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A Creek Too Far

Text and Photographs by David Swanson.

Having settled firmly into retirement and with warmer weather rapidly approaching, I decided it was time for a more ambitious trip, at least by my standards. The plan was to leave Potters Marine on the Pamlico River and head up the west side of the Pamlico Sound, stopping at Juniper Bay, Wysocking Bay, Engelhard, and Long Shoal River. I then planned to head across to Manteo for a couple days and proceed north on the Ronaoke Sound to the Albamarle Sound and into one of the anchorages at the mouth of the Alligator River. After that, I was going to head south and traverse the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal, go down the Pungo River, and finally back to Potters. I planned for eight days, plus one or two weather days. Like most plans, this one didn’t pan out too well.

I drove to Potters on Wednesday May 21, and got the Flying Beagle, our 1973 Stone Horse cutter, ready to go. Despite those efforts, it was 9:15 am Thursday when I finally left the dock. The wind was already 15 knots from the west with higher forecasted so I went with a reefed mainsail and the staysail, no jib. By the time I reached the Pamlico Sound the wind was 20 to occasionally 25 knots and the steep waves were three feet and occasionally higher. I was having difficulty controlling the boat, and the conditions were rough enough that I didn’t want to try to round up into the wind to start the motor and/or drop the sails, so I turned north into Rose Bay. It was still rough, but the waves were enough smaller that I could get things under control. After dropping the sails, I motored into Deep Bay but it was too rough to think about anchoring there. I motored through the small canal to Swanquarter Bay, and down into a little bay I had scouted out previously on the west side near green “3A” with protection on three sides and 5-1/2 feet of water. Even here there were breaking waves, but it was sheltered enough to anchor for the night. By nightfall the wind had died down some and it ended up being a good spot for the night.

Day two dawned with only slightly less wind. I raised anchor at 7:40 and motorsailed down Swanquarter Bay to the sound. I passed the West Bluff Bay marker at 10:00 am and Bluff Point at 10:40 am. As I entered Wysocking Bay I was motoring straight into 20 knots of wind, and rough enough water to make me question if anchoring was going to be an option. It wasn’t until I had gone about three miles up to the head of the bay that I found a really calm spot. I anchored there at 2:30 pm in four feet of water and hoped the wind tide wouldn’t fall overnight. There was one small farm building visible in the distance, and a couple small recreation fishing skiffs came by, but not much else – no crab pots or nets, nor other boats. This was a great spot if you don’t draw much water, but a boat with a “normal” five foot draft would have had to anchor far enough out to have a really rough night. Wysocking Bay is really not a good spot to anchor unless the winds are pretty light.

Saturday morning brought good news – the water had risen half a foot, not fallen. The weather was cool, and the wind light. After reviewing the weather forecast I determined that the Manteo portion of the trip was not going to happen. Several days of stormy weather seemed likely so I decided to head straight for Long Shoal River for the day, then come back south to Engelhard. I motored into the light north wind to Long Shoal River. The entrance is not very distinct, and the marker “1PS” on Pingleton Shoal is missing both the sign board and the light making it difficult to pick out.

As if on cue the wind sprang up, reaching 15 to 20 knots from the west and northwest. My initial plan was to head up the river and tuck in as close to the west bank as possible. The one other sailboat I had seen since leaving Potters had done this exact thing. Water depths were good so I just kept heading farther north, eventually reaching a pool near the US-264 bridge with five feet of water and good protection from every direction but southeast. It was very narrow and there was a line of crab pots down the middle but I was able to wedge in for a quiet night. The fishing was good here too if you like croakers. I notified the USCG about the “1PS” marker being damaged and settled in for the night even though it was only 1:30 pm.

Sunday morning started with almost no wind. I left the anchorage at 7:30 am and decided to explore some on my way out of the river. I motored back down the river and turned east into Pains Bay. There was much deeper water here than the chart indicated. By steering for the charted four-foot soundings I kept seven feet all the way to the head of the bay. On the way out I tucked up close to the north side and found six feet up to within 0.1 nm or less of the shore. This seems like it would make a good spot in a north east blow. Otherwise, anchoring on the Long Shoal River seems to be a matter of deciding if the east or west side gives a better lee and dropping the hook as close in as your draft allows. There isn’t anything there other than a number of duck blinds, but there are a few crab pots to watch out for and a decent number of recreational fishermen.

