The Alligator-Pungo River canal and beyond

When we turned in last night it was clear, calm, the stars were out...peaceful. I was looking forward to a quiet night..and it was..till midnight. The wind started  howling, the rain pouring, and lightning danced in the clouds on the horizon. I know all this cause the noise woke me up and I hurried into the cockpit to check. The wind gusted to over 30 knots, but we weren't dragging...I thanked my new 55lb Rochna anchor, and went back to sleep.

We raised anchor the next morning at 7am and went directly into the Alligator-Pungo canal. It is 28 miles long, about 50 yards wide, lined with trees, sawgrass, cattails and such, well protected and no place to stop.
There were a lot of boats heading south, a very few heading north and we passed one good size tug (everyone scooted to the side as it came by

Looking ahead

looking ahead again

Looking back

Looking further back

The tug passing by..I'm giving it a wide berth 

We finally finished the canal and entered the Pungo River. It had been calm in the canal, protected by  the trees, but as soon as we hit the river we were exposed to the wind - 15 - 20, gusting to 25.

For the first 1/2 hour it was on the nose, but then we turned South and it was behind us, off our starboard quarter (to our right and behind) so we hoisted sails (I raised the Staysail, the others raised a reefed jib...they went faster but mine was easier to handle). 

We were moving along down the Pungo River till we came to the Pamlico Sound. By this time the wind had increased to 20-25 knots with gusts to 30. Spray was everywhere. Luckily we crossed it quickly, although I had one mishap.

About half way across I went forward in the cockpit (I was tethered to the Jackline I talked about earlier) to adjust the sail. I thought I had set the autopilot to hold course, but apparently I didn't..when I looked up after adjusting the sail I found we had spun around and I had no idea where I was heading...so I regained control and spun the boat around again, looking for landmarks. I soon recognized where I was and was quickly back on course

We were aiming for Goose Creek which would lead to a canal joining the Pamlico Sound to the Neuse River. The entrance to the Creek is a bit curvy, well marked by shoals to either side, and many calls for help were heard on the radio from boaters who had gone aground. 

Just as I entered the Creek to negotiate the turns the wind gusted to 32 knots and it was challenging to maintain course..but it worked out and I was soon in the Creek and now well protected by the surrounding trees..the wind dropped suddenly to 9 knots...nice!

We sailed for a bit more then dropped the sails as we entered the canal. The canal is short, with its main feature being the Hohucken Bridge 

Looking back at the Hohucken Bridge

Just past the bridge we passed the Mayo Brothers Fish Processing company with some largish fishing boats tied to their docks

fishing boats tied up alongside the Mayo Brothers plant

 After the canal we looked into Bear Creek with the thought of anchoring for the night, but it was not well protected and we decided to push on to the River Dunes Marina, reputed to be one of the nicer Marinas in the area.

We arrived at 5pm (10 hours of sailing since raising anchor) and happily the dock hands had stayed to help us in. We were quickly tied up, connected to electricity and had the heat pumps working..72 degrees is much nicer than 48 degrees!

I am writing this on Thursday morning, because I was just too tired to write it last night.
We are staying here today to rest up and do minor repairs and rest up.

The map of the voyage (to the top and right of the blog) is working great and shows our travels for the past 24 hours by default. when you open the map you can see more of the voyage by choosing the option you'd like