Alligator River, Belhaven

17 - 19 Sep 2019

After two nights in Elizabeth City we were ready to move on, but the weather hadn't quite. We went anyway and it was pretty bouncy in the sound, with occasional 4 footers. One of these soaked me with precision, leaving Heather right next to me dry and laughing. When we anchored at the base of the Alligator River we tried to hide from the wind and waves behind a small point but it didn't buy us much. It was a rough night on the Alligator, with only enough cell service for a few texts to randomly squeeze through. To be fair, the wind made the water rough but also kept the bugs away, which had been just apocalyptic on our way up.

This being our first night at an anchorage we kept the electronics on all night and ready to go in case the anchor slipped. This included the VHF radio, which I turned down, but in the middle of the night we could still hear clearly enough. It was an even rougher night for anyone out on the Atlantic side, with the strong north wind piling up big waves on the gulfstream.

Here's one of the things you don't want to hear the Coast Guard say on the radio - well, do you have another life raft? Apparently a boat was taking on so much water they inflated their life raft, but the wind caught it and snatched it away. After I fell asleep Heather continued to listen. Apparently the only local helicopter the Coast Guard could raise in the storm was not equipped for Search and Rescue (with a winch and such). She didn't hear how it ended. Never be in the gulfstream in a wind with any north in it. The picture below of the Alligator was the next morning when it had calmed down some.

It was better once we were in the canal at the base of the Alligator, which in retrospect we should have anchored closer to. Being so narrow it was calm and the wind was welcome until we got to the other side of the canal at the Pungo river, which was wide enough for the wind to make it rougher.

The waves calmed down a little inside the breakwater at Belhaven, then a lot once we approached the dock with the wind blocking by the trees. We had just anchored out here on our way up which was apparently a mistake. This was the friendliest, nicest place ever. Like, Twilight Zone friendly. They had golf carts for dock cars, which we took almost two miles all the way to the grocery store.

We had dinner at the highly recommended art place. Again, suspiciously friendly people all around, including the owner, who came out to talk to us at length, and apologized with a delicious cheesecake desert when something on Heather's order actually turned out to be fine, but not exactly as she had requested. This then prompted a visit from the head chef, an interesting discussion of his background, and how tonight's menu had been arrived at.

Having expended most of our emotional and financial reserves at the art place the night before, the next night we dined at Farm Boys across the street, on picnic tables outside, munching on fairly tasty deep fried bits of something. We managed to get in a couple of loads of laundry at the marina's very nice (and free) laundromat. We seem to be doing more and more laundry as we find ourselves needing fewer and fewer clothes. I've apparently been wearing the same three pairs of shorts since March. I worked a little bit on the taxes. The wifi was so strong that that evening we actually watched a movie on Netflix. Like I said, suspiciously friendly and accommodating. But we'll be back.

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Coinjock, Elizabeth City

12 - 14  Sep 2019

We left Top Rack Marina in the morning, again having been the only boat there for the night. It was a pretty uneventful day getting down to Coinjock, but more weather was on the way, so we planned on staying two nights. We finally had the famous prime rib at the restaurant at the Coinjock marina. This is like Flintstones food! We got three meals for the both of us (or as they say in the South - bofus) out of this one prime rib, using the leftovers in grilled cheeses and omelets.

When the weather briefly broke we scooted down to Elizabeth City. It looked like the weather was going to keep us somewhere for a couple more days and there's not even a rental car place near Coinjock. It was a little bumpy once we were exposed to Albemarle Sound but then we scooted up the Pasquotank river, which became increasingly narrow so the water was calmer as we approached Elizabeth City.

The marina we were headed to in EC was really cheap. I assumed this was partially because the city maintains free docks for the folks passing through the Great Dismal Swamp, which is an alternate ditch route to Norfolk. Maybe that was partially true, but there were other things at work as well. 

We've been to some, shall we say, rustic marinas, but this was right up there. Not all the places we visit off the beaten path are going to be that impressive. This place was very cheap but for good reasons. The fixed wooden docks were ancient and decrepit, in keeping with most of the vessels tied up there. There was all sorts of wildlife on the dock, including some really big spiders, and this colorful little guy below, who's diet I'm hoping consists of said spiders.

The docks themselves were barely above the water line, but nonetheless the ramps to shore actually sloped down. When they talk about water levels rising 6 or 8 inches it doesn't seem like a lot, but it will eventually consume this place and a lot of others like it.

Some work had been done on the marina office and store, but the problem was it too was barely above the water level. We were told there was almost no tide here, and that appeared to be true, but a strong wind in the right direction blows water up the river, sometimes a foot or two, as it obviously had during Dorian. And this place was barely inches above the water in some spots. It was clearly going to eventually have to be torn down and completely redone, or just abandoned. We voted this marina to be most likely to be the actual site of a Scooby Doo mystery. It's only real competition was a marina we had been to on the west coast of Florida years ago. 

