Enjoyed two long travel days, leaving Bonner Bay to arrive at ANOTHER marsh-lined creek, just north of Coinjock, NC, about 3 miles into Virginia.
Sunday we enjoyed the sights along the Pungo and Alligator Rivers. All new scenery, as we’d bypassed this section in favor of a side trip to Roanoke Island in the fall.  The 26 mile long Pungo-Alligator Canal is a man-made stretch that connects the two rivers and allows the ICW to continue. This one, is similar to others in that it is straight with a lovely collection of dead heads (tree stumps) lining both sides.

Cruiser's version of Dead Heads

One has the feeling that all is well as long as there are none that you can’t see, hidden just below the water’s surface. Staying in the channel is the name of the game.
We carefully approached a fixed bridge that wasn’t built to 65′- must have been an off day for the architect? It is stated at 64′, but with certain high winds and tides the clearance can go as low as 62′!  We need 63′: 60′ of boat and mast plus 3 feet of wind instruments, VHF and lightning system tube. The height board showed a tad over 64′- phew- and as usual I don’t look up. No point; it always looks like we will hit and I don’t need to race my heart unnecessarily!
Didn’t have much boat company; saw about 6 the entire day. So yes, we are ahead of the pack.  Fall is a more condensed timetable than the Spring schedule; even the peak crowd wouldn’t be overwhelming.
Monday we transited Albemarle Sound, known for its foggy and often rough waters. Say what? Was a clear, calm crossing for Ortolan. This contrasted with the rainy, foggy one we had on the trip south, but only for a short while. The nice thing is that the sound is deep enough not to require a dredged channel, so you can take up whatever space you’d like and not have to worry. Our hopes for sailing across were dashed by the too light winds, although I took advantage of our perfect angle to the sun!   A nice warm 80 degree day; amazing.
Throughout the day the Osprey nest sightings continued and you’d think that we had short-term memory loss the way we got so excited coming upon each one. The camera got a good work-out.

A nice home in a good neighborhood

Most nests were very tall and birds could remain well hidden. A couple were only 3-4″ high and I suspected they were under construction given an Osprey was nearby.
Blackwater Creek was our selected home for the night. It had plenty of depth, except at the entrance. We’d read that when southerly winds blew, the depth would increase, but northerly winds could make the entrance closer to 5 feet. Not a problem for us, but even still I was happy to have southerly winds and we crossed the entrance with 6.4 feet under us. I did make note that when we left the next morning with less wind, that the depth was 5 ½ feet.

Floating above the marsh grass

Was eerie to see tugs heading down the waterway, appearing to float on the marsh grasses, their barges barely in sight above the grass tops.

Monday’s forecast bode fairly well for a day of ICW sailing: ENE  10-20. Add to that the fact of NO opening bridges until just south of Titusville, 67 miles north, and the sailing option was lookin’ good.  First couple hours with main and jib were iffy as the wind could not decide on a direction and we kept altering course to boot. Around 10 we raised the screacher to take advantage of 90 degrees on a starboard tack and moved along with little sail adjustment, averaging 6.5 kts but seeing an occasional 8kts-plus.  Guess we are ahead of peak northbound snowbirds as we didn’t see more than a half-dozen boats headed north, and we passed two.
When you’re enjoying a good sail… keep going! We made such good time, that we scratched our planned stop and picked a spot off the ICW farther up which would take us thru the bridge that would need to open for us. My mistake- didn’t notice that it would be closed from 3:30- 5pm and we’d arrive by 4:15!  Slow down maneuvers were employed- took down screecher and main, jib sailing at 3kts to kill time. Tacked around near the bridge until 5pm when it nicely opened on time. Yes, I called first- always a good idea.
We continue to marvel at the great weather we have had for our entire trip. Very few days contained any rain at all and I can’t recall more than one “rainy day”. Windy at times, yes. Fog a few times and oh that squall when we left Miami, but that’s it.  163 days of excellent weather.  Ended our day with the GPS trip odometer at 3,300 miles (since leaving Deep River Oct 10). Today was 76 miles in nearly 11 hours, 8 spent in fuel saver mode!

Umm, maybe this one would suit us better.

Tuesday took us through Mosquito Lagoon, a bucolic stretch east of the Indian River (of grapefruit fame). What didn’t we see? Boats, of all shapes and sizes, waterside RV parks, wading birds, Roseate Spoonbills (only saw them once before), dolphins (yawn), manatees, etc. Very much an “old Florida” feel. I did catch one dolphin swimming at the bow of a cabin cruiser headed south; was a neat sight since I was in the galley and saw it from water level. How’s the view from your galley?
The downside was that we were motoring with the jib, wind too light to sail and the ICW was changing direction way too often.  Sunny and 78 by the time we got to Daytona Beach area around 4pm. A lovely and easy travel day. But wait until you see where we spent the night… another day where we went further than expected. This time we had to.