Day Ten
We arose to a grey and windy landscape Friday morning after a night of wind-driven rain. Since we only had to travel about 15 miles to the Alligator River Marina at the mouth of the river where it enters the Albemarle Sound, we didn't try to get off early. We knew from monitoring the weather forecasts the previous day that wave heights of 3-4 feet were forecast for the Albemarle Sound for Friday so we didn't plan to try to cross.
As soon as we rounded the protected point where we had anchored for the night and were hit by the full force of the wind, we knew that getting downstream to the Alligator River Marina was going to be a challenge. Wave heights were at 3 feet by 0800 and trending higher with the wind. within a couple of miles, wave heights were exceeding 4 feet and the wind was gusting over 30 mph. We were safe, but were having to slow down significantly to minimize pounding through the waves. After about 1/2 an hour of struggling northward, we decided to turn around and run back to our protected anchorage. We did so and were back by 0930.
We arose to a grey and windy landscape Friday morning after a night of wind-driven rain. Since we only had to travel about 15 miles to the Alligator River Marina at the mouth of the river where it enters the Albemarle Sound, we didn't try to get off early. We knew from monitoring the weather forecasts the previous day that wave heights of 3-4 feet were forecast for the Albemarle Sound for Friday so we didn't plan to try to cross.
As soon as we rounded the protected point where we had anchored for the night and were hit by the full force of the wind, we knew that getting downstream to the Alligator River Marina was going to be a challenge. Wave heights were at 3 feet by 0800 and trending higher with the wind. within a couple of miles, wave heights were exceeding 4 feet and the wind was gusting over 30 mph. We were safe, but were having to slow down significantly to minimize pounding through the waves. After about 1/2 an hour of struggling northward, we decided to turn around and run back to our protected anchorage. We did so and were back by 0930. Over the course of the day we were joined by 13 other boats. 
The wind continued to buld and gusted over 40 mph at times. I extended our anchor rode to a factor of 10 to decrease the chances of dragging. I also enabled the anchor drag alarm on my chartplotter/GPS. I put in a movement factor of 25 meters to take into account the potential stretch of the nylon anchor rode (rope). Even with this much of a factor we got several alarms as the wind caused the rode to stretch more than 25 meters. 
The photo shows my swing pattern before and after I increased the length of my rode. By the way, I also put up both the port and starboard cockpit side curtains to act as somewhat of a "storm sail" to minimize swing.We heard on the radio that the Alligator River Bridge had been closed for several hours due to the high winds, so we definitely made the right decision in turning back.
We spent the day listening to a local FM radio station, doing some maintenance and reading. We whipped up a pot of navy bean and ham soup for lunch and, had sauted salmon steaks and rice for dinner. Unfortunately, we had finished off the salad fixings the night before. Luckily, the wind slacked off by around 2100 so I was able to get a decent night's sleep. The previous night I kept getting up to check our position relative to shore and the other boats in the anchorage (That was before I thought about enabling the anchor drag alarm.
The wind continued to buld and gusted over 40 mph at times. I extended our anchor rode to a factor of 10 to decrease the chances of dragging. I also enabled the anchor drag alarm on my chartplotter/GPS. I put in a movement factor of 25 meters to take into account the potential stretch of the nylon anchor rode (rope). Even with this much of a factor we got several alarms as the wind caused the rode to stretch more than 25 meters. 
The photo shows my swing pattern before and after I increased the length of my rode. By the way, I also put up both the port and starboard cockpit side curtains to act as somewhat of a "storm sail" to minimize swing.We heard on the radio that the Alligator River Bridge had been closed for several hours due to the high winds, so we definitely made the right decision in turning back.We spent the day listening to a local FM radio station, doing some maintenance and reading. We whipped up a pot of navy bean and ham soup for lunch and, had sauted salmon steaks and rice for dinner. Unfortunately, we had finished off the salad fixings the night before. Luckily, the wind slacked off by around 2100 so I was able to get a decent night's sleep. The previous night I kept getting up to check our position relative to shore and the other boats in the anchorage (That was before I thought about enabling the anchor drag alarm.
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