We are moving again. We have started our trip north. We started by taking a couple of days in New Bern to spend with friends. The trip usually involves several hours of motoring but this time we had a perfect wind to sail using our spinnaker. After two nights at the Bridgepoint Marina we left early to make the trip to Ocracoke Island. It was a flat calm motoring day. We go to Ocracoke the first weekend in June to attend the annual Ocrafolk Music Festival. It also happens to be my birthday or the closest weekend to my birthday. I look at it as the island hosts a big party for my birthday. We have several friends that also attend the festival and bring their boats to stay on. Dock space is short so we always find ourselves anchoring out and running in and out with our dinghy. This year my 9.9 outboard refused to run but we had the backup 3.3 horse running. The festival was great and we had plenty of opportunity to get caught up with our friends. The weather was beutiful for the week we were there.
The anchorage started thinning out on Sunday and we joined a half dozen other boats leaving early Monday morning. We started out heading to the Pamlico River and after a couple of hours the breeze came up and it became a sailing trip instead of a motor boat ride. We were able to sail until we reached the Pungo River and had to turn up to follow the ICW. We motored up to the entrance of the Alligator/Pungo canal and dropped anchor for the night. A 50 nautical mile trip that took about ten hours. First thing in the morning, and I mean "first thing", 6:30 am, we pulled anchor and headed up the canal. The canal is a 20 mile stretch of straight water dug connecting the Pungo and the Alligator rivers. It is usually a boring trip with a lot of other faster boats passing us and throwing out a big wake and really rocking us. Today we only had one boat pass us and he did not kick much of a wake. Once out on the Alligator river we were able to set the head sail and sail most of the way down the river to the Albermarle Sound. The Sound was kicked up from the wind and gave us a pretty rolly ride. Once across the we motored up the North River until we arrived in Coinjock NC, a 69 mile, 11 hour trip. The best thing about Coinjock other then the nice folks that run and work at the marina is the restaurant. If you like prime rib, this is the place to go. It is awesome! If you can't be there for dinner they use the left over prime rib for sandwiches at lunch. I ordered the 32 ounce prime rib and will be having the leftovers for lunch and probably dinner tomorrow. We didn't expect to be this far along in just two days so the overnight stay in Coinjock is a treat since it has been over a week since we have stayed at a dock. Tomorrow we will continue to Norfolk VA and start our way up the Chesapeake Bay, planning a stop at Deltaville to see friends and have the outboard looked at.
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