Sunday 3-22-09
Most things in life seem to average out. That holds true for boating conditions and the weather. This day’s weather and conditions paid us back in spades for what we endured yesterday. The early morning dawned with the perfect beauty of a religious experience – It was still, clear and cold with dollops of low fog on some of the distant creeks across the Pungo River from the marina. We left the dock at 07:00 along with s/v LADY ITCHNOR. We traveled together to the entrance of the Alligator – Pungo Canal and continued through the 20 mile waterway as we chatted on the radio about Eagle sightings and other things related to the shore line as we passed. We had breakfast on the bridge and because the conditions were so easy and comfortable, decided to make it a long day and push on to Coinjock, NC about 80 miles from Dowry Creek. The 16 mile open water of Albemarle Sound must be crossed and it has the reputation of being very nasty with any amount of westerly or easterly winds, so today’s conditions would be perfect. The Albemarle was as smooth as a farm pond and we just took turns sitting at the helm as the miles clicked down.
The, almost boring, time in transit today allowed us to discuss things like – what we should do about dinner – a) thaw something to be grilled, or b) re-heat some chili that Polly had made a while back. We went with c) – fried seafood at the nice little restaurant located at Coinjock Marina. We arrived at the marina about 4:00 PM and relaxed for a hour before using the showers and heading to the restaurant which was literally 25 feet from the side of our boat. The food was great and plentiful enough to provide tomorrow’s lunch, even though the service a bit slow, but then we didn’t have any place we had to be except the bunk on the boat, so we just enjoyed watching some tables near us. One in particular appeared to be a Sunday outing for a couple with 3 young and very well behaved kids along with grandma and grandpa. We were so impressed with the patience of the children that Polly stopped by the table to compliment the parents. She is nice that way, and it put a big smile on the adult’s faces as the children looked puzzled about what the strange lady said to dad and mom.
Tomorrow we expect to arrive in Portsmouth, VA – almost home in our beloved Chesapeake Bay.

Barge / Tug passing us while we were tied up at Coinjock