Heading north – part 2. Plugging away at it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, by now it was May 15th, we needed to get up to Connecticut, and we were only as far as Beaufort, SC. But with some cooperative weather we figured we could scoot up to Norfolk and jump outside to at least Cape May (if not all the way to Groton) and be there in about three weeks. Well, you know what they say about cruisers’ plans written in sand at low tide.

Weather kept us in Beaufort for four days. Not a bad thing in and of itself – regular readers know how much we love Beaufort. We hit all of our regular haunts, ate our tomato pie, and attended a nice gathering of current and former cruisers at the home of cruisers who had settled down there upon swallowing the anchor.

From Beaufort we had hoped to jump from Charleston to Cape Fear in a single overnight, but north winds thwarted those plans. Thankfully we still had the ICW as an option, so we put the hammer down and made it to just south of Southport, NC in 3 1/2 travel days. And then we got stuck. Strong north winds of 20-30+ knots kept us at St. James Marina for a week. We needed to go north, going outside wasn’t an option, and inside was also closed to us with very strong wind against the current on the Cape Fear River.

After a week we had a one day break in the weather so we dashed up to Carolina Beach, then had to wait for two more days. We knew from prior experience that the next bridge wouldn’t open in those winds.

All was not lost, however. We were finally at Carolina Beach when Britt’s Donuts were open (they are only open seasonally, and boy, were they worth the wait!). We also found some excellent pizza on the boardwalk, and it was a bright sunshiny day so Jeff did some metal detecting while I read my Kindle on the beach.

After we left Carolina Beach, we picked our way up the ICW taking advantage of every weather window we could grab. It was basically travel for one day, wait for two. Travel for two days, wait for one. As we fought the weather, our frustration level started rising.

A typical example was when we were riding out a blow just south of the Alligator-Pungo Canal. The anchorage was well-protected even though a cold wind of 25 knots was blowing from the northeast. We had planned to wait out the day warm in our cabin vs. motoring into the cold wind since we had a two-day window beginning the next day for crossing the Albemarle Sound.

Checking the weather in mid-afternoon, we saw that the Albemarle Sound window had shut, and now our only chance for at least a week was the next day. Gritting our teeth, we raised the anchor and had a cold ride up the canal, anchoring just before sunset so we could cross the Albemarle the next day.

At least the Albemarle was behind us. But now the forecast was showing nothing but north winds for the next week. Crew morale was starting to dip.