Day Eight - Monday, 26 November

Despite the weather, we made much southward progress today…approximately 45 miles from Broad Creek at ICW mile marker 61 to Tuckahoe Point near the entrance to the Pungo River – Alligator River Canal near mile marker 105. After a start in overcast skies, variable winds and moderate temperatures, we found ourselves in high south winds…gusting to 45 knots…on the nose of course…about ten miles from the anchorage. Rain and fog rolled in and we motored carefully through the limited visibility with running lights and steaming lights on. Juniper’s Smile, an Island Packet motored along with us and reported a strong signal from our new radar reflectors. They also provided some welcome “eyes” with their radar since our old radar was useless…one more item to add to the list of new things to fix on the boat.

We left Broad Creek at 0730 in the company of Dream Quest and followed Woody Sherrod on Marisol. We caught up with him mid-way across Albemarle Sound and passed him as we approached the Alligator River. At the Alligator River Swing Bridge, Woody on Marisol and Don and his wife on Dream Quest peeled off to refuel and fill up water tanks at the marina just before the bridge. We continued on through the bridge ahead of them.

As we approached land at the entrance to the Pungo River - Alligator River Canal, the wind shifted to the west, the fog lifted and the rain stopped and we were able to find our way along the channel to the anchorage with no difficulty. To protect ourselves from the forecast of windy conditions, we moved well up past Tuckahoe Point, groping our way through a narrow channel and shallow water. We went about a mile up into the channel to find protection against the gusty winds which were predicted to shift to the south before morning.We were first into the anchorage at 2:30 PM and were joined by several other boats about an hour later…including Marisol, Dream Quest, and Watercolors who anchored to the West of us. We have limited cell phone coverage and no broadband access from the anchorage, so this post was posted to our web log one day late.

A Useful ICW Tool