Alligator-Pungo Canal

During the night, the wind on the Alligator river had stayed out of the South, keeping us extremely well sheltered.  But about 6:30 am, it turned around to NNE, which is completely unprotected.  It was amazing how fast the waves started to build, and by 7:30 there were 1 ft waves.  This made anchor retrieval that much more fun, as we had deployed an anchor trip line and float (for the first time) and I had no idea of the proper way to retrieve it.  But the Alligator river is notorious for logs and snags, so I felt it was time to learn!  Better that than having to abandon a snagged anchor!

Every time we got within reach of the float, there wasn't enough slack in the trip line to get it aboard, and when we got farther up on the anchor to provide that slack, the float sailed off to the side, out of reach!  In the end, the anchor came up easily without needing the trip line, and I just hauled it back in, so I still have no idea of the proper technique!

Once on our way, we quickly entered the 26 mile lomg Alligator-Pungo canal, connecting the two rivers.  It's a seties of narrow, arrow-straight segments that go on for miles and miles.

Alligator-Pungo Canal

We has the wind and current with us, so we flew along at 6.6 kts the entire way. Fortunately, we did not encounter any tugs with giant barges along the way!

Once on the Pungo river, we were able to motor sail with the jib for a while, before reaching our day's destination of Belhaven, NC (Mile Marker 135), where we anchored for the night.

Tomorrow: Oriental, NC