A Deviation (also known as a Dullenkopf plan) Thursday-Monday 11/4-11/8

As mentioned earlier, we headed back to PA to pick up Dan's mom and drive her back down to River Dunes to await Jay and Pegg who will drive her the rest of the way to their home in St. Augustine, FL. The trip home was on a dreary and rainy Thursday, but the company of the McElderrys made the trip easier. We arrived at their house in Edgewater, MD to find their son and his girlfriend stocking the refrigerator with dinner and food for the weekend! A very welcome treat. We stayed to have dinner with John and Betty (thank you Paul and Jess) and headed out around 6:30 (hoping to miss some of the rush hour traffic - - - no such luck) The dreary conditions had followed us up the coast and had made a mess of rush hour and it continued until we were around Baltimore and well up into PA. We got home around 8:45 after having left the boat 12 hours before. The rest of the northern sojourn went easily and we got Dan's mom packed, vetted with the doctors, and ready to go early Sunday morning. We took a leisurely trip back south with many stops to keep old joints moving and bladders empty and also included a dinner with Amy Bliss in Washington, NC just before arriving back at River Dunes. We had signed up for a two bedroom cottage on the grounds and I spent the night there with Grandma Peddie. She was very concerned that Dan was suffering on the boat, but we finally convinced her that he had heat (there was a frost advisory for Sunday night) and would be very happy back on the boat!

Today was beautiful, sunny and warm, so we drove to Oriental and enjoyed a lunch on the deck of the Oriental Deli & Grill right along the waterfront and paid a visit to a marine consignment shop that had more junk than our basement! Jay and Pegg arrived around 4 - enough time to get the lay of the land before we all headed to the Club House for our "last supper" at River Dunes. Everyone heads out tomorrow morning - - - headed for Florida (and beyond). Some by boat and some by car. No contest about who will get there first, but WE'LL have more adventures to be sure!
~~~_/)~~~M&D

We return to River Dunes, near Oriental, NC, with better weather than when we left on Thursday!

Rainy day at River Dunes

No SPOT, no track, no photos. A very relaxing but dreary day. Everyone (Andiamo, Pekabu III, Sevilla and Surprise) all came aboard Brunelle for Bloody Marys at 11 and we spent at least two hours swapping stories and sharing ideas. Some people did laundry during the afternoon, but we are driving home tomorrow and will save ours until we get home! We feel like college kids coming home for the weekend with all our dirty stuff! We all also opted to dine at the clubhouse again. You can't beat good food at a reasonable price and all the atmosphere and camaraderie availble there! We even had live entertainment tonight. A guitar playing singer entertained us during dinner. The rental car is slated to arrive at 8 tomorrow morning, so we probably won't write again until we return Sunday night or Monday. Until then....~~~_/)~~~M&D

Belhaven to River Dunes

Our goal, when leaving the Chesapeake, was to reach Oriental (River Dunes in this case) by Nov. 4th so we could leave the boat and drive north with the McElderrys. They have a wedding to attend and we have a delivery to make. Dan's mom, (Grandma, Peddie, Thelora) is going to drive back here to NC with us in our car and Dan's brother, Jay, will drive up from FL with Pegg and they will drive her and the two cars back to St. Augustine. The boat will stay here at River Dunes until next Tuesday when we will continue our progress south.

We have been pushing pretty hard to accomplish that goal, and exceeded our expectations and arrived here on the 2nd. River Dunes is an amazing place, with all sorts of amenities, so we hope the two boats not abandoning ship to go north will enjoy their respite. The trip from Belhaven was quick and only a little rocky. The Neuse River chose to be a nuisance and we had a roly-poly ride. We were glad that the turn into River Dunes cut the ride toward Oriental short by several miles. We arrived around two and were welcomed warmly by JC the dockmaster, Ed and Connie Dooley (CCYC and C-400 friends) and Dick and Jean (?) good friends of the McElderrys. They immediately all told us about the nightly dinner served at the Club House - how good it was and also how reasonable, so we decided to try it out. Still no AT&T service, but they do have wifi. We resorted to signing up (and paying) for a Skype phone number: 717-739-5845. It will ring on our computer whenever we have signal. Hopefully that will make reaching us easier when we can't use cell phones. It is a local Spring Grove, PA number. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so we'll probably just hang out and relax!
~~~_/)~~~M&D

Dan prefers sunrises!


Saw our first shrimp/fishing boat working the river as we left Belhaven.





Catalina owners took over the Club House at River Dunes for dinner. DeFever 44 owners, Bob and Sue Hodes, who are traveling with Ed and Connie Dooley (C-400 Surprise) took the picture. We also met C-470, Onward's owner and crew (also pictured.) The McElderry's were dining with friends elsewhere.

