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.

After spending 3 months on the hard at Bock Marine, Beaufort, NC we are finally back in the water and headed north... HURRAY!

New bottom paint and a lot of rust repair and a new paint job on SAILS... not total.. just the blue hull... weather did not really let us work as often as we would have liked so we did not complete the decks and house but got a good start on them... will try to finish up over the summer little by little... :)

We were put back in the water on Monday 4/16... spent the night on the docks at Bock Marine and departed at approximately 0920 and headed north on Core Creek toward the Neuse River. Winds were WNW 20-25 knots... not much of anything for waves until we reached Neuse River then we had 2-3 ft. waves initially and they slowly diminished as we approached opposite shoreline and Oriental, NC.

Heard a lot of boats on the VHF as we traveled today... only saw one other boat... a sailboat named GRACE that we passed in Core Creek. Was funny seeing another boat named GRACE as we had some new friends at BOCK that were on a sailboat named GRACE.

With the Neuse River a little rougher than we desired we opted to stop in Oriental, NC for the night. Needed water so rather than our normal docking at the free Oriental Town Dock we stopped at Whittaker Point Marina on Whittaker Creek. WE have stayed here in the past and they have a courteous car and very nice club house.

We called the marina about an hour out and reserved a slip and asked about the depth of the approach channel to the marina. Last time we were here the channel was a little skinny and with fresh bottom paint we did not want to be kissing the bottom with SAILS. They told us approach depth is 7 ft. and 8 ft. at the docks... Well, we found that this was not true, and we saw typically 5.5 ft. in the channel and about the same at the dock. SAILS never kissed the bottom luckily.

Another boat was not so lucky coming in the channel and went aground coming in... 40' sailboat that called TowBoatUS for assistance. Was not long after this that TowBoatUS came in towing the sailboat GRACE we had passed in Core Cree earlier.


We were docked at approximately 1130 at Whittaker Pointe Marina located 34°35°01.752'N 076°40.909'W. Traveled today for 2 hours and 10 minutes covering 13.7 nautical miles averaging 6.3 knots.