Risen From The Dead . . . Zone

SHIP'S LOG:

May 11, 2011 Wednesday - 35'40.168N/ 076'01.849W
Left Upper Dowry Creek heading for the Alligator River. Stopped off first at the Dowry Creek Marina for Ice and a Pump & Dump & Pump. There was a lot of hazy and I found out from the dock crew that there was a peat fire up north at Stumpy Point. It seems that there is a near by bombing range and practice the previous day had set the peat on fire. They said that it happens every now and again but that it takes a moth or so for it to burn itself out. Sort of smelled like Woodstock, or so I am told, but without the beneficial side effects. There was also some honest to goodness for and the two mixed which made for an interesting though limited view of things.

I entered one of the most boring, if not the most boring stretch of the ICW, the Alligator River- Pungo River Canal. It is dead arrow straight for 7 miles and then a turn and then another five miles of absolute straightness. It might be 150 feet wide . . .maybe but the channel is a lot more narrow and you really have to watch what you are doing. Lots of snags and stumps and deadheads. Of course it didn't stop the popwerboaters from seeing it as a dragstrip and several rather large and powerful boats came ripping up the canal. It would have been nice if they slowed down but for the most part they did not. I was disappointed to note that they were all from New England states. There wakes really tossed me around and it was hard to stay in the channel. Even when I slowed down to let them pass quickly they never reciprocated.

Out in the middle of the canal, there was a house with nothing around it. I couldn't see field or even roads though there must have been some. No other houses anywhere around. It had a dock and a boat but that was it. Talk about being out in the middle of no where. It was surely a house only visited by the closest of friends.

When I finally exited the canal, the wind picked up to a nice steady 15 out of the North. The spot where I had planned to anchor which would have been sheltered from the north wind was all filled in with crab pot buoys. There are a lot of them around now, more so than on the way down. It must be the season for crabbing or else things are just so tight, everyone is looking to make a few extra bucks. Whatever the reason, the spot was unusable and I had to anchor in a more exposed portion of the Alligator River. It was shallow and there was no need to worry as there was also miles in which to swing. The wind from the north and the current of the river, also from the north, made swinging even less of a worry. This spot was the "silent spot" I experienced on the way down. Then there was no sound and I mean NO SOUND. It must have bee a one shot deal as there was plenty of noise this time. Dropped the hook about 3:05pm and settled in for the night. When the wind finally died down, I could see the peat fires, or at least the smoke from them, at Stumpy Point. A major conflagrations by the size of the smoke plume.

Amy 12, 2011 Thursday 36'12.217N/ 075'56.790W

The Alligator River leads into Albemarle Sound and it also contains the first spot I went aground and needed a visit from Towboat/US. When I got to the spot where I went aground, I could see where and how it happened. Sometimes it is just very difficult to relate what you see on the map and the GPS with what you see in real life. Truth be told, once again if you followed the little Magenta line that indicates the ICW, you would definitely go aground. To much shifting bottom and considering how inexperienced I was in the ways of the ICW, it is no wonder I touched bottom. This time however, relying more on the depth sounder than the GPS and the maps, there was no problem whatever.

I was looking forward for a real sail across the 10 miles of Albemarle and it was exhilarating for the first mile and then the wind died. The wind never seems to want to blow when I want it to blow and always seems to do so when I want it calm. There just doesn't seem to be a happy medium.

Not much in the way of traffic, if you don't count the tugs and barges of which there were plenty. "Lucky Four Us" and "Six Pence" out of Boston, Mass. , were the only two pleasure craft I saw crossing the sound, which they did at a high rate of speed with the expected results. Once I cross Ablemarle Sound and got into the North River, a huge motor Yacht cruised by. She was from Shelby Forest, Tennessee, and I wondered how she eve got to her home port. I think she had an accident of some kind after she passed as I ran into a lot of spilt diesel fuel in the water and she made some strange maneuvers in front of me. Perhaps she had spilled some diesel into the bilge and pumped it overboard which is a no-no. It sure stinks when you run through it.

I made a left turn off the ICW and proceeded a mile to the mouth of Broad Creek. It was strange to go so far out of the channel by choice and not run aground though the water was never more than 10 feet deep. I eventually anchored in about 9 feet of water but it still seemed weird to be where I was, with no other boats around. I called up the Coinjock Marina and reserved a spot for the next night. It was only 11 miles away and I wanted to be sure I had a spot for there was little or nothing between where I was and where I wanted to be except Coinjock. It is also the home of the ICW famous 32 oz Prime Rib, something I missed on the way down.

