Dowry Creek Marina to River Dunes Marina

Day 27, Monday, October 25, 2016

You can monitor my trip at the link: Second Winds Progress Live

Today was a great sailing day.  It began as I motored out of Dowry Creek just as the sun was rising over the barrier islands.  The wind was again from the southwest so our southerly course along the Pungo River put it on our nose. Also there was significant fetch – the distance of open water over which wave can build

Sun Rise from Upper Dowry Creek overlooking the Pungo River

– so the waves were again 2 to 3 feet with an occasional roller that banged me with its 4 to 5 foot height.  The boat handled it well and we only had about 4 miles of that before the waterway swung to a more easterly direction and we snuggled up to windward land.  With a short fetch, the waters became calm.

Out on the Pungo River

As we made the turn, some of the bigger boats began unfurling their jibs so I followed suit.  I probably would not have had to let all of the sail but I decided to see what it would do.  As we entered open water of the Amlico River, I began smoking along at over 6 knots and in one puff, I saw 7.  I realize that it is cheating when you sail with the motor running, however, if I had raised the main sail, I would have had to reef it and I didn’t want to undertake that exercise.

Motor sailing

The waterway then entered a series of creeks and finally a canal which passes near the small village of Hobucken, NC.  Next to the bridge at leads to the town is located a shrimp processing plant in front of which were two large shrimp boats moored.  Our group leader stopped and bought a huge supply of fresh caught shrimp to be grilled by the group tonight.

Leaving the canal, our course took us down the Bay River.  These rivers are absolutely huge.  They are wide open waters that are miles across.  I would be

Shrimp Boat near Hobucken, NC

more inclined to call them bays.

On this stretch of water, I decided to deploy all of my sails and shut down the motor.  I had a wonderful sail that carried me about 8 or 9 miles before the course changed to a direction that again put the wind on my nose.  We were traveling on the wide open Neuse River. 

We departed the Neuse for the small Broad Creek and the River Dunes Marina

Shrimp plant near Hobucken

where we will be spending three nights.  Due to the closing of the Dismal Swamp, we are traveling a day ahead of schedule and that fouls up reservations so we will lay over here an extra day to get our itinerary back in order.

As I approached the canal that leads back into the marina bay, I saw a number

Osprey under motor sail

of our group parked near the entrance.  I had heard that some folks were going to anchor out but I was surprised by the number.  It turns out that the bay at the marina is small and there are a lot of boats so the accumulation of boat at the opening were awaiting to be called to enter.  I joined the circling group for over an hour before my number was called. 

I was fortunate that my space was on the very end of the dock so my landing was the easiest.

This marina is probably the nicest one that I have seen so far.  There are a number of large I assume rental houses that are all build in a beautiful southern mansion style.  The docks are newish floating docks that are meticulously maintained.  The showers are reported to be most interesting with various gadgets for you bathing pleasures.  I shall see and report tomorrow.

Private home along the entrance canal

The group gather at 6:00 for a fresh grilled shrimp pot luck.  They keep having these bring a dish meals and I have nothing to bring so I went to little very high end “Provisioning” store and found some chips and fancy salsa.  I talked to one lady on our group who was faced with the same dilemma as I and she said she started to by a package of mac and cheese and it was thirty some odd dollars. The clerk said that it was locally made and very good.  Needless to say, she did not bring mac and cheese as her dish.

The mosquitoes were having a picnic on all of our warm bodies so I cut out at around 8:00, read for a while and then went to bed.