Not having a car again we walked to the place adjacent to the marina. A family at the next table said that the winds here during Dorian gusted to over 100 miles an hours, which explained some of the houses across the river without roofs. I'm glad we chickened out and stayed in Solomons for that.

I have discussed before about not swimming in marinas. To this marina's credit it actually had a sign. I'm hoping there is not a sad story behind it. I'm guessing old man Smithers put it up.

That weather did actually hit south of us, so we used the break to scoot up to Richmond to pick up the car. The most direct route had us going through one of the tunnels we had passed over in the boat. It was weird to approach the tunnel station at the end of the long causeway,  nothing but water to either side, and worse, ahead, then just drop down into the tunnel.

This gave us one more chance this year to go to Hot Chick for fried chicken, so we seized the day, or at least the chicken. We shuttled the car down to the Fayetteville airport, then trundled back to EC.

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Chesapeake Boat Basin, Cape Charles, then Norfolk

09 - 11 September 2019

After a solid week in Solomons avoiding Dorian and his friends we were finally ready to head south again. In the interim I had found a little marina for us to try called Chesapeake Boat Basin, up yet another Indian Creek, a couple of creeks down from our crab pot anchorage on the way up the bay. Heather had already had her fill of the local color on Tangier Island.

The marina manager recognized the area codes on our phones, and it turns out he used to live in the still tiny town of Paulden AZ, near Prescott where I grew up. We reminisced about our local US congressman Sam Steiger shooting the deadly mules he said had charged him after he entered their enclosure. Arizona still maintains its fine tradition of interesting political representation. When Paulden became too big (?!) he moved to St. George UT, then had ended up here, near where his wife was from. Small world.

We borrowed the dock car (van) and had dinner at a place in the little town up the road called NN Burger.  It's hard not to like a place that has Rum Runners on tap, and shakes that looked amazing, although I just didn't have the room to try one this time. The fries were this interesting cross between spiral cut potato chips but thicker, but then thinner than even Shake Shack shoestring fries, almost crispy but almost leathery (?) with some sort of sauce drizzled on top. Tastier than my description makes it seem (and franchises available!).

The next day we crossed the bay again to Cape Charles. We were told on the radio our slip number was on  the D dock, but that the docks were marked with semaphore flags. We had to quickly review at least the beginning of the alphabet.

We were tired, Cape Charles was small, and apparently a lot of it was closed on this day, so we had dinner at a little place just right off the docks. We'll explore more next time since this is a pretty convenient spot just north of Norfolk.

On the next day, south towards Norfolk we go, past the last of the lighthouses in the bay. Goodbye Chesapeake - see you next year!

As we were passing through Norfolk one of the ships in dry dock looked pretty impressive.

Railroad bridges were conspiring against us to keep us from getting to our marina before the deli closed. Most of the time this is what stress looks like on a boat (except for docking). Below are three railroad cars that were obviously urgently needed somewhere else.

The next RR bridge was paired with a highway bridge. You can see the containers on the RR cars just below the car bridge deck. Finally the train passed and both bridges opened. After pressing the engine and a hasty docking we got to the Top Rack marina deli just in time for a take out order. Crisis averted.

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Using Our Dorian Time In Solomons

02 - 08 September 2019

My very clever plan for avoiding moving the car down the east coast while we moved the boat south was just leaving it in the BWI parking lot. We would Uber and maybe rent a car or two as needed, but  it would be less hassle than we had on the way up. After we got to Brunswick we could rent one last car while preparing to leave the boat for the rest of the year, then Uber down to Jax, then fly to BWI for the boat show, picking up the car at the airport. 

My plan lasted less than 72 hours in the face of Dorian. We clearly had some time on our hands waiting for Dorian to do its thing and finally turn right out to sea. We were stuck in Solomons without a car for maybe a week, and that is about a week too long. We switched gears and one day we picked it up at the Baltimore airport and drove it down to Solomons. We had lunch at Newk's in Annapolis on the way. We used it for a few days, then shuttled it down to the Richmond airport. There we had lunch at a fried chicken place downtown called Hot Chick. Wow. Some of the best fried chicken ever, rivaling Hattie B's and Porch.

Back in Solomons we topped up the water tanks, and had to remove one of the solar panels again to make side access from the little finger pier at the fixed docks more practical. We'll be looking at that arch again at the boat show. Having the solar panels mounted up out of the way on the arch, plus another one between, was going to be nice.

I did some review for my upcoming meeting and a little bit of paperwork. We got a hotel one night to enjoy some of the niceties civilization has to offer while fringes of Dorian passed by. It drenched the area and blew some things around, but nothing substantial.

