Little Alligator River, NC

Day 276, May 16th, 2010,

Off we left at 8:00 a.m. up the last of the Pungo River and then into the Alligator/Pungo canal.
Gorgeous day, not quite as hot. In the canal we passed a motor cruiser stuck well and truly in the mud on the side! They asked a passing power boat for help but no luck. Needless to say we couldn't help.

All was fine until we reached the Alligator River where the water was more open and rough with a northerly wind. The river is about 2 miles across at this point and its shallow. Just as we were feeling more confident in the engine, the exhaust started popping again and this time the high temperature light came on. That hadn't happened before, although we had been shutting it down very promptly. Again, after a short while we were able to get going again. The wind was on the nose so we couldn't sail but we chugged along.

Just before the Alligator River gets out to the Albemarle Sound there's a swing bridge. We were just going through the bridge and the idea did pass through my head "Oh, I do hope it doesn't happen again right now!" Sure enough, we'd not cleared the bridge when the popping started again! John had no option but to push it until we were clear - with the wind on the nose we pulled out the jib and had to bear off to get some forward way before we could shut the engine off. The temperature light was on and John couldn't get the engine to cool off, so we had to give up on the engine. There was a choice of two anchorages on that side of the bridge. The preferred anchorage was on the east side, described as a good spot to wait out bad weather on the Albemarle - however, according to the chart the entrance is quite narrow and as we sailed the wind clocked around to the east. It would have been impossiblel to enter with the wind on the nose. So, we chose the west anchorage at Little Alligator River. There was a little hook behind an island there but that didn't seem like a good idea, seeing as we might have continued problems with the engine. So we dropped the anchor in the open - very open, windy and lumpy with 2 ft waves. We set the anchor alarm in case we dragged, and went to bed, not too hopeful of sleeping very much. Sure enough, I was awakened at 12:00 with the alarm ringing off. We scrambled out of bed but everything looked just the same - just a wide swinging, we figured.
We did sleep a little off and on. The wind diminished a little but it didn't quit, and neither did the waves. Not the best of nights!

We're homesick!