I overslept this morning and did not get away from the dock at 0630 as we had planned... 0630 departure put us in sync with the first bridge of the day... "Bridges from Hell Day".

We need to arrive at the North Landing Bridge at the half hour to make a slow transit to the next bridge... Centerville Bridge and the make the Great Bridge Bridge on the top of the hour... which is the only time it opens... so we arrived at 1100 instead of 1030 at the North Landing Bridge... then 1 hour to the Centerville Bridge at 5 knots to make it's opening at 1200... but then we would have to wait until 0100 for the Great Bridge Bridge opening... I hate to lose that time so I made an attempt to make the 5 nm between north Landing and Centerville in 30 minutes to make the original 1130 opening we had planned for the day... before I overslept.

I pushed SAILS to the limit running over 8 knots... water depth slowing us down as we fought our own bow wake off the bottom... an approaching tug and barge we had to slow down for to pass... it was close... we arrived 33 minutes later and the bridge tender was nice and opened for us... that would of really sucked had the bridge tender been a pain and not opened with us arriving 3 minutes late for the 1130 opening.... but we made it and we also made the 1200 instead of the 0100 Great Bridge Bridge opening.

We transited the Great Bridge Lock with four other boats... a swift trawler of some make and two sailboats... no problems in the lock today.

Was a smooth trip the rest of day... well other than waves... it did get a little bumpy near Hampton as we headed out into the Chesapeake Bay... but once around the point we were in the lee of the wind and it settled down and we had a nice ride the rest of the way to our destination for the day... Salt Pond, Hampton, VA.

We were docked at approximately 1600 at our friends Wayne and Judy McPhail's dock in the Salt Pond Hampton, VA located at 37°03.544'N, 076°17.051'W. Traveled today for 9 hours and 5 minutes covering 57.8 nautical miles averaging 6.4 knots.

We departed bright and early to day at 0700 and headed north on the ICW... two of least favorite areas were ahead of today... A & P Canal and the Alligator River... nothing to really see for hours... long straight runs... I find them rather boring and today was not much different. We did pass two tug and barges in the A & P Canal. Two that we saw almost daily pass Bock Marine while we were on the hard. Was interesting to see how far they actually traveled daily.

Forecast today was for WNW winds 15-20 knots with gusts to 25 knots... switching to NW in the afternoon... most of the day we had the NW 15 to 20 knot winds. Winds had very little effect on the seas... fairly on the A & P Canal and the Alligator River... the Albemarle Sound was slightly different... with 2 to 3 ft. seas on the bow... very short and choppy... was not the best conditions but nothing horrible.

Once across the Albemarle Sound we entered the North River and had two boats pass us... a larger work boat of some type and a Krogen Express Cruiser. Both gave us the typical pass... large waves... no real effect but just not courteous boaters.

About 3 miles out from our destination... Coinjock Marina... the NW winds suddenly shifted to the ENE and 30-35 knots... directly on our beam... pushed right out of the channel... the winds were like this for about 10 to 15 minutes and then they shifted back to the NW... temperature dropped 10 degrees and it was quite chilly.

We were docked at approximately 1730 at Coinjock Marina located at 36°20.863'N 075°56.972'W. Traveled today for 10 hours and 30 minutes covering 72.52 nautical miles averaging 6.9 knots.

Was awake and ready to go at 0600... however, my crew was still sleeping soundly... decided not to wake them... took a nice photo of the eastern sky over the marina.

Crew was wake moving about at around 0830... we departed the marina at 0925 and headed out onto the Neuse River. Forecast was for 15-20 knots winds and 1-2 ft. seas... we had nothing like that... wind was almost dead and seas were flat calm... sun was out all day... was a great day of cruising.

leaving from Oriental heading north sort of puts you in a situation where you cruise 12 hours of 6 hours... 12 hour day gets you to Alligator River Marina and the 6 hour day gets you as far as Belhaven area. Not a lot of choices for stopping between the two... we have anchored in a few spots between the two but none were that great that you want to anchor there again... so we opted for the short 6 hours day and stopped ion Belhaven, NC.

We were docked at approximately 1540 at Dowry Creek Marina on the Pungo River located at 35°31.964'N 076°32.134'W. Traveled today for 6 hours and 15 minutes covering 42.8 nautical miles averaging 6.9 knots.

After arriving we found that Dowry Creek Marina has new owners since our last visit in December 2017... seems like a very nice family owned marina again.