2023 Cruising Highlights, Part II: Pamlico Sound to Chesapeake Bay

 This is part II of a post describing our favorite stops during our nearly year-long cruise along the East Coast. Part I covered our favorite places south of Pamlico Sound, NC. Part II picks up in Pamlico Sound and continues northward.

Our route through the Pamlico and Albemarle Sound region of North Carolina.  South River is at point 13, Oriental is near point 7, Hobucken is south of point 25, Washington is point 31, Ocracoke is point 39, and South Lake anchorage in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is point 59.  

A clearer view without all those points obscuring the chart. 

Site of the former town of Lukens, on the east shore of the South River.

A dinghy adventure up a tributary creek that runs into the South River.

• South River, NC (Anchor): Twenty five years ago, Damon did his dissertation research on the fish and bottlenose dolphins that inhabit the estuaries of North Carolina.  The South River was part of his study area.  It's a beautiful stretch of coastline; sparsely populated and surrounded by salt marsh and pine forest.  While we were anchored there, we spotted a large group of dolphins that included some of the same individuals that Damon studied as a graduate student all those years ago.  There's no real town here, nor any stores or facilities.  But there is a small boat dock and gravel boat ramp, which we were able to use.  On the east side of the South River, is the historic Lukens Cemetery, the only remnants of the defunct town of Lukens.  

The view from Oriental's waterfront park, looking out toward the mouth of the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound.  

The main road in the town of Oriental.  It floods pretty regularly.  You can see that the water is pretty even with the roadway.  Nobody would intentionally build a road, or a town, this low.  Of course, the water was lower (and the land was higher) when the town was founded. 

Water on that same street in Oriental, on a sunny, calm day.  If you look closely, you can see some small, brown fishies swimming near the upper left corner of the sewer grate.  They are  mummichogs.  When not swimming around in the streets, they can be found in salt marshes. 

The free shuttle that takes cruisers to the grocery store.  

The best chandlery ever, located about 50 yards from the waterfront in Oriental.

• Oriental, NC (Dock: Oriental Marina):  The Albemarle & Pamlico Sound region of North Carolina is a fantastic area for cruising, but not many sailors have figured this out (which is one of its attractions). The little town of Oriental, on the north shore of the Neuse River estuary, is in the heart of this great cruising ground. Oriental describes itself as the “Sailing Capital of North Carolina,” and it ticks all the boxes for us.  Besides the typical restaurants and shops, Oriental really caters to cruisers.  The grocery store has a free shuttle that will pick you up at any of the local marinas.  With half a dozen marinas in town, there are plenty of marine services available: riggers, sail lofts, canvas makers, diesel mechanics, electronics shops, fiberglass repair…if you can name it, you’ll find it in the little town of Oriental.  And Oriental is home to our favorite chandlery, Inland Waterway Provision Company.  This store goes above and beyond to help cruisers and they know exactly what their customers need.  They were able to get spare parts for our engine delivered the next day, for free.  And they provide free loaner bikes for cruisers.  We stayed at the well-protected, fixed docks at the Oriental Marina. Among the marina's amenities are a tiki bar and swimming pool, just a few steps away from the dock.  The town of Oriental also has two free docks for transient cruisers, with room for 4 boats. Sadly, Oriental is also one of the places where the effects of rising waters are clearly evident. It's not uncommon to see fish swimming in the street...seriously. This wasn't the case 25 years ago when Damon was conducting his research in this region.

  

The dock at R.E. Mayo Seafood in Hobucken.  Trawl nets spread out to dry and to be mended are common at commercial fish docks. 

Fulmar on the dock at Hobucken's R.E. Mayo Seafood.  Notice the fishing boats in the background.

Loki loves commercial fish docks...there are delicious snacks just laying around everywhere.  This unfortunate pinfish was mummified.  It was the perfect pinfish jerky.  Boy was he mad that we wouldn't let him keep it. 

