Boating with Sunset Delight: 2026 April: Last night in NC

27 April 2026
Depart: Gales Creek near Bogue Sound, NC anchorage 8:20 a.m.
Arrive: North River, NC anchorage 7:20 p.m.
Distance: ~ 87 nm
Conditions: 15 knot winds sustained, temps in the 50s, cloudy / overcast skies

When we woke this morning, the thermometer in our stateroom read 62 degrees. I did not want to get out of bed! For breakfast, I warmed up a scone I had stashed away in the freezer. I thought Clark would want something warm as well so I made him an egg sandwich on fried bread (I can't use the toaster at anchor).

Our travels today took us down the Pongo River Alligator River Canal. With winds gusting to 20 knots, we experienced white caps even on the canal! Throughout the day, we pretty consistently had spray from waves dousing our front panel on the upper helm making visibility very difficult but still better than we would have had from the pilot house.

When we crossed the Albemarle Sound, we had less than favorable conditions - a salt coated front panel to reduce visibility with a field of fish traps to travel through. When the sun finally appeared around 3:30 in the afternoon, I brought up a bucket of water and a rag to try to clean some salt off the front panel. It looked great for about 2 minutes - the length of time it took for the water to dry and leave behind a white film yet again. As expected, the waves diminished as we approached the north side of the Sound.

When we finally arrived at the spot where Clark planned to drop anchor tonight in the North River, we found another mine field of fish traps. After 20 minutes of exploration, we finally found a spot we thought would get us through the night.

After getting the anchor down, I had some unexpected chores to do before the sun went down. As I finished tying off the anchor line, I noticed that two of the canvas covers I made for the windshield wipers were tattered. I took them off and used some 'repair tape' as a quick patch to get us home where I will have to sew new ones.

After that I decided to, once again, tackle the front panels of the upper helm full enclosure. Using the bucket with a rag approach was a fail, so I decided to use a toy I bought in the dollar store that shoots a stream of water. I half filled a bucket of water and used it all up by sucking it up into the "gun", one suck at a time, and shooting it at the panels. It worked amazingly well! The panels dried clear!

When I finally went to the galley to cook dinner, it was approaching 8:00. Fortunately, I had stuff in the fridge I could throw together to make a casserole-type dish that turned out pretty great considering it took me all of 10 minutes to get it from the fridge onto the table.

After dinner, we watched a movie on Netflix that had caught my eye a day or so ago - "Bohemian Rhapsody". It gave me a greater respect for musical group Queen than I had before seeing the movie.

I took a bunch of pictures on our travels today - shown below.

Work boat on the edge of the waterway

Coming up on R E Mayo

Pirate ship at dock

"Surrender Your Booty"

Familiar Sight

Looked deserted - no smaller boats at the dock

Only Fishing trawlers at far end of dock

"McKenzie" and "Birdie P"

Next up, the Coast Guard station ...

Boat on trailer

USCG vessel docked at the station

Traveling through rivers and the canal, we saw a lot of marshland today.

If the winds are too strong, the Alligator River bridge will not open. Fortunately, gusting to 20 knots was below their threshold, and we had no trouble when we requested an opening. We haled the bridge tender well before we got to the bridge, and he had it open for us to sail right through when we got there.