The boat engine had briefly stalled on our approach to the floating dock there in Solomons and I discovered that the auxiliary fuel pump appeared to have stopped working. By itself that should not have been the cause of the stall. It is after all, auxiliary. But it was very nice for fuel polishing, and almost essential for easily swapping out fuel filters, which we were now doing every other tank fill up. We probably need to get our tank professionally cleaned out. I ordered a highly rated pump, and picked up a spare at a local auto parts store that looked a lot like the old one.

Installing the ordered pump required me to lower myself down into the aft lazerette, not my favorite thing as its only opening at the top is small, and I am not. I tweaked my back a little bit doing the pump swap out but the new pump works great, although if the engine is off it sounds like an electric woodpecker. I'll work to be able to replace the next one (or the one after that) without having to get inside the lazerette again.

We did laundry again and some more provisioning, but even after doing our chores and such we still had some time on our hands, some of which I spent admiring the wildlife, acting casual (inside joke).

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Back to Solomons - Again

01 Sep 2019

When we were able to escape the muck in Tangier we headed out the inlet and into the bay again, resuming our favorite game, dodging container ships. Note that all the ships appear to be heading north. Between ships we started getting a cell signal and saw that hurricane Dorian had abandoned Alabama and was now heading up the very coast we were headed towards. After some quick negotiations we decided that was too much adventure for us, and we headed back north, again.

We got back to Solomons Island again, initially staying at the floating dock where the transient boats go. Well the ducks must have had a party on the dock after we went to sleep, because when we woke up they had left us this. I didn't realize ducks were so... prolific.

If Dorian approached closely we would be kicked off the floating dock, so we picked up a slip off one of the fixed docks one up from the restaurant, warping in again without any help from the shore. I have a few smudges to buff out off the sides, but it was better than bumping into another boat. Since we don't have a rub rail for this sort of thing I'm thinking of getting some of those flat fenders for the job. We settled in for several days while Dorian passed.

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Tangier Island

31 August 2019

On our way down the bay we saw this wreck near the eastern shore, perched on the one patch of skinny water in the area. I think we passed by too far to the west on our way up to see it. I can't decide if it was placed here intentionally, since it seems to have been used for target practice. If not, someone had a really bad day.

As we closed in on Tangier Island we started losing cell service, almost like one of those scary movies.

The dock is on an inlet that kind of divides the island, with water rushing back and forth with the tides, which were slightly offset on either side of the island. The marina is Park’s Marina, and 88 year old Mr. Park was there on the dock giving instructions. I’m sure each of us was thinking “what a weird accent”, and that combined with our hearing there was not nearly as much communicating as talking. But an interesting guy. His daughter is the 65 year old doctor running the clinic on the island.

We were supposed to be on the bulkhead, but the folks already there decided to stay another day. The old wooden docks had tiny finger piers so we had to back in so we could get off the boat. Heather backed us up to the slip and started the turn in, but again the current was really pushing us sideways so we really had to warp us in with quite a bit of reverse engine power. We made it in without contacting the sailboats on either side so that’s a win.

We started to take a walk in search of dinner. The plaque below was on the way into "town". It took us a while before we saw a car rather than golf carts, and later we saw one truck. Other than that it was walking and golf carts to get around the island.

We had run slightly aground in the mud approaching the dock, and once in we had 0.4 to 0.2 feet and falling, until we were definitely solidly nestled in the mud. Half tide rising wasn’t until 10:30 in the morning, so we weren’t going to be getting an early start. But the weather was beautiful and cool. There was a nice breeze but the gusts were getting well into the teens, which is nice enough sitting at the dock, but could become trouble when we are trying to leave. We never did get a cell signal while on the island, and I'm not sure Mr. Park has heard of wifi, so we had a little bit of a news blackout on the weather front for 12-16 hours.

Next stop is Cape Charles, another place on the Eastern shore that we haven’t been to before. Plan A is to stay two days so we don’t go through Norfolk on the holiday weekend, but hurricane Dorian may put enough pressure on us to go for it anyway.

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Back to Solomons

30 August 2019

Okay, so Heather got a few more shots of our last sunrise in Annapolis.

We fueled up a little farther up the creek, then passed by the marina one last time.

One last shot of the Bay Bridge, which again looks to me like three or four bridges cobbled together.

In Solomons they had greeting jellyfish this time, zillions of them. This one was about three feet long.

Again, travel days on a sailboat are more work than it seems like they should be, and we hadn't travelled on the boat in two months. By the time we were arranged on the floating dock in Solomons after completing a pumpout, walking the boat back toward the end of the dock, and hooking up the electrical, I was overheated and exhausted. I laid down for a few minutes and didn’t get up for 12 hours.

The departure from Solomons was a little smoother, after a quick shower on board and another bag of ice H got from the office. We cruised down the Pax River and into the bay, making arrangements to go to a slip on Tangier Island instead of anchoring in Little Bay again, dodging crab pots. Little did we know (foreshadowing...).

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