Chapter 52: Wrightsville Beach to Alligator River

Log 52
Wrightsville Beach to Alligator River, NC.

Note: I finally got to send this log on Memorial Day (Monday), so this turned out to be three days of logs.

5:30 AM
Saturday, May 27, 2000
Beaufort Docks Marina
Beaufort, NC.

Day 55

Well, we’re back on the boat again, after a couple of day delay. The trip to Richmond that Steve and I made was definitely a good one. We spent some good time with the customer, and our management team as well. We all came up with some ideas, and plans to make the facility more successful. (Deb will be writing a log about what she and Chris did while we were gone)
On Thursday, we worked at the facility till about 8 PM, and then drove back to the boat. We arrived about Midnight. At 6 AM we were back up, and getting the boat ready to roll, and we left the marina in Wrightsville beach about 7:30. It was a gorgeous day for boating. Storms had rolled through the night before, and in the morning we were left with a beautiful sunny sky.
The trip to Beaufort was very relaxing, and very pretty. We were very close to the Atlantic almost all of the time, and there were many sandy beaches that separated the Intracoastal from the Ocean. In most cases the markers were fairly easy to follow, and the water deep.
Side note: Which brings me to an interesting story. In 92 when we brought a friends boat from Florida to Philadelphia we were coming through this area, and Steve was driving. We were coming under the Beaufort Bridge. I was down taking a shower, and everyone was just getting up and around. I came up to the bridge, to see the waterway open up, with several channels, and markers everywhere. Steve said to me “which way should we go?” I said, “I don’t have a clue. What do the charts say?” He said he didn’t know, and it was obvious he had lost he place on the chart. (Or wasn’t following it at all) I leaned over to look at the chart to see if I could tell where we should go, and out of the corner of my eye I looked at the depth gauge. It read 17 feet……then 10………then 3……….then we came to an almost immediate stop, throwing me, and everyone else, and everything to the front of the boat. (Oh I forgot to mention we were traveling at top cruising speed) We had run aground. Hard aground! The boat was sitting in about 6 inches of water. If I had a lot of time I would tell you a great story that would have you laughing for some time, but I don’t, so let’s just say that it was quite an experience, and it cost over $3,600 to get the boat back on the water. It was also a great lesson in watching the charts, and the depth gauge.

Anyway…as we came up to that bridge yesterday Steve said “I don’t want my hands anywhere near those controls as we come into Beaufort. But he did look at the charts, and say, “I don’t know what the problem was, this harbor is pretty straightforward”. Another lesson learned.
We arrived in Beaufort about 3:30. I toped off the fuel, ($1.30) and Steve washed down the boat, while the girls straightened up, and we got ready to go into town. Well not really into town, because we are parked right on the main street of the town, so we only had about 100 feet to walk. When I checked the boat in they gave us 4 tokens for draft beer at a bar/waterside restaurant next to our boat so we walked there to have our free beer while we made a decision on where we would eat. We had all of these choices; it was a decision of which one. After a couple of beers, we all decided we didn’t want to go take showers and go someplace fancy, and we ordered bar food, and sat next to the main boardwalk and ate. It was not what we had planned but it worked out great. Afterwards we got an ice cream cone, and walked the rest of the boardwalk, before making it an early night. (After we watched a great sunset)

Today…..

We have two big bodies of water to cross today. The Pamlico Sound, and the Nuese River. These are about 20 miles each of crossing, and it should be a beautiful day for it. These are two areas they always give you lots of caution about, but today they should be easy.

6:20 PM
Same Day

Just so we’re clear on times……I started this log at 5:30 this morning, but it got late, so I couldn’t finish it. It’s now later that same day, and we are at a marina, and I had some time, so I thought I’d continue this, and see where we end up. I’m waiting to eat dinner (actually waiting for Steve to cook the chicken) now so if I don’t finish this I’ll do it in the morning.

Today (Saturday, May 27, 2000)
We had another great day of boating, but a tough day in general. (I spent a good part of the day on the phone, talking to our management team that is working on the Richmond start-up. It’s tough going, and I really feel for these guys. I’ve been there, and I know what their going through) I promised myself I’d make every day count in this journey, and today I had to work at it, to make it enjoyable.
Back to boating…
The wind today picked up earlier than they had predicted, and by early morning we had 15 MPH winds. The good news was, the winds were from the Southwest, and that was on our stern, so the going was pretty easy. In fact the long crossing was very nice, pretty, and enjoyable.
I got a good opportunity to use my chart plotter today. I would set the waypoint about 4 to 6 miles ahead of us, and set the autopilot to follow that course, and voila (I wanted to put "wa....la" but I asked Deb how to spell it and she told me viola was a real word.....who knew?) 20 minutes later (depending on our speed) we were on that marker. It made the cost seem worth it.
By the time we got close to our marina for the evening the winds were blowing fairly good, and we were glad we had a marina to tie up to. (In fact as I sit here writing this, there are tornado warnings out, and the sky to the north looks very black. I hope they miss us.) By the way, I’m not sure you should call this a marina. Really it’s a gas station, with a hole dug out back where you can tie up some boats. I’m serious. Have you ever been to a small convenient store that sells gas? One that is on a back road, and appears out of nowhere? This is that place, with water behind it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clean, and nice, and I’m glad to be here. It’s just not a marina. One thing that is great is the fuel prices. If you buy over 100 gallons, the price is 96 cents. Which is a lot cheaper that we have been seeing. (As we were fueling up I asked the owner how he could sell diesel so much cheaper than everyone else. He said, “Well… it’s half water”). Like I said it’s not marina.

