Days 192-193 April 21-22, 2011 Pungo Creek NC to Buck Island NC

Submitted by kiper on Wed, 2011-04-27 16:56

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Early morning we gave Russell a knock so he could have his turn on the free dock ... we were sailing out. He looked a little rough .... he must have been out late. He did get up though and grabbed a spot. Chong was coming along with us so now the other dock was wide open ..... the gloves were off. I'm sure. We took off up the Neuse River, and across a little corner on the Pamlico Sound headed toward Bellhaven NC. Late afternoon the winds picked up to about 25 ... and on the nose. It was a rodeo ride, and I thought it was awesome. I had the ipod on and just had a blast. The bow would just fly up in the air and then ..."boooosh" ... slam down and part water. It was rainy and warm, and we weren't out on the ocean so it wasn't scary, it was just a fun wet day. Chris was below trying to work... so he wasn't amused. :)

We pulled into the Pungo Creek anchorage well before sunset and just chilled out waiting for s/v Chance Encounter to get his slow tail in. I made some dinner, and Chris ran some over. I'm sure he was tired. He broke his furling line and spent some time on his bow .... riding the bull. Its a wide anchorage with good holding and decent wind protection. Its all we needed, and some sleep. Tomorrow we would continue North ... through the freaking Albermarle SoundOf course as the afternoon went on it built. It never went more than 15 ... so no complaints here. It was a beautiful run and we were feeling a tad lazy. So after about 30 miles we called it quits. Radioed Chong and gave him the good news. We searched around on the charts and took a good look at the anchoring possibilities in the Alligator River. Deciding to be adventurous we headed out to stay in an un-marked anchorage .... ( we live on the edge .... hahaha.) Because the charts call it a "cypress swamp" I will call it the Cypress Swamp Anchorage on the Alligator River. The holding was mud, and we set well. You can get really close to shore but you have to watch for protruding tree skeletons. I liked it there. No houses, no cars, no lights and no wind. By the end of the night we had six other boats surrounding us. So either they have been there before, or they saw two boats anchored and figured it was an anchorage they didn't know about. It was a nice quiet night. Tomorrow ... the freakin sound.

So its a gorgeous sat morning with a little 10 knot breeze. Chris is off work and decides its a "sailors day." He isn't using the motor. We get the main up and he pulls up the anchor. Worked like a charm.... off sailing we went. We were able to sail all morning ... then the wind picked up and we came to a bridge with some other boats. Sails down motor on .... the sound was getting really choppy from the south winds. We had to get through a shoaly spot not far after the bridge so we just kept the sails down. Good thing we did ... because we ran hard hard aground.

On the way south in Oct. we stayed near the green marker and hit bottom, now coming north we stayed near the red marker and still hit.... grrrr. Stuck ... we tried for about 30 minutes to get ourselves floating but it wasn't working. A call to Tow Boat US was our only alternative. The chop was pounding us off the hard sand/clay bottom, and it didn't look like the boat was enjoying it. I know we weren't. Finally the tow boat showed up after well over an hour and a half, and tied up to us. We have never had to use Tow Boat even though we have tow insurance.

But we have been on another boat when Sea Tow had to come out ... and let me say .... Sea Tow has much nicer "TOYS." This little bitty boat came up and I said to Chris " Is that the welcome/ paperwork boat ?" I never thought a boat that little could move us. It looked old, and just way to small and light weight, and the guy looked just like Ross Perot. It took him 45 min to get us off. He was nice, but if it was a more dangerous situation I think Id feel better with one of those huge yellow and black inflatable tugs with the mega-motors. The little red Tow Boat that could ... just doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies. Anyway, after we watched several other boats cluck and hit other shoals in the area around us so we didn't feel so bad. We were floating again, and without damage ... so we sucked it up and moved on. Once off we knew we screwed up the day ... by losing over 2 hrs... so the motor stayed on and the jib furled out. The sound sucked as predicted. Wind picked up to 20 something knots and we had 4ft-5ft chop. Sigh .... we were going to just go to Coinjock Marina but it was getting late. Chong finally beat us somewhere .... the Buck Island Anchorage, and he said it wasn't a bad spot..... so we just pulled up to him ...... about 6 miles south of Coinjock. Tossed and anchor out and then drank .... a lot. In the morning we will just go to the marina ... what the hell its Easter. :)