Alligator River to Belhaven, NC

There were fewer miles planned for today, so we didn't head out until 8:30 am. Actually got to have a relaxed breakfast before leaving. Dan was up before dawn anyway and got a neat shot of a tug pushing a barge loaded with sand that slipped past our anchorage just as the sun broke the horizon. The ride down the canal was mostly uneventful, we did wander a little close to the shore at one point and ran aground. Luckily it was a "soft grounding" and we backed right off and were back in the "parade" heading south. The one excitement was the anticipation we and several other boats in radio range felt as we approached the Wilkerson Bridge. It is one of the two fixed
bridges on the ICW that doesn't meet the Army Corps of Engineers standards of 65'. It is listed at 64'. The VHF radio traffic was hot and heavy with everyone waiting for a report from someone who could tell us all just what the height of the bridge was today. Luckily it read 65' on the tidal boards at the base of the bridge and Andiamo made it through!
We rolled out the jib for the ride down the Pungo River and were debating whether to anchor in Pungo Creek or Pantego Creek. The wind is predicted to be NE 10-20 tomorrow. We decided that Pantego would provide more protection, so headed in there. Three of us anchored, but Pekabu III needed fuel and Belhaven's three marinas were dry, so they headed to Pungo Creek for fuel. They were back "in the fold" by 3:30.
We put the dinghy down, picked up Maureen and headed into town. We wandered a bit and found a few things we needed at the Ace Hardware store---some flashlight light bulbs and wi-fi. I was able to retrieve several emails on my iPhone, but didn't have time to send many. We also found an ice cream store and indulged. On our way back to the boat, we stopped at Andiamo and enjoyed a glass a wine while we borrowed John's Verizon phone that DID have signal to return some imortant missed calls. Tomorrow we head for River Dunes, just outside Oriental. We expect we'll have signal tomorrow.
~~~_/)~~~M&D

Early morning scene at the bend in the Alligator River where we spent the night. The sand barge was slow moving, but had enough of a head start that it had traversed the AR/PR Canal before we caught up with it.

Scenes from the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal. Not much shore activity, just lots of snowbirds heading south. We are seeing more this trip (a week later than 2 years ago) than last time... and we thought we were leaving late.

This time, we brought up the rear.

Coinjock, NC to Mile 100 in the Alligator River

Another early start, 7:30. We knew we might have a rough time crossing the Albemarle Sound with the predicted 10-20 (gusts to 30) kts winds, but we had "miles to go before (we) sleep." Andiamo took the lead inspite of the first thing we faced was a fixed bridge (vertical clearance 65'). Andiamo's mast, plus antenna is 64'! She hung back yesterday at each bridge and crawled through at idle, but felt a bit more confident today. As we entered Albemarle Sound, our suspicions were well founded. The winds were strong and the chop was sloppy, luckily the West wind allowed us to roll out the jib and that helped steady the ride.
We were across and zig zagged through the channel leading to the Alligator River Bridge by early afternoon. The wind abated a bit and gave us a pleasant reach down the river. We arrived at the turn in the river that leads to the Alligator River/Pungo River canal around 3:30 pm and chose to go around the bend before anchoring because the wind is predicted to strengthen and come out of the North by morning.
Dan and I spent quite a while working on setting our new riding sail. I think we have it worked out. We'll get a picture of it next time we set it. We were treated to another gorgeous sunset. Tomorrow should be an easier ride. I've been meaning to explain that some pictures are cut off by the format used to post them, if you click on the picture, the full image will appear.*
~~~_/)~~~M&D

*ed. note: Minor layout glitch that should be fixed now. My apologies to the photo editor (M) for truncating her work.

Andiamo takes the lead as we leave Midway Marina and Motel at Coinjock, NC. John and Betty are more confident about making it under the 65' vertical clearance fixed bridges that are all along the ICW.

Crossing Albemarle Sound was a little rough for the first half, but it quieted down and we were across in a little over an hour.

We were thankful to "Skipper Bob" for accurately describing the circuitous route we needed to take to enter the Alligator River on the other side of the AR Bridge, we watched one boat (probably reading an old chart) run hard aground. Once through the bridge we had a nice sail down the river.

Evening at the bend of the Alligator River. We were joined by other boats in our tiny anchorage for what turned out to be a quiet night.

