Captain's Choice blog: Good-bye NC, Welcome to Virginia

The weather window has become ever so prevalent in the tentative plans of how far and where to go. The "best" travel day this week was suppose to be Wednesday and I think all of the other boaters knew it as we made the way across Abermerle Sound from our anchorage at South Lake just off the Alligator River. There was a string of boats traveling the ICW and I think most were disappointed that the winds were not as calm as forecasted. Everyone was taking the 2-3' waves on the beam, so there was a degree of discomfort that was discussed once we all piled into Coinjock Marina.
The lucky part of the day is the 2 bridges that were closed due to flooding and high winds 30 miles from Coinjock were re-opened and the boaters at the marina from the night before left, leaving plenty of room for the 22 new boats that came in Wednesday. We had fun walking the dock and meeting loopers we had not met before and connecting with others we had not seen in awhile.
The restaurant on site is known for their prime rib, 16 and 32 oz cuts, which we thoroughly enjoyed with the crews of Seaquest, Let's Go and R. C. Caislin. The big talk was should we head out early Thursday to beat the high winds forecasted for mid afternoon or stay at Coinjock. If we stayed at Coinjock it was going to be at least 2 days before we could leave again with the wind and rain forecast. All of us decided an early departure Thursday morning was the ticket.

We crossed Currituck Sound and North Landing River with "choppy" seas, so it was a good decision to get started early before the winds kicked up the waves. We traveled 38 miles to Atlantic Yacht Basin, which is well protected from the weather that we were expecting to hit overnight and into Friday. This is a "working marina", nothing fancy, with a long main dock and buildings with covered slips in fresh water right along the ICW. It's a short walk to some restaurants (fast food and otherwise), grocery and a few name brand box stores. The rains started at 1:30 a.m. Friday as predicted along with severe weather announcements early morning that included tornado warnings, hail, winds and more rain. Mark got busy with more maintenance items and I always find ways of staying occupied.

Still breezy Saturday morning along with a short weather window that would allow us to go 12 miles to Norfolk, VA. There wasn't much boat traffic due to the fact the bridges are closed again south of us due to flooding. We did have some visitors as we entered the Norfolk Harbor, the coast guard approached and asked the last time we were boarded...it had been at least 1 1/2 years...which means you are due. We had 2 very nice coast guard personnel board us and we are happy to report we passed the inspection with flying colors! We will be at Waterside Marina for several days as we explore the Norfolk/Portsmouth area.