PHOTO ABOVE: Looking east towards the Alligator River, swing bridge is about a mile east on the right. Far Niente docked (last sailboat on the right) along with other ICW travelers.

Trip: Coinjock, NC to MM 84 on the Alligator River
Distance: 35 Statute Miles
Time: 7:30 am to 11:30 pm
Location: Alligator River Marina, Slip 11
Lat/Lon: 35 54.359 'N : 76 01.736'W
2010 Trip Log: 1847 nm, (2126 sm), 132 days since departure

A Blustery Ride Across the Albemarle Sound

We left Midway Marina, finally, (Coinjock MM49.8) at 7:30 am, on what has been a clear and very windy day; 18-26 kts out of the northwest with gusts to 34 kts. Once we entered Albemarle Sound waves had built to 3'-6' on our starboard stern quarter. They were short and steep. Hand steering was the order of the day as Otto was overwhelmed. Yani on the other hand purred like a kitten as we headed for the entrance to the Alligator River.

The entrance to the Alligator River, from the Albemarle Sound, is famous for grounding boats. According to ICW veterans, the electronic and paper charts are all wrong about the exact course to take. Following the advice of the seasoned veterans we did not follow the 'magenta line' on the charts and instead followed their recommendations. We cleared the dog leg entrance into the channel seeing 10+' depths all the way. Today even, others sailors have not been so fortunate. We can see one sailboat aground out there at the entrance as I write this blog post. Local knowledge is worth its weight in gold.

We arrived at Alligator River Marina in (12 miles outside of Columbia, NC) at 11:30 am. Our stop here was an obvious one as we had multiple recommendations on the quality of this small marina and its strategic location. Belhaven, NC, our next stop is at MM 136. With less than 12 hours of daylight, at our cruising speed, we could not make it to Belhaven from Coinjock. So this marina at MM84 made sense. The marina is filling up and we see several familiar boats from our stays in Deltaville and Portsmouth.

Tomorrow we'll have about a 52 mile run down the Alligator River and the Alligator River - Pungo Canal (~26 sm long) to Belhaven. Weather forecast has winds diminishing significantly tonight ;-) On Sunday, we'll head to Oriental, NC at MM and Moorhead City, NC at MM204 on Monday, November 1.