With all the closures we were unsure of the state of ramps and whether we would get pulled over on the way there. Some people think sailing is unessential, those people are nihilists. So we got some groceries and loaded up. I recently pulled the axle, cleaned it up and replaced the bearings on the trailer, so I was feeling good about that aspect. However the ole' 4-cylinder Highlander has a squeak coming from somewhere on the belt system. The only thing that hasn't been replaced is the water pump, so I was worried it might blow up on us. Nonetheless we took off on a Thursday morning at 6am. Immediately upon getting in the car, it started to pour rain. I was less than a mile from the house when I remembered I hadn't tied down the front hatch, so I pulled into a neighborhood. It started to hail and lightening. WTF?! A thunderstorm at 6am with hail in April?! I ran out and tied it down and we were on our way. Keeping with tradition, it seemed some evil force was trying to ruin my fun.
We made it to the Alligator River Marina without incident and the radar showed we only had another 20 mins of rain until the front pushed through. I had put in here previously on our Alligator River cruise. We loaded up and I started the engine. It was running rough even though I rebuilt the carb just a month ago and it had been running like a top. It was having a hard time at idle. I think laying on it's side got oil in the idler jet. I knew we were in for some heavy wind, so I really didn't like the idea of an unreliable engine. Luckily it slowly got better throughout the trip and whatever was blocking the jet worked it's way through.
Our plan was to try to sail to Elizabeth City on Thursday, then back out the Pasquotank River and up the North River on Friday. Saturday we would sail to Manteo, then return on Sunday to the marina. That didn't happen. The forecast was for building winds on Thursday from West at 8-10mph in the morning rotating to NW at 15-25mph in the afternoon. Friday was forecast for 20-25mph from the NW gusts into the 30s. Well, the forecast was mostly right. We set sail out of Alligator river with the main and working jib up in a hurry, hoping to get across the sound before things picked up. The Albemarle Sound is 12 miles wide between the Alligator and Pasquotank Rivers, so we had our work cut out for us. The wind built and we dropped the jib pretty quickly. Once it got to about 15 sustained, we started getting gusts into the 20s so we reefed the main. We felt in control. We could see the opposite shore now and in fact it had become bigger than the one we left so we knew we were more than half way. I have iSailor on my ipad, but my bluetooth GPS is dead, so we were using it as just a chart. Once we got within a few miles of the Pasquotank River, the seas and wind really started to build. We were in sustained 20mph with gusts touching 30 and the waves were only 1-2ft with occasional 3 footers. That is big in this boat though and combine with ferocious gusts, we really wanted to get into the river and the lee of the western shore. I had sailed high of the river mouth all morning and that paid off as we got closer we were able to turn downwind more and take the increasing wind on our quarter, spilling wind out the top.
Once we finally made it into the mouth of the river, I handed the tiller over to my son and went below to get my first beer. I hadn't even gotten the cooler open when he said "Dad! There is a big gust coming." He is a good sailor, so I was a little annoyed thinking he was just nervous, but I popped my head out of the companionway to see what was going on. About 150ft forward was a carpet of black water over the entire river. This was more than just a single gust. I jumped up in time to take the tiller before it hit. Sustained winds of at least 25mph and gusts well into the 30s. I had the main sail flat as board but all I could do was pinch as tightly as I could to keep from being overpowered but not luffing wildly. We did this for about 10 mins thinking it would die down. It didn't. We started getting water over the bow, soaked and cold, we decided to find a place to hide out. I dropped the main and fired up the motor so we could pull into a creek. We anchored both bow and stern and dried off. After a few hours it calmed a bit so we pulled anchor and motored around to another larger creek that would provide better protection. Needless to say, Elizabeth City was not going to happen that day.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/n_cdDni4ksg[/youtube]
The next morning the wind had really died down. We got up early and motored up to Elizabeth City, passing the massive blimp hanger on the western shore. There is also a Coast Guard station on that shore that provided some entertainment. We had to motor because the wind was on the nose as we headed north, not bad at about 8-10mph. EC is supposed to be very welcoming to cruisers. They have several free slips anyone can use for 48 hours. We found the slips, but they were closed because of Covid. That sucked as we knew that Friday's weather was going to be the most severe, so we had hoped to just tie up there and let it blow through. We had had enough of 25+mph winds. We tied off to the dock that serves the public boat ramp and considered our options.
