Saturday, May 09, 2009

Around 5am we heard and felt a bump, bump. I originally thought it was Wayne (sometimes he hits the wall or his foot kicks it) but he said it wasn't. I got up to check on things but couldn't see where we had turned into the curve of the riverbed or where any logs had come downstream and bumped us. Whatever it was was not viewable. The birds were so sweetly singing as the sun came up and as I look around it feels like I could be back home surrounded by trees and birds. I wonder if my tulips and daffodils came up this year...

We left our little outer bend anchorage at 9am. I saw an eagle in a tree - very cool... Traversed through the mighty Rock Pile again. This time it's a bit busier - there are water skiers, tubers, and boats all over the ICW - it's out and out crowded! We played dodge-em with fishing boats who didn't realize we're not as shallow draft as them; chicken with power boats that didn't want to move over and we couldn't; and how long can you circle with the bridges that are supposed to open on demand but changed to opens on the hour (and we'd just missed them); to "oh I see another sailboat cap'n 2.5 miles back so we'll wait for them before I open (only to watch them pull into a marina a quarter mile from us - sigh). One power boater out enjoying the late afternoon dropped his beer over board and was franticly trying to retrieve it - funny except he turned and circled right on our nose - not so fun. It got downright hot today. The weather forecast said it was the hottest day of the year so far 92*.

Our selected anchorage for today was Calabash Creek. Unfortunately after trying to get in there 3 times, at 3 different spots, and running aground 3 times, then watching another sailboat from Montreal do the same right next to us while we were aground (he tried a little further away from us), we gave it up. After 2 hours of this grounding and un-grounding we decided to move further north before we ended up traveling in the dark. We finally put in near Shallottes Inlet - but first we had to run aground again (because we know what we're doing now LOL - per Eileen Quinn's song). The shoaling here is pretty bad and the anchorage is between Green Markers 75 & 77 near the mouth of a winding creek. The current here is 1.5 knots and quite strong. Trying to anchor, Wayne lost his grip on the anchor chain and it started tearing out of the boat and we started screaming backwards toward that 5 ft, 4.5 ft depth again then Wayne got the chain snugged and we yanked to a stop. Poor Wayne's hands are raw and sore from the friction of the chain. It's 8pm and getting quite dim out. It's been an interesting day to say the least. We've now set a new record 4 groundings in one day but at least this time we were able to back out after waiting and our mighty little engine in full reverse. Strange to watch that engine revving at 2700rpms in reverse and not see anything moving...