On our last day in New Bern we got the new water pump and installed it. Everything was working again. We were ready to move on. In the morning we slipped the lines and were able to go through the draw bridge with another boat. With almost no wind we motored down the river to Oriental where we planned to spend a couple of days. We tied up at the free dock and started our next projects. We had replaced our main and mizzen sails and I still needed two more battens, the fiberglass pieces that help the sail hold it's shape. We had contacted a sailmaker here and they said they had what we needed. With a borrowed bike I made the run to pick them up and was able to fit them into the sails. Now we were ready to do some serious sailing. While there our friends Wayne and Louise made the run across the river for a final visit. After two days we were ready to move on. One of the boats we were with in the Bahamas, Jerry and Donna on Bluejacket, live near Oriental and we were planning to visit them. We motored down the river, again with no wind, and moved up Broad Creek to their dock. Also at their dock was Jerry and Karen on Persephone and Andy and Charlie on Avalon. They were among the boats we spent time with in the Raggeds. We spent the weekend of the Fourth with them enjoying pot lucks in their big screened-in porch and Andy treated us to his first ever fireworks display.
They don't allow personal fireworks in Australia. Monday we had to move on. We decided that we wanted to spend a little time on Ocracoke Island which was one of our favorite destinations while we lived in the area. The island is still trying to recover from hurricane Dorien and is still in rough shape with many businesses still closed. Of course, the pandemic didn't do much to help them along. We enjoyed our stay, eating several of our meals at Edwardo's, our favorite food truck. Wednesday we left early to try to beat the rain. There was a tropical low pressure system offshore and was causing rain squalls to move in from the ocean. As usual we found the bottom in the channel leading out to the sound. It is all sand and we were able to back off of it without incident. There is a lot of shoaling and it is a problem for them to keep the channel deep enough.
In the past we have moved up the Pamlico River and followed the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) which is a series of creeks, rivers and canals. This time we decided to by way of Roanoke Island. We had a great day of sailing, even though we got some rain and then motored up the channel to the town of Manteo. Manteo is another of those towns that offer a free dock for visitors. We tied up to the dock and relaxed. Motoring through shallow water is nerve wracking. I had noticed that the volt gauge and the tachometer were acting up. I came to the conclusion that the alternator was failing. I spent the next day swapping alternators. We have a lot of spare parts onboard and a spare alternator is one of them. I suspected that there was a water leak by the new pump and some had gotten into the alternator. So once again I uninstalled and reinstalled the water pump. It looked like we were ready to move on. We spent two days checking out the town, drinking craft beers and eating ice cream. Roanoke Island is famous for what is called "The Lost Colony". It was one of the first attempts to establish a colony in the New World and was organizes by Sir Walter Raleigh. They are called "The Lost Colony" because something happened after the ship left to go back to England for supplies and when it returned two years later there was no sign of the colonists, they had just disappeared. There are a number of theory's of what happened to them but it is still a mystery.
On Saturday we left Manteo and continued on to the ICW. We were able to sail for a little while in the Albermarl River but it was mostly a motorboat ride. Our destination for the night was the Coinjock Marina. We don't normally stay in marinas, but this one has a special attraction. Their restaurant serves one of the best prime rib dinners I have had. Once tied up and cleaned up we sat down to dinner, I had ordered the 32 ounce cut, Cori had a caesar salad with ahi tuna and a crab cake. 32 ounces of meat is a lot but I am able to make three more meals from the leftovers. We left the marina in the morning and motored along the ICW to Chesapeake City and a free dock at The Great Bridge. I needed to stop here because there is an alternator and starter repair shop and I needed to have the alternator checked out. I was starting to think the problem was the voltage regulator. On inspection he suggested replacing it with a new alternator with a built in regulator. The new one, with more power, was going to cost about as much as repairing the old one. We spent two night there and with everything working we moved on Tuesday morning. We motored up the Elizabeth River to Norfolk VA.
I have always liked going through Norfolk looking at the variety of boats and ships working and moving through the harbor. Once through the harbor we passed the Naval Base with their variety of ships and moved out into Chesapeake Bay. Once we moved into the bay the winds came up but were directly on the nose so we motored up to Mobjack Bay and anchored for the night. In the morning we continued up the bay, again motoring without wind. We were hearing a lot of chatter on the radio about a rocket launch and checked into that, not wanting to be in the exclusion zone. It turned out the zone was on the Atlantic side and there was a boat that caused a delay. Finally they were able to launch their rocket and we were able to see the vapor trail. Those things move out of sight very fast, it was gone by the time we saw the trail. We hoped to make it to the area called "The Solomons" but didn't get that far. It was flat calm and we picked a spot to anchor for the night with the assumption that it would stay calm. After dinner and just before sunset the winds came up. All of a sudden e have 15-20 knot winds and waves bouncing us around and putting us on a lee shore. A lee shore is where you have land behind you and is dangerous because if anything goes wrong you are driven up into the shallows or up on shore. We pulled the anchor and decided to make for Annapolis overnight. With the winds we were able to sail all night and at sunrise we were approaching Annapolis. We dropped the sails and motored into the harbor and picked up a mooring. After a nap we launched the dinghy and checked in, deciding to stay through the weekend. We were on a mooring next to Andy and Charlie on Avalon. They had sailed up from Okracoke on the outside and arrived before us.
The main reason we chose to come to Annapolis is that there is a company here that sells parts for our water-maker and was holding a repair kit I had ordered. We picked that up and I spent an afternoon rebuilding our water-maker pump. There is a reason they refer to cruising as "repairing boats in exotic places". In the afternoon we heard someone hail us and here were Anina and Charles from Prism. We had met them in Trinidad and had last seen them in Martinique. It turns out they live here in the summers and invited us over for Sunday Brunch. Friday evening we had Andy and Charlie over for drinks and snacks since they were leaving in the morning. Cori took the opportunity on Saturday for a shopping trip to reprovision and I spent most of the day on an historic tour. I was the only one on the tour so it was enjoyable and informative without having to deal with people. Sunday the mooring field emptied out when all of the weekenders left.
Tomorrow we will move over to the fuel dock to top off the fuel and water, we burned a half a tank with all the motoring and will continue up the Chesapeake, through the C&D Canal and down the Delaware river to Cape May. From there we will continue North.
32 ounces of prime rib
