North Carolina creeks and rivers

Tuesday October 30
We had a quiet morning in Coinjock because Chris had a conference call so we got a late start about 12:30pm and only went 35 miles to the Alligator River Marina-- a nice stopping place just past the Albemarle Sound. We'd heard scary stories when there was rough weather on the Albemarle but we had a delightful passage with no waves. We continued our routine of starting the day with a Hail Mary to Our Lady of the Sea and saying the Divine Mercy Rosary in the late morning. With the calm seas we were able to read and relax. We arrived 3.5 hours later and Andy from SeaDee was waiting on the dock to help us with our lines. This marina, at mile 85 of the intracoastal waterway, the only convenient marina in the area, is owned by "Miss Wanda" and her husband. They have about 20 slips and a Shell gas station on the main road to the Outer Banks. Rather than eating burgers at the gas station, Marianne cooked a nice dinner on board and we relaxed studying the cruising guides to plan the next few days. We were a bit concerned by the reports of a tropical storm in the Caribbean so we wanted to put some miles under the keel over the next couple of days.

Wednesday October 31

Happy Halloween! -- beginning our fourth week on the boat! We got a 7am start following a sailboat out of the marina just as the sun was rising over the Outer Banks in calm seas. North Carolina is lovely-- a mix of wide rivers and narrow canals like this one on the Pungo River. We cruised along with only occasional boat traffic. The weather was so calm that we went below and steered from there while we grilled hamburgers on the electric frying pan. Quite a change from the rough weather in the Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake!

We decided to take advantage of the great weather and push on to a pretty anchorage at mile 154 called Campbell Creek. This happened to be the same latitude as Cape Hatteras, the farthest south our insurance policy would allow us to go until November. SeaDee was right behind us and, shortly after dropping anchor, Andy and his friends rode their dinghy over to Pathfinder for drinks and conversation. That night Andy took a great picture of Pathfinder at sunset with our lights on--

This little creek was far enough from "civilization" that our cell phones didn't work... but we relaxed watching the bright stars overhead... and HBO on our satellite TV!
Thursday November 1
Waking up in the anchorage was delightful but we wanted to get an early start and run about 75 miles to Swansboro and tie up at a marina in case Hurricane Noel moved up the coast. It was a long but pleasant day-- the weather was beautiful and the seas were calm. It was especially fun to cruise past Beaufort, NC because we had stopped there during our car trip back to Newport last Spring. We arrived at the marina at 3pm and filled the fuel tanks (181 gallons of diesel burned over the last 22 hours since Portsmouth, VA). Swansboro is a great little town -- after being on the boat for two straight days it was nice to take a long walk downtown where we found an Irish pub for a quick dinner. We still had time to take a shower at the marina and still make All Saints Day Mass 7pm where the priest had a relic of the true Cross that he had received in the Vatican.