Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) - Part 2

4/13/15 - The pictures to the left show the sunrise from this morning and the totally unpopulated shoreline where we anchored.  We departed Southshore Landing (mile 81.9) anchorage on the Little Alligator River and continued South under power.  The channel taking us back out to the Alligator River is about 7' deep, narrow and surrounded by knee deep water.  It winds around for about 4 miles, doubling back on itself so you pass within a hundred feet of where you were twenty minutes ago.  By this time I had realized that my electronic charts were really meant for bigger water and the coverage on the ICW was often offset to one side (sometimes showing us on dry land!) and depth information was mostly non-existant.  I had gotten pretty good at glancing at the chart, reading the surface of the water and paying close attention to the depth gauge.  It's a wonder that by the end of this trip we had only run aground three times.

Once we got back out to the big river we passed through the Alligator River swing bridge.  This was the first bridge we encountered that didn't have any kind of schedule for opening.  The two bridges on the Dismal Swamp Canal had a relaxed schedule but they were on small roads and were a simple operation.  This was on a major road, maybe the only road in the area, and it's a large bridge.  We hailed the bridge tender and he let us know that by the time we got close enough he'd have it open for us.  They man this bridge 24/7 and open on demand.  This was a real indication of how far out in the sticks we were.  As it turned out, many of the bridges for the rest of our trip were either a fixed span (65') or opened on a schedule every hour or half hour except during morning and evening rush hours.

At the southernmost end of the river we entered the Alligator River / Pungo River Canal.  This is a 21 mile long cut between the two rivers and it's wide, deep and straight as an arrow.  About the first 2/3 of it is all Cyprus swamp.  We saw only two other boats the whole time we were on the canal.  Around 1530 we came to the Pungo River.  I had chosen an anchorage that was just off to the right but when we turned into it we found it poorly protected from the strong SE wind that was blowing across the river.  We decided instead to try another anchorage a little further south on Scranton Creek (mile 129.5).  This was indeed just a creek with a narrow channel that wound it's way back into a salt marsh (?) with tall trees on the higher ground providing good protection.  At first we were a little concerned because there was just enough room to make a tight turn in the creek but the depth was 15' with good holding for the anchor.  We settled in for the night with the wind howling above the mast but having no effect on us down at the surface.  Beautiful anchorage.

4/14/15 - It's now been nine days since we started on our trip.  It was time to restock on groceries, top off the fuel tank and pump out our holding tank.  It was time for a visit to a marina.  Our guide book mentioned several in the area and we opted for one right across the river from Scranton Creek, Dowry Creek Marina.  It took us about 45 minuted to get there and get tied up.  It looked like a nice place but we quickly found out it was owned by a couple and they'd apparently grown tired of it and were anxious to sell.  There was no pump-out service available although it was advertised.  They claimed they were concerned about their lines freezing and wouldn't get it operational until May 1st.  What?  Our marina back in Maryland had their systems up and running by the end of March.  I suspect the owner was just too lazy to get it running until he had a little more business to make it worth his while.  They also advertised a loaner car to use for running into town, just a few miles down the road.  The car was a beat up Dodge Durango with power windows that wouldn't roll down, no A/C, no fan and it was only running on five cylinders.  We had to drive into town with the passenger door held open to get some fresh air.  It was a joke but it got us where we needed to go and we restocked our groceries.  When we got back to the marina early that afternoon I had a question for the owners but they were not to be found.  This is a very laid back operation, a little too laid back for us.  When we finally found the owners we settled up our bill and planned to leave early the next day.

4/15/15 - We left early and motor sailed down the Pungo River with 15 knot winds out of the NW.  We crossed the Pamlico River into Goose creek where we furled the sails and entered another canal which brought us out onto Bay River.  Here we found the wind had picked up to 20 knots NE and it continued to build as we entered Pamlico Sound and the Neuse river.  Seas were pretty rough with short period waves at about 4' but the wind was blowing with us after we turned into the Neuse.  We ran down a short way and turned into Broad Creek.  Here we found good protection from the wind and we meandered our way back to River Dunes Marina.  This place is pretty amazing.  The entire peninsula had previously been owned by Weyerhaeuser Corporation where they harvested the trees.  The new owners dug out a 23 acre, 15' deep marina and opened it out to Broad Creek.  They also began building a town and selling lots for high-end homes, all built with a late 1800's theme.  The marina is top-drawer but their rates are competitive with everyone else, even Dowry Creek.  We stayed two nights and spent time riding bicycles around looking at the homes and dreaming up ways to buy some land.  We used the loaner car, a brand new van with everything working properly, and drove about 8 miles into the nearest town, Oriental.  This town is a major stop-off for cruisers on the ICW and has many nice shops and good places to eat.  We enjoyed a great dinner at the Toucan Grill down on Raccoon Creek.  We had a great time at River Dunes and Oriental.  The top two pictures here show one of the cool-man homes and the marina.  The building with the red roof is the marina office.  How cool is that?