Heading North Again

6/22/14.  We left New Bern early Sunday morning heading back north.  The weather was overcast but not much chop on the Nuese, but by the time we came out of Goose Creek and into the Pamlico River the wind began to pick up and rain looked imminent.  By the time we entered the mouth of the Pungo River the rain started along with more wind, making the going a little rough.  We thought about heading for Belhaven, but by the time we got to the turnoff to go there the rain and subsided and the chop was endurable, so we plugged on ahead.  As we approached the Alligator-Pungo Canal the chop lessened and I was able get up some speed.  As I passed a red marker to my right I suddenly realized I was in only 2 1/2 feet of water!  Since Coast2Coast draws very little water I had not hit bottom yet, but knew if I went off plane the motor would hit bottom, so I turned hard to starboard and was quickly back in the channel without mishap.  After studying the chart a little more closely I found that the markers suddenly switch sides as you get into the canal, so beware!

The Alligator-Pungo canal is very wide, so I could maintain speed there, but when approaching another boat I would come off plane to give a slow pass to avoid waking them.  At one point as I slowed to pass an approaching sail boat I saw the other captain gesturing at me, shrugging his shoulders, and pointing behind me.  I couldn't see what he was pointing at but as we passed I realized this was the same boat with whom we had spent the night at the Dismal Swamp Canal Visitor Center several nights before.  While we had been to New Bern stayed a couple of nights, and were headed back, they were still heading home to Oriental, NC, which is also on the Nuese River.  I guess the captain was asking why we were going the wrong way!  Small world again!

After transiting the canal we found the Alligator River to be quite choppy, so decided we would not even attempt the Albemarle Sound until early the next morning.  We put into the Alligator River Marina for the night with plans to get a very early start the next morning, hopefully to cross the Albemarle without the wind, which had gotten more and more brisk as the day went on.  We had heard that they wind was usually calm early in the morning and we didn't want a repeat on our harrowing southbound crossing.