Day 272
Since Wednesday, 06/09/21, would be a shorter travel day, Legacy didn’t leave the transient wall at Alligator River Marina until 8:00 am, heading northward toward the famous Albemarle Sound, that opens directly into the Atlantic Ocean. The Albemarle Sound is large enough to become dicey, if crossing in windy or stormy weather. Thanks to the amazing weather-watching efforts of Captain Steve, our conditions that day were perfect. No wind was great for a smooth crossing, but also meant heat and humidity, with the promise of storms that afternoon. Our full intent was to make it across that humongous sound and into protected waters before those storms started popping up.
When crossing a sound as large as the Albemarle, the water is so big and wide, you can barely see any kind of shoreline, which always gives me that “lost at sea” feeling. Following the channel correctly, we would travel 20 miles in what felt like the absolute middle of the ocean. The only thing that kept us knowing we were not far out to sea, was the presence of many crab-pots for Steve to “cheerfully” dodge for most of the way. UGH! About halfway across, the wind increased enough that our ride went from smooth to rolly, since we had only one working stabilizer. (Long periods of rolling is hard on someone who is prone to seasickness…) The waters increased to 1 to 2-foot waves with some white-capping. Fortunately, we were cruising mostly with the wind, instead of against it or broadside to it, which kept bouncing to a minimum.
We left the Albemarle Sound when we entered into the North River. Passing Powell’s Point, Jarvisburg, Grandy, and Poplar Branch, NC, to our east as we headed into North River Game Land Dedicated Nature Preserve. Throughout the morning, we went from mostly clear and sunny skies to partly cloudy to completely overcast. While not ideal for picture-taking, the clouds did make for cooler cruising temperatures, which we welcomed. Traveling up the North River, it begins to narrow considerably, which means it’s protected from any winds, stopping most of Legacy’s rolling, for which I was ready! No houses populate the river banks along this stretch of the North River – only cypress and pine trees, fronted by lots of Spartina grass.
We continued along another man-made section of the AICW, passing underneath the NC Highway 158/Caratoke Highway bridge, just before reaching the marina in Coinjock, proper. We tied-up to the long transient wall at Coinjock Marina early, at 11:45 am. This really was a short travel day! Three efficient and welcoming dock-hands helped us tie Legacy up on her starboard side and get our power cord connected. We learned that the narrow, man-made portion of the AICW, where Coinjock Marina is located, is called the North Carolina Cut.
The Coinjock Marina Restaurant is well-known for it’s prime-rib steaks. In fact, we called ahead that morning to “reserve” Steve’s steak for dinner that night. The restaurant doesn’t take seating reservations, only meat reservations. 🙂 Steve got overly zealous and had me reserve a 32 oz steak for him, but wound up changing it to a 16 oz, once we got to our table. My captain ate his entire steak and said he thought it was good, but not “all that”, which didn’t surprise me, as he is rarely happy with the way any restaurant cooks his steaks. (He misses his Big Green Egg! 😉 ) While dining that evening, we ran into our friends, Scott and Ruby Johnson (aboard their sailboat, Nautical Dreamer) who we’d met down at Stock Island Marina Village in Key West this past winter. Naturally, their precious little dog, Bitsy, was with them. We all wished we’d known ahead of time that our two boats would be at Coinjock simultaneously, so we could’ve planned to enjoy dinner together. We never seem to have enough time to spend with the Stevens’, even though we really like them.
Position: N 36° 21.013, W 75° 56.870
Distance traveled: 37 SM
Total distance traveled: 3694 SM
Total marina nights: 249
Total nights at anchor: 22
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27