Craunological II -- 2024 Cruise

The woman who checked us in at the Cape Charles Yacht Center yesterday was very friendly and helpful. When she inquired as to our plans and our reply was that we had none other than working our way up the eastern shore, she suggested that we try visiting Onancock. This turned out to be excellent advice, as Onancock was a charming little town and the restaurant she recommended -- Mallard's at the Wharf -- was right next door to the marina and very good (making four in a row). It took us just three hours to make the 43-mile run between the two towns, so we had time for other activities.  Onancock is about five miles inland from the Chesapeake up Onancock Creek. For a town of just 1,200 people it had a lot of nice nice shops and restaurants, and some handsome old buildings. The healthy commercial environment would appear to be from a mix of tourist trade and wealthy retirees. The town marina was very nice, with friendly local kids, free laundry, clean showers, and a free loaner car, w...

The Intracoastal offers two routes for getting from the Albemarle River to the Elizabeth River (which passes Norfolk and empties into Hampton Roads). When we did the Intracoastal two years ago we took the route through the Dismal Swamp Canal, which was scenic and historic (opened in 1805), but also very slow (6 mph for 22 miles) and full of nasty biting flies. We decided to take the alternate route that uses a five-mile canal to connect the North River to Coinjock Bay (our marina last night was on this canal) and then takes Coinjock Bay and the North Landing River to get to an eight-mile canal connecting to the Elizabeth River. This route was faster and did not have biting flies, but it did have three lift or swing bridges that we had to wait for (although not too long) plus a single lock, which lowered us only a couple feet. The lock must compensate for tidal differences, as the Elizabeth River is clearly tidal while the North Landing River is barely so. These photos show the bridges ...

We had a lovely run today through various wilderness areas that cover the peninsula between the Pamlico and Albermarle Rivers. The Intracoastal runs in a 21-mile canal connecting the Pungo and Alligator Rivers with much of the way going through state or federal wildlife refuges and nature preserves. There was very little boat traffic and few signs of civilization for many miles. There are just two bridges in this stretch, both of which are high level. It's hard to convey this landscape with cellphone photos, but here's our attempt. It started to rain as we left  the canal and entered the Alligator River so we left the flybridge and rode in the cabin the rest of the day. The rain brought welcome relief from the heat and humidity. The ride out the Alligator River and then across Albemarle Sound was very choppy, just like we experienced two years ago. They are both very shallow and with a northeast wind the waves build and funnel.  The marina at Coinjock was very pleasant and the...

We weighed anchor and were underway before nine this morning, figuring we would have a long day to get to our targeted destination of Belhaven (110 miles away). We stayed there two years ago at a marina connected with an old mansion and liked it very much -- especially the free golf carts and washers and dryers. We called and the marina is still in business, with the same great amenities but with new owners who have added an on-site restaurant that gets good reviews. So we booked our reservation and got underway.  We ran into a challenge within our first hour -- the old Onslow Beach swing bridge within Camp Lejeune. The bridge is owned and operated by the Marine Corps but only opens on the hour and half-hour and is notoriously slow and unreliable. We didn't want to wait given the long day ahead of us and we made the 12-foot clearance by lowering the mast and Bimini top and ducking. We would have bumped our heads if we sat up straight.  We would have cut it very close on fuel i...

We were a bit late getting underway today, as we slept in after a long travel day, washed down the outside of the boat (amazing how dirty it gets sitting in an urban atmosphere) and got fuel. When we finally got underway just after eleven we had lots of fun boats to see heading down the Cape Fear River, starting with this 2018 Spanish reconstruction of the Nao Trinidad , Magellan's flagship for his 1519-22 voyage of circumnavigation. She was captured by the Portuguese in the Malukus and never made it back to Spain. Only one of Magellan's five ships returned, and he didn't make it either.  The Port of Wilmington was busy, with four ships docked. Meadway Shipping's Ability is a bulk carrier built in Japan in 2021. MSC Texas is one of over 800 cargo ships operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company, which is "the world's largest container shipping company both by fleet size and cargo capacity, controlling about 20% of the global container ship fleet" (quotin...

We had a four-and-a-half-hour run today to Wilmington, NC, which is about 14 miles north of the Intracoastal on the Cape Fear River. We didn't stop here two years ago because it was out of our way (and still is), but we needed to this year because it had the only marina we could find where we could dock for twelve days while we travel north to see the kids and grandkids. It turned out that we really enjoyed Wilmington and our run up the Cape Fear River.  We decided to spend the night at the Embassy Suites downtown right next door to the marina because it was very hot (high of 95) and our dock at the marina didn't have power so we would have had to run the generator all night for air conditioning. (The boat doesn't need AC power while we're gone because we will only be running the refrigerator, which is DC and can get all the current it needs from the boat's solar panel.) This turned out to be a very good decision, as the Embassy Suites had a nice restaurant overlook...