Day #62: Today's cruise started in the narrow confines of the Pungo-Alligator River Canal. It felt like Nellie was a cannonball rolling slowly, but unstoppably down a 20nm long barrel. The Canal shot us into the much larger confines of the Alligator River. As we hoped the winds were down and so this sometimes quarrelsome patch of water was peaceful. At the northern end of the Alligator River is the east-west oriented Arbemarle Sound. It's huge. In the ICW we're mostly a riverboat--there are two banks and our job is to stay between them. In the Sound Nellie was going to sea. There was nothing but water ahead and the only visible land receded behind us. We laughed as we paraphrased Yogi Berra, 'When you get to the ocean, take it.' We headed west in the Albemarle and it does taper down. It took awhile but the north bank eventually revealed itself. And this is where Edenton, NC, our stop for the night is.
The straight line distance between Belhaven and Edenton is 30nm; by boat it's 84nm. And 84nm is a new one day record for this trip. Knowing it was going to be a long day we cruised at 1800 rpm, 200 higher than normal. Our expected 7.2 knot speed was boosted by constantly favorable currents to 7.4 knots. As luck would have it the tide carried us out of the Alligator River and then we rode the flood into the Albemarle. Wish I could say we planned that. The total mileage for this trip is now 1364nm. DBH.
