Days 49-51 – Oct 24-26

This is going to be a three day blog to catch up due to iffy or no data access for several days.

Oct 24 – Tuesday at Coinjock Marina was a windy but mostly sunny which made for a pleasant day. We were told when we arrived on Monday we’d probably have to raft or be rafted to on Tuesday as there were a lot of boats coming in on Tuesday. First we were told that Jeff & Trish’s 42 foot Catalina, Full Circle, would raft onto us but then they decided to move us to a smaller dock further down from the main dock, which was just fine with us.

Bob had to pull in in front of small sailboat and also avoid an even smaller dock sticking out in front of where we had to go. There was quite a lot of wind but the dockhands were just great and provided direction on exactly when to turn & how much to avoid any catastrophes, major or minor. Trish & Jeff from the Catalina came over for drinks & munchies in the afternoon. They are from NY state, near NYC, Jeff is a college prof who is on a one year sabbatical. They are planning to spend the year sailing, including the Bahamas. I’m sure our paths will cross over the next few months.

I went for a walk along the long dock around 6pm and was amazed at how full the marina was and how closely the boats were packed in. I counted five boats that were rafted. There were a lot of motor yachts, one was at least a 100’ long. We were happy at our little dock and had a calm night. We had heard some kind of disparaging comments about Coinjock but we enjoyed our stay there and we won’t have to have a roast beef dinner for a long time 🙂

Oct 25 – We left around 8:30am on Wednesday and figured it would take about five hours to get to Alligator River Marina. There were three sailboats ahead of us but we eventually passed them and once we reached the Albemarle Sound we didn’t see them behind us at all so we figured they weren’t crossing. We didn’t have to pass or avoid any barges today.

Once we got to the sound, which had just small waves, we saw a plane that appeared to be doing circuits at our end of the sound. We then saw it dropping something on the water and then saw a boat heading towards the smoke that started as soon as the objects hit the water. We’re pretty sure this was a Coast Guard plane and it was doing training exercises with the boat. It was entertaining watching the goings on, it often looked like the plane was buzzing us as it flew right over us.

Finnish Line and Full Circle at Alligator River Marina
Coast Guard plane on Albemarle Sound

We got to the marina, which is a combination of a marina and regular gas station, around 1:30. Within the next couple of hours three more sailboats had arrived, including Full Circle and a little later a catamaran we last saw at the public dock in Portsmouth, also pulled in. I’m sure we’ll keep running into familiar boats as we all head south.

Oct 26 – We had a greasy breakfast at the gas station grill – not a particularly good one and we’re off the dock at 7:30. As I was taking off all the lines and fenders we had a fender overboard incident – me repeating “shit-shit-shit” didn’t seems to solve the problem. The fender had a cover which made it easier to grab with boat hook so it was rescued.

Today was a long day, we did 50 nm, got to our anchorage just before 4pm. It was quite a bit windier than forecast but some of that and a bit of current helped us along. Our anchorage is at a Slade Creek off the Pungo River. BBQd sausages, pasta and pesto for dinner tonight – yum. Oh, and a beautiful sunset.

Sunset at Slade Creek

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