Picture: Salty Ginger and Gromit at the town dock in Oriental, North Carolina

We are on the move!

We left the Bahamas on Monday, June 8th pointing in the direction of Beaufort, North Carolina about 500 miles away. Last passage.

We did well to arrive at dusk on Thursday, though we did a lot of motoring. S/v Salty Ginger, went to a marina, but we were a few hours later and decided not to go through the channel to the water-front until daylight the next day. So, on Friday, we went to the Customs dock and checked in and then headed to Oriental, through a very picturesque section of the ICW on a rising tide which had us going over 7 knots for almost the whole 24 mile run. It's so fantastic to get a lift!

Salty Ginger joined us the following day in Oriental, where this whole fantastic voyage began with the purchase of Gromit - more on that story later!

Monday, June 15, was our second day on the ICW (Intra-Coastal Waterway). At around 6:30 am, we pulled away from the town dock at Oriental and began our trip north bound to the Chesapeake. We estimate about 5 days to get to the Potomac River, where we will leave Gromit.

Yesterday, the wind was blowing only about 5 knots, ideal conditions for traveling through the ICW. It is 90% motoring and if it is windy, the water can whip up quickly due to the shallow depths which can make navigation hazardous. We travelled along the Neuse River through the Shortcut, passing Hobucken and then across Pamlico Sound. Then north on the Pungo River and a quick stop in at Belhaven to access internet so that I could apply to a few jobs that were posted. It is very isolated here and there is no cell reception which is how we access the internet. Our final stop for the day was at Pungo River anchorage, just before the Pungo/Alligator River canal.

What I noticed most were the sounds and smells. We could hear birds chirping and singing and there were lively dragonflies flitting all around. Turtles lazed on logs and fish jumped out of the water. The air was full of earthy and swampy smells. Apart from the tea-brown water - Liam and Maia both, at different times said that it looked like we were motoring through Coca-Cola - everything is green. The scenery is very different and unique compared to where we've been. I haven't seen tall, lush, leafy trees in a long time. The day's mileage: 54 nautical miles.

Today, (Tuesday, June 16), we got another early start. We were anchored a mile from the entrance of the Alligator River - Pungo River Canal and once in, saw the sun rising over its mirror calm waters. The canal is about 22 miles long and fairly easy to navigate.....just stay in the middle. Therein lies the rub; staying in the middle though easy, takes full time attention because there is not a lot of room for error. Stray from the track and you end up in shallow water in mere moments. The average width is around 200 feet with narrower sections at 150 feet.

Today's run was around 66 nautical miles and ended at Broad Creek, after crossing Albemarle Sound. This Sound is not to be crossed in high winds! Here is how our cruising guide describes a windy day on the Sound: .....there is something frighteningly different about a four-foot Albemarle wave versus a four-foot ocean swell.....both Pamlico Sound and Albemarle Sound produce these unique waves. Albemarle Sound may be 50 miles long, but it's only 20 feet deep. And shallow depths do strange things to the waves. As the energy force increases by greater winds, the wavelength also increases, so the energy has to go somewhere, so it forces the waves to be taller and closer together. Yikes!!! Glad it's not windy today! (Well, things changed when we got there and there was a wind, but not one that produced the waves mentioned above. We were able to motor-sail across at 6.5 knots!)

We anchored at Broad Creek in next to no wind, so the bugs found us, swarmed us. We frantically put up our bug screens, but quite a few got in. It had been a hot day and we thought it would be a hot night, which it was until the thunder storm roared through in the middle of the night, with winds up to 25 knots (45km/h). The lightening display rivalled any fireworks we've seen. Luckily we only got the wind and not the rain and not the lightening. I didn't go up on deck to watch, but the kids said that it was like being at an Imax movie completely filling their field of vision.