Tuesday, October 8 2019 Anchorage North River to Allegator
River.
Hello again today is October 8 Tuesday. I was right about my
guess with the wind because we have had a quiet night at anchor as the wind
shifted from the southerly to a northeasterly direction. We made the decision
to go ahead and press on to the Allegheny River although the seas were running
4 to 6 feet in the Albemarle sound but, they were going with us. I knew we
could use our fin stabilizers to keep the boat on an even keel so we would not
be rocking and rolling. We are underway about 8 o’clock Erin had a fit with the
mud that was on the chain so after she got the anchor up and cleaned, off we
went..
Following the intercoastal waterway is reasonably easy and
there are plenty of markers along the way to keep us in the channel coming down
the river or thru the man-made cuts. It is reasonably narrow so having to keep
up with it on the market by market basis or. Erin is very good at that so she
has been the navigator this trip I’ve been the helmsman most of the way she
relieves is me once in a while but just gets a little anxious so there are lunches at the wheel. I know that
will change as she gets more experience with steering. The trip has been
uneventful until we learned about the Alligator River bridge was not
functioning. The bridge engineer was sure when it was going to be able to be
repaired. Apparantly an electrical problem and the system burned out so they
were having to have it custom-made. This meant there was no notice as to when
the bridge will be able to open. We went on anyway because there is a marina
just before the Alligator River bridge. We called and they said they can
accommodate us. As much as we prefer to anchor the wind was strong and there
were no places to get in the lee of land.
It really wasn’t that difficult to cross the Albermarle
Sound even with the very rough conditions the I’ll show you pictures
nonetheless we made it across safely. The one exception was the very last hundred yards which put the rough seas
on the starboard beam. We had to turn right into the marina and the seas on our
side made it a real challenge even for an experienced seaman like Larry. We did
get in and tied to port side to a long pier and were welcomed by the staff.
This is not a large marina but would suffice for what we prisoners (of the
broken bridge)would need . There were 16
of us in the marina all seeking shelter of the marina because of the closure.
The marina is actually a gas station on the western side side
of the bridge and had basic moorings for the watermen who work out of that part
of North Carolina . There were more traditional moorings for the yachts. We
found that if we looked beyond the basic marina status,it really was a pleasure
to be here and we met immediately three other boaters who came over to assist
with tying up. It was nice to know that we were in company of other cruisers.
It is time for Erin and I to settle down down and plan what this delay will mean
to our journey. We registered and wandered around thto get the lay of thre land
and try the combinations of the marina heads and check and see what other
facilities they had to offer.
We had arrived about 3 o’clock and so there wasn’t much of
the day left although winds were blowing and the waves were rolling in we were
comfortably dark edge of this tiny little marina just before the bridge and so
it was after a very light dinner to we
watched the news checked the weather and were ready to go bed when we heard the announcement over the
Marine radio that the Alligator River bridge would not open tomorrow as was
hoped. The engineer on the bridge said that they had actually have the new
equipment built that there was no spare there was nothing on the shelf life due
to the age of the equipment. We like, all the others said, oh well, welcome to
North Carolina and the Alligator River.
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