Oriental, North Carolina

We fairly raced down Long Island Sound after departing Wickford, Rhode Island, and the free town mooring there. Block Island Sound, Rhode Island Sound, and Long Island Sound were all relatively calm by the time we poked our head around Point Judith about 0800 on Monday, September 8th. The wind picked up a little in the afternoon, and by the time we reached The Gulf it was blowing a bit. We anchored behind the island, but spent a very rocky night with opposing wind and current. After a rocky ride to Manhassett Bay, we spent a very peaceful night at anchor, and the next morning headed down the East River and through Hell's Gate in New York City.

We met up with friends from the Trawler and Trawlering List in Great Kills Harbor on Wednesday, September 10th, taking a mooring ball provided by friend Kevin who is the Assistant Listmeister. The next day we pushed our way down the New Jersey coast to Absecon Inlet (Atlantic City), and the next day we were in Cape May by noon. We then had a very pleasant (unusual) cruise up Delaware Bay on Saturday, and by mid-day on Sunday we were at Henderson's Wharf Marina in Baltimore. Judy flew back to Florida on Monday for some business meetings, and then returned on Thursday. While she was gone I helped Jennifer with various projects at her home.

We departed Baltimore on Friday, September 19th, with a bit of a wind from the northeast. By the time we approached the junction of the Baltimore Channel and Chesapeake Bay we decided we'd had enough and pulled into the Magothy River where we anchored for the rremainder of the day. The next day took us to Solomons, Maryland, and the day after that (Sunday) to Old Point Comfort at the south end of Chesapeake Bay. Weather forecasts were warning of a storm advancing up the coast, so we made plans to wait it out in the Great Dismal Swamp Canal - similar to what we did two years ago on our trip south. We got fuel in Portsmouth, Virginia, as we passed through the Norfolk area, and then headed to the canal. By late afternoon we were in the canal and tied up to Elizabeth's Dock along with two other boats that had locked into the canal that afternoon.

The next four days were spent in the canal, waiting for the storm to pass (it did blow quite a bit and rained a lot the last two days we were there), and by Friday we were heading south through the canal and on to Elizabeth City. We then cruised through the Albermarle Sound, Alligator River, Alligator River-Pungo River Canal, Punto River (where we anchored for the night), the Pamlico River, Pamlico Sound and into the Neuse River. We're now in Oriental, North Carolina, a nice little fishing village on the north shore of the Neuse River. Today we're going to cruise further up the Neuse River to New Bern where we'll play tourist in the historic town.

The weather forecast is good for the next five days (as far as the forecast goes) so we should be able to continue south without further weather delays when we depart New Bern.