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May 8-12, 2014  Days 11-15  Heading North!

Midway Marina
Coinjock, NC

Thursday was a sunny, calm travel day.  We did have bridges to time and two of them only open on the hour.  We made the 0900 Wrightsville Beach opening, the 10:00 Figure Eight Island Bridge opening, and the 12:00 Surf City Bridge opening.  Our intended destination was to anchor at Mile Hammock.  This changed when we heard the Onslow Bridge was under repair. The anchorage is not far from the bridge and we were concerned that it would be full. So, we opted to stay at Swan Point Marina in Sneads Ferry.  The water at the dock was shallow so we moved to the outer face dock and did fine.

We left at 0730 Friday and were happy to see that the Onslow Bridge was functioning.  We continued on the ICW to Swansboro, NC where we docked at Casper’s Marina.  Our Looper friends, Tom & Melesia are Harbor Hosts there. We joined them at their beautiful home for a shared dinner with other Loopers (In My Element, Adironack, and Kajen) and had a fabulous evening. Melesia also took Joyce to the grocery store to do provisioning.

We left there Saturday, went through Bogue Sound, passed Morehead City, and entered the Neuse River which had a tolerable chop of 1 ½ -2 feet.  We anchored in Hoboken Cut after a nine hour ride.  We had a calm night, and although Bill saw lightning to the west of us, it never reached us.

Sunday, Mother’s Day, took us to another anchorage in the Alligator River.  We traveled on the Pamlico River, the Pungo River, the Alligator River/Pungo River Cut, and then the Alligator River. Much of it is very rural and unfortunately our AT&T cell phone service did not work, so Joyce did not get to talk to our son or daughter for Mother’s Day!  We did have a calm anchorage and were joined by several sailboats.

We left the anchorage on Monday but had to wait for the fog to lift. At 0825 we decided we could manage and headed out. We reached the Alligator River Bridge at 10:35, and then entered the Albemarle Sound at 11:10. What a delight to find it calm! By 1:15 we were in the North River.  We arrived at the Midway Marina at 3:05 and tied up on their long face dock.  The restaurant is closed on Monday, so we will have dinner on board.  We are already planning our trip tomorrow – we have to time more bridges, go through a lock, stop for fuel, and navigate the busy industrial and military waters at Portsmouth and Norfolk. We hope to stop in Portsmouth and tie up at their free wall.