May 13, 2011 Friday 36'20.866N/ 075'56.966W

It was a short day. I left Broad Creek and got into Coinjock by 11:30. It was good as I needed to do laundry and take a shower. I was beginning to smell like an unclean yak.

On the way, the North River goes from miles wide to a couple hundred feet wide with lots of turns and twists. I find it amazing that the tugs and barges can maneuver along the ICW especially in places like this with all the twists and turns. Usually, the tought of tugs and barges bring agita for they tend to move like a semi on ice. But today it was wonderful to see them as they "controlled " the rambuncious behavior and high speed of the powereboats that also showed up today. The tugs & barges might have been making a little over 7 knots and you could just hear the powerboaters grinding there teeth for in most places there was no where to pass and they hated it. I loved it! Passing for powerboats was also limited by the huge numbers of crab pot bouys that line what straight aways there were. Then of course there were we sailboats as well. The North River ends at the Coinjock Cut which as a strict idle speed limit. I am sure that once they transited they floored it but for awhile, it was like heaven.

I pulled into the Coinjock Marina and right down the dock was that huge Motor Yacht from Tennessee. He was fueling up. When I walked by on the way to take a shower, he had already put in 357 gallons. When I got back, he had put in over 1,687 gallons. I stopped to chat and asked how much fuel he carried. 3,200 gallons. At $4.85 a gallon, well you figure it out.

A sailboat came in towing another sailboat. They were buddy sailing when one's engine quite. They maneuvered very well and got both boats to the dock with no muss, no fuss. I was quite impressed. Despite the hoped for verdict that it was merely clogged filters, it turned out to be a fuel pump which had given up the ghost. Boating would be a whole lot more fund if, when things broke, they didn't cost so much to replace.

And no, I didn't have the 32oz prime rib. That's half a cow. I got the smallest size they had . . .16 oz. and it was GOOOOOOOOOODDDD!

May 14, 2011 Saturday 36'43.246N/ 076'14.284

I thought I lost a day. The NOAA weather report kept talking about Sunday. I thought I must have slept through Saturday but I didn't. Never did figure out why NOAA was ignoring Saturday.

It rain throughout the night, some NOAA also missed in its weather report the day before and the skies looked ominous but I had to move. I wanted to get to Great Bridge where I could hang for a few days at a FREE DOCK! The weather is iffy for the next few days and being at a dock, especially if its FREE, is better than being at anchor.

The current through the Coinjock Cut is totally wind driven and it is DRIVEN! Got up to 7.5knots without half trying. I had to cross a nasty piece of water called Currituck Sound. The wind was out of the South East and right on the quarter. With her keel configuration, ABISHAG doesn't do really well and tends to roll a bit and fishtail. So I decided to run with the Genoa up. Again, there is not a lot of maneuvering room but the channels are fairly straight and long. It didn't qite work as I had hoped. The speed went up but the rolling and fish tailing didn't stop. After about three miles I drop it and just kept motoring.

I was buddy sailing with Lucky Bird, a Moody 42. I let him go in front as I figured that he had more speed but he never really pushed it. The sky kept both of us alert for the predicted " widely scattered thunder storms with hail" that the boys and girls of NOAA were calling for. (They never showed!) We entered the North Landing River, another of those twisty, turny stretches. Powerboats continued to give themselves a bad rep, topped only by the idiot who was water skying in the narrow part of the ICW. we went by the first place I "kissed bottom" . . . it still looked as though it could be a good anchorage.

When we got to the North River Landing Swing Bridge at about noon, we were told that the next bridge up, the Centerville Turnpike Swing Bridge, was having repair work done and wouldn't open again until 4PM. It was less than 4 miles away and so we dawdled as much as we could and still got there by 12:30. Bob and Alice of Lucky Bird anchored in mid stream about a mile from the bridge and I rafted to them. The only thing we could do was wait. Other boast showed up and it got to be quite a party. We had to wait 3 1/2 hours and then got through the bridge. I was concerned that the free dock I was hoping to use would be filled up. But as luck would have it, there was plenty of room. Me and two other boats are tied up. Oh, the reason that it was empty is because it was closed! They are doing some construction work next to it and there were signs, which I didn't notice until after I was all tied up, saying NO TRESPASSING- DOCK CLOSED. I figured that I would be good for the night and tomorrow I will move through the Bridge at Great Bridge and tie up on the free dock on that side. I had dinner with Mark and Liz from the sailboat right behind me. It was wonderful. I had tried to help him with a leak i his stuffing box(while we were waiting) but all of my efforts were in vain. Dinner was the pay-off. I got the better of the deal!