Leaving the town of Great Bridge we went under the eponymous Great Bridge for a quick trip down into North Carolina.
The Bridge is massive and awe-inspiring, and opens on the half hour. We were up and through at 9am…
…And then went under a couple of 65′ bridges, with a lot more confidence than we’d had the day before.
But… Wow! The first bridge we came to, we touched the top of our whip antenna, which made a happy scratching sound on the girders. Hmmm. And the next was the same. And the next. But the antenna has a spring, and it’s designed to bend. No problems, right down into North Carolina and the Currituck Sound.
Which is unbelievably shallow. There’s a long, straight narrow channel about 10 feet deep marked by a line of green cans on the east side. Outside of the channel the depth is around 3 feet. And sometimes the depth in the channel goes down to around 7 or 8 feet. Nervy times.
A couple of commercial fishermen came by in enormous boats with trawling outriggers slanted out the sides. We edged over to the side of the channel, watching the depth go down to 7 feet – gulp – and hailed the fishing boats. After a long few seconds they responded in a language that may have been English, but with an accent so thick and salty and southern down home they could have been speaking Swahili. Nice guys, I think. They edged over to their side, too.
Past the Currituck through another narrow and shallow section into Coinjock, and then down into the Broad River on the Albermarle sound, anchored in the enormous bay. Beautiful, calm, tranquil, for a lovely night.
Sailing Perseverance 