moving on

Day 2 continued

After the 3 hour wait for the water level to fall far enough for the lock to operate we pulled into Atlantic Yacht Basin just a few miles down. It was too late to make our planned destination of Coinjock. We took advantage of the facilities (showered, shaved and so on), rested a bit on the boat and went off to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner…and so to bed

Day 3

We pulled out of the marina around 8:30 and headed down the ICW to Coinjock. The canal was narrow but tree-lined, some changing colors and it was quite beautiful and very calm…but very cold.

We arrived at Coinjock around 1:30pm, again took advantage of the facilities, rested a bit and went off to the bar to watch some football

That evening we went to the famed Coinjock restaurant, which is in the marina and shared 3 32oz Prime Ribs.. They were among the very best any of us had ever eaten (including the ones at Abe & Louis)…and so to bed…we’ve been enjoying being able to plug in to electricity so the boat’s heater can keep us comfortable. I sleep in the forward cabin, Art and Allan have been alternating sleeping on the starboard settees or in the back cabin and Bobby has been sleeping on the port settee.

Day 4

Left the marina at 7:11. After a short passage through a winding channel we entered the Albemarle sound, a wide body of water with reasonable depths…Winds were 15 -18 knots and we could have had a nice sail but we motor-sailed since we wanted to make up some of the time we lost with the delay at the locks. It was a pleasant journey and we soon entered the Alligator river which was hard to distinguish from the sound. From there we entered the Albemarle-Pungo river canal…a 27 mile long ditch lined with trees. 4 hours later a short motor down the Pungo river brought us to Dowry creek and the eponymously named marina just after sunset. We were tied up and plugged in (so the heater worked) by the time it was too dark to see…we did cut it little close. We were tied up by 7..nearly 12 hours since we started the day in Coinjock.

Tomorrow we head off for Beaufort, NC