We departed this morning at 0800 following three sailboats that had been at the marina... all heading out toward the Alligator River Bridge. Once through the bridge one of the sailboats "Scrimshaw" hailed us and invited us to be part of their VHF channel as we traveled south... we were running faster that they were but did add channel 68 to our VHF scan channels and exchanged a few conversations with them along the way. They were very chatty on the VHF between themselves... other sailboat was "Tortuga".


We did pass a few other sailboats that were headed south and a few power boats passed us... just before the A & P Canal we met a tug and barge and an Army tug.

We had a beautiful sunny day with no wind.... flat clam all day long.

We arrived to Dowry Creek Marina at approximately 1415 and were securely docked at 1425. Our position tonight is N35°31.966', W076°32.121'. We traveled today for 6 hours and 15 minutes covering 42.8 nautical miles averaging 6.8 knots.

The two sailboat "Scrimshaw" and "Tortuga" both arrived to Dowry Creek Marina about an hour after we arrived.

Up bright and early at 0730 to check weather forecast... do we stay another day or go. Weather was much better but not great...The sun was out and winds were down to 15 to 20 knots. Forecast for Albemarle Sound was 1-2 ft seas with 10-15 knot NW winds in the morning. Afternoon was forecast winds switching to westerly and 10-15 knots... seas 1-2 feet. We decided to wait till later morning to depart and let the winds and seas calm down. All six boats that had been docked at Coinjock Marina across from us had already left.

We were underway at 1015 and winds were under 10 knots... where we left the dock there were virtually no waves... just a small swell created from opposing wind and current... The current was ripping... maybe 2 knots... made getting away from the dock interesting.

Passed a couple of sailboats as we headed south out of the North River... other than that we saw no other boats... heard a few ahead of on the VHF.

We exited the North River and headed out into the Albemarle Sound a little after noon and seas were about 2 feet and wind was still blowing out of the NW... it had increased back to 15-20 knots... Seas progressively increased as we headed across the Albemarle to the Alligator River. We had 3-4 seas as we turned into the Alligator River. So much for the forecast

We arrived to Alligator Marina at approximately 1350 and were securely docked at 1400. Our position tonight is N35°54.322', W076°01.718'. We traveled today for 4 hours and 45 minutes covering 31.5 nautical miles averaging 6.6 knots.

We had rain and 30 to 50 knot winds overnight... weather slightly improved today but still having 20 to 30 knot north winds. With the Albemarle Sound just ahead of us, we decided to stay here in Coinjock another day. The Albemarle Sound can be very nasty... no need to venture out into what would be short 2-4 foot seas.