We stayed one day at Bellhaven and decided to head east down the Pundo River then the Pungo River Alligator River Canal. It was still a little windy so we prepped for a choppy day with the wind off the bow. Today we had “We Got This” as a buddy boat. I’ve been having issues with my dinghy bouncing in our wake at 9 knots of speed so “We Got This” is going to follow us and video my dinghy’s reaction to different speeds while on the davits.
The Pungo River and Alligator River Canal was narrow but fairly sheltered and we were able to test the dinghy’s stability. We discovered that at speeds from 9 knots to 13 knots the dinghy bounced around but once we got up on plane the dinghy was above the wake and rode fine. Big thanks to “We Got This” for the video.
There was some traffic on the canal but we were able to maintain a 9 knot speed and move to the side to allow faster boats to go by. After leaving the canal we entered the Alligator River passing a few good anchoring spots but with the wind we decided to head to the Alligator River Marina and set up for a run across the Albemarle Sound tomorrow. Heading north we hit a strong wind with gusts up 25 knots where we had to wait for the Alligator River Bridge opening on the half hour. It was a challenge to maintain position while waiting for the opening. While waiting we set up for our dockage at the Alligator River Marina which we new would be fun in this wind. After going through the bridge we steered west towards the marina with the wind blowing hard off our starboard beam making staying in the channel difficult. The channel was tight and my depth alarm let us know when we veered out of it. We were assigned a slip on the north side of the marina where we were looking for a port tie so we had to go bow in but the finger was fairly short so exiting the boat of the stern was a no go. We went into the slip “hot” with the wind at about a 45 degree angle off our starboard bow. There were no dock hands available so a friendly Canadien Looper came over to grab our lines. We had to climb over the bow rail to climb on and off the boat so my next amazon order will be for a step ladder. After tying up and settling in we enjoyed a well deserved docktail and met about seven other loopers waiting for fair weather to head north across the Albemarle. As marinas go I would not suggest staying at this marina unless you have a calm day.
The weather for tomorrow did not look good for a crossing so we went to bed early in hopes of getting up early and maybe beating the midday winds.