The night before we exhausted our propane cooking dinner; I guess I brought an almost empty bottle. Therefore we really needed to find some propane if we wanted to eat dinner. We decided to walk around EC and try to stumble on a grocery store. It is not a big place, but our meanderings didn't pay out, so I googled grocery stores and found there was only one, 1.5 miles away from where we were. We hiked over there and luckily found propane. We ended up walking about 5 miles, but that was fine since we had been cooped up on the boat. We took a nap and then talked about where we wanted to sleep that night. We were illegal on this dock, but the wind had picked up dramatically as forecast and was blowing in the 20s. I found a county park on google maps down river that looked like it would have good protection and the satellite view showed what looked like a dock and pier. We decided to make a run for it with the engine idling and bare poles. Here is that scene:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/JURo9rpXCOw[/youtube]
We found the park in about 1.5 hrs and it was exceptional. Perfectly protected and an Osprey nest across the creek. We tried to crab off the pier but without luck. There was a fire pit as well, so we made a nice fire and listened to Willie Nelson as the sun went down.
Saturday morning we slept late pulling anchor about 9am after a lazy breakfast. We motored out into the Pasquotank to find some wind. It was pretty flat steady at about 5mph. It was pretty slow going so we put up the new 150% Genoa I have only used a little. I poled the Genoa out and put a preventer on the main and that helped, but the wind died and came back intermittently.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/SKAbBofk46M[/youtube]
As we reached the mouth of the river moving into the sound, the wind died. Then it came from literally every quarter, most strongly from the SE, exact opposite of the morning and impeding our need to go due South. It was frustrating, so we ate lunch then turned on the iron Ginny to go deeper into the sound to find wind. I was a little worried because we had motored so much; we didn't have enough gas to motor all the way across the sound. After about a mile though, we found the forecasted 15mph W-NW winds. It actually kicked up into the 20s at first and we dropped the jib, having some PTSD from the days before. We really didn't want a repeat of the Thursday sail. But the wind steadied to the 15 forecast and not too many gusts. This boat loves that wind and the angle on the wind allowed me to head a little higher than the channel to adjust for slipping and the gains I had lost in the SE wind earlier. This worked great because things picked up some close to shore and we were able to run downwind to the channel entrance like on Thursday.
We had visions of exploring the Alligator river south of the bridge, but with our gas situation and already having sailed for about 5 hours, the last 2 pretty intensely, we decided to take an easier path and anchored across the Alligator in South Lake. I had run out of beer, so broke out the emergency bourbon rations. We found what was likely an illegal boat ramp on the east side of the bay we anchored in and took a short walk to stretch our legs. Weather was nice.
Sunday morning I woke up feeling terrible. I assumed I had drank too much whiskey, but the headache lasted 4 days and I had a fever and stomach issues. The whole family got it, so I am assuming it was probably the mild version of Covid I keep hearing about. Maybe not, who knows. Anyway, we had a pleasant sail back to the marina and the drive back went without incident, which is how I like all my trailering experiences. The Pasquotank and Alligator are the inland route for the Intracoastal Waterway, but we saw hardly any boats. The Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds remain my favorite place to sail and I can't recommend them enough. I think summer is the best time though as the winds this time were so challenging as to be stressful. Would much prefer 10-12 with 80 degree weather.
. I just had rotator cuff surgery so I’m missing the SJ real bad right now so it’s refreshing to hear some SJ sailing. I’ll be watching the vids tonight. I wish there were more SJ vids out there so thanks for uploading! Good to hear you didn’t get the rona too bad.