery to ALL again, and the house batteries started charging.  We put the switch in the house-only position and they kept charging.  So, perhaps we just have a user error here.  When Barb switched the switch yesterday morning, perhaps she didn't correctly remember where it was before she moved it.  Once in the marina, I consulted my handy-dandy hand-written wiring diagram that the original owner of the boat had made, and it doesn't really make sense that we see what we see.  I suspect this story is not over.

Once secure in the marina, we met Vic & Lee from Meander.  Since they had been here a while already, we went to their boat which was cooled down and enjoyed a few beers and swapped stories.  About 18:00, we decided to avail ourselves of the marina's courtesy car and had them take us a couple miles to a nice steak and seafood restaurant.  We had a great dinner and talked more about our boating experiences.  Vic & Lee have done the intracoastal trip from the Chesapeake to Florida several times, so they had lots of good info to share with us rookies.  After dinner, the owner of the restaurant gave us a ride back to the marina.

Based on Vic's input, we will probably anchor tomorrow in a different spot than I had planned.  They will probably be there too.

GPS N 34-40.824 W 77-06.751  Miles made good this leg 55. Total miles covered 1776.

July 29

We awoke to thunder and rain this morning.  I should say "I" awoke to rain and thunder.  Barb sleeps through anything.  So, at about 07:00, I was up.  I walked up tot he bathrooms, and on my way back, saw Vic on Meander was up too.  I stopped and we chatted a bit.  Seems Lee was also still sleeping.  By 08:30, the rain had stopped, so we got underway.  We made it a little less than a mile and ran hard aground in the middle of the channel.  My depth finder read 4.7 feet.  I need about 5.5 feet.  I found that with full power, and the rudder hard over, I was able to make the boat pivot on the keel and point back towards where we came.  That was a start.  Then, under full power, I think we were slowly inching our way back off the sand bar.  After about ten minutes, I saw Meander coming around the bend.  I hailed him on the radio and told him I was aground.  He went further towards shore than I had been and confirmed there was deep water there.  Then, he approached me bow to bow and Barb threw a line to Lee.  She secured it and Vic backed up and easily pulled us off the shoal and back into the deep water.  We then followed him in 15 foot water on down the channel.  I had probably only missed the deep water by a few feet, but in my defense, I was in the middle of the marked channel. 

The rest of the day was driving down the ditch.  There was nothing too exciting.  We passed through Morehead City, which I have read about numerous times in cruising logs and magazines.  It's a good place to stop, but just doesn't fit our schedule this time.  We plan to go on to the South River, across the Neuse River from Oriental.  Oriental is also a sailboat friendly town, but not this time.  Meander plans to stop at Cedar Creek to anchor, which is about 10 miles earlier than us.  Meander goes faster than us, and early in the afternoon, they called us on the radio and said they were at Cedar Creek, but it was too early to stop, so they were going to go on to the South River also. 

About 16:00, we were approaching the South River.  Meander hailed us on the radio to warn me that he had found some shallow water on the way into the river.  One grounding per day is my limit, so I was very careful coming in.  I followed my electronic chart and went slow, and made it in without seeing anything less than nine feet.  We dropped the hook a few hundred feet from where Meander was.  The South River has only a few houses on the shore, and is a pretty tree-lined area.  We could hear a dog barking, and the wind was blowing a little, so there were little waves lapping at the hull.  It was very peaceful.  We sat in the cockpit and read, and enjoyed a few adult beverages.  A little later Barb made us a nice dinner.  We were off to bed fairly early.

GPS N 34-57.987 W 78-35.133  Miles made good this leg 55. Total miles covered 1781.

July 30

We got up pretty early this morning.  We have a fairly long day planned, and need to get an early start.  After coffee and cereal, we are underway at 07:15.  Meander actually left earlier than us.  They don't plan to go as far, but need to have the afternoon to get some parts and repairs done.  We took a slightly different course out of the river, and this time never saw less than fifteen feet of water.  The Nuese River is very wide at this point, and we traveled north in it for quite a ways before getting back into an ICW ditch.  We traversed this ditch portion and came out in the Pamlico River.  We basically crossed the Pamlico River (about four miles) and entered the Pungo River.  We followed the Pungo River almost to it's beginning, where we entered the Alligator River Pungo River Canal.  A few miles before this point, Meander stopped at the Dowry Creek Marina.  We spoke to them on the radio, and bid them farewell, since we are going further. 

The Alligator River Pungo River Canal is a long, straight as an arrow ditch.  It runs for about 7.5 miles and only has two slight turns in it in that distance.  It is also fairly narrow, and has shallow water on the south side and tree stumps on the north side.  The cruising guide says to stay in the middle to be safe.  Well, of course this would be the place that we would encounter only the third commercial tug we have seen since leaving Charleston.  I hailed him on the radio when we were still five miles apart.  He said to come on and just get over as far as I felt I could.  He said he could push stumps out of the way better than I could if necessary.  Lots of cruisers seem very intimidated by barges and large ships, but we were close to them all the time back in Texas.  While this canal is fairly narrow, in the end it was no worse than passing a barge back home.  Talking to them first is the key. 

We plan to get to Norfolk via the Dismal Swamp Canal.  There is another route, which commercial traffic, deep draft boats, and fast powerboats use.  The Dismal Swamp Canal is not always open.  It's being open is dictated by the water level of the lake which feeds it.  We have to know tomorrow whether it is open or not, to chose our route.  We are happy to see signs along this canal which tell us the Dismal Swamp route is open. 

