Real Time Update and a Problem Called Nicole

 As I promised in my last entry, I wanted to start with a real time update. We are currently on the North Carolina coast enjoying one of our favorite anchorages. We survived a glancing blow from Hurricane Nicole (then Tropical depression) with zero damage. In the entry below, I will tell you what we did to protect us from this threat. 

On November 3rd, we were ready to head further south. We had a great time in Edenton and really appreciated the time that we had with our friends Merry and Chuck. 

Our sailing friends, Merry and Chuck. Thanks so much for the help!

The day before we departed, the marina staff came over and told us that we needed to depart the next day or we may be blocked in by the Elizabeth 2, which is a replica of a boat from the 1700's. She came into the bay the night before our departure and dropped her anchor about a half mile off shore. She was coming in to give tours to the local folks. We got a private viewing the following morning as we departed.

Here we are ready to depart Edenton. You can tell because our lines are looped around the cleats, so that they can be removed from the boat. The lighthouse in the background was restored and moved to the harbor by a group of local folks to preserve the history of the area. 

The Elizabeth 2 at anchor. Very cool square rigger. 

As we motored out into the sound, I was concerned that we would not have any wind. There was a light fog that was burning off, but it was still cloudy and cool. As we turned to the east out of the channel, the wind started to pick up a bit, after we motored about 2 miles to the bridge the wind was filling in nicely and we put up the sails. Before long we were cruising at over 7 knots in about 12 knots of breeze right on the port beam. 

You can tell in this shot that Kim is a bit chilly. This is all the motivation she needed to finish some canvas work on the boat. 

We made the 25 nm run down the Albemarle Sound in a little over 4 hours. I was very happy with our speed and we then turned south on the Alligator river. In a short distance we had to furl our genoa and wait for the Alligator River Bridge to open for us. After clearing the bridge we had 20 knots of wind right on our stern. We had some building chop, but set up wing on wing and took off down the very wide river. 

The white thing in the background is the Alligator River Bridge. We were cruising down the river in a moderate chop at around 6 knots of boat speed. We had about 15 knots of apparent wind, which equates to about 20 knots of true wind. 

 We had planned to stop along the bank of the river, but the chop would have made it a rough night. There was a very protected anchorage at the end of the river, but we would be getting pretty close to sundown. My calculations showed we should make it by about a half hour before sunset and that turned out about right. The only issue would be if there was room in the anchorage. We had seen a number of boats running along the ICW. This was now part of the ICW and there were plenty of boats heading south. 

When we arrived there were 11 boats there, but there was plenty of room for us, so we found a spot in 8 feet of water and dropped the hook.  

The wind died off at sundown and we had a nice night. We slept well after 50+ miles of sailing. 

You can see there is plenty of room for more boats. Great protection from a north wind. 

I always watch the weather closely, but I was really paying attention to what the professional weather watchers were saying about a possible hurricane that may impact the east coast of the US. It was about this point that I started looking at the map and trying to decide what we would do. I had heard about a town that I wanted to visit that was 25 miles off of the ICW up the Pamlico river that is known to be a great place to ride out a storm. It also is a very historic town and would be a cool place to visit. We continued to watch the weather and keep moving south along the ICW. 

The next day we had a 30 mile motor trip down the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal to Belhaven, NC planned. The wind was very light and it was a beautiful day.

It was a beautiful sunrise in the anchorage. 

We took our time and we were the last boat to depart. If you look closely you can see the conga line of boats in front of us. We were happy to just cruise along at about 5.5 knots. 

The fall colors of the cypress trees

I love to sail, but just motoring along is nice also.

 Very near to the end of the canal, I saw something crossing the waterway in front of us. As we got closer, I was able to see that it was first 3 black bears. A mother and 2 cubs making the swim across. Then another adult crossed by themselves and then reunited on the left side of the canal. I shot a video of the entire event, but it is hard to see the bears in the shadows. I may do some work on it and publish it later. It was a very cool wildlife experience. 

We pulled into the Belhaven Bay that is protected by a breakwater and dropped the hook. We spent some time walking around the town last spring, so we never got off the boat this time. It was a bit of a rolly night, but we slept fine. That night, after I talked to the dock master in Washington, NC, we made the final decision to make the trip up the Pamlico river. 

We got going on the November 5th and headed out on the ICW with a bunch of other boats. 

It was a flat calm and we had a bunch of company as we headed out of Belhaven, NC. 

We motored along with the other boats for about 10 miles until we got to the Pamlico river. They went straight to stay on the ICW, we turned to starboard (west) and made the 25 mile trip to Washington. We tried to sail part of it, but the wind did not cooperate. When we arrived in Washington, it was a busy Saturday and quite warm (around 80 degrees F). We had to circle for a bit to wait for the dockmaster to find a place for us, but before long we were greeted at the dock and got tied up behind the same boat we were next to in Edenton a few days before. 

Washington, North Carolina has a very nice waterfront with some slips and some face dock. The face dock is free for two nights. 

Here is SHIFT tied up behind Vahevala. This is where we chose to ride out whatever comes our way. 

Our first impressions of Washington, NC were that it was very busy with lots of boat traffic. As it turned out, that was just the beautiful fall day. The rest of the time we were there, it was pretty quiet as the temperatures returned to normal. 

I was watching the weather carefully at this point. The storm was forecast to form over the Bahamas and then head to Florida. That was good for us, but then it was going to head north into the Georgia and then the Carolinas. That was bad. A 50 knot tropical storm can still do some damage. We thought that we were in as safe of a place as we could be, so we decided to stay here and let the storm pass. That could mean a stay of about a week. 

In my next entry, I will write about our time in Washington, NC and what it was like to wait for Hurricane Nicole to come to visit. Thanks for reading!