Anchor in the Alligator

Morning Fog

Simple Life pulled away from the dock around 6:20AM. I was drifting in the river while I stowed my lines and fenders. Once stowed I pointed the boat south through the morning’s fog. MV Effervescence IV had also pulled away from the dock and had taken up my stern .I captured a few seconds of the morning’s fog on my phone.

Morning Fog on the Elizabeth River in Virginia

Sound Signals

As we moved through the fog I had my airhorns blasting on long every two minutes.

Great Bridge Lock

We had left the dock because just a mile or two down the river is the Great Bridge Lock. We wanted to get through the lock as quick as possible so that we could maximize the nautical miles we could put behind us by using all of the daylight. When we arrived at the lock we had to wait about 30 minutes for the next opening. Once inside the lock, we tied to the rubber numbered East wall so we did not have to set our fenders.

Great Bridge Lock

As I leave the lock I pass a steaming barge of dirt.

Great Bridge

You can see at the end of the above video that as soon as you exit the Great Bridge Lock you must stop and wait for the Great Bridge to open for you. I always remember the lock and the bridge being sync’d in time. When one let boats through the other was ready to let them through as well. Today however, we had to wait. More time spent not moving toward our nights proposed anchorage in the Alligator River.

Eventually the Great Bridge opened for us and we slipped beneath it’s large raised spans to find AYB (Atlantic Yacht Basin) on just the other side.

Encountering Barges

When you travel down a river the deepest part of the river is often the visual center. As you get away from the center and near the banks or edges of the river it can often shallow quickly. The ICW is a federal waterway which is responsible for moving goods up & down the US East Coast safe from storms on the Atlantic. Wide tug and barge combos will need that depth found in the center. If you need to pass a tug pushing a barge you need to give them the center. This often pushes you uncomfortably close to the shallow banks. Some boats will stop while the barge passes but most will communicate the pass over the VHF. The tugboat captain will usually say something like “I’d like a one-whistle pass” or “I’ll meet you on the one”. This jargon comes from the fact that boats use sound signals or either one or two short blasts of the horn to indicate what side of your boat they intend to pass on.

Tug, Gold Coast, pushing a barge north past recreational boaters going south

As the tug passes I check my AIS for information about the tug.

Crossing State Lines

When transiting the East coast I always enjoy the moments when I cross state lines. Some states I come and go in the day, ex. RI. Other states I can spend weeks in, ex. FL.

North Carolina

Below are some of the sights as I approach North Carolina.

Who Doesn’t Love a Cuck?

Now passing through Coinjock, NC I spy a Chevy El Camino on the shore. I don’t know why but I feel like that car is perfect for Coinjock.

Get up an Go

This large yacht passed me at an amazing speed for such a large yacht. They were outside the channel while performing the pass. Their wake was not that bad as much of their hull is out of the water as they plane on top at high speed.

Wow that is fast for such a large boat

Daylight Fading

At this point in the day’s journey, we are about to cross Albemarle Sound. During the night before’s captain’s briefing, we had planned to cross Albemarle Sound and anchor just before the Alligator River Swing Bridge. Delays we encountered at the Great Bridge Lock have made it so the sun will set before we arrive at our anchorage. MV Effervescence IV has asked me if we could increase our speed so as to arrive while there is still light? The sun is setting at 5:03PM and the last quarter moon will not rise till 11:50PM. No moon makes for a dark night and nobody wants to hit a day marker piling or run over a crab pot float and get a line wrapped around your prop.

I agree to increase the speed from 6.5kts to 8.5kts.

Fuel Economy

Trawlers like most boats can get great fuel milage at a slow speed. However, for every 1/10 of a knot you go above that speed the MPG starts to plummet fast. At 6.5 kts I get 3NM/gal. At 8.5kts I get 1NM/gal. If you have to increase your speed to close to your top speed you will very quickly spike your dollars paid per mile. It is better to realize the needed increase early so you don’t have to do the worst case of increasing to near max. Planning and flexibility is the key to getting down the coast and still having $ for beer 😉

Albemarle Crossing

Today’s crossing of Albemarle Sound is one of the smoothest I’ve had.

Albemarle Sound is Flat

Scanning the Horizon

Wake

I find a boat’s wake hypnotizing to watch up close.

Today’s 71NM journey looked something like this…

Long Island Hideout

If the Boat is a Rocking…

I awoke to the boat rocking. Yeah, it was waves.

After being awake for 20 hours, I caught about 3 hours sleep before waiting for first light to weigh anchor. Last night’s anchorage served it’s purpose. It was only 10 minutes off my path and was an easy-in / easy-out in the dark.

You can see my track – easy in – easy out

I headed west down Long Island Sound toward NYC. The wind was blowing from the south so the waves were building as they crossed over from Long Island to the Connecticut coast where I was. It made for a choppy wet ride. I decided to cross to the LI side before turning again to the west. This made for a much more comfortable ride heading west.

