Adventures (and Misadventures) of Elliott and Mary

Issue 13 -Back up North (brrrrr!), Wilmington, NC up to DC

In  issue number 12  we showed you the route down to Wilmington. Now we had to turn around and go back up the ICW.

We left Wilmington Marine Center Friday, Feb 25 at 7:30 am. It was around 40 degrees when we left and it didn't feel much warmer all day long. The day started out calm but the winds picked up to about 10-15 later in the day (and you can guess where they came from - on the nose).
We pulled into Mile Hammock (an anchorage just off New River) about 3:30-4:00. When we stopped here in Oct.  there were something like 12 or 13 other boats in the anchorage with us. Today we were alone (that might say something about our early snowbird cruising north).

We discovered a minor problem.. the anchor windlass wouldn't work!!

I said, 'Drop it anyway'.

She said 'And if I do, how are YOU going to get it up?'

Let's see now, 85' of chain does weigh a bunch!  So I said,' Good point'. Long story short, I used another anchor with mostly rope and we did fine. Remember the temperature when we left - 40 F. Well, it didn't take very much thought to run the generator all night (to power the reverse cycle A/C-Heaters).

Around noon the next day as we were traveling up Bogue Sound Mary, while shivering slightly, says 'wouldn't hot chili for lunch taste great'. Since I didn't discourage her, she went below and started the gen to fire up the stove. A little while later she comes up and tells me 'the generator quit!' And the chili is only luke-warm.

Well, all is not lost. We had already planned for marina stops for the next few nights anyway so the thought of cold anchorages and  a bad windlass didn't even tempt us to pass up shore power. We'll get to Portsmouth soon and I'll see what our mechanical problems are then.

Oriental, NC, a marina stop for us off the Neuse River, was a delightful place. Once again, it was very obvious that no one else was headed north.

For that matter, almost no one except the fishermen were on the water at all. We enjoyed Oriental so much I was tempted to stay a while but a massive winter storm was bearing down on the east coast and another was soon behind it. While we were too far south for snow, the winds were going to be a problem. I wanted to get up within striking distance of a good weather window across Albemarle Sound, a day and a half away.

Guess how many transient boats were in Dowry Creek Marina  the next afternoon?? Yep!! You're right...zero is the anser. But it was a great marina. The sky was mostly clear and it blew like stink! We  watched a group of otters cavort in the harbor, took the courtesy car into nearby Belhaven, NC to stock up at the grocery, and just relaxed. I fixed the generator; its raw water pump had eaten the impeller. I ordered three new ones over the internet. The windlass problem was not quite as simple. Water had leaked down from the deck mounted foot switch over the winter and had destroyed the 150 amp circuit breaker. I'll fix that in Portsmouth. We were here four days waiting for reasonable winds on the Sound, which is about 50 miles up the Pungo-Alligator canal and Alligator River. We had decided to bypass the Alligator River Marina because of the water depth in its entrance (the winds had dropped the water level enough that I didn't want to chance it) and make a long run all the way to Coinjock. This gave us an 80-85 mile day (at 9.5 mph).

The Albemarle crossing was somewhat unpleasent. 15-18 beam seas. We had to head up a little for a while and were glad when we got across. The resturant at Coinjock not only was open but they had all-you-can-eat oysters in addition to the 32 oz. prime rib . The prime rib fed us for 3 days. The oysters were wonderful.

Except for the bridge timings the trip up to Portsmouth was fine. It took us 3 hours to get about 10 miles up from Great Bridge to Portsmouth because   we couldn't get from one bridge opening (timed, of course) to the next before the second closed for another hour. I think the opening times will be more frequent once the season starts.

The visit in Portsmouth was enjoyable, as usual. Mary flew off to Texas for a wild weekend with her girls.

She left just in time.

I do have to say that the next day the sun was out and the snow had gone away (except in the shade).
 
 

Spring did come (or at least begin while we were there).
 

Up to DC

We did an 85 mile day to Sandy Point just inside the Greater Wicomico and then the next day rounded Smith's point into the Potomac for a 90 mile trip up to within 45 miles of DC. The next day we got in just before noon.
 
 
 
 

We got situated at the Capital Yacht Club and went for a walk around the Tidal Basin. The Cherry Blossums were at their PEAK!!

I won't expand on our visit any more. Suffice it to say we had a great time as usual. Washington, DC is one of our favorite places.

We headed back down thre Potomac toward Solomons, Md where we started getting everything ready for out journey north.  I'll cover that in a later missive.

Till Later!!
 
 

The Captain and Mary