• Hobucken, NC (Dock: R.E. Mayo Seafood):  This is not a marina, and it’s not luxurious, by any stretch.  It is a commercial dock for Hobucken’s fleet of large fishing vessels.  Dockage here is cheap and they sell seafood at wholesale prices.  We got overnight dockage, a pound of shrimp, and a couple grouper filets for $42!  The dock is just one long face dock, right on the ICW. So it’s easy in, easy out.  Besides selling seafood, they have a great marine supply store that caters to the fishing vessels.  So it’s a good place to stock up on parts and supplies.  There is literally nothing else in the area, besides mosquitos and stray cats, so it’s not the kind of place where you’d want to spend a lot of time.  But it’s a convenient stop, halfway between the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers, and a good departure point for heading to the Outer Banks, which lie on the opposite side of Pamlico Sound.  Because of its central location, we stopped in Hobucken three times during this cruise.   

The city docks in Washington, NC.  Fulmar is the second mast from the right.

• Washington, NC (Dock: Washington Waterfront Docks):  We found North Carolina to be the most cruiser-friendly state, and “Little Washington” is legendary among cruisers for its hospitality.  Near the heart of this historic town, the municipal docks provide easy access to stores and restaurants of all types.  The city docks cater to cruisers, with inexpensive rates, free loaner bikes, cheap laundry facilities, and nice showers.  Most importantly, they have friendly, knowledgeable staff (who, by the way, carry dog treats in their golf carts, much to Loki’s enjoyment).  This also happens to be the home town of Pacific Seacraft Yachts, the company that built Fulmar.   Little Washington is fantastic, but it’s blazing hot in summer.  In fact, the extreme heat caused our inflatable paddle board to explode violently.  So after our stay here, we escaped the heat by heading east, down the Pamlico River and across the Sound to the Outer Banks.

Ocracoke Island has a rich maritime history.

   

Howard's Pub: for over 25 years it has been a favorite joint of ours on Ocracoke.

Silver Lake, Ocracoke's main harbor.

Loki: "Crab cakes and steaks?  Yes, please."

• Ocracoke, NC (Dock: Anchorage Inn & Marina):  Ocracoke Island is a beach community that is part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, which are the barrier islands that form the eastern boundary of Pamlico Sound.  Unlike the other Outer Banks communities, which are all accessible from the mainland by car, Ocracoke is only accessible by boat.  If you don’t have your own boat, you can take a ferry.  The added difficulty of getting to Ocracoke keeps it a little less crowded and a little less developed than the communities on the neighboring islands to the north.  Most of the Island is National Seashore (similar to a national park).  We stayed on a fixed dock at the Anchorage Inn & Marina, just feet away from an outdoor restaurant and swimming pool.  (You may be sensing a pattern.)  Ocracoke is not a great place to provision or to accomplish major boat projects, but the beaches are spectacular, and its temperature in the summer is about 10 degrees cooler than what you find on the west side of Pamlico Sound.  It also has great restaurants, including one of our all-time favorite beach bars, Howard’s Pub.

We celebrated Janet's birthday in Belhaven.  Who would have guessed that Loki loves cake. 

• Belhaven, NC (Dock: Belhaven Marina):  Belhaven is a cute little town with less than 2,000 residents.  It’s on the Pungo River and feels like it’s at the edge of the known world.  The Mexican restaurant in town has great, inexpensive food and their margaritas come in a glass that’s bigger than your head.  The Belhaven Marina is one of the smallest marinas we visited and definitely one of the friendliest.  Despite its small size and reasonable price, they provided great service and had fantastic facilities.  The grocery store is a couple of miles away, so the marina provides a free, street-legal golf cart for their customers to run errands.  

• South Lake/Alligator River, NC (Anchor):  The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is one of America's great wilderness areas.  It's the only place on the Atlantic coast where red wolves live.  It’s pretty far “out there,” so there aren’t any shoreside facilities.  But we found that we could get ashore by taking the dinghy up a narrow creek to where local crab fishermen keep their boats.  There was nothing there but a dirt road and a few small crab boats tied to shore.  But Loki isn’t too picky.  It wasn’t easy to find this little creek at 10:00 on a dark, overcast, misty night, even though we had been there in the daylight just a few hours earlier.  That’s just part of the fun of cruising.  This area near the mouth of the Alligator River and south shore of Albemarle Sound had the highest densities of crab pot buoys of our entire trip.  The crabbers avoided setting their gear in the main channel of the ICW but getting from the ICW to the anchorage required some careful maneuvering.   