While motoring up the canal, I turned around once to check if anybody was coming from behind, and I noticed a little frog sitting on the edge of the cushion behind me.  He was green and only about an inch long.  I don't have any idea where he came from, but I think he is a land frog, not a water frog, so I don't want to toss him overboard.  Barb went and got an empty coffee can and we put him in it.  When we get to the next dock, we'll set him free and he can decide if he wants land or water. 

At the end of the Alligator/Pungo Canal, we enter the Alligator River.  The place we planned to anchor is just off the ICW near a place called Tuckahoe Point.  We turn off the marked channel and proceed a little northeast of the ICW.  The chart shows eight to ten feet of water as far as a mile off the ICW.  Barb is nervous about this though, so we drop the hook just a few hundred feet out of the ICW, in about eight feet of water.  As soon as we have backed down on the anchor, we killed the motor.  We were both then overwhelmed by the silence.  There was no wind, so no waves on the water.  No houses in sight, no sounds of any animals, not even the night sounds from the woods.  We are probably a quarter mile from shore in any direction and it is dead silent.  From the time we dropped the hook at 17:30, there we no other boats passing all night.  Nothing in the ICW, no local fishing boats.  Nothing but silence.  And, it was fairly cool and didn't rain all night, so we had an excellent night's sleep.

GPS N 35-40.277 W 76-05.606  Miles made good this leg 71. Total miles covered 1852.

July 31

We awoke at dawn, just because the sun came up and we had both slept well.  We had coffee and cereal as usual.  When I went out to the cockpit, the first thing I did was check the frog.  Barb had left the plastic lid of the coffee can ajar, so he wouldn't suffocate.  I moved the lid and low and behold, no frog.  He had disappeared just as he had appeared, and not even knocked the lid off the can doing it.  We did a quick look around and didn't find him.  We had the companionway closed overnight, so I'm pretty sure he can't be inside the boat.  But, we don't find him anywhere.

The water was as smooth as glass this morning.  I took a couple of pictures of the reflection on the sunrise.  Before we left we had a gentle little shower.  Speaking of the water, the color of it is pretty amazing.  It looks like tea or coffee.  This is because it is runoff from the forests around, and it picks up the color from fallen leaves, etc.  Leaves even more of a mustache on the boat than the old brown water of Galveston Bay did.

We are underway at about 07:30.  We traverse the Alligator River and go through an opening bridge at it's  northern end.  There is a marina just north of the bridge, called the Alligator River Marina.  They have a full page add in the Waterway Guide which says they are the only fuel between Elizabeth City and the Pungo River.  Their add also says they have an eight foot channel.  We have less than a quarter tank, so we decide to pull in here just to fuel up.  Well, I tried to hail the marina on the VHF twice before we ever got to the bridge.  I wanted to confirm their approach depth, since they were a mile from the main channel.  They did not respond.  Once through the bridge, I hailed them again, as we headed out of the ICW and towards them.  Finally, they answered and said to come on in.  When we were near their entrance, which s a mile from the ICW, for whatever reason, I hailed them again to confirm their eight foot channel depth.  Only then did they say "oh no, we only have five feet at the entrance".  I asked if they were sure, and what the bottom was so I could judge whether I wanted to chance it or not.  They were less than helpful and said they weren't sure how deep the entrance was and didn't know what the bottom was, so I would be entering at my own risk.  I chose not to enter and turned around.  While Barb motored us the mile back to the ICW, I dumped two of my jerry cans of fuel in so we will make it to Elizabeth City.  I plan to e-mail the Waterway Guide an update about this marina.

At this point, we are now crossing Albemarle Sound.  Albemarle Sound is a mine field of crab traps.  For the next 31 miles, I had to carefully watch and dodge crab traps every half mile or so.  It also started to rain as we crossed the sound.  It rained pretty much all the way across.  At the north end of the sound, we entered the Pasquotank River.  This will take us to Elizabeth City, our stop for the night.  Elizabeth City is known for the Rose Buddies.  The Rose Buddies were two old gentlemen who would greet boats docking at the free town docks and give the lady of the boat a rose to welcome them to town.  If there were more than five boats at the free dock, they would host a wine and cheese happy hour.  The original two guys are no longer doing this, but a group of residents has kept the tradition alive.  We are hoping to meet them.

When we get to Elizabeth City, it is still raining.  We scope out the free dock, and decide how to tie up.  There is only one other boat here in the 15 or so available slips.  As we approach, Bob from the other boat rushes over in the rain to take our dock lines.  There's nothing like the camaraderie of boaters in helping one another out.  We get the boat secure and fix our reward drinks.  A little bit later, Bob comes back over.  He and his wife have been here a week and since it's raining, he doesn't know if the welcoming committee will stop by or not.  So, he gives us the brochure that they gave him upon arrival which has info about restaurants.  Since he has been here a week, he has made some notes about a few.

We went to Thumper's Bar & Grill for dinner.  I had an Outer Banks Burger, which is a burger with crab meat and cheese.  It was quite good.  Back to the boat to relax and go to bed early.  We have to be up early to time the bridge and locks of the Dismal Swamp Canal properly.

GPS N 36-17.921 W 76-13.093  Miles made good this leg 53. Total miles covered 1905.