Thursday, October 1. 2020
Atlantic Yacht Basin - North River, NC Anchorage 36º18.6’N 75º58.6’W
40 miles

What a nice day. Perfect temperature and clear sky. And, we are in no hurry today as we are only going 40 miles to a nice anchorage just south of Coinjock. I fall in behind two sailboats just passing Atlantic Yacht basin and we timed the opening of the Centerville Turnpike and North Landing bridges by adjusting our speed to get to those just in time. And, after opening those two bridges we are bridge free. Well, there are other bridges but they are 65’ in height and do not open. Liquid Therapy’s bridge height is 15’ So, we gently go down the ICW under two more bridges today.

We anchored about 3:15PM and got ready for night - starting the generator briefly to make sure it would start in the dark.

Why is the bilge pump running shooting water out the side of the boat. I pop the engine hatch and I see quite a stream of water running in. HUM, I’ve been to this rodeo before. We have a “dripless” shaft fitting. But while it’s dripless if it needs adjustment it lets in a stream. Must have happened sometime during our run today as it was fine when we left this morning. I get the hex wrenches out and lossen the set screws, slide the collar down about 1/2” and it stops the water completely. Tighten the set screws and that is that.

We watched to sun go down and the moon rise. I had high hope of watching the Wallops Island launch tonight of the re-supply rocket but it got scrubbed 2 minute before launch. We ate wonderful leftovers from our Italian dinner we had last night. It was really good tonight too.

One of my recurring nightmares about anchoring out is SNAKES. I always have this horror movie of snakes coming up the anchor chain onto our boat and biting us in our sleep. Well, today a snake was swimming across our path while we were approaching Coinjock. I’ve boated a lot. Even had a bear swim across in from of the boat not far from here a long time ago. And deer swimming, and alligators I have seen. But, I’ve never seen a snake. I figured he’d dive down as the boat got close. But he just stopped and seemed to look up at me on the fly bridge until the boat passed by. You know like, I know where you are stopping tonight and I can climb anchor chains easily and silently. I don’t know what kind it was and I didn’t stop to take pictures. But from where I looked down it appeared to have diamond shapes like a copperhead….

Today’s picture is the moonrise tonight. It’s really bright so the snake can find the boat easily. I’m going to take a Tylenol PM so I can sleep tonight. Good night and If I don’t write tomorrow night our coordinates are at the top of today’s blog so the authorities can be dispatched to recover the snake bitten to death bodies… OOOHHH!