April 8, 2019 - April14, 2019
We were all set to leave Beaufort early Monday morning until Bob tried to start the engine and all we heard was “clunk”. Starter trouble, again! Bob called the marina office for a mechanic recommendation. We couldn’t reach him on the phone so the office contacted him for us. If he was able he would stop by the boat at the end of the day. Like all great mechanics he was overbooked and couldn’t make it until Tuesday morning. He spent less than an hour reconnecting the ground wire of the starter and the engine came to life. Hurray!
We took advantage of the extra time in Beaufort to visit two more restaurants, go to the grocery store and finish visiting the shops. It was two days of relaxing. Our big disappointment was the Black Sheep Restaurant with its fabulous pizza was closed both days.
Early Wednesday morning we cast off at sunrise to continue our journey north. Our “Windy” app forecast some strong winds until 2:00 pm. We debated about making it a short day or going the planned distance. We stuck with the plan. The wind was right on our nose and in the open waters of the Neuse River it seemed like we were riding a bronco. Yippee ki yi aah! We considered turning in at Oriental, but continued north. When we turned to the north east the waves were hitting the boat obliquely creating a washing machine effect. It was much worse than the bronco. After four hours of traveling the Nuese River we finally turned into a more narrow river and had a smooth ride to our anchorage in Goose Creek.
 |
| Our reward for rising with the sun |
On Thursday we were up with the sun and headed to our anchorage in the Little Alligator River. We were in narrow protected waters all day and did not feel any adverse effects from the wind.
 |
| I’m at the helm on the North River. As you can see the weather is warm enough for shorts and a tank top. |
Friday was different. We left at dawn, but traveled up the wide Alligator River, across the Pimlico Sound, up the wide Pongo River, and finally across the open waters of the Albemarle Sound. It was a rough day again with lots of rocking and rolling. We made it to Coinjock Marina by 3:30 pm just in time for showers and a great prime rib dinner.
Saturday, was a short trip up some winding rivers to a free mooring just south of the Great Bridge Bridge. We had our left over prime rib in sandwiches when we stopped. We heard geese honking and observed a family with newly hatched goslings.
 |
| We had several down pours last night so I had to bail out the dinghy. |
We left our mooring at 8:00 am Sunday and made it through the Great Bridge Bridge and Lock in record time. We were making good time until we were stopped for an hour in Norfolk for a railroad bridge. We made to Hampton Public Pier by noon. We have completed our travels on the ICW and are now in the beautiful Chesapeake Bay. We are almost home!
 |
| Travel on the ICW through Norfolk provides different sitings than the wildlife we encounter on most of the ICW. |
The weather this week has been warmer than we expected for this time of year, but we had some heavy rains on two days. Our cockpit enclosure is a life saver during stormy weather.
We will take our time traveling up the bay to Baltimore stopping at some of our favorite spots.
Thank you for reading my blog.
