Adventures of Obiewan and Jo

Monday, May 7, 2012

W76deg18

Anchor up at 8:10 we are on our way thru Portsmith, Norfolk, out in to the ocean with container ships passing us in either direction lots of room and dept not problems.  We were in the Ocean for a while then the mouth of the bay with high seas, wind, and chop. The good news is it was coming from the stern; we had sails up to steady us but what a beautiful sail, nothing like the Chesapeake for sailing. We pulled into Fishing Creek; Deltaville, VA ,around 4:15, did 58 miles today long day. Had a little trouble setting the anchor, the second time it dragged for and while, finally connected had a good quiet night.  Fishing Creek is a very nice anchorage nice house’s, very protected. I took some already cooked chicken and made chicken Marnara quite good actually. 

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Coinjock Marina, Coinjock NC MM50

N36deg50. 7, W76deg18.1

Took off from dock at 8:05 once we arrived in the Coinjock Bay as well as the Currituck sound the going became very rough with a very narrow channel, large power boats and barges going in either direction , wind up to 30+ knots we did not expect that much wind, pretty rough for a while then we were in protected waters when we crossed the North Carolina/Virginia line and better yet in the North Landing River and Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. We missed North Landing Bridge by 5 min which put us behind by a hour for the Great Bridge, Bridge and Lock. When we pulled into the lock we had the fenders covered and the long lines ready. The lock closed and it didn't seem as though we were moving, next thing we know the doors at the other end opened, I said"to the tender  " did we move" he said,"less than a foot" we were flabbergasted all that for less than a foot!!! We did have some luck when we arrived at the Gilmore bridge,  we saw a  tug going thru the bridge, someone asked  the bridge tender if she would  let us thru.   She allowed a whole Gaggle of us go thru, or she would have to opened again in 10 min.  We arrived at Hospital Point with anchor down at 4:30 with about 4 other boats with us for the night some we have seen before in out travels north. Good dinner and quiet night since we were up before 7AM we crashed early, couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

Alligator River south of Bridge MM81.5

N35deg56

W76deg02

Left the anchorage at 8:15AM, the flies were inscrutable,  biting like crazy, they subsided a bit when we escaped from Fly Island) and we were moving, with some wind but still biting.  We made it a short day so we would have some down time.  We went thru the Albemarle Sound (as quiet as it could be) North Carolina Cut and the North River to arrive at Coinjock at 12:30PM.  Still have biting flies but not a bad as last night and this morning.  The good news we are plugged in and will have air Conditioning tonight.  Nice restaurant here and a little store to pick up some things to get us thorough the next few days.  Took a shower before the rain started, I just made it back to the boat and it poured for about 2hours but they needed the rain and I do love the sound of the rain on the bambini.  We had dinner at the restaurant in the Marina and met some friends we had met before along the way.  They actually, we found out are old friends of Claudia and Ed Evens and Carol and John Campbell from Meirs Marina. After we arrived back to the boat and were doing our homework two huge, long barges being pulled and pushed by tugs went by. I would not want to run into those in the ditch at night scary to say the least, bad enough during the day, we had our share of barges in the day. One only hopes there is room to pull over before they run you down.

Friday, May 04, 2012

Belhaven, North Carolina MM136

N35deg32

W76deg37

Anchor up at 10AM and we were in the Pungo River in Minutes we followed the Pungo River to the Pungo Alligator Canal and we were on that forever'er then into the Alligator River and thru the Alligator River Swing Bridge. Very long and straight and rather boring good thing auto does a lot of the steering just have to make a few adjustments now and then... We had a very long and very Hot Day with biting flies, when put the anchor down we closed up the boat and turned on the Air Conditioning 

WOW is that great.  We are expecting Thunderstorms tonight so this makes things cozy and no worries about having hatches open when it is raining.  I talked to my sister and the weather in Annapolis is the same with thunderstorms also.

Anchor down for the night in the Alligator River, just a little north of the Alligator River Swing Bridge.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Oriental, North Carolina MM180.0

After waiting for the diesel truck to arrive we manage to take off after a fill up, at 10:15AM. We had a smooth take off, backing out very calm and hot going up to 80degreees today; it was a little better when we got out in the Neuse River a little bit of air.  The Neuse is very long and not much to see but at least it is better that the last time we came thru here in the fall.  We had to move over for a barge being pushed by a tug because of a narrow channel but later on the wind picked up and we put up some sail, caught up him in open water and passed him. He chased us most of the day until we turned into Belhaven for the night, Found a nice anchorage and put down the hook.  Had leftovers for dinner and watched the sun go down, the Mosquitoes started, drove us inside. Did some home work for tomorrow’s travels and went to bed.

End of day anchorage Belhaven N.C.

Wednesday,. May 2, 2012

Oriental, North Carolina MM180.8

N35deg1.5

W76deg42

Decided to stay put, John was not feeling well and it was a beautiful day so I managed to get a ride to the store and walked back about a mile. Stopped in some shops on the way back and bought some cute gifts.  Did some wash and reading in the afternoon.  He felt better after a little nap and we went to the tiki bar and then to a place at the marina for a little dinner. We need to get going tomorrow because a RR bridge in Virginia is closing for 3 days on the 8^th of May and we do not want to be stuck there for that time.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Mile Hammock Bay, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina MM244.5

N34deg33min

W77deg19.5min

Woke up to find everyone in the anchorage had left to make the 7:30 bridge we did the 8AM Onslow Beach Bridge. We caught up with some of the sail boats form the night before after the bridge, we are a little faster than most sail boats but not as fast as power boats.  But we never saw Lady Katherine again.  We had a very long day but we pulled into Oriental at 4PM not too bad.  Checked in and took showers had dinner on the boat didn’t feel like going out.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina MM 283

N34deg12.4

W77deg47.9
Anchor up a 9:45 to make the 10AM Wrightsville Beach Bridge. It was a very slow morning because of the timing of the bridges and the distances between the bridges.  We were slowly moving towards a bridge that had  opened and was not opening for another hour and Lady Katherine came by and said she was moving slowly also because she could not make the first opening either.  We were not going far today but we just hate losing time waiting for Bridges   In all we had thee of us just wasting time, so aggravating.  When we pulled to our anchorage (Mile Hammock Bay) at 4:45PM Lady Katherine was already anchored.  We had a good day in all with the bridges and some narrow spots.  As we sat in our little anchorage the dolphins were swimming all around the boat,  no mater how much we see them we still get excited to see them

Days end Mile Hammock Bay, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina