Pungo River, NC

Day 4: Coinjock, NC to Pungo River, NC

Sunday evening Steve Angst joined us in Coinjock for as much of the trip as his remaining vacation time would allow. We hoped to be able to head outside at Morehead City and having a third crew member would be a big help. However, our first task was to move Sarah from Coinjock to Beaufort, NC - a trip that would take at least two days. We departed Coinjock around 7:30 AM on Monday, October 11 heading for Albemarle Sound.

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We entered the sound late in the morning with a 15 kt tail wind from the north. Any kind of wind can produce a steep uncomfortable chop on Albemarle Sound and this day was no exception. We were lucky that the wind was behind us and the seas were mostly going our way. If we had faced a similar strength of wind from the south we would have anchored short of the sound (or stayed in Coinjock) and waited for more favorable winds before crossing.

During the crossing we passed a few sailboats and were passed ourselves by a number of power boats.

We attempted to motor sail most of the distance across the sound, but the wind went dead on our stern and the sail provided little push. Eventually we furled the sail and completed the crossing under engine power alone.

On the other side of the sound we entered the Alligator River. At the mouth of the river is the Alligator River Highway Bridge, the last swing bridge until Beaufort. The traffic on the bridge appeared to be light and the bridge tender opened the bridge as we approached.

Although it was a sunny and pleasant day, the strong north wind did bring low temperatures for the entire day.

From the Alligator River we entered the Alligator-Pungo Canal. This is a man-made waterway that connects the Alligator and Pungo Rivers. There are few places to anchor on the 24 nm canal, and no comfortable anchorages. We were pushing the available day light to complete the canal transit before sunset.

Fortunately we were able to maintain decent speed in the canal and completed the transit slightly before sunset. We turned off the ICW into the headwaters of the Pungo River and joined a few other boats in the anchorage for the night (red arrow on the chart at the bottom of this page).

By that time the sun was disappearing behind the horizon.

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