Cheryl’s Notes:

We are officially back in cruising mode. We get up at sunrise and are in bed just after sunset. Today we had a short day. We left Pungo Creek and entered the Pungo canal. We knew that a cold front was coming through, so we planned on stopping short of the Alligator River. It was a wise choice. The boats up ahead of us were on the radio talking about the rough waves in the river. Then the Alligator River Bridge told them that it wouldn’t open again until the wind died down. The swing bridge won’t open when the wind gets over 32mph. It opened later in the day, but by then we were already anchored and relaxed.

We also had to do some trouble shooting with our alternator again, but I will let John tell that story.

John’s Notes:

Well the electrical problem turned out to be nothing but a loose alternator belt. It took longer to take the engine cowling off than it did to fix. It was more of a challenge to anchor. The winds were in excess of 20kts when we dropped the hook. There were lots of boats in a very tight anchorage so had to be careful that we did not drop our anchor on top of someone else. As it was, by the time I got the anchor down, we were almost on top of “Just Ducky ”a boat that we knew from the Bahamas. He left the anchorage a few minutes before us this morning and we discovered that his anchor was about 8’ off our stern. Close.

We have been sailing or motor sailing for the last two days. It’s great to be back out cruising again. We are a little rusty but in another week we will be back up to speed.