Belhaven to Coinjock, North Carolina

 We left Eastham Creek on the 15th of June. We had a very short 18 mile trip to Belhaven, North Carolina. We were in no hurry, but arrived at Belhaven just before noon. We had a number of things that we wanted to do in Belhaven, so we got the hook down and then we dropped the dinghy. 

There was another boat at anchor that we had seen a few days prior, so we thought we would stop and say hi. As we approached, Kim noticed that the girl on the boat was sunbathing with no clothes on, ( I did not notice) and told me to quickly bypass going to see them. They were from Quebec, Canada, I guess that is a French thing. 

We headed to shore and tied up at the city dock. The guy at the marina told us that the public pump out system was $5 and we needed a token from him. We paid our money and then headed in town to find something to eat. We had lunch at a local cafe that was truthfully, not very good, but the people working there were very nice and we enjoyed our visit to the local place. 

The pump-out was located in a very tight little basin. I asked the guy at the marina if boats as big as ours go in there and he said "all the time". I said it looks a bit tight and he said he would revoke my captains license if I couldn't do it. Well, Alrighty then. I have been challenged. We got back to the boat and pulled the anchor and made our approach. We got it done without a problem. We pumped out and filled our nearly empty water tank. I think I am finally getting more confident with tight docking situations. 

When we headed back out to anchor, the other boat was gone. Too bad, I really wanted to meet those folks. We then went back to the marina with the dinghy and our two jerry jugs for diesel. The guy was at lunch, so we went to find some ice cream. That did not disappoint. It was a hot day and the ice cream was very good. We ended up doing two trips for diesel and got 20 gallons. That would be enough to get us to the Chesapeake Bay.

After doing all of that, the wind came up, so we decided to stay in the bay at Glenhaven for the night. There is a breakwater at the front of the bay, but the wind and waves were coming right through it. We rocked a bit that night, but we still slept well. 

The old City Hall in Belhaven

The main street in Belhaven. We went to the hardware store to pick up a few items.

The view of the waterfront of Belhaven from our anchorage.

There are some stately old homes in Belhaven left over from the years that the town was a rail head for the timber industry. You can see it was not a calm night. 

We got up the next morning and headed out on the Pungo river. It was very calm with almost no wind. We then entered the Alligator river - Pungo river canal. It was a very straight and calm ride. We saw lots of wildlife.

Beautiful calm cruise up the Alligator River - Pungo River Canal

Lots of pine and cypress trees

We made one turn in the 20 mile canal. Other than that we just went in a straight line. Then we came out into the Alligator River. The river is wide and has some room. The wind had picked up a bit and the sailboat that had been in front of us all day, put up his sails. We had planned to stop just outside the canal, but I could not resist doing some sailing ourselves. 

We all know what happens when two sailboats are on the water together. Yep, it is a race. The name of the other sailboat was "Joy for all Seasons".  He had about a mile lead on me, but I put up both the main and genoa and we started moving quite well. We closed on the much larger boat and then passed them. I now had to look for a place to stop for the night, but first we had to open a bridge. There is a very long bridge over the Alligator river mouth that has an opening span. I called the bridge and let them know that we were fine waiting for the other sailboat. He said he appreciated it and we waited a few minutes and let them catch up and we went through together. We then took a hard right and headed for our anchorage in East Lake. It was about an hour trip to get back in to protected waters. We were now on the south edge of the Albemarle Sound. 

I was hoping for more protection, but the anchorage worked out fine and put us in a position to cross the sound the next morning. The Albemarle Sound is a large body of water that opens up to the Atlantic Ocean. If you have strong wind from the east you can have huge swell in the sound due to it's shallow depth and rush of incoming swell from the ocean.  We ended up traveling 53.1miles that day, which was much further than I had planned. I went to bed thinking about the following day's challenge. 

In this shot it looks like we are a long way from shore, but it gets shallow about 100 feet in front of us.

It was a beautiful place and we were all by ourselves.

We awoke to south winds blowing about 20 knots. We raised the anchor and then slowly motored through the many crab pots to get back to the ICW. We then turned north and headed out into the sound. The wind was almost behind us, so we just unfurled the genoa and shut off the engine. We cruised along at about 4 knots for a while. I looked on AIS and "Joy" was out in front of us. And the race was on. He had a big lead and I was never able to catch him, but I did close the gap quite a bit. The wind shifted out of the west and we had a beautiful beam reach for the last hour. I raised the main and we were moving over 6 knots. We had a great sail. The trip across the sound is only about 11 miles, so it only took about 2 hours, but then we sailed up the North river for about 5 miles. 

The only picture I took while crossing the Albemarle Sound was of the only channel marker that was covered with birds. I guess I was just having too much fun sailing.

The river got small and we decided to anchor for the night. We sat there for a couple of hours in a nice calm anchorage and then my phone went off with some severe thunderstorm warnings. They were headed right at us and we would see them in about 3 hours. Our plan was to go to a marina the following night in Coinjock, NC. The marina was only 4 miles in front of us. I gave them a call and they said we could come in and stay 2 nights. We got the anchor back up and headed that way. The storm did come in later that night and blew about 30 knots, so not too bad. We were happy to spend the extra $100 to be safe and sound tied up to a dock. 

We had plans in Coinjock. We were going to meet up with a friend I have not seen in many years and I was very excited about it. I will write all about our time in Coinjock, NC and the final legs of our trip to the Chesapeake Bay in my next entry.