Passage from Manteo to Coinjock

Susan and I usually make reservations at marinas when we are pretty certain we will arrive. During the fall migration of the northern boats to Florida and the Bahamas the ICW and marinas fill up fast. But that is in October and most everyone has passed Virginia and North Carolina. Well, that was an incorrect assumption. I contacted Coinjock marina yesterday for an arrival for today. They call everyone that is supposed to dock with them every day because they have a waiting list. When I called yesterday they didn’t put me on the waiting list so we thought everything was all set. I missed the phone call this morning and that got us on the wait list I guess. By the time I called them back they told us we’d have to raft to another boat. That means we tie our boat to the boat tied to the dock. WE then have to walk across the other boat to get to the dock. Not ideal but I accepted that. It wasn’t ok with Susan and Susan is the admiral. I’m just the captain. We weren’t positive we’d have to raft either. The dock master just said that might be the only option. So, I planed to anchor 16 miles further than Coinjock as an alternative. We ended up being able to be tie up for the night on the under construction dock, but with no power. We weren’t going to have power at anchor either. And, they have a very good restaurant at Coinjock marina.

Liquid Therapy is eerily quiet with nothing but battery powered lights. The refrigerator and freezer are the main draws on our batteries. The quiet with no heat pumps running is nice. The temperature is not going to be cold. We are fine.

The Albemarle weather forecast was supposed to be on our stern port quarter today. The wind was more like broadside and we rolled quite a bit. It was not great and we had lots of crab pots to dodge too. We had about 12 miles of this condition and then we rejoined the ICW at the North River leaving the Albemarle Sound behind. Liquid Therapy stoped rolling and the remainder of the passage was in protected waters. We are headed north and every boat we met was heading south. We had lots of large boat wakes to contend with but everyone was courteous and slowed down.

I spoke with two boats heading south and warned them about the USCG plane that was dropping parachuted flares in the Albemarle near us. It was an exercise. As a pilot myself, ( I haven’t flown in 40 years ) I was very impressed at the skillful turns the pilot made at the low altitude with the big four engine plane.

Today’s picture is the Coast Guard plane flying near Liquid Therapy.