3 Great Days on the Water

On Sunday, we awoke to a beautiful full moon as we left Portsmouth VA and headed out at a leisurely pace toward Coinjock NC. While only traveling 50 miles today, it takes almost 5 hours due to the number of bridges that need to be opened, no wake zones and a lock that opens on the half hour, not to mention plenty of other boats working their way south.

Morning Moon - Portsmouth, VA

Great Bridge Lock

Since Hurricane Matthew slowed the progress of many other transient boaters the past few weeks, the waterway has been unusually crowded for this time of year. Add to that lots of storm related debris in the water and things really get bogged down. None the less, we made it in plenty of time to watch the Redskins game on TV, which as many of you know, remains a priority for the Admiral! Oh yeah, they won!

On Monday, under clear, sunny (and warmer) skies, we continued our trek south toward Oriental NC and River Dunes Marina just off the Neuse River. Now, the Neuse is known as one of the more turbulent bodies of water, and in fact, has never been one of our favorite stretches to navigate. But as luck would have it, we continued to be blessed with great conditions including a calm and almost serene Neuse River!

The Neuse River - clear skies and calm, a perfect day!

Tuesday morning was yet another glorious day on the water as we continued up the Neuse River (still calm as a lake), through Adams Creek toward Beaufort NC and then turning south on the ICW to our destination at Wrightsville Beach. While the sea conditions were good, we found a number of areas where the hurricane had shifted sand and created some unexpected shoaling. Nothing like seeing your depth gauge go from 16 feet to 4.5 feet in less than 50 yards! Since Endless Summer only drafts 4.0 feet, we made it through without issue, but it was close.... very close!