At the free docks in Great Bridge, you get a front-row seat to watch the barges go by.

• Great Bridge/Chesapeake, VA (Dock: Great Bridge Free Dock):  Great Bridge is at the north end of the Virginia Cut Canal, and is the gateway to Chesapeake Bay. There are two free docks just south of the Great Bridge Lock; one on either side of the drawbridge (which, believe it or not, is called the “Great Bridge Bridge”).  The docks are both located in public parks and are an easy walk to stores and restaurants.  We tied up to the bulkhead that lies between the lock and bridge.  Both of these free docks are right on the ICW, and they are long face docks, which makes arrival and departure quick & easy.  This area is very well protected from wave action and tidal currents, thanks to the lock.  There is quite a bit of commercial vessel traffic that passes through this stretch of the ICW.  It can be disconcerting to have 300-foot-long barges pass within 10 feet of your docked boat.  But you get used to it.  This is a not-to-be-missed stop on the ICW.  

Our route around the Chesapeake Bay.  Yorktown is just off the bottom of the chart, Urbanna is point 129, Reedville is 219, Solomons is west of 211, and Oxford is the northernmost point.

Looking north from the dock in Yorktown.  It's beautiful but that's a lot of open water, and it continues out into the Chesapeake.

• Yorktown, VA (Dock: Riverwalk Landing Pier):  This is not a great place to provision or to work on boat projects.  There really aren’t any stores of any kind nearby.  But it is a great place to geek out on history.  There is  Historic Yorktown, the Yorktown Battlefield National Colonial Historic Park, the Revolutionary War Museum, the Waterman’s Museum, and a great little public beach, all within an easy walk of the dock.  And there are some very unusual geologic formations in this region that scientists call “hills.”  Having spent the last 7 years on the coastal plain of the Southeast U.S., we can’t remember the last time we encountered a hill.  The River Walk Landing public dock at York is pretty exposed to open water.  It’s not a great place to be during unsettled weather, but we had a great time there during a week of relatively calm conditions. 

Loki on the small barrier beach that protects Urbanna's harbor.

• Urbanna, VA (Anchor and Dock: Urbanna Marina):  Urbanna is a great little town located about 10 miles up the Rappahannock River.  We stayed at anchor for several days here, then moved to a slip at the Urbanna Marina so we could fill our water tanks and do some boat chores before heading back out.  The anchorage at Urbanna is snug and it’s just a short ride to the public dinghy dock.  Restaurants, shops, and a grocery store were all within reasonable walking distance.  Marinas in the Chesapeake tend to be expensive and, yes, a bit pretentious.  Urbanna Marina is an exception.  The marina has very nice facilities but it is literally a mom & pop operation.  The owner is also the dock master, and he provided great service.  When we asked him if there was anywhere in town where we could get our propane tank filled, he apologized and said that there wasn’t any place close that could do it.  Because of this, he explained, that he was working on getting a propane filling station at the marina but it wouldn’t be operational until next season.  Then he said that he had to run some errands in the neighboring town that afternoon and could fill our tank while he was out.  So he took the tank with him, filled it, and brought it right back to our boat.  Now that’s service.  They also had free loaner bikes.

  

The smell of money.  One of the many menhaden purse seiners based in Reedville. 

The waterfront in Reedville.  There's not much freeboard on those docks, or on the surrounding land.

One of the many stately homes on Reedville's Main Street, known to locals as "Millionaire's Row."

• Reedville, VA (Anchor):  Reedville is the menhaden fishing capital of the world, and the menhaden fishery is the largest fishery on the U.S. East Coast.  For over a century, these little fish have made Reedville a prosperous community, indicated by the Victorian mansions that line either side of the town’s main street, nicknamed “Millionaires’ Row.”   The harbor at Reedville is a complex network of relatively deep creeks, offering great protection from the weather.  One of the local restaurants has a dock that it makes available for free, even though the restaurant is only open on the weekends.  It’s a quiet, picturesque fishing town.  Cruisers just have to know not to anchor downwind from the fish processing plant or too close to the any of the commercial docks.  The menhaden fishing boats are enormous and there isn’t a lot of room to maneuver in the creeks.  