Portsmouth to Coinjock via the VA Cut

Cool as it might have sounded to be traversing the Dismal Swamp over Halloween, we opted for the VA Cut because of depth. The morning departure was a respectable 8:30, a nice break to be able to see the sun before leaving, but it did make for a late arrival in Coinjock. Coinjock is about the only place to stop along the VA Cut and therefore the slips come at a premium. We had quite a time squeezing in to the Midway Marina & Motel docks shortly after 6 pm. Part of the reason for the late arrival was the timing or mis-timing at several bridges and at the Great Bridge Lock. We did a lot of hurry up and wait during the first half of the day. We then pushed on pretty rapidly to get in before dark. The day was brisk and the breeze was mostly on the nose, so no one even attempted a sail today.
We sent Pekabu III into two possible anchorages as he is the shoalest draft of any of us, and he touched both times, so we pressed on. We all gathered aboard Pekabu III after supper to celebrate Pete's birthday with a pumpkin cake that Maureen had baked. While we were gathered, we received a phone call from Mike (& Bev) Davis (Ayewash), our CCYC webmaster extrodinaire, who was at a CCYC dinner with Rich and Diane (Scimitar), Al and Vicky (Rhiannon) and Mike and Marie (Prego). If there was anyone else there, we couldn't tell as the volume was pretty loud. The news from there was that Mike and Marie had sailed a 400 and are seriously considering buying it. We look forward to welcoming them to the 400 family!
We are now in NC and it has taken me over an hour to load the pictures for this blog entry. (No 3G signal here.) Tomorrow night we hope to reach the beginning of the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal entrance, and we know there is probably still NO cell phone signal in that area. I'll write, but don't know when I'll be able to send it.
~~~_/)~~~M&D

Dan caught the early skyline this morning before we headed out of Portsmouth.

From morning until night, today was a parade. From the cityscape of Portsmouth to the edges of Currituck Sound.

The trip through the Great Bridge Lock took longer than expected because we had gone through a draw bridge three miles earlier with 15 sailboats and at least 10 powerboats and the majority had reached the lock before we did. No room for us. We had to wait for an hour for the next lift. It turned out to be only 4 inches or so. The #2 was showing when we entered and by the time Pekabu led the way out of the lock, the #2 was just barely covered. You can see the lock open in the first picture, closing in the next and then all of us nestled inside.

Just one more eagle shot. He looked pretty regal perched on that lonely tree.

Fishing Bay to Portsmouth (mile "0" of the ICW)

It's a good thing it was an early departure this morning, if anyone had had time to give it much thought, we might not have ventured out! The predicted NW winds of 10-20 kts with gusts to 30 was way too accurate today. Our course had us going 10 or 20 degrees away from dead down wind and the waves were often brutal. Certainly anything (or anyone) who wasn't securely stowed did some shifting today. In fact my favorite mug flew off the shelf and cracked! I'm hoping gorilla glue will put it back together. We had the first of the Good Soup that I had made and frozen before we left, because it was the first day when it was cool enough to warrant it. We were in shirt sleeves yesterday (and during our stay in Solomons) and had several layers on today. The ride was bumpy, but fast.
We made it into the calmer waters around Norfolk by 1 pm and arrived at Tidewater Marina at 3. We fueled up, filled water tanks and washed off the salt, took showers and installed our stern name banners for the long narrow trip down the ICW. We also got (I say we, but Dan did it all) two loads of laundry done, as we still had Dan's salty clothes from his untimely swim and they still hadn't really dried out.
At 6:15 we all headed up into Portsmouth to the Blue Water Seafood Grill for a celebratory dinner where more than half of us had the special prime rib! We added another couple for dinner. When Pete and Kathy pulled into their slip here at Tidewater, they were right next door to their marina neighbors from back at Castle Harbor Marina on Kent Island. So Bob and Irene, who are living on a Catalina 30 and heading to Florida for the winter joined us. We all were ready to turn in when we returned to the boat.
~~~_/)~~~~M&D

It was mighty rough as we passed Wolf Trap light on the way down the Bay.

We had a friendly visitor, this little sparrow, for about half and hour on our trip down the bay. I think he was looking for a place to rest. See if you can find all the spots he visited on board.

You don't get the idea of how much rolling and pitching we were doing from this picture of Sevilla, but I couldn't resist the sun on the water effect.

Every trip through the Portsmouth/Norfolk area brings wonderful sights, we especially like all the patterns the different loading systems make. We also got a kick out the the large ship pictured one up from the bottom on the left, its AIS statistics listed its length as 12 feet and its beam as 24 feet. It was one of the few military ships that did have any kind of AIS identification, surely for security reasons.

We celebrated successfully making it down to Mile Marker "0" of the ICW with a dinner out. Before leaving we all got a quick tutorial on how to use the new TriSquare eXRS radios we all have. We hope to be able to communicate easily without fighting for air time on Channel 68 or 72 on the VHF radio. Pete is the guru when it comes to these radios.