November 6, 2017 – Wednesday

The strong north wind promised for last night didn’t arrive unit around four in the morning and by the time we pulled anchor it was blowing near twenty knots at six-thirty. The other boats in the anchorage were already underway and headed for the Pungo Canal.

Mike had hoped to use the sails in the canal but the wind was completely blanketed by the tall pines lining the canal so we motored along following the other sailboats as we enjoyed the remoteness of the canal. Only a few homes have been built on the canal, the rest of it is just deep pine forest or wide marsh lands where the slow meandering upper reaches of the Alligator River cross the canal.

After a few hours, the south bound power boaters came along kicking up big wakes. It amazes us that the canal survives the wakes over the years and that the mud banks don’t just collapse and fill in the channel. The wakes can be dangerous to us since the canal is fairly narrow and the boats pass close by but fortunately the captains all did a good job slowing down and we did the same so they could get by quickly. But even at a slow speed some of the power boats wakes gave us a good rocking.

About mid-day we exited the canal and came out into the wide Pungo River and the wind was there to greet us blowing fifteen to twenty. We raised our mainsail with one reef and let out the headsail with two reefs. Headed downwind we could have skipped the reefs but the wind was very gusty and forecasted for thirty knot gusts. We didn’t want to roll Monarch too far over as we didn’t have everything secured like we would off shore.

Mike really enjoyed the great sail which is something he can never get enough of and passing power boats were not an issue in the wide river where they could pass at a distance. The weather was cool but the sun was bright and the plastic cockpit enclosure panels kept the wind off of us.

We passed the turn for the town of Belhaven after deciding that crossing the open Pamlico River wouldn’t be dangerous in the current conditions. We had no problems making the three-mile crossing and soon entered Goose Creek where we kept sailing but with the motor running now to maintain speed. Over the years, houses have been going in along the river even though it is a very remote area. The houses are often built closer to the water level than we would think was safe but others had the living areas up a story. There are no real lunar tides in these sounds but a strong steady wind will push a couple of feet up into these creeks.

Goose Creek eventually turns into a canal for the last section where it runs into the Gale Creek and then the Bay River where it opens up into a large sound. We turned west leaving the ICW and headed for an anchorage at Bear Creek where we hadn’t been before. The entrance was S shaped and in the dark water you had to totally rely on the chart plotter to guide your way since there were no buoys or other navaids. Usually locals will put a few simple floats or poles in the water to act as guides but not here. However, the plotter was accurate and we had no trouble.

We may have dropped the anchor too soon as once we settled, we had a steady chop rocking us from the north-east which we could have avoided further up the creek. But the rocking wasn’t too bad and the breeze ensured the mosquitoes wouldn’t visit us like they had last night in the Alligator River.

Despite the rocking Sharon cooked up a great vegetable pasta and we enjoyed it along with a movie and a bottle of wine.