Albermarle Sound, Alligator River

 

Sunrise Elizabeth City

Pulling away from the dock

Bye Elisabeth City

The winds have calmed down and are now blowing out of the north. We leave shortly after sun rise for the trip south across the Albermarle Sound. 

 Weeksville Dirigible Hanger

We have seen this tethered Dirigible high up in the air for the last couple days for testing I assume. They park it at night.

https://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Weeksville_Dirigible_Hangar

The Albermarle Sound is a shallow body of water flowing west to east and can be very rough if the wind is blowing hard in either of these directions. As we get halfway across the Sound we can see a line of boats coming south from the Virginia Cut to the east, towards our converging point on the south side of the Sound where we will continue on the same route south.

 

Dismal Swamp boats on the left and the Virginia Cut Boats of the right heading south towards the Alligator River Swing Bridge

Alligator River Swing Bridge

As we approach the Alligator Bridge the group of boats ahead of us is just a little to far in front for the swing bridge operator to hold the bridge for us. We wind up waiting 40 minutes for the next opening, allowing the boats behind us to catch up. Sometimes you win, sometimes you loose. I prefer Bridges that open at designated times, so I can adjust our speed to arrive just in time and not wait around for an opening. Bridges that open on “Demand”, more often than not, don’t, they open after you wait.

Passing barge

Normally we like to anchor just east of the Alligator-Pungo Canal, the most remote spot on the ICW. No cell phone reception for hours in each direction. Also one of the darkest places on the east coast. Unfortunately the weather is not looking good with a nor'easter forming off the coast, so we decide to push through the canal. Almost through the canal I finally notice our engine temperature is running around 180 degrees. It always runs at 162. I assume we have sucked up some crap in the Dismal Swamp. I had intended to clean out the water intake cooling filter, but forgot.

We anchor just north of the west entrance to the canal as it is getting dark with about 10 other boats that also ran the canal late.