Day 11: Upper Alligator River – Home (50+ miles)

For our final cruise day we were underway by 0800 on calm seas with temps in the low 60’s. As we cruised on down the Alligator, we began to encounter a whole armada of southbound snow-birders heading toward Florida for the winter. I was actually surprised to encounter so many boats this early in the season, but Buck thinks we passed over 100 of them today.

We cleared the Alligator Bridge northbound about noon. Buck made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch as all our other options had previously been consumed.

As we turned to the west after clearing the Alligator River channel, we were able to hoist sail and take advantage of the light following winds. They weren’t enough to let us shut off the engine, but they did give us a bit more speed without any additional throttle. We were averaging about 8.2 knots as opposed to the 7.5 before hoisting the sails.

After several hours, we cleared Harvey Point, entered our channel and called the marina to schedule fuel and pumpout. Fuel consumption coming back from Beaufort was consistent with that going down: 40 gallons. We consumed a total of 80 gallons for the 11 days. I can live with that!

We then encountered a bit of a problem pumping out. The plantation’s system put more waste water into my holding tank rather than pumping it out. I heard a yell from Buck when the tanks and my toilet bowl all filled up. Needless to say, we stopped the attempt at that point. One might say we were “full of ****!” I will attempt to get pumped out when they repair the system. That was our only mechanical issue on the entire trip, and it wasn’t our boat’s problem.

We were unloading at my dock by 1500. All-in-all, another wonderful cruise. I can't wait for the next one.....