Alligator River, NC

4/7/2017

Weather! That has been our focus the past few days. With winds gusting into the 30 knot range and sometimes to 40+ knots, we have struggled to figure out our game plan for moving north. When we wake in the morning, our first challenge is deciding how to dress.

Violet's clothes tell the story as well as any other. In New Bern, just two days ago, Violet was in summer attire.

Violet

 Today, due to the winds and much cooler air temp, she had added layers.

Violet in hat and life jacket for warmth

This morning we had a difficult decision to make. Stay or go? We had a four-to-five hour trip to our next marina. At the end of that voyage and immediately before arriving at the marina stood a large obstacle - the Alligator River Bridge. The bridge does not open if the wind gusts are too strong for safety.

Clark talked to other boaters at the marina and found out they were leaving. Then he called the bridge tender to get the scoop.  The bridge tender said they get their direction from NOAA weather as to whether it is safe to open or not. At the time he called, almost five hours before we could get there, the bridge tender said he thought he could get us through. Clark decided to chance it, and we left between 10:00 and 10:30.

Once again, today as yesterday, I spent little time on the flybridge, and instead, enjoyed time with Sierra. When we got to the calm channel waters, Sierra and I watched "Toy Story 3" together. Great movie! After our movie, Sierra and I went up on the flybridge to join the rest of the family.

Violet, Devon, Sierra

Jeff with Violet

Papa Clark with Sierra

Ev (Nana) with Sierra

Today's choppy waters showed themselves in some of the pictures Clark captured along the way.

End of Removed Bridge

Lots of tree-stump obstacles on Alligator River

When we reached the Alligator River Bridge, Clark came right up to the bridge and then called the bridge tender on the VHF radio and asked when we might be able to pass through. Since we had recently seen gusts in the 30+ knot range and the cut off for opening the bridge is 35 mph, we were surprised that the bridge tender said, "I'll let you through now."

Two other boats that were traveling the same, northward direction suddenly came flying towards the bridge to take advantage of the tenders offer to open it for us.

Waiting for Alligator River Bridge

The rush is on to clear the bridge quickly

As we cleared the bridge, we heard another boater calling the bridge saying, "Alligator bridge, alligator bridge. Can you wait for me? I am coming. Alligator Bridge, alligator bridge. Can you see me?"

We looked all over to find the sailboat that went with this foreign-accented voice, and we could not see a sailboat anywhere. We discussed whether the boat truly existed, or perhaps wore a "cloak of invisibility", as none of us could see it anywhere.

Sailboat with an "invisibility cloak" approaching the bridge?

The bridge tender held the bridge open for quite a while and tried to contact the sailboat but got no response. At one point we heard the sailboat captain say he had been anchored, but still, as hard as we looked, none of us could spot this mystery sailboat. Eventually, with no sailboat in sight, the bridge tender closed the bridge. We wondered if the invisible sailboat had passed through the opening.

As we made our way towards the Alligator River Marina, Clark finally spotted the sailboat running parallel to the bridge. Then we heard him once again calling the bridge asking for an opening. We got busy docking our boat, but at one point I looked back to see if I could see the sailboat on our side of the bridge. Still I did not see him. Clark said he heard the bridge tender and mystery sailboat on the VHF radio later. The bridge tender opened the bridge briefly and the sailboat made it through the bridge.

We took spray today due to the strong gusts of winds, so once we got settled, Clark pulled out the hose and washed off the worst of the salt. As he washed the boat, I signaled to him that we wanted to eat. He acknowledged my notification of dinner and came in for a while. Before we could sit down to eat, however, sunset approached, and he ran off to take sunset pictures.

Today's weather

Alligator River

V-shaped cloud formation

Pink sky at the docks

Multi-color Cloud over Cell Tower

Alligator River Marina at Sunset

Alligator River Lighthouse

After dinner, we watched "Toy Story 3". Sierra wanted to see it again, and we told her to wait until Clark could watch too. While Clark washed the boat, Sierra patiently waited for him to join us so she could watch her movie. I enjoyed the movie so much the first time that I had no problem watching it a second time in the same day.