April 16 to 19. New Bern to Coinjock

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise on Easter morning. 

When we were ready to leave the slip (which they had assured us had 9 feet of water) the boat backed up very strangely and not very far.  It turns out that at the end of the slip at low water there was slightly less than 6  feet.  After dredging our way out of the marina we had a fabulous downwind sail down the Neuse River and across Pamlico Sound.  We anchored for the night at Pungo Creek.

Monday we left Pungo River and had a nice sail to the Alligator-Pungo Canal.  We tried sailing in the canal but the wind was light and variable so we motored through the canal.  When we passed the large barge I was glad we were not under sail. It doesn't look that impressive in the picture but in real life in a narrow channel it looked huge.

After leaving the canal we had another great sail in the afternoon. The peaceful sail was interrupted by the frequent roar of fighter jets from a nearby base flying overhead.  The jets are amazingly fast and hard to see because they are so far ahead of where you expect to see them based on where the sound is coming from.

We anchored for the night at the Little Alligator River. The last time we were here there was a severe thunderstorm with 68 knot winds.  The thunderstorm this time was tame in comparison.

The plan for Tuesday was to leave early and head for Great Bridge.  After the leave early part the plan fell apart.  The weather forecast called for NE winds 15-20 knots.  On the ocean this would be a great sailing day. The actual weather turned out to be 20-25 knots with gusts to 30. The Albemarle Sound is very shallow and has a long fetch so it builds up short, steep waves.  We could make no meaningful headway and the motion felt like riding a pogo stick through a lawn sprinkler.

We decided to turn around and spent the day and night anchored at South Lake and had a lazy day.  It was cold so I baked some bread and rolls and worked on knitting a pair of socks.

Wednesday the weather forecast was E 11-13 knots.  The weather in Albemarle Sound in real life was NE 18-22, mostly at 22.  Our course was NE so this wind direction was inconvenient.  Once we realized that we would have to tack across the bay instead of using a direct route we unfurled the jib, turned off the engine, and had a surprisingly enjoyable, if cold and slightly rainy, sail across the Sound. We had to do long tacks in order to make progress so instead of spending a couple of hours on the 11 mile "as the cross flies" route, we ended up spending 4 1/2 hours on a much longer trip.

Because it took so long to cross the Sound we decided to spend the night at Coinjock Marina.  This gave us a chance to take a much needed hot shower, do some laundry, and catch up on the blog. The restaurant at Coinjock is famous for its prime rib so this was another excellent reason for stopping!