Merritt, NC to Portsmouth, VA
- True North
- Jun 8
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 18
Week one of our travels north brings us to Portsmouth (or Norfolk - across the river) Virginia. This is the north end of the ICW, the Intracoastal Waterway. We've been traveling on the ICW since we bought True North down in Charleston, SC. The channel is well marked, with lots of guidebooks and charts. They have recent sonar maps that clearly show depths, so you can basically follow the dotted line. From here north we will still have all the charts and guidebooks, but no more dotted line.
The first few days of our travels north involved a lot of motoring down the channels - sometimes straight for miles and miles, other times we enter river systems with lots of side channels. The route is also riddled with bridges - some fixed 65' high bridges that we should be able to sail right under (but it is still nerve-wracking each time), other swing or drawbridges that require calling to arrange an opening - or arriving on time at the scheduled timeslots.
We dropped anchor for a few nights in the side channels - sometimes having the place entirely to ourselves... well, other than the many, many crab pots that fill any available space and make maneuvering difficult. Anchoring requires a lot of space so we can get enough chain out there to make sure the anchor sets well.
Sunset on the Alligator River
Not a lot around in this part of North Carolina, but beautiful sunrises and sunsets - and enough breeze to keep the bugs away!
We stopped for a night at Coinjock Marina. It's the only game in town, so it is a popular stop along the ICW, and also attracted quite a few people that drove there for dinner. They pack the boats in tight - we only had a few inches (if not overlapping) the boats in front and behind us. It was OK when we arrived since there was room then, but as more boats packed in - we wondered how we were going to get out in the morning. Luckily some of the power boats with bow thrusters could easily move sideways and get out, and most people were up and on the move early. By the time we left we didn't have anyone behind us and had some room to maneuver.
Coinjock Marina Overhanging the boat in front Inches of room to the boat behind Dinner & Drinks at Coinjock
As we got closer to civilization, we came to more bridges, boat traffic, and even a lock! We only were lowered down a foot or two, but still pretty fun to go through a lock.
We arrived in Portsmouth and found a place to anchor at Hospital Point. After spending a few hours making sure we were comfortable leaving the boat (scary!), we took the dingy into the marina for a walk around town. Of course we found a place in the shade for some beer...
Quite an interesting place to anchor. We've got the VA hospital, marina, views of Portsmouth and Norfolk, and lots of boats, barges, tugs, jet-skis, etc. There also was a giant cruise ship that loaded up with thousands of people, played loud party music, and luckily left for the Bahamas soon after! The lights at night were pretty fun - much different than our solitude anchor locations a few days prior.
There's our boat anchored in the bay! Beers in Portsmouth Norfolk at night
Today we are staying here at the anchorage - keeping an eye on the windspeed and our anchor. We found an app that tracks the boat location relative to where the anchor is set, so we can see how the boat swings around. We knew the wind would be changing directions and picking up today. We've seen as high as 22 knots of wind and the anchor seems to be holding well.
Windspeed and direction Anchor alarm app to track our position
Tomorrow we start our journey up into the Chesapeake Bay!
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