We are now back in Portsmouth for a few days, having completed our monstrously large return trip back up the ICW!!! Ha ha ha - just kidding - it was all of 135 statue miles from Belhaven, NC to Portsmouth, VA. As those of you following this blog know, our trip was halted last November due to several circumstances beyond our control. But the trip back up the ICW is at least a start on the journey back home to Bronte.

After celebrating my birthday last Tuesday, April 30 i picked my daughter Sarah up at the airport in Norfolk and we left for the top end of the Alligator River on Friday - but you already know that from the previous post. What you don't know was that it turned into a very bumpy anchorage that we pulled into. The winds were forecast at 10 kts from the east going to 4 kts from the SE overnight. They started light from the E but then went to 12 kts NE such that they wrapped around the top of the river from the Albemarle Sound resulting in 2 ft waves into the anchorage. It did calm down during the evening eventually doing what it was supposed to. Our only consolation was that we had worse in our marina at Dowry Creek a few times. It is completely unprotected from the SE and there is a 2 mile fetch of the Pungo river that likes to beat us all up occasionally. Strangely, it didn't seem that bad (wow, we have been onboard wayyyyy too long.

Saturday dawned warm and sunny and we weighed anchor at 0800hrs to join the parade of northbound boats on the ICW. Coinjock Marina is a traditional stop on the ICW just north of the Albemarle Sound - it is a really nice marina on the river and is famed for it's prime rib (I think it has it's own herd of cows out the back). So, naturally, we had to stop overnight in order to enjoy this - it was so worth it!

I will digress for a minute about the Albemarle and those of you who are Great Lakes boaters will understand. It is a large body of very shallow water and folks don't generally cross it in 15 kts of wind or more. You exit the Alligator river and either go NE to the Virginia Cut or NE to Elizabeth City and the Dismal Swamp Canal - this is about 10 - 12 miles. On the way down in January we experienced winds 12kts E and the forecast was the same for Saturday. We're Great Lakes sailors and we're thinking - awesome, we can have a nice sail for a few hours. Alas, it was not to be (the previous night's forecast accuracy, or lack thereof should have been a clue) - either no wind or max 4kts from NE. The thing is, boaters down here freak out if the waves get up to 3ft - there was a huge online discussion about the forecast wind and resulting high waves. My favourite comment was from a fellow sailor - 2-3ft waves? Come on, get over it.

There is a thing about power boats passing on the ICW. On the Friday, everyone seemed quite polite about it - the passing boat hails on Ch 16 and asks if he can do a slow pass usually on Port. You say yes and slow down a bit to let it pass - very civilized. Saturday, not so much. Lots of big power boats - 40 to 50 ft just went zooming by. These are mostly the delivery crews re-positioning boats - how do you know - they run with their AIS turned off so you can't identify them - they are going to fast to see the name on the boat. These jerks embody all the hoary stereotypes of the power boater. We are lucky as our boat is big and heavy enough to get through most of these enormous waves. Luckily on Sunday there was a return to civility.

It has been a few very busy days since driving down to Belhaven this past Saturday. I have been doing all the little things to get the boat ready to head north - checking sails and instruments, checking engine fluid levels, checking the engine and transmition. On Wednesday the diver came and cleaned the hull and replaced the zing, that same day i picked up my daughter Sarah who flew down to help get Windflyer up to Norfolk and then drive my car back home to Oakville. We topped up diesel in the boat and the jerry cans.

This all came together with a farewell dinner at Spoon River, a most awesome restaurant courtesy Renate in honour of my birthday on Tuesday. This restaurant is amazing - it is owned by Theresa and Mark, local entrepreneurs. It is the very best restaurant we have ever been to - our restaurants (as good as many of them are) could learn a few things from this lovely couple! You just can't beet that southern charm and hospitality. And to top it off our server, Jenny, was amazing.

And it all culminated in our leaving Dowry Creek Marina at 0800 this morning and travelling through the Alligator River Pungo river canal - very straight and boring, but it was sunny, 27c and there was a nice breeze. We are now anchored at the top end of the Alligator river just below the bridge - a lovely place.

Greetings everyone from the hellacious bowels of Tax Season! As you know, I am a tax accountant and tax season here is finally (mostly) done. Well, i am done, but my awesome staff still has a few days to go.

