At Our Destination
Yesterday  afternoon, we reached Put In Creek, a little bay a mile or two from immerman Marine in Cardinal, Virginia. We left Coinjock, after a walk early in the morning copromised by a million deer flies. There were 2 bridges we needed to have open, and they only open on the hour or half hour, so trying to time things was a bit of a challenge. The two bridges were 5 miles apart, so if I put the throttle to wide open, can just make the half hour timing, and it is good for the engine to run hard periodically. But, there was a submerged vetically floating log in the middle of the channel we heard clunk. There was no way to know it was there and it was floating. No damage that we are aware of but the boat will be hauled in a few days and can be inspected. There is a free dock between the Great Lock Bridge and the Great Lock, 12 miles before Norfolk. We tied up there early afternoon, stayed the night and took a hike. There were geese everywhere, on the water and off, so had to watch where we stepped. Yesterday moved on to the Chesapeake and we are now only a mile or two from Zimmerman Marine, in a pretty litle inlet called Put In Creek, a mile south of Cardinal. There is a boat ramp nearby and will likely get the bikes out and go to town just to see what's there. We really don't need anything and will be leaving the boat on Wednesday. The next 3 days will be filled with boat chores for the most part, and trying to figure out how to get to the Richmond airport.

Not sure what these are yet, on a tree near Coinjock

Geese at the Great Lock free dock

Video of a brge passing us from our frree dock site at the lock

Keeping America safe again

Making China great again

Fort Wool, Civil war era

There are navy ships everywhere

The USS Comfort

The view this morning on Put In Creek

Heading for Coinjock
After leaving Oriental, we crossed Pamlico Sound and the "cut" up the Neuse River, across more of the Pamlico Sound, but it skirts the shallows and a lot of the big water. Our route took us up a river that looked a lot like home, pines and less inhabited areas, andd very pretty. We anchored just south of Belhaven. Initially we considered the free dock at Belhaven, but decided we would prefer to anchor out and found a beautiful private bay in Slade Creek. I changed the racor filter, changed the oil and filter on the main engine, inspected the raw water impeller at engine hours 5097. Yesterday we went through the 20 miles or so of the Alligator/Pungo Canal which looked a lot like the Dead River, but a bit bigger. Lots of swamp. Exiting the canal, the wind picked up out of the east, the temp dropped, but we plowed on. Thjis part of the trip has lousy cell phone signal, so no internet, and despite the choppy conditions, moved on to the south side of Ablemarle Sound. The Alligator Bridge normally opens on demand, but due to construction, is opening only sporadically. A sail boat ahead of us probably waited for half an hour, but our wait was more like 10 minutes. Made camp last night in the lee of Durant Island with the winds out of the NNE. This morning crossed Ablemarle Sound without issue although it was pretty choppy. Currently at anchor for lunch 10 miles south of Coinjock where we are going this afternoon for a night at their marina along the narrow part of the waterway. Their restaurant has a reputation for having a really good prime rib which we are going to eat, and give the boat a good washing. We are only 90 miles from our destination at Zimmerman Marine and I think the plan is to keep on to the Chesapeake, find a protected spot for the last 3-4 nights and do remaining boat maintenance to leave it for the summer. We need to work on logistics of getting to the Richmond airport and not sure if Uber is available from Zimmerman's. We will figure it out.
Engine hours 5108.2
Genset hours 5597.3

