Its been an interesting week or so. After leaving Wrightsville Beach we joined the Marines for a night, anchoring in Mile Hammock Bay which is part of camp Lejune. The forecast the for the day after was bad so we headed to Oriental, NC where we spent 4 days waiting out the strong winds of what became (sub) tropical storm Andrea. We we in a very protected place with no way for the wind or waves to create any problem for us. we did see sustained winds in excess of 30 knots and some of the gusts were about 50 knots.
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| Docked in Oriental |
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| The effect of wind tides |
We also experienced wind tides for the first time. We are accustomed to the lunar tides where the moon's gravitational pull makes the ocean rise or fall approximately every 6 hours. The sounds of NC however, do not have lunar tides. Instead, the wind acting on the water can increase or decrease the water level depending on which direction the wind is blowing . When we initially docked. Sun Cat's swim platform was about 3 feet below the level of the dock. Two days later, the dock was only 6"' above the swim platform and the street next to the marina was under 8" to 10" of water. The boats nearest the street were getting wakes from the passing trucks! The wind and water receded a lot the next day., and we were able to move the following day. We enjoyed our stay in Oriental, however as we did some walking and shopping and socialized with the other boaters who were riding it out there also.
From there we proceeded up the Neuse River and across Pamlico Sound and anchored in a very nice spot at ICW mile 127 which is near Belhaven, NC. We then went to South Lake, which is another great anchorage near the mouth of the Alligator River.
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| The dock at Coinjock |
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| With Paul & Mimi in Coinjock |
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| Anchorage near Belhaven |
Tomorrow we finish the ICW and start up Chesapeake BAy.
Happy mother's day to all!
Steve & Jean
Aboard Symbol 41 trawler Sun Cat
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