5:25 AM
Sunday, May 28, 2000

Day 56

Well as you can see I didn’t write very much last evening. There was too much going on. And I may not have time to write too much this morning, as we need to get going early.

Meanwhile, back at the “almost” marina………….
When we tied up the boat, I went over to pay for the (½ water) cheap fuel. On my way back I saw an old sailor and he ask me how I was doing, and I said “great, how bout you?” He said, “I’m here, and that’s good”. “Yea?”, I said, “If you were somewhere else, would that would be bad?”. He went on to tell me he was glad to be here because he thought it would storm later. I told him we had this fancy satellite TV on the boat, and I had just looked at the weather channel, and the weather was north of us. “I don’t think so”, he said, “I can feel it. It going to be here”. As I walked away I thought…….. codgy old sailors, what do they know.

Well it turns out they know plenty, because it stormed. (So much for the weather channel) Big time stormed. Not only that, in the middle of the night it stormed again. This time even worse. The power went out about 11 PM, and is still not on. Last night was by far the biggest lighting show I have ever witnessed. Deb had to cover our front hatch with the sun shield because it was so bright in the front bedroom. This morning is very windy, and overcast, and it probably will rain.

7:50 AM
Monday, May 29, 2000
Waterside Marina
Norfolk, VA.

Day 57

Well I should be able to finish these 3 days of logs this morning. I no longer have any excuses of not having enough time. We’re sitting here in Norfolk, the weather is cold, and rainy, Steve and Chris just left for home, so today is get organized day. Both on the boat, and in my business.


Yesterday……
The day started out very ominous. (I’m not even sure if I know what that word means, but I think it describes what I was feeling) The electricity was still out, (we ended up running the generator all night) and it was dark, and windy. If you read the cruising guide there is a special section that talks about the Albemarle Sound, and the fact that “even the slightest wind can stir up this wide open sound, and sailors have been stranded for several days waiting for the weather to lift”.
We were sitting about 5 miles from the Sound, and the NOAA weather was saying the weather would continue to get worse each day for the next 2 to 3 days. We needed to get going. The reason I cut the log so short yesterday was it was starting to get light out and I could see the waves building out on the Alligator River, and I knew that the Albemarle would only be worse, so I went and woke everyone up, and said we need to go. Now. And they were all champs. They got up with no questions, and no complaining.
When we untied the lines, it was not quite light yet, but two boats had left before us, and I could see them off in the distance. So between following the boats in front of us, our radar, and our chart plotter, we were in good shape.
As it turned out, the waves weren’t too bad (2 to 3 footers). And more good news, they were on our bow, so it was bumpy, but not as uncomfortable as if they were coming from our side. In fact the ride was an adventure, and the farther we went, the better the weather became.
The 85 miles to Norfolk was a combination of the wide-open sound, and very narrow waterways. It was fairly easy to navigate, and normally deep. The only problem we had was as were entering the Norfolk Harbor, and I almost ran aground, but I was watching the depth finder, and I caught it in time to put the boat in neutral, and get back into the middle of the channel.
I ran the boat from the lower helm almost all of the way to Norfolk, and that was great. As I have said before, that is one of the reasons I bought this boat, and it paid off yesterday. I was warm, dry, and it was very comfortable handling things from below.
We arrived in Norfolk about 3 PM. The weather was a little better, but it was still very cloudy, and it looked like rain. After some discussion about where we should park the boat (because we would be here for 11 days) the marina finally decided on a slip along the walkway. (Which, as it turned out, was about the same size as the boat itself). With a few nervous looks from my crew, (and the people’s boat we would hit if I were off by a couple feet), we slipped in our slip. We washed the boat, and straightened up a bit, and it stared to rain. (You won’t believe this, but as we were washing the boat a sailor walked by and said “no need to wash it, it’ll be raining here in a few minutes”)
We had thought we would clean up, and go downtown for dinner, but we were all relaxed, and with the rain coming down, we opted to find a way to eat on the boat. Deb solved the problem by finding out that Outback Steakhouse delivered to the boat. (Can you beat that?) So…..we sat back, relaxed, and ordered off of their menu, and 30 minutes later, they delivered us hot, great food. We ended the day with a little TV, and early to bed. (There’s a big surprise)

Today….

It’s cold (60 degrees) windy, and rainy today. The weather channel says to expect more of the same. It’s one of those days where you always feel cold. It may clear by late today, but we’re not counting on it. This is really the only bad weather we have had since we left FT. Lauderdale, so I am not complaining a bit. We have been very lucky.
Steve and Chris left at about 7 AM, to catch an 8:30 flight back to Chicago. Deb is watching movies that she has already seen several times, and I am trying to finish this log, and get it off to those who are thinking we have dropped off the face of the earth. (I haven’t gotten my e-mail for 3 days)
As I said earlier, I’m going to use today to get the boat reorganized, and I need to spend a fair amount of time on work stuff. (Things are going better, but we have a lot to do)
I’ll be back to a normal work day (if there is such a thing for me) tomorrow, so I’m not sure how if I will be doing any logs until we take off for New York on June 9th, when Rome and Theresa get on board.

Maybe Deb can keep everyone posted on what it is like to be a “short time live aboard in Norfolk”

Happy Memorial Day.

BK.