Passage - Manteo Waterfront Marina - Coinjock Marina
41 Miles

Today’s story is about running out of underwear on a boat. And, what is underwear all about anyway? More about that later.

Tuesday was a down day and Susan was feeling a little squamish ( an Ocracoke dialog ). Actually a little fever too. So, we didn’t do our normal tour of the town. And, it was windy - about 20knots hitting our stern making us bounce around in the slip like we were underway. We love Manteo but somehow we seem to end up with windy conditions during our visits. Our aft spring line had stretched I re-adjusted our lines several times. But hey everybody, my back was killing me ( Hurt my back picking up the ice machine to dump and clean it. ) and I couldn’t tug the boat back into the wind to tighten the spring line. Well, if you aren’t strong enough to pull the boat back into a 20 knot wind, how about just starting the engine and putting it in reverse. What could go wrong? Lots of things run through my brain but I start the engine and put the boat in reverse and WALK AWAY FROM THE HELM to retie the aft spring line. I take a lot more slack out of that line than I’d ever be able to do with a younger man’s strength. I no longer have a younger man’s strength. Hey, that worked.

Whether to go or whether to say due to the weather. So, the ouija board says we might have good weather or it might be bad. Should we stay or should we go on from Manteo to Coinjock? Manteo is cool. But it looks like we might have to stay until Sunday if we don’t leave Wednesday. I talk with a fellow boater about what he is going to do. His theory is it’s summer. Thunderstorms happen. So, I decide to leave. The Albemarle Sound can kick up but it’s only supposed to be 5-10 knots today. We pull out just before 8AM and the first odd sound I hear is two of our chairs on the fly bridge turning over from THE WIND. The very light 5-10 Knot wind. I brush it off as a fluke wind gust. WRONG. It’s a good 10-15 and lots more as we round Roanoke Island into the Albemarle sound for a 2 1/2 hour ride to the other side. And, of course it’s hitting us broadside rolling us terribly I could expound but lets just say the refrigerator slid out of it’s mount, doors were sliding shut and it was most uncomfortable for 2 1/2 hours.

I love my autopilot. Especially in rough weather. I just turn the sensitivity down and let her slug it out while I hold on to everything flying about. Except the autopilot has an affinity for crab pots. Yep while holding pretty good course if Liquid Therapy sees a line of crab pots it informs the autopilot to head for that one. That makes me play chicken with the crab pot. Is it surely going to make me disengage the autopilot or not? Port? Starboard? Constant bearing decreasing range? And, sometimes I disengage the autopilot and dodge the crab pot and sometimes the autopilot just steers around it. It’s a technology, boatmanship brain teaser. We finally get across and I tell Susan it will be safe to move about once again. I just love the ouija board weather forecasts.

We safely dock at Coinjock Marina about 1:40 and I take a pain killer and a nap. Trying to decide on the 32oz prime rib dinner tonight as I’ve overdosed on seafood lately.

Today’s picture is a Max-A-Rita ( Thank you Max Guzman for this creation ). Susan and I both needed a muscle relaxer after today’s rodeo ride.