Southbound ’17 – Travel Day 13: Coinjock, NC to Columbia, NC

FROM: The Captain

Conditions: Sunny, winds from the northwest 10-15mph

Distance traveled: 36.9 statute miles

Time underway: 3 hours 22 minutes

Average Speed: 10.9 mph

Max Speed: 19.5 mph

Fuel used: 40 gallons

We love Coinjock Marina so much we had actually contemplated staying for two days, both to have a “catch-up-on-life” day and to wait for the ferocious winds that had descended upon us to die down.  In the interest of avoiding a long day that would have resulted from not moving on, we moved on… waiting until midday for those winds which had been gusting up to 40 mph overnight to subside.  It was to be an easy thirty mile run to our next destination but the concern was the Albermarle Sound, the first of the sometimes-challenging bodies of water on the ICW between Norfolk and Miami.  It’s a fourteen-mile crossing that can be sloppy in most any significant wind and it was sloppy on this day, but fortunately much less so by the early afternoon when our crossing began.  The seas were a confused two to four feet but the OLOH and her stabilizers maintained a steady ride and at 2:54 pm we were pulling into Alligator River Marina, just north of the Alligator River bridge.

We’ve never stayed in a place quite like this before.  It is a small but very well-maintained marina basin where we were one of four boats in for the night.  It’s actually a Shell roadside gas station on the west side of the bridge that also handles the marina.  It felt a bit odd to walk into the gas station to pay for our dockage (a mere $1.48/foot) but there was something very charming about it and Glenn who took care of us was terrific.  There will be a separate seefare entry about our dining experience at the marina/gas station’s restaurant but suffice to say it was uniquely spectacular.

While there are many signs on the property that say, “NO DOGS ALLOWED IN THIS AREA” there were plenty of good grassy spots for Jasper and it gets a thumbs-up on dog-friendliness.  Our stay here was easy and we had a peaceful night.  In the morning we’re off to the highly recommended River Forest Marina in Belhaven, NC.  See you there!