After my side excursion, I headed towards Engelhard. There was still little wind so we played motorboat. Once I reached Far Creek the wind picked up a little but it was still less than 15 knots. Far Creek channel is narrow, and you have to stay close to the green markers. Note that “5” is a buoy rather than a day mark, making it harder to see. There is 9+ feet of water the whole way except near green “7”. There were also commercial fishing boats going in and out at the same time, making things even more interesting.

Big Trout Marina is on the right just past red “10”. There is a long face dock with corrugated material under it and several missing boards; I originally tied up here. After finding out that there was no power on this dock I moved to one of the inner slips. The situation there was not much better. The docks were in better shape but the power didn’t work at any of the slips. There was only one water connection, near the (closed) grill. There were no showers, and the only bathroom was inside the grill. Frank the owner was super nice; he would let me in the grill to use the head if he was around. He ran an extension cord from the main power panel so I could charge the boat batteries. He even gave me a ride in his golf cart to a gas station that had non-ethanol gas. Apparently, after his wife passed away three years ago, Frank closed the grill and concentrated on the trailer park he owns. I spent the afternoon walking around the harbor, looking at the fishing craft. The harbor has been cleaned up a lot in the last two years or so, and seems to be a very active fishing enclave. A local brought me some homemade lasagna at dinner time, which was super kind.

While the fishing business seems to be booming in Engelhard, not much else is. A lot of the town is empty buildings, many falling down. The bank is closed and the building is for sale. The grocery store is gone, but there is a Dollar General about 1-3/4 miles from the marina. The convenience store is being renovated so the business is working from an 8’ X 8’ shed (and most of that is taken up with lottery tickets). There is a take-out food place in town but it was only open sporadically. The CAMA water access board walk is closed because it is unsafe. There are a lot of free range cats and mosquitoes and not much else.

Memorial Day Monday morning brought rain and wind – lots of both, along with a Small Craft Advisory. There was no chance of leaving then. I was able to walk out to the edge of town and stop at the Dollar General for some groceries in the afternoon before the rain started back up. The Sugar ‘n’ Spice Grill opened briefly but by the time I put my groceries away and walked back they were closed again.

Tuesday morning had less wind and no rain, but the forecast was for more wind in the afternoon and it proved to be correct. A Small Craft Advisory was posted again. Tuesday night the rain came in hard and stayed until mid-day Wednesday. Sugar ‘n’ Spice was rumored to be open for a while again but not when I walked up there. My supply of fresh food was beginning to get a bit thin although I still had plenty of canned food and such. Given the unsettled weather pattern, I expected to be anchored out at least one night on the way back to Potters, so I really needed to start heading back.

Finally Thursday morning I was able to break free and leave Engelhard. The fishing boats started heading out about 5:00 am; I followed at 7:40. There was very light wind from the north so the Stone Horse was a motorboat again. With the flat water I was able to make good time and was off Juniper Bay at noon. At that point I had to decide if I wanted to stop and anchor before the large area of thunderstorms arrived and risk being stuck for another day or two, or head on and risk getting caught out in some potentially severe storms. I continued to the mouth of Swanquarter Bay where the cell reception was better and reviewed the weather radar. It looked like the storms and I would arrive at Potters at about the same time so I decided to push on. Shortly afterwards I saw a circle of dolphins driving fish into a ball to make it easier to hunt, while pelicans dived in from above. I hoped that this was a good sign.

As I got closer to the junction of the Pamlico and Pungo rivers, the clouds began to gather and a southeasterly wind began to build. I continued to motor full bore, and was briefly joined by more dolphins. I reached North Creek a little before 5:00 pm, and was docked by 5:15. Forty-eight nautical miles in nine hours thirty-five minutes, a little better than 5 knots average. By 7:00 the thunderstorms were on us and it rained hard for much of the night.

Friday morning I took myself to breakfast in Belhaven, then packed up the boat and headed home. I stopped for a brief visit with Paul and his old Matthew’s Point friends Vic and Gigi. Paul gifted me a very nice print of the chart of our Wet and Windy Cruise from last September.

So this wasn’t the cruise that I had planned, and it wasn’t a cruise that I would care to repeat. I did get to go to three new-to-me anchorages and to visit Engelhard. The upper Pamlico Sound does not have a lot of recreational boats on it and the shoreline is not developed. It reminded me a lot of the Core Sound back in the 1980’s. None of the anchorages are really good, and the only place to resupply is Engelhard, which does not have fuel nor diesel available dockside. Sailing this section of the sound is much more like cruising was 50 years ago.