Dodging Cold Fronts

Day’s on cruise:  33

Today’s journey:  71.2 miles

Moving Time: 7 hrs, 57 mins

Total Odometer:  910 statute miles

We finally figured out that if we were going to wait for the high winds and cold fronts to go away, we might just as well buy a place in Morehead City.  So we developed a different strategy.  While some days it just blew like stink all day, other days it started out calm and got very windy in the afternoon.  So today we got up at 5:30 a.m. and left the dock at 6:30, at least an hour and a half earlier than our “normal’ start time. It was calm, and the water was flat as glass for the first few hours.

Our “sister ship” below passing us at high speed! Ha.

By 9 o’clock we were entering the Neuse River, sometimes referred to as the “Nice Neuse”, sometimes as the “Nasty Neuse”.  This river is 5-10 miles wide, and shallow, so if the wind comes up, it can get very rough.  Especially if the wind is coming up your transom or on the beam. This morning it was the Nice Neuse when we started out. But by the time we left it 20 miles later, it was well on its way to transforming into the Nasty Neuse.  All in all, our timing was excellent.

We left the Neuse and entered a canal for another 10 miles, then the Pamlico River. The scenery was pleasant if unexceptional.

This river was only 3-5 miles wide, and we traveled about 10 miles on it.  We had 3-foot seas which wouldn’t have been bad at all, except they were on our beam, so we wallowed the whole way.  We basically stayed in our seats the whole time given the rocking and rolling the boat was doing. We weren’t nervous, but it was uncomfortable.

 

About 2:30 p.m. we pulled into Belhaven, N. C. having covered 71 miles!  We set the anchor (on the first try, using our new and improved technique courtesy of Jim and Mark) and then promptly took a nap.  The weather tomorrow is expected to be a bit windier, but we’ll be traveling in more protected waters. The plan is to do another early start, but only go 50 miles.  That will stage us for the next day’s crossing, Friday, of the Albemarle Sound. This  body of water is reported to be more problematic than the Neuse, but Friday’s winds are currently forecast to be lower than today’s, so we hope if we get another early start, it will go smoothly.

But, plans are made in jello here on “Next To Me”.  Maybe we’ll follow this plan, maybe not.  If the weather is worse, maybe we’ll just stay put.  If it’s better, maybe we’ll go someplace else.