Intracoastal Waterway Cruise - Day 4 Oriental NC

An unexpected yet pleasant stop at Pamlico Sound in Oriental NC as “Special K” slowly heads south along the Atlantic ICW cruise to Florida

This guest post blog series details the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Cruise of two friends, Karen and George, as they cruise the east coast from Chesapeake Bay to the Florida Gulf Coast.

The fourth day of our ICW cruise started off with a little unplanned clean-up. Our little fellow Diesel decided to start the morning off with a dip in the local black mud swamp. OH what a mess! I wish I had a picture. Well once again I can not say enough about how wonderful our “pocket hose” is… a must-have for boaters (especially boaters with dogs)!

We left port from Coinjock NC at 7:30 am with hopes of making it to Beaufort, NC. We continued a southern route through the ICW entering the Albemarle Sound.

We appreciated our sharpened navigation skills at this point since there are few markers to follow.

Also helpful was the information we had gleamed the evening before talking to others who had passed this way before us. We had heard that these waters could be rough due to cross winds. And indeed they were.

Warning: keep an eye out for the crab pots – they are everywhere!

Overall the day way uneventful. But slower than expected. We traveled through the Albemarle sound to the Alligator River and then into the Alligator River – Pungo River Canal. We had been traveling during this time averaging around 11K with our synchronizer on.

As we exited the Pungo River into the Pamlico Sound we began to notice a “drag” on the starboard engine. We turned the synchronizer off and everything seemed to level out but port throttle wanted to pull full steam ahead.

We had been traveling about ten hours at this point so decided to look for a place to hang out for the night.

We were fortunate to find a real jewel of a marina.

Just off the Pamlico Sound in Oriental, NC we pulled into River Dunes Marina.

WOW. We rank this place and A++. The staff were courteous, helpful and more than accommodating. This well protected harbor offered first class accommodations and is a “must-see” destination on the ICW. The bathrooms, fitness facilities and surrounding accommodations (like the pool and hot tub overlooking the water) were simply beautiful.

A very luxurious, restful stop after a long day on the water.

Follow the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Cruise

Continue to follow their two week journey on this blog as Karen shares guest posts detailing each leg of their cruise along the Intracoastal Waterways.

See all the latest posts:
Intracoastal Waterway Cruise

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Diane Seltzer

Founder & Editor at My Boat Life

Diane is the founder of MyBoatLife.com as well as the boating lifestyle site for kids BoaterKids.com. Active in the boating industry, Diane is also the CMO of Epoch Boats, an all-electric hydrofoil boat startup.