We almost always like to get an early start in the morning but we thought we couldn’t leave Portsmouth until 8:30 on Oct. 23 because the railroad bridge we had to pass under was on a restricted opening schedule. It wasn’t scheduled to open until 9:00 but because several boats would be gathered to pass under it at that time, we planned accordingly. As predicted there were at least 15 boats gathering for the bridge opening but as we approached the bridge, it was already open. Apparently the posted schedule did not correspond with reality. It took Jonny a little while to get over the fact that we could have left earlier!
About a mile after the bridge, all 15 boats gathered once again to pass through a downstream lock. It is very challenging for so many boats to stay steady in a narrow body of water while awaiting the opening of the lock. But eventually it opened and we were all able to pass through it together.
After that it was pretty smooth “sailing” for the rest of the way to Albermarle Bay. It’s been a long time since we were traveling with so many other boats. We have to be hyper vigilant especially as the faster power boats want to pass us. After awhile it was just the sail boats and us taking up the rear!
Most of the landscape we passed was very rural with wide open landscapes of gently swaying grasses and occasional hammocks.
Towards the end of our day we passed Coinjock Marina where we saw docked there most of the boats that had passed us earlier.
During the day, Lynn did some more detailed trip planning so we could determine when we would be in Jacksonville for doctors’ appointments, etc. We also needed to contact the moving company to schedule the dates that our furniture would arrive in Miami Beach. Back to the real world with its endless details and responsibilities!!
After a fairly long and uneventful travel day, we decided to select an anchorage that was not quite as far as the one we had originally identified. This one was in a very large and somewhat open part of the North River (we are now in North Carolina). It was protected from winds out of the northeast and was highly recommended by our research. When we arrived there were about three other boats but they were separated from each other by several hundred yards. We found a spot to anchor and had a very quiet and peaceful evening. We had delicious homemade salmon cakes for dinner and watched the last episode of Mad Men that we had purchased. We need to get our hands on Season 7 now that we are seriously “hooked!
You may notice that this blog is more focused on descriptive characteristics of our travels and doesn’t include all the data elements that are of particular interest to people who may want to replicate this journey. Suffice it to say, that Jonathan maintains detailed logs of our daily mileage, hours traveled, fuel consumption, latitude and longitude of marinas, moorings, anchorages, weather and sea conditions, repairs, oil changes, etc. and detailed expense reports.
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