Elizabeth City NC (2014-04-05)

N36° 18.189', W76° 12.979'

Tonight we are tied up at one of the free docks in Elizabeth City.


We had an enjoyable couple of days visiting Oriental again.  It is a very peaceful town, with friendly people smiling and saying hi to everyone.  We would have like to stay longer, but our 48 hours at the dock were up, and we still had miles to put under the keel.
 
We left Oriental yesterday morning with the intended destination of Belhaven or alternatively an anchorage on the Pungo River somewhere.  The winds were up a bit more than we expected, which caused rough water.

We had some big water to deal with yesterday; the Neuse River, Bay River, Pamlico River and the Pungo River.  Through most of the day we had somewhere around 1' waves, with most of it a following or quarter sea.

We made it to the top of the Pungo River just before 1500 and decided to push through on the Pungo River - Alligator River canal.  We knew the canal would be sheltered and calm, and then we'd anchor on the Alligator River right after the canal.  This also allowed us to make the trip to Elizabeth City a two day trip instead of a three.

It was just past 1800 by the time we got the anchor down and set on the Alligator River near Tuckahoe Point.  It was a long day, but thanks to DST and the later sunsets, we were able to make it with more than an hour and a half before sunset.  We settled in to a nice supper and relaxed with a bit of TV.

Today we had the rest of the Alligator River and the Albermarle Sound to deal with.  The forecasts for both were okay, with a moderate chop on the Alligator River, and 1' waves on the Albermarle.  While the forecast for the Alligator was pretty close, NOAA's dart didn't even hit the board for the Albermarle Sound.

NOAA, you lie...

 As we cleared the Alligator River and entered the sound, the waves picked up, but they still weren't too bad.  As we got further out though, the waves got bigger and bigger until we found ourselves pounding into 3-4' waves.

*NOT* a 1' wave...

Thankfully we've had this boat in conditions like this before, and while it's not very enjoyable for the crew, we have confidence that the boat can easily handle it.  Knowing that we'd only be in this for about an hour we pressed on.  When we started getting within 1-2 miles of the northern shore the waves started to decrease, and by the time we made the turn to enter the Pasquotank River it was much more comfortable, less than 1'.

We had planned on either staying on the bulkhead in Elizabeth City, or in one of the free slips, but the waves were rolling in from the east and would have made for a very bumpy night.  We decided to press on through the bridge and seek a spot to anchor in a sheltered spot on the river.

Just north of the bridge is another set of free docks, hosted at the Mid-Atlantic Christian University.  There was only one boat at these docks, and this was a much more sheltered spot with pretty much no waves.  We made a quick decision to give it a try here.  These docks are a bit smaller than the docks south of the bridge, with most of the slips being able to handle a maximum of an 11' beam.  There was no way we could fit our 12' beam into those, but there are two outside slips, so we grabbed the southern one.  There was a pretty strong crosswind blowing, so it took a few tries to get the boat lined up with the dock, and in the end we had to use a mid-line to spring ourselves into position.  At 34' we're a bit big for this dock, but we managed to get the boat securely tied up.

Elizabeth City free docks in front of MACU

We are now a day or two away from Norfolk, depending on how we transit the Dismal Swamp canal.  At Norfolk we will have reached the northern end of the AICW, and our travels would then continue on the Chesapeake Bay.

Unfortunately, the weather on the Chesapeake is pretty crappy right now, with no good weather window for the duration of the current forecasts, which go out to next Thursday.  Every day is either 2-3' or 3-4' waves.  So, no point in rushing up to Norfolk.  We'll spend another day in Elizabeth City before heading up to enter the Dismal Swamp canal.  We'll probably make the transit two days, staying at either the visitor center, or at a dock just inside the canal at the north lock.  After that we'll head back to the free dock in Norfolk that we stayed at on our southbound trip, and we'll see what the weather looks like by then.  Once the conditions on the Chesapeake improve we'll head out, and will probably take advantage of the increased daylight hours to put in some longer days, trying to make the northbound transit in less days than we did heading south.