Kidnapping, Fog and a Gator
July 1, 2011
It is hard to believe that this is already July 1. We stayed as long as we could on the City Docks (two week limit) and had to find another marina here. Because of the auto incident, we decided to stay in the Wilmington area for a bit to handle the logistics. We sailed a few miles south on the Cape Fear River to a marina called Wilmington Marine Center. Our departure was delayed by a very dense fog/smoke event which caused visibility to drop to a few hundred yards. We could have used radar to go downstream but it is a busy port with ships and tugs everywhere. We stayed put. Out of the fog came a person who found our Bear windsock a few blocks away. That made the wet yellow pages we found on deck early this morning relevant. It turns out that a few non-boating fellows were having late night beer at the end of the dock and must have formulated the Bear kidnapping plan. The book, tossed on deck was a way to tell if we were awake or not. Since there are more valuable things on deck than the wind sock, methinks it was one of those “betcha” things of the type we never did as kids. Yeah right. Anyway, the fellow returned the Bear sock before we left the city dock.
Our destination for the day (and for that matter a few weeks) was the marina downstream. One can only see sailboat masts as this marina is hidden behind a huge berm with trees. We passed it originally thinking it would be too buggy and windless. We found that it is truly a hurricane hole since it survived, without casualties, several hurricanes that destroyed all the other marinas in the area. We stopped at the fuel dock where we were greeted by a very pretty and young gator. The marina operators claim that there are eight such critters here. There is no rule about diving ones boat here other than the food chain. That cute little gator stayed with our boat until we got to the slip. I am thinking folks feed him. So, this marina has a boat yard, good floating docks, good wind protection and even underwater security. How’s that for way cool?
Enjoy the 4th. It was very costly .

The picture is of Mike, the Gator next to Why Knot.