May 31, 2014 Saturday Pungo River Anchorage mm127

0610- Clear skies,temp low 60"s, Ground Fog with light wind from NE
0630-Wind pulling up anchor found the anchor lined had wrapped around the center board as we must have turned during the night.  Managed to pull forward since backing didn't work and now able to pull anchor up apparently dropping off the center board.
0700-On the way again, 3 of the 4 boats have already left as we pulled out of the waterway into the ICW Canal waterway.
11:00-Excited the Pungo River Canal into the Alligator River proper.  The wind had increased with being in open water now to 15 to 20 kts out of the NNE, Forecast in pm for wind gusts to 30 kts out of NNE.  On entering the Alligator River N/S waves were 4-5 ft and almost directly on the nose of the boat, make us pound frequently.  The shallow water 9-12ft and winds on the nose were a bad combination for our small boat to move thru.  Pounding at 4 kts and slowing to 3 kts and sometimes slower we decided to check for an anchorage close since wind was picking up even more on this big waterway.  Found an anchorage at Catfish Point, a couple of miles from the ICW path with concern of dead trees around the entrance along with shoaling.  Concerned about fuel consumption and how far we had to go before getting more fuel we decided it would be better to try the anchorage than continuing the current path.  At a 45 degree angle we found we could increase the speed to 3.5 kts and 4 kts at times before waves hit the boat and stop us.
Made it thru the shallows and debri into Catfish point finding water 23 ft deep to 17 feet deep only in a narrow channel.  1400-Happy to be somewhat out of the wind and definitely out of the pounding waves, we anchored at the mouth of the waterway, what we thought was the bestprotection from the wind with the marsh and a few trees blocking the wind hitting us.  7 hrs to do 32 miles!  The last 10 miles in the Alligator River 3 hours.
1900-Wind changed to east, coming in the waterway off the big river so went back in farther to try to get more protection from the north and east, anchored in 8 ft with pilings behind us, nervous about dragging during the night and hitting them but best place to be somewhat out of the east wind and anchor seemed to be holding.