Once more, with feeling

We are anchored in the North River, between the North Carolina (Coinjock) cut and the Albemarle Sound (map).  We are not far from the spot where we anchored on our way north, but with less wind to contend with today, we stayed closer to the channel rather than heading for the eastern shore.  A sailboat that had been a few miles behind us decided this spot looked good, too, and so we have neighbors a few hundred yards away.

We awoke this morning to find a shrimper sharing the dock with us, which suggests that the Corps managed to get the lock open at the 4am low tide.  He had a Belhaven hailing port, and we thought it odd for him to be on the ICW in Great Bridge.  We shoved off right at 8am, to make the 8:30  opening at Centerville, which is closed from 6:30 to 8:30 for rush hour.


Vector at the Great Bridge Battlefield & Waterway Park.  That's a commercial shrimper behind us.

That put us there with four other boats; three sailboats under power, and the sportfisher Diversified, who had fueled with us at Top Rack.  They had spent the intervening time at Atlantic Yacht Basin, and we chatted with them briefly waiting for the bridge.  They are taking the same route as us, via Pamlico Sound, but, being much faster, expected to be through it today.

It was an odd feeling retracing our steps from yesterday morning, and I could not help but look over at George as we passed the same spot where she had her seizure yesterday.  She was content and oblivious to it all, and seems to be just fine after our big scare.

We cleared the bridge right behind Diversified and then set a slow pace to make the North Landing bridge, just four and a half miles away, an hour later, with the three sailboats behind us.  I had to station-keep for ten minutes at the bridge, and we left the sailboats behind shortly after the opening.  One of those boats is the one now anchored nearby, and we saw another continue on south.  I am guessing the third boat, shortest (and therefore slowest) of the lot, is at a marina in Coinjock tonight.

We had a good run today with no issues, although the water level in the canal, the North Landing River, and Currituck Sound was quite low, down I would guess nearly two feet, due to the wind direction.  We saw some depths near 7.5' mid-channel; we passed this along to the enormous towboat we passed at Coinjock.  He draws 8.5', but these tugs just power through the low spots with gobs of horsepower.

Having need neither of marina amenities nor a prime rib dinner, we continued past Coinjock another ten miles to anchor here, with good 3G coverage and a beautiful view.  We dropped the hook by 3pm, making a fairly long day for us but positioning us well for our crossing of the sounds tomorrow.  We are glad to finally have Virginia behind us, and we are looking forward to some open water tomorrow where less focused attention is required on the helm.