Annapolis

     We are in Annapolis, MD. We got here after spending several days in Solomons, MD. We had a dock thanks to Jack and Kathy Locher. We were far ahead of schedule and the winds were pretty high for several days so we stuck around and did some bike and dinghy touring. We also met up with our friends Mike and Carol there. They were on their migration back north to Meriden by car.

     We had an easy trip on the remainder of the ICW but Chesapeake Bay was a little rough, more each day until we decided to wait out the conditions in Solomons.

     Now we are on a Navy mooring in Weems Creek, West Annapolis. It's free, paid for by the taxpayers. Oh, wait, that means it's not free. They put them in to have a protected place to put their sailboats if there is a hurricane and locals and transients can use them if there is no storm approaching.

     We are waiting in Annapolis because Carol is off working in Detroit. Once these two weeks are over we will be back on the 'schedule' we were on last season. This will put us back in Connecticut by the second week of May. Sitting here lets the other snowbird boaters start catching up with us. A trickle are starting to show up in Annapolis.

     Next up: the C & D Canal, Delaware Bay, the coast of New Jersey, New York City and Long Island Sound. Delaware Bay has the potential to be nasty and going offshore also has the chance of being rough. Once underway we are about a week from home but we may have to wait for weather windows. Spring weather is unstable as I'm sure you know.

Coinjock

     We are now in Coinjock, NC. It's a little town that, for us, is two small marinas on the ICW. It's only 50 miles from the start of the ICW in Norfolk, VA.

     We have had a rough time since we left Charleston. The first day was fine but the passage up towards the NC-SC border was very slow because we were always against the current. It seems even though there wasn't much snow this winter the hills are draining the rain and snow falls into the waterways to the ocean. All that water was coming right at us.

     We had to stop short of our plans at a small marina in Myrtle Beach because it was getting dark AND we wanted to watch the UConn women's basketball Final Four game. The promised wi-fi at the marina was on the fritz so the owner drove us to a restaurant where we could watch the game on TV. Unfortunately we lost and the $120 we spent on the marina, food and cab home was wasted. Oh well. Next year.

     After that stop we went to a new-to-us anchorage a little west of Southport, NC. Pipeline Canal. Another long day to get there because of adverse current. Then we went up the Cape Fear River v-e-r-y slowly against the current and along the Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach areas. We ended up at Camp LeJeune very late in the evening. It was our longest passage time-wise on the ICW. Underway 12 hours. To make matters worse the Marines were up until 11pm flying their Osprey aircraft just a few hundred yards away from us practicing VTOL and air support. Very noisy! Can't complain though. The Marines own the anchorage and we civilians are lucky if and when we can use it. The long day made up most of the time lost the previous 2 days due to current.

     We had another decent day going past Morehead City and Beaufort (Bo-fert) to Cedar Creek. Things went downhill after that.

     The Neuse River was our next passage and it was awful. Strong wind and current on the nose. No sailing. A two hour passage took us more than five hours. Four miserable hours. This was followed by the Pungo River which was okay, but only by comparison. It was not quite miserable. Just rough. We ended up at Belhaven to buy some very expensive fuel. We kept tripping out the breakers on their fuel pump. Ended up burning out their electrical circuits so they loaned us a golf cart to drive more than a mile on main roads to a gas station. Scary. But the fuel was cheaper there.

     From Belhaven it wasn't too bad as we were mostly in canals, protected from winds and seas. Of course we managed to go aground three times. Once for me, twice for Carol. When we reached the Alligator River things went crazy! Extremely rough water and wind on the nose. For the first time ever  we turned around and headed BACK to shelter three hours before our normal anchoring time.

     In the morning it seemed better and we headed back to the open water portion of the Alligator River. It WAS better but not by much. Instead of 4 foot seas it was only 1-2 ft. After five hours we got to Albemarle Sound. We had hoped to be able to sail but the wind direction failed us again! Two hours of awful followed by one hour of not too awful. A ten hour day got us to here in Coinjock.

     We will cross into Virginia tomorrow and we'll see if we get back to Chesapeake Bay in the next two days. Better weather coming... or so they say.