Durant Island this morning

Albemarle Sound this am

Ablemarle Sound sunset from Durant Island

a bridge coming out of the swamp on the Alligator Pungo canal

Alligator Pungo canal

looks like the Dead River

Tug pushing a barge on the Pungo River

Sunrise on Slade Creek

huge mushrooms in Oriental

Shrimpers at the free dock in Oriental

Pamlico Sound

Home in Oriental

Oriental NC
Here's an update on the last couple of days. After ew left Lollipop Bay we moved on to Swansboro. Nice town but a medicre meal was had. I have developed a penchant for shrimo and grits. The Ice House was only mediocre. Our anchorage was fine but the sailboat next to us thought we were too close. So we moved over a bit. At the closest we were at least 3 boat lengths from them, but I moved. I have learned that sailboaters tend to be pretty snarky and like to take up the whole waterway. We moved on to Beaufort NC and for the first time since leaving Brunswick, picked up a slip in a marina. Beaufort Yacht Basin. It is new, only 2 years old nd clean, extremely friendly, but a little difficult to get into navigationally. The directions we got were shaky, Robert told us to keep the R/G buoy to our right on our portside as we approached, which made no sense, but we did get in, approaching there was a sunken sailboat which gave me great confidence. Anyway, a nice marina on a Sunday with Robert manning the docks. I swear to God, he was Festus Hagen from Gunsmoke re-incarnated. But a really nice man. We had electrical issues though. The 50 amp service there kept tripping the GFI when I put our battery charger on. As long as I left the charger off, things were fine, the air conditioning worked well, but if I tried to put the inverter/charger on it would trip. This morning I ran the generator for a half hour to charge the battery bank so we could make coffee. I suspect their is a minor "voltage leak" on the boat responsible. I will figure it out. We toured the maritime museum in Beaufort and it was amazing, I need to go back. Found a good brewpub for an IPA on a hot afternoon. Today we moved on to Oriental NC. Stopped at Sea Gate Marina for fuel and put on 500 gallons. It was a little marina just off the ICW but had amazing prices on diesel so we loaded up. Shouldn't have to fuel up again until next spring. The lady there I swear was Festus's mother. We are in the southern part of the country and everyone is friendly, but what characters we have run in to. This afternoon we pulled into a free dock in Oriental. Pretty quiet town, with a maritime history but their museum was closed. They had a nice marine supply store though and a marine consignment shop we went into, but left. Cindy was afraid she was going to inhale something that might grow in her lungs. it was pretty bad. We are at a free dock and it stipulates no generators, so I asked our dock neighbors if they minded if I ran it for an hour anyway to charge the batteries (I want to watch the hockey game and have coffee in the morning). They were on a sailing catamaran and both pretty looped, but clearly had no objection, so will charge things up afer a bit. This is a beautiful part of the world though. At times the shoreline and trees look like home. Tomorrow hopefully another free dock in Belhaven. Our days are pretty relaxed and we are way ahead of schedule.
Engine Hours 5091.0  (oil/filter change soon)
Genset Hours 5593.4

A neat pink house we passed

Amazing history

This is Revolutionary War vintage

Loos a little like home

A neat shrimp boat we passed

Lollipop Bay, NC
I've been a little delinquent in the blog th past several days. We have moed well into North Carolina. Came up the Waccamaw River, past Myrtle Beach. Pulled oveer a couple of hours on Wednesday to shop at Walmart via the free dock in North Myrtle Beach and got some more beer as well. It has been hot. We then moved on to the Little River inlet anchorage for a couple of nights. It is just inside the inlet and gave us good access to the ocean for an outside cruise yesterday. I worked Thursday from that anchorage, last day of ever working from the boat I hope. Yesterday went outside for 35 miles and avoided some shallows, then up the Cape Fear River and back into the ICW. Currently we are in Lollipop Bay, a really nice spot near Wrightsville Beach, which is crazy with small boaters tubing, waterskiing, or just putting. This spot is away from the commercial stuff though so quiter. The rest of the trip will be pretty relaxing. We are in good shape to get the boat where it needs to be by a week from Sunday or Monday. Today plan to go to Swansboro and a seafood restaurant this evening.

The originl "spooky old tree"

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We are just south of Camp Lejeune, neat aircraft

This was an optical illusion on a calm morning on the Wacccamaw. The floats are not suspended

Little River Beach walk

Another dredge at the entrance to the Cape Fear River

Cape Fear traffic