Day 110 - Coinjock is the Place to Be

We had one more day in North Carolina before crossing into Virginia and 2 more days until we would fly home again.  While each day is long and full, it is always hard to believe it is time to go home again.  I was up early and happy to see the sun out today.  The Captain pulled away from the dock at 8:25 am, carefully avoiding the shallow water, and took us to the fuel dock.  Fuel prices are a little higher here, as is almost everything, because it has to be shipped in.  At 8:55 am we turned into Silver Lake and the channel out.  We noticed that the Coast Guard had boarded a boat that had left the marina just before us.  We breezed by and soon encountered a ferry boat headed right at us.  The channel is not very wide so it is a bit intimidating to see a huge boat coming at you.  Captain Randy had it under control and we made the pass with no problem.

 

We had to run up the middle of the Pamlico Sound due to, of course, the shallow water near land.  That did not make me happy as I could not see much, if anything, on shore.  There was hardly a boat out besides the car ferries.  The water was not bad to start with, but it grew worse the farther north we went.  Still, it was nothing we had not encountered often on Lake Michigan, just a little bumpy.   Those pesky crab pots started showing up again and the captain had to zig zag between them.  We reached the Croaton Sound at noon, with Roanoke Island on the starboard and the mainland on the port.   At Manseto we went under the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge and the William D. Umstead Memorial Bridge.

 

 

 

The water widened again at the Albemarle Sound, with Nag’s Head and Kitty Hawk (Outer Banks) far to the starboard.  In addition to the crab pots, there were wood stakes that rose 3-4 feet out of the water to dodge!  We assumed they marked fish traps, but are not sure.  We saw a few more boats here, including a large Riviera with Arneson Surface Drives and it created a rooster tail of water behind it as it sped by.

 

We rejoined the ICW doing the eastern “Virginia Cut” waterway on the North River rather than the “Dismal Swamp” on the Alligator River (both are considered part of the ICW).  The shore is beach, marsh, and low trees, with a few homes sprinkled in.  Coinjock Marina, our destination, consists of a long face dock on the river.  We were tucked in close to the boats ahead and behind by 2:25 pm.  Boats continued to arrive all afternoon until the entire dock was full with only 2-3 feet between each one.  Hank Evans, from Queen Ann’s Revenge, introduced himself to us as he noticed me reading the Waterway Guide.  He and his wife Ann are cruising editors for the Atlantic ICW section of the Guide.  Our new Minnesota friends from Southport came in on Dollinger around 5:30. 

 

 

The Coinjock Marina restaurant has a captive customer base as there is nothing else close to walk to.  After relaxing on the back of the boat, we went up for dinner and the place was packed, inside and out.  Captain Randy gained some local knowledge about the bridges and locks ahead of us the next day on the way to Norfolk.