We had a longer day planned today with our destination to be the Belhaven area. We would have to cross the Albemarle Sound and the forecast was for east winds 10-15 knots with 2 foot seas in the morning. Afternoon winds changing to southeast 10-15 knots with gusts to 25 knots. So, the plan was to leave early and get across the Albemarle before things escalated.

We were up at 0500 to be ready to leave at 0600. That went as planned and we got away at 0600 on the nose... still very very dark and we also had rain... very nice. We got to the Albemarle and winds were already blowing at 20 knots plus out of the east. This gave a following sea and the waves were at the beginning of the sound about 2 feet... two hours later when we reached the far side at the mouth of the Alligator river seas had built to 3 - 4 feet with some random larger waves. It was not a bad ride but it was definitely not what we had hoped for.

Soon as we turned into the Alligator River things calmed down immediately and we had 1 foot seas for the length of the Alligator River. The A & P Canal being so narrow we had only a ripple from the winds disturbing the otherwise flat clam water.

Current today was either no help or against us... saw our speeds drop below 6 knot in the A & P Canal but otherwise it was around 6.5 knots.

We did have quite a bit of boat traffic... most of which seemed like all men crews that were most likely on a delivery... but it was nice to see other boats moving... not just us.

We arrived to end of the A & P Canal at 1630 and decided to call it day and pulled out of the ICW to the north to a spot we have anchored many times in the past. We were securely anchored at 1645. Our location for the night N35°33.544’, W076°28.103’. We traveled today for 10 hours and 45 minutes covering 68.7 nautical miles averaging 6.4 knots.