Crowd at the speed docking competition on Solomon's Island, put on by the Calvert County Watermen's Association.

Tripling up our mooring pennant in preparation for tropical storm Ophelia.

Dead calm during a blood red sunset over Solomons, as we wait for the arrival of tropical storm Ophelia.

• Solomon’s Island, MD (Mooring: Zahnisers Safe Harbor Marina):  Solomon's Maryland is a sailing and fishing town. It's also home to the Cheseapeake Biological Laboratory; sort of the Woods Hole of Chesapeake Bay. The harbor at Solomon’s Island is large and well-protected, but its shoreline is highly developed.  Almost the entire shoreline is lined with marina docks, bulkheads, and private docks.  The mooring field operated by Zahnisers Safe Harbor Marina is extremely close to the docks.  We stayed for a total of about three weeks, during two separate stops.  For most of that time, we didn’t bother to use the outboard motor on our dinghy because we were so close to shore.  When the wind was blowing from a favorable direction, we’d compete to see who could row to the dinghy dock using the fewest number of strokes (Damon did it in 9 strokes).  Being close to shore is convenient.  But in a storm, there is such a thing as being a little too close for comfort, especially when that shoreline is ringed with docks.  The mooring fees here were the most expensive of our entire trip, comparable to the dockage rates at a lot of marinas.  Given the high rates that they charge, you’d expect the moorings to be in top condition.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  One morning when we had returned to the boat after taking Loki for a walk, we noticed that the large trawler yacht that had been on the mooring just upwind of us, was now on a different mooring. It turned out that their mooring pennant had parted, in relatively moderate winds.  Fortunately, the owners of that boat were aboard and recognized the problem immediately.  They were able to start their engines and get the boat under control before they crashed into Fulmar.  We were very thankful for their quick action.  After hearing their story, we immediately tripled up the pennant on our mooring to be safe.  Two days later, we weathered a glancing blow from a tropical storm, without incident.  On the plus side, this marina did provide free bikes, shuttle van, and coffee (Damon can drink a lot of Joe, so this turned out to be quite a savings for us).  It also had a nice pool and outdoor bar (which we never used).  But the best thing about Zahnisers is that it is a Clean Marina, an official designation which means they have high environmental standards.  Among the requirements to maintain this standard, they have to maintain facilities for collecting used oil and antifreeze.  Oil recycling is pretty common (but not universal).  Collecting used antifreeze, however, is really rare.  Antifreeze is recyclable, but almost no marina or auto parts store accepts it. Disposing of it is a problem because it is toxic.  The last time we serviced our engine’s heat exchanger, it took us weeks to find a place that would accept the used antifreeze.  Because we knew Zahnisers would gladly take our used antifreeze, we decided to return there for a second visit to do some routine engine maintenance.  

The race fleet tied up at the Oxford Yacht Club, after finishing the Race to Oxford (from Annapolis).

• Oxford, MD (Dock: Safe Harbor Oxford Marina):  Oxford is a quiet, little village on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, with a healthy mix of yachts and commercial fishing boats.  There is definitely a lot of money there.  Many of the elegant homes seemed like weekend retreats for people whose primary residences are near DC or Baltimore.  We were in Oxford during the 68th annual Race to Oxford, a sailing regatta that goes from Annapolis to Oxford and is sponsored by the U.S. Naval Academy.  The marina was quite nice.  Like most marinas around the Chesapeake, it seemed to cater primarily to local yacht owners rather than transient cruisers.  While we were tied up in Oxford, we experienced some of the strongest thunder storms of our entire trip.      

So those were some of the highlights from our 317 days of cruising the East Coast.  We hope to revisit these places again.  But for now, we need to concentrate on replenishing our cruising kitty!