July 21, 2007

Coinjock Marina & Restaurant

Coinjock , NC

Better Days and Follow the Leader………

As you could probably detect from the last installment of the “Sea Wings” saga, we had a bad dose of “ditch fever” and everything seemed to be going wrong. But, as usually happens, the next day dawns and brings change, positive in this case.

Our second day in Oriental, NC brought us an AC mechanic who had our unit up and running in a half hour. Our mail arrived as scheduled, and we enjoyed an afternoon of exploring Oriental by bicycle. We actually got out of the marina without going aground the next morning and headed for our next stop in Bellhaven, NC.

Our trip took us out into Pamilco and Pungo Rivers and for the first time in way too long; we had a glorious day of sailing. The wind was not too strong, but enough that we could relax and enjoy it, not having to look for every breath of air.

There was only one other sailboat in sight who was ahead of us and on the same course. Of course we started “racing” and began to gain slowly on them. A quick look in the binoculars revealed that it was the same boat we had been following for days, but were never able to meet the couple. The boat was a PDQ Antares 44i catamaran that you may have seen in the July issue of Cruising World. There was an article titled “Taking a Leap of Faith” written by Lynne Walsh about their moving onto their new boat. We had seen their boat “Leap of Faith” offshore on the run to Savannah, Ga, in the marina at Isle of Hope, Ga, at anchor on the Ashley River in Charleston, at anchor after we arrived in Wrightsville Beach, NC, at Town Dock Marina in Beaufort, NC, and now we were right behind them as we headed to Bellhaven. As luck would have it, as we turned into the harbor they continued on northward and we had missed them again.

The next day was a long one which took us into a lot of open water including the Albemarle Sound. Typically, much of the open water was too shallow to sail and we were motoring again through a narrow channel surrounded by miles of water we could not use. We were looking forward to the sail across Albemarle Sound and just after entering it we were hit with a fast moving storm cell that gave us 35 knots right on the nose and enough rain that we could only see about 200 ft in front of the boat. So we motored again, pounding into the rapidly building waves, learning how to reduce the rain clutter on the radar, and keeping close watch for boats we might miss on the scope. Of course there were only two other boats we saw all afternoon as everybody else was not stupid enough to go across in the storm. But our biggest problem was that as the sky darkens, the water turns from brown to black, and suddenly we were in a minefield of crab trap buoys that just happened to belong to the guy who likes to paint his buoys black. A black buoy on a roiling black sea is essentially invisible. Not wanting to dive on a fouled prop in these conditions, we tip toed through them, only able to see them when they were several yards from the boat. Those crab traps were the worst part of the whole two hour storm!

Of course the weather settled just as we started up the ditch again and we motored on to Coinjock Marina. Upon our arrival we were directed to dock directly behind, whom else but “Leap of Faith”. We arrived late and were wet and hungry so went directly to the bar and thought we would try to meet Bob and Lynne after drinks. But instead we met an interesting local couple in the bar and stayed for many drinks and a late dinner. Dinner was crab cakes that were absolutely to die for!!! Almost all meat, they were the best we have had anywhere, anytime. If you are ever even close to Coinjock, NC you must stop at the Coinjock Marina Restaurant. We had a memorable evening seated at the bar with fantastic food, good conversation with a local artist couple and expertly attended to by a colorful gay bartender. As we walked back to our boat, it was late and “Leap of Faith” seemed settled down for the night so we decided to knock on their hull in the morning.