We departed today prior to sunrise, but since sunrise was officially listed for seven am, we didn’t leave that early. Winds were as forecasted, almost non-existent. The leg today to Belhaven is about 63 miles, so it will be a long one.
Shortly after we left, all the power boats that passed us the day before, but stopped at the docks in Coinjock once again started passing us. They were all courteous, we slowed to make their pass easy and they slowed to reduce the size of their wake. One boat, “Old Bear” a Nordic Tug was the same boat we travelled up the same stretch with back in May. We touched base on the radio to confirm they were one in the same and lamented over the long trip down the “ditch”, although they were headed to Florida, much longer than we had to go.
While many boats passed us, the bridge operator at the Alligator River swing bridge could see the group traveling from miles away. They made all the power boats wait until we caught up to open the bridge... we felt bad. The water remained calm and we had a long, but peaceful trip down the Alligator River and canal. Our biggest concern remained the Wilkerson bridge, which is actually a full foot shorter than advertised, and the water level was still a little higher than normal according to one tugboat captain we asked as we crossed paths.
Our solution to getting under the bridge was to put anything heavy inside the boat on the starboard side, and I sat in the boson’s chair attached to the boom and swung way out to the starboard side of the boat. We tested it and it gave us only ten to fifteen degrees of heel, we hoped it was enough. About three miles short of the bridge, we saw what we have not seen in several trips up and down the canal... a large alligator swimming across the canal. It’s called the Alligator River because that’s as far north as anyone has recorded an Alligator, I always thought it was extremely rare... especially while developing a plan to hang 14 feet out to the side of our boat to get it to heel over and dip me close to the surface!
Lesley ran the boat and helped me swing out on the boom, we crept under the bridge and the VHF antenna whip hit every one of the gurters, but the mast light, windex and top of the mast made it under. Some people on the shoreline watching with interest said we only had a few inches to spare.... the VHF still works and I didn’t turn into Alligator lunch, so phew!
We were looking forward to having dinner at Spoon River in Belhaven, it’s a farm to table restaurant, and is suppose to be very good. Hurricane Florence had other plans, most of downtown Belhaven was also flooded during the hurricane, so most businesses are in recovery mode. All we spoke with said Florence brought the highest water they’ve seen. We hope all will be better than ever when recovery is done. We were able to patronize the one restaurant (The Fish Hook) that was a few feet higher than most, good southern comfort food, more than we could eat.
This brings us to 124 nights away, about 110 of them spent on the boat. We have plenty of recovery work of our own when we return, and hope to help others as well. Still, a somewhat sad feeling as we end our voyage. We started making some lists of what worked and what didn’t, what we brought that we never used, and what we were glad we had... the next trip will be even better.