Day 228-237
We left Belhaven, NC after several "weather' days and began our trek up the Alligator-Pungo Canal to the Alligator River. Our trip up the Alligator River was smooth after we began heading North. About halfway up the river, we received a radio call from "Sea to See" who had been with us at Belhaven for several days. They said that since the trip up the river was so smooth they were contemplating crossing the Albemarle Sound instead of stopping at the Alligator River Marina as they and we had planned. We were thinking the same thing and both of us decided to poke our noses out into the sound and decide based upon the conditions we found.
We reached the Albermarle Sound first and cleared the shallows at the mouth of the Alligator River with some rocking and rolling with waves up to 4 feet. By the time we cleared the shallow areas, reduced speed, and found our proper heading, the waves had subsided to 1-2 feet so we decided the passage was doable without too much discomfort and continued across the sound.
"Sea to See" poked her nose out, saw white caps and turned around. They were going on a slightly different track towards Elizabeth City while we were heading up the North River to Coinjock. Their track would have put the waves more on their beam while we were quartering into them, so their ride would have been significantly more uncomfortable than ours, so they were wise to turn back.
We made it across the sound OK and spent the night at the Coinjock Marina in Coinjock, NC. The Coinjock Marina is basically a sea wall, a small ship's store, fuel pumps, and a restaurant on a canal. The place was full! We walked around and found a boat named "Reflection". It turned out to be the authors of one of the first books we had read about the Great Loop, "Reflection on America's Great Loop" We had a nice chat and found out that they were headed to the AGLCA Rendezvous in Norfolk, as were we. They were scheduled to give one of the presentations there.
The next day we traveled to Norfolk for the rendezvous but had to stay across the river in Portsmouth for two days because the rendezvous marina in Norfolk was full until Sunday.
On Sunday, we moved to the Waterside Marina in Norfolk. The rendezvous started on Monday and lasted until Thursday. There were 260 Loopers and prospective Loopers in attendance for 4 days of camaraderie and education on the portions of the loop to come. We decided to stay in Norfolk until Saturday due to weather.
On Saturday, we moved the boat from Norfolk to the York River Yacht Haven and were finally able to get home from there.
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