Coinjock - at a dock

 

14 boats were in the docks and three more didn’t fit in and had to wait an hour

It was  a quiet night but the north winds started up early in the morning. The high for the day was when we started south at 8:00 am. We made all the railroad bridges to our great relief and bunched up at the Gilmerton Bridge waiting for a huge tug and barge going north. Once through there it was smooth sailing until the locks. 

We met the restaurant manager - great prime rib!!

You need to get to the locks on the half hour for staging to get through Great Bridge on top of the hour. We let many boats pass us since they were all early and we thought there was lots of room in the locks, it’s one of the bigger ones on the ICW. At it turned out, we perhaps let too many boats pass us since we were the next to the last boat to get in. There were three boats that did not make it. The locks were full with 14 boats! No more room! They had to wait an hour for the next group. 

Dock hands were very helpful!

The cruise to Coinjock was uneventful, no surprises as to shoaling. As expected, Coinjock was also full. We naturally reserved a prime rib dinner, rare of course. I finished mine but Ann will have dinner tomorrow with hers. It will be in the 40s tonight, cold for this time of the year but it will warm up the next day into the 70s with calm winds for the Albemarle crossing. We will spend the night at Alligator River Marina. 

Meanwhile, I’m continuing my T-Mobile test with my iPhone Pro 14. The real test will be along the Alligator River and the Alligator-River Canal, yet to come. The download speeds have been better than I expected, so far - better than I ever got with Verizon.