Wednesday 12 February 2020
Today the adventure continued to unfold. Or, should I say, unraveled. No. No. I'll stay with unfold.

Looks like the weather is not going to cooperate totally for the Albermarle Sound crossing. We were up early again, filled up the diesel and had breakfast at the little cafe at the marina. Off season at this place is sure dull. We are the only boat in the marina and there doesn't seem to have been anyone else in at the cafe when we were there. I hope this is just reflective of off season as this has always been a rather nice place to say nothing of its positional usefulness. People coming from Elizabeth City as well as those coming across from Coinjock can stop off here. It is also just the right distance to head on down to Dowry Creek or Bellhaven in one day's travel.

The weather has been in the low 20s yesterday afternoon and for most overnight it stayed around the mid teens dropping to the single digits in the early AM before starting to climb again. What was really not nice was that the wind which had been from the southwest yesterday has swung around to the northeast today so our trip across the Albermarle Sound was into the teeth of 15 to 20 knots and accompanying seas. We thought about staying at Alligator Creek but if we didn't go today and tough it out we were going to be there for two or three days as conditions were only going to get worse. As it was we had a wet, bouncy and pounding, and cold morning punching our way across the sound. The only other boat we saw in the morning is the photo on today's post. It's one of those small cruise liners that ply the ICW from New England to Florida. Imagine buying a ticket on that cruise and getting this weather! I wouldn't be a happy camper.

I found myself asking myself, "Self", asked I, "Why are we coming home this early? We could have waited a month and done the same thing." I couldn't answer myself so I did what every married man does. I asked my wife. She reminded me about settling my brother's estate, our taxes, and getting Nelleke on the market. Ok. Makes sense. Still, a damn cold thing to be doing.

Now we are wondering what conditions are going to be like on Currituck Sound if we try to cross it tomorrow. We asked the folks at the marina what their advice was and they told us that we wouldn't have any problem. So, tomorrow AM we will be off. The second to last step will be to Norfolk. Here at Coinjock, we are 50 miles from the end of the ICW.