Demonic Possession

I always set Simple Life’s throttle to 1400 RPM which is 2 gallons/hr burn rate. Depending on the currents I average around 6kts. Doing the math, that’s 3NM to the gallon or about $1/mile. I’ve always thought it’s a pretty inexpensive mode to travel since you are moving you and your 40,000 lb home. However this home might need an exorcism?

Cummins smart craft tachometer showing my 2.0 gal/hr burn rate and 666 gallons burned.

Wait… They don’t go to Heaven?

I cringe when I watch people release mylar ballons to go to heaven in the name of a lost loved one.

Traffic Jam

At one point I had to change course to take the stern of a tug pushing a barge. I thought maybe I could follow the barge close and let her flatten out the sound but alas at 8.5kts I was burning a lot more fuel and salting up the topsides.

Salt spray was washing my muddy anchor pulpit

I no sooner gave up on following the tug and I was dodging other traffic.

Pilothouse Pleasures

As I plod along I am happy that I am inside on this cold rainy day.

I had left my marina in Warwick, RI on the same day as another B-Dock member, MV Leap of Faith. I had managed to slip ahead of them but not for long as I watched them speed past me.

Girl Power

Soon I pass an overturned sailboat. I think to myself… wow that must be cold as you swim back to the boat and attempt to right it. As I pass I see that it’s two women sailors. I feel a little like a woosie as I wrap a afghan over my feet which feel cold just watching them.

Route Planning

As I get closer to the west end of Long Island Sound I start to plan my upcoming routes. A quick check of the weather tells me I might enjoy the next two nights in a marina rather than anchored at the foot of the Statue of Liberty as planned.

Marina Hideout

I found a great marina called Safe Harbor Capri in Port Washington. I’ve stayed here before and the Dockmaster Rob is very accommodating. Nice place to sit out the wind & rain.

As I pull in there is a dock hand there to catch a line for me. It’s raining hard so I make sure to tip him well. The slips here are large and it looks as if you could dock another boat in my slip right alongside Simple Life.

As I sit and eat some spaghetti I pull out my laptop to renew my EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) with Search & Rescue for the next two years. I have emergency contacts incase it should ever be automatically triggered by a sinking.

As I sit inside, the wind is trying to blow the dog off the chain. I step out and see that as protected as this marina is… there are still waves rocking the boat.

At the end of the video, you see a sailboat on a mooring whose main sail has unfurled and is flogging. Not good.

Man of Leisure

My new Apple Watch gives me a haptic nudge. I glance down and see that all the boats rocking has tricked my watch into thinking I’m exercising. It believes I’ve just had my longest “move streak” to date. I chuckle to myself and think … I’m a man of leisure.

Apple Watch 6 thinks I have my longest move streak

Weather Window

Now checking the weather I can see it’s going to get worse for the next two days but there appears to be a 5-6 day weather window for running the coast starting Tuesday afternoon.

The weather has been very stormy lately. I would have expected all the tropical storm activity to have ceased but even now in November there are storms forming in the Caribbean.

Go With the Flow

I now need to plan my exit to align with an ebbing current in the East River. Throgs Neck Bridge current station is right at the entrance to the East end of the East River. It’s sort of broad there so you don’t expect too strong a current. However, at Hell’s Gate where the East River and the Harlem River come together you can see there is a 4.73kt max current. The last thing I check is the timing of the currents at The Narrows which is just before I duck under the Verrazano bridge and out into the Atlantic Ocean.

W04L002 is in the Books

Leg #2 of my Winter 2020 journey was only 46.4NM and looked something like this.

Beaufort South

We started the day with a Mexican breakfast on the griddle.

Then it was onto the Dawhoo River which has some depth issues.

We would occasionally have to move over and let a tug pushing a barge past.

This home sadly lost it’s live oak to a bit of wind it would seem.

Such good looking trees if there is such a thing?

Soon we passed under the ladies Island Swing bridge, hailed Beaufort Downtown Marina on the VHF radio. They responded back “Safe Harbor Beaufort”. Safe Harbor is the same marina corporation that purchased my marina in RI. Heck, Safe Harbor seems to be buying dozens of east coast marinas.

Safe Harbor taking over the world of marinas

The Safe Harbor Beaufort marina has a strong tide that is not quite parallel to the face dock. This means as you pull up to the dock, the current is either pushing you onto or away from the dock. I took an approach that kept the current aligned to my keel and soon we were tied up and plugged in.

MV Simple Life on the back side of the face dock

We snapped a few quick photos of a sun low in the sky.

The large 100+ foot yacht next to us lit up as night arrived.

Not to be outdone, MV Simple Life lit our lights 😉

When you walk off the docks there is a beautiful waterfront park.

Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort, SC

Walking along Bay street in front of the marina you’ll find many restaurants and shops.

We decided to stay two nights in Beaufort so we could hit some of the local restaurants and pubs.

We wanted live music and that can always be dangerous. I’ve had the mic turned off while singing karaoke and lets just say it does not get any better with IPAs.