Rude Awakening
22 April 2008 | Swansboro, NC
Cldy, wind N 15-25, 18C
Photo: Not the way to start the day!
Yesterday we decided to take a pass on sailing the outside route to Beaufort NC and stick to the Ditch, as the wind and waves were forecast to be on the nose, and likely unpleasant. En route, we met another Quebec sailor, Benoit (Liberth� 51), who followed ourselves and Marianna to an anchorage at Swansboro. We invited Benoit over for dinner, and the girls took advantage of the opportunity to indoctrinate another player in Mexican Train Dominoes. As usual, we swapped stories, and had a good laugh when we learned that Benoit landed at Fort Pierce after crossing the Gulf Stream and had the same reception from the same CBP Officer we did!
The next morning we woke up and were confronted with the sight shown above, namely Benoit's boat hard aground and heeled over 30 degrees. Looking at the chart, it was apparent that although he had anchored in ten feet of water, the change of tide had swung him over a spoil deposit area, and he settled onto it as the tide went out. Judy noted that last night's high tide was the highest for the next two weeks, and we hailed Benoit on the VHF to figure out what we could do to help. Fortunately, there was a tow boat in the area that had just dealt with two groundings around the corner from our anchorage, and we managed to get Benoit hauled off the spoil bank...the tow boat had twin 200hp motors, and it was a very slick evolution, as I handled the tow lines forward, and Benoit steered to follow the tow boat into deeper water.
Benoit commented that he had woken up wondered what had happened to his boat as clambered out of his bunk in a rather disoriented state, and observed that his morning coffee ritual was carried out at a more acute angle than he was used to. Fortunately, there was no apparent damage done to his boat, and we finished weighing anchor and made our way to Oriental, SC, where Benoit treated us to dinner for our help in freeing his boat...he wasn't looking forward to having to wait for the next spring tide in two weeks to refloat his boat, so our efforts to arrange the tow for him were greatly appreciated!