I am hopping in the car and leaving for Belhaven, NC bright and early at 0600 hrs tomorrow morning (4/27). It is time to get back to Windflyer and begin planning the trip back to Bronte Harbour on Lake Ontario. Renate had a bad flu bug that morphed into pneumonia so she will not be able to come down with me for the first part of the trip. I had already arranged for my daughter, Sarah, to fly down to the boat to drive the car back home. Luckily for me she has some time off so she will be helping me to sail the boat through the ICW back up to Norfolk. Weather permitting we hope to get there by around the 8th of May - fingers crossed. She will then go back to Belhaven to get the car and drive it back home.

I will be on my own for the next few weeks although, fortunately, will be travelling with our buddy boat, Andiamo, captained by our good friends Tim & Liz. Again, weather permitting (a valuable lesson we have learned many times on this trip), we hope to wind our way up to Annapolis to spend a few days while we wait for Renate to re-join Windflyer.

Next we will head for Cape May, NJ and wait for a weather window for the offshore trip (about 18 hours) to New York Harbour. It is then a quick run to Catskill on the Hudson River to un-step the mast in preparation for transiting the Erie Canal Renate has informed me that she doesn't do canals anymore!! As a consequence, our good friend David will meet us in Catskill and help get Windflyer through the canal to Oswego on Lake Ontario where the mast will be re-stepped for the final part of the return trip to Bronte. Renate will make a beeline for home and the comfort of a real bed and real toilet and shower!

So there you have it - weather permitting, Windflyer should be back in her berth at the Bronte Outer Harbour Marina by the second or third week of June.

This is it for our travels, for now. We were quite fortunate to have for us, 4 great days of travel weather-wise!

We had a great evening at anchor at MM100 at the southern end of the Alligator River. Winds of approx 12 kts but very sheltered so it was very calm and it was about 17c.

So duck hunting season is on in North Carolina and there are lots of duck hunters out there. it is very marshy along the ICW here so lots of duck blinds and duck boats that are all camoflauged. So it was a very quiet and calm evening (full moon so very bright) until 0600hrs when the duck boats started going by our anchorage. The sound of outboards and some wakes woke us up.

Renate had a Zoom call from 8:00 to 9:00am (Starlink is great) which went on time. Which is great because the duck hunters which were only about a km away starting shooting - it was like a war zone!

It was very warm and sunny most of the day so we opened up the enclosure to let the warm and fresh air in on our travels. Wonderful - in January no less. So, not Florida or the Bahamas, but still warm and way better than back home.

This place, Dowry Creek Marina is a wonderful little spot. The staff and boaters are very friendly - we had about 5 or 6 people, mostly boaters coming out to help us dock - a very warm and wonderful welcoming!

We heard a few bumps in the night - could it be? Nah no bumps and no alligators!

It was a nice day of travel yesterday - up to 17c and sunny for half the day. We had a stretch of about 6 miles crossing the Albemarle Sound in 15 to 18 kts from the SE that kicked up only 2 - 3 ft waves, but Windflyer is so heavily loaded she felt like a big tanker going through the water. It was similar once we got through the Alligator River Bridge, although the wind dropped to 11 kts.

We have only had to go through a handful of bridges on this journey and the bridge tenders have mostly been very accommodating and very polite. The best part is they call you "Captain" - are you kidding? But this is why i love the Americans So to all of our pals back in Bronte and to my children - it is "Captain Brian (or Dad) from now on!

Day two of our excellent, but abbreviated, adventure! Did 37 miles today, 50 miles done and 85 more to go to get to Belhaven.

So Windflyer is now an Icebreaker - and i don't mean the party variety. We left the dock at AYB this morning at 0900 and there was a thin layer of ice on the water - Holy Moly!! The dockmaster was razzing us yesterday for being so late in our southbound travels telling us they had ice the last few days - ya, right. OK - so he was right.

It was a calm and relatively mild day, but no sunshine so still kind of cold - we bundled up real good as a result so it was fine. Thankfully the temps are going up to 20c for the next few days so i think we are going to anchor out tomorrow evening and rely on the propane fireplace to keep us warm (and a very think duvet and blankets.

It was a pretty straightforward trip (this is the easy part of the ICW) today. There were some narrow channels with very skinny water on the edges but we have the Aquamaps App on an Ipad and have downloaded Bob's Tracks so it was pretty good. That and lots of well maintained navigational markers as well. And, surprisingly, a fair amount of southward bound traffic (all big powerboats but at least our two lonely sailboats weren't the only tardy travellers out here!).

And, finally, the icing on the cake - the Coinjock Marina Restaurant is awesome. This place is seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but it has an amazing restaurant and it was pretty full tonight - fabulous food and great service.