Friday, May 15, 2009

Started out this morning raining, but the winds were less than yesterday so after Wayne grabbed a quick shower and checked us out at the marina we headed out... I should say backed out - with some trepidation on my part. It's been a long time since I had to back out of a slip, and with winds and currents - I was quite nervous. Soooo...Last night I studied directions on how to maneuver a single screw prop to back out without the port prop-walk. Thank you for the directions Capt'n John on the Bayfield Group Site. I'd printed these out a while ago and had found them on my old computer. With yesterday's currents and wind I truly was apprehensive about backing out between a large fishing yacht on one side, and the 4 pilings I was tied to in our berth. I didn't want to hurt his boat, our boat or take out any pilings. After Wayne tossed in the lines, I turned the wheel hard starboard, gunned reverse then let up on it and straightened the wheel. I now had an audience on the dock watching me - one of the owners of the marina... Talk about nervous... my palms started to sweat. Did the same maneuver and backed out straight then noticed that this was a narrow pathway and I was about to back into the pilings of the slips behind me. Wheel hard over once more and throttle forward. Then reverse throttle up again. Forward, throttle and our little Bayfield turned in a tight rotation. Woosh! Wayne was on the bow watching out for our bowsprit and the piling. The owner was on the dock watching me and then said something to Wayne, which I couldn't hear. When Wayne came back he said the guy paid me a compliment and asked if I heard him. No, I didn't. He said "It don't get any prettier than that". Oh boy, did I eat that up. Especially since when I looked over, the guy was still looking at me dumbfounded.

We made it into Eastham Creek off the Alligator River about 5:30pm (43.6 miles today) and anchored in about 7.5 ft. It felt like we dragged across the channel but Wayne said it was just the chain playing out. I made potatoes augratin with pork chops and asparagus for dinner and it really hit the spot. Pretty sky tonight. I can't believe the number of crab pots here. Two other boats are anchored here but closer to the ICW.