Sunday, October 29, 2017
37 miles 6.6 Engine Hours
Underway 8:25AM Docked 2:04PM

To go or not to go, weather is the question? We have some strong winds coming later in the afternoon. It’s raining moderate to occasionally hard. No thunderstorms just lots of rain. But the decision from lots of captains and the dock master at Coinjock is that they all think it ( The Albemarle Sound ) will not be bad until late afternoon. Rain I can cope with. I have enough devices to steer by and a wonderful autopilot that follows routes. I don’t have to look through the windshield except to look for hazards floating in the water. So, off we go.

Docking departure was a little intimidating as the Coinjock dock master had jammed every boat nose to tail with seemingly inches to spare. Some boats anchors are actually over top of the transom of the boat in front of them. I have inches to a foot from hitting the dingy in front of Liquid Therapy - about a foot or two to aft from hitting the anchor on the boat behind us. We were tied port side to the dock and there was a slight current hitting our bow pushing us ever so slightly back. We untied the bow and stern lines and then the forward spring line leaving the aft spring looped around the piling so I could put the boat in forward gear putting some strain on the line moving the boat’s stern outward without letting the boat move forward. It’s raining. I decide this is going to be slippery. We couldn’t find a dock hand to help. Susan would not have much room for error with this maneuver. So plan B.
OK now my tried and proven escape. Hard left on the rudder and bump the gear into forward. Quickly hit reverse and the transom smartly moves away from the dock with the boat barely moving forward or back. With three of these gear changes the stern is well clear of the boat behind me and we just back on out. Did I mention it’s raining and we didn’t have much room. We looked pretty good. And, there was no insurance claim.
So, now we head south down to the North River where we will catch a glimpse of what the Albemarle Sound has in store for us. I get slow passed by several boats in the rain and restricted visibility this is important. But one jerk in a 48’ boat comes close by at 18 knots and upsets our boat. The boat’s name was Miss Conduct. I turned as hard as I could into his wake but couldn’t get 120° of turn needed before his wake rolled us severely. I announced on the radio to others to watch out for that boat and told him I know why the boat is named “Miss Conduct”. You see we always worry about weather and have wind and wave forecasts. But, unfortunately there are no jerk forecasts.
We enter the Albemarle Sound and turn left to head toward Roanoke Island on a 2hr course before we have to manage the Roanoke Channel leading to Manteo. It rained hard and let up - only to rain hard again. Sometimes I had horizon and sometimes I didn’t. Most of the time the autopilot held me on the course line. I had to disengage often to avoid crab pots. At least the Albemarle Sound was fairly calm. We managed the Roanoke Sound channel down to the entrance to Manteo with a little more wind. Only the width of Bodie Island is blocking any wind from the Atlantic and so the Roanoke Sound is bit choppy
The dock master was standing in the rain as we approached our designated slip at Manteo Waterfront Marina. A little sloppy landing as we were going in bow first. I have much less control of the boat when we bow in than when we back in. But again -No insurance claim. Cheerfully the dock master greeted us and got us tied up quickly. And, then the rain picked back up.
The rain was supposed to stop about 7PM and then it is supposed to blow a gale. Liquid Therapy is going to stay here at Manteo until Friday. We are driving to Richmond on Wednesday for a doctor’s appointment and then back to Manteo on Thursday. Friday we are shooting for Ocracoke.

Today’s picture is the windshield view as we leave Coinjock this morning.