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Crossing the Albemarle Sound
to Buck Island
We
were off at ten to eight from this interesting anchorage with the small biting
hornets armed with the blunt cocktail stick stabbers; that for a change
terrorised Bear instead of me, thanks Bear. Your
welcome he says growlingly through gritted teeth - still
itching his ten or so bites on his feet. The
sunrise actually looked more like a sunset. Soon away we entered the
Alligator River. Bear's knee is unchanged, so with
painkillers to hand he sits beside me, facing my way with his leg up on a
pillow; his job to read anything of note from the guide book re: navigating,
depth, anything to look out for, upcoming bridges and
what type they are. You could say he has become my First Mate and another sort
of Beautiful Assistant to add to his portfolio (Photographers Beautiful
Assistants' mantle already worn - except he has been awarded several three
faults for refusing to carry Simon out and about). Too
bloody right - he does weigh 13 pounds.
I was really chuffed to see the 100 mile marker to Norfolk,
the end of the ICW, as these are statute miles we seemed to get to the 95 and 90
quite quickly
Away
in the distance I saw the Alligator River Bridge.
A swing bridge, opens on
request. Thank you Bear. Some 2.34 nautical miles wide, seemingly in
the middle of nowhere.
Safely through the bridge and wished "a safe onward journey
ma'am"
Onward to a
wiggly bit well marked with buoys and crab
fisherman hauling their many baskets
Just
into the Albemarle Sound we saw a barge pushing a wood
chipping pile, still looks like a sand pit to me, just like the one
we met before. The wind was getting up at this point.
Albemarle
Sound is
a large estuary on the coast of
North
Carolina in the United
States located at the
confluence of a group of rivers, including the Chowan and Roanoke. It is separated
from the Atlantic
Ocean by the Outer
Banks, a long barrier
peninsula upon which the town of Kitty
Hawk
is located, at the eastern edge of the sound. Roanoke
Island is situated at the
southeastern corner of the sound, where it connects to Pamlico
Sound. Much of the water
in the Albemarle Sound is brackish or fresh, as opposed to the saltwater of the
ocean, as a result of river water pouring into the
sound.
Some small portions
of the Albemarle have been given their own "sound" names to distinguish these
bodies of water from other parts of the large estuary. The Croatan
Sound, for instance, lies
between mainland Dare
County and Roanoke Island.
The eastern shore of the island to the Outer Banks is commonly referred to as
the Roanoke
Sound. The long stretch of
water from near the Virginia state line south to
around the Currituck
County southern boundary is
known as the Currituck
Sound. The sound forms part of the
Atlantic
Intracoastal Waterway. Its coast saw the
first permanent English settlements in what became North Carolina, the Albemarle
Settlements. Many inland
tidewater communities along
the Albemarle today are part of the Inner
Banks region of the
state.
Before Europeans came
to the Albemarle Sound, the Algonquian Indians lived in the
region. They traveled the sound in dugout
canoes, and trapped
fish. In 1586 the first
European explorers sailed up the fifty-five mile length of the Albemarle Sound.
Half a century later, the first European settlers came south from Virginia, establishing
agricultural and trading colonies along the shores of the Sound. The Albemarle
Sound soon became a very important thoroughfare, with small trading ships called
Coasters carrying cargo to
and from other colonies, and larger merchant ships bringing spices, silks, and
sugars from the West
Indies in exchange for
products such as tobacco (a major export of
the southern colonies), herring, and lumber.
In 1663,
Albemarle Sound was made part of the Province
of Carolina by King
Charles II of England and given to eight
Lords
Proprietors. One of these royal
beneficiaries was George
Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, for whom the sound
is named.
Ferries were a common method
of transportation through the swamps surrounding the Albemarle Sound throughout
the history of the region. One ferry that linked the towns of Edenton and Mackeys,
North Carolina, continued in
service from 1734 to 1938, when a bridge was built across the Sound. Another
longer bridge of more than 3 miles in length was built in 1990. Fishing was a major
industry in the Albemarle Sound. In late spring, plantation farmers would fish
for shad, striped
bass, and herring. Nets used by these
fishermen were sometimes enormous, with some more than a mile (1600 m) long, and
were frequently manned 24 hours a day. Herring was cut and salted for export to
Europe, while shad was packed in ice and shipped up the Chowan
River to be sold in
northern colonies. Regional striped bass tournaments attracted sport fishermen
to the area, and it was considered by many to be the greatest striped bass
fishery in the world. Overfishing in recent
years has depleted the fisheries of the Albemarle Sound by seventy
percent.
I had to hand steer across the eleven miles as the wind was
gusting Force 6 to 7. I have said before that it is impossible to take decent
pictures of rough water, but believe me we were
thrown all over the place on six foot waves in their usual sets of three. The
conditions were due to the northerly wind (not forecast to be from the
north) over the shallow water of the sound - we had four metres below us -
shallow for such an enormous stretch of water. There was a great deal of relief
at the other side when we were soon into sheltered water, not far from days
end.
Just in case there was a repeat of blunt cocktail stick
bearing hornets, as soon as we anchored up went the
fly screens. A complete knob in a huge motor cruiser passed by at speed and we
were once agin being tossed about. Thank Heavens for the gimble on the cooker -
or else I would have had carbonara all over the kitchen ceiling. All over and
playing backgammon.
ALL IN ALL AN EVENTFUL 40 NAUTICAL
MILES
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