Further Adventures Of SV Nutmeg

 4/30- Poquoson River to Godfrey Bay (Deltaville)    The wind was blowing hard this morning, so hard we had to motor the boat ahead in order to haul the anchor up. Once on board though we turned her around rolled out the yankee sail and away we went. The wind was right behind us which is not a great point of sail for my boat. That’s why we only used the yankee so it wouldn’t be quite so dangerous if we jibed. Of course we jibed right away. But after getting that untangled we cruised right along. We were doing about 3-4 knots but it was a pleasant day and we were not in a hurry. It died down a bit around noon and I thought about putting the spinnaker up. After hemming and hawing about it for a while the tide changed and so did the current. With that the wind piped up and we were off again.      The entrance to the bay is a long and winding channel which is not visible above the water but well buoyed.  We rolled up the Yankee and motored into the wind. G...

 4/29- Norfolk to Poquoson River   It was a beautiful morning when we departed and we caught the outgoing tide. This is a heavily industrialized port. We saw tons of shipping activity. We saw one container ship being loaded and all I could think of was somewhere in one of those containers is my package. Just think of all the sneakers and rubber duckies that must be tucked away in one of those containers.     Anyway we got into Hampton Roads and we raised the sails and turned off the motor. Well we tried anyway. We sort of stumbled through this just getting everything set up again. We were just plain out of practice plus we had 2 big container ships bearing down on us. We had every point of sail on this trip. We started running down wind and even tried a bit of wing on wing. Then it went to a broad reach then a beam reach and then finally a close reach. The wind was pretty much on the nose for the last 3 miles so we called on Mr Perkins again.     ...

 4/28- Coinjock to Hospital Point (Norfolk)     We had to use a crow bar and some lubricant to get the boat off the dock this morning. It was literally inches separating us from the boat in front and behind. After a bit of planning we let the bow line off and the bow drifted out into the current. I had someone toss me the stern line and away we went. Almost like we knew what we were doing.     The guys at Coinjock are professional boat handlers. They are not kids here for a summer job. They do an amazing job parking the boats.      Another interesting thing was the current. It was running pretty strong when we came in. It was so strong they had us turn around and go into the current to dock. When I asked what the current would be like in the morning he said he had no idea. It was not a tidal current. It was driven solely by the wind. Wind pushed water up in the estuaries and then when it relaxed down comes the water.      We sa...

 4/28- Deep Point to Coinjock     I really like getting up before dawn and seeing how still everything is. The birds are chirping and the water is still with a slight mist rising up out of it. We thought we would get a jump on everyone today and get out early. We were pulling up the anchor at 6:15 and when I looked up the whole rest of the anchorage was moving. We all motor sailed down the Alligator River in a line. The bridge tender must have gotten writers cramp from writing down all the info on the 10 or so boats that descended on him. He was good though getting us all through in 2 groups.     The wind was east at 10-15 and I thought these conditions were what this boat was made for. We ran up the mainsail for the first time in 3 or 4 months and away we went. We broad reached all the way across the sound. It was nice to give Mr Perkins a bit of a break.      We tied up at Coinjock Marina. Here they have a long face dock and as we were earl...

  Trip 4/26- Belhaven to Deep Point anchorage ( Pungo canal and Alligator River )       We backed out of our slip this morning like we knew what we were doing. The boat actually did what I expected it to do when we put it in reverse. The wind was blowing out of the northeast which was pretty much the way we were headed. It wasn’t too bad though and we were making 5.5 knots. We travelled up the Pungo canal which is a 20 mile long cut canal that mostly goes straight except for one turn in the middle. It traverses a huge wilderness area so there were very few houses. There is also no cell coverage so that is why I’m writing this now and will post it tomorrow.        When we got to the top of the canal the water was churning white with the wind. We crawled along until we got to the anchorage. There were already several boats here. The next real stop is 15 miles away which we could have made. The issue is that tonight the wind will change to the east w...

 4/25- Belhaven   We just hung out here today and did a bunch of boat errands. I went shopping at Food Lion which I think I’ve only been to one other. I did use the golf cart and drove there. As they have free laundry here I think we washed anything that we could carry up to the machines. We took a walk through town which didn’t take very long. I can’t help but wonder how some of these stores stay in business especially the ones selling clothes.     We got a history lesson from a guy in a closed store. It was actually an old museum and he had the door open and we stuck our heads in. Turns out this was called Toy Trains of Belhaven. Check it out on Facebook. They set up a miniature train display for Christmas. He was telling us some of the history of the town.     It was a big lumber town and they harvested tons of the long leaf southern pine. In fact they harvested so much they ran out and now most of the lumbering around here is done on plantatio...

 4/24- Cedar Creek to Belhaven    I dragged Alayne out of bed before sunrise this morning so we could get an early start. Once we got the anchor on deck and headed out into the river I think she was awake. She was once we hit the Neuse River for sure. It was blowing good and there were white caps and rolling seas. We ran out the yankee just to see if it still worked and away we went.      We turned off Mr Perkins and enjoyed our first engine free miles in months. It wasn’t easy as the wind piped up and we rocked and rolled all over the place running down wind in the surf. It had been so long that we forgotten what it was like to sail heeled over.  We had all kinds of stuff sliding around in the cabin that had not been properly stored. The boat handles much better under sail even in rough weather so it was nice getting back to it.      We then crossed through a canal cut and the across the Plimico River and up the Pungo River.  These...