A long day on the water
09 November 2006 | Wrightsville Beach, NC
Rusty
Well, we are safely anchored in the Wrightsville Beach anchorage with a dozen other sails, right next to the Blockade Runner hotel. I'd like to regale you with stories from my Civil War Blunders book, but sightseeing and navigating on the ICW took up 12 hours today and I didn't get to read anything but charts and GPS plotter!
We had the sails up quite a bit of the day and made great time covering over 80 miles. Our problem is the short daylight of fall. Even though we slipped out of Beaufort this morning at 0644 before sun up, it was a solid hour after dark before we dropped the hook. The last two miles of night navigation to the anchorage were tedious as we had to proceed very slowly with Kay on the bow watch and me with one hand on the helm and the other operating our three million candle power spot light to find the unlighted ICW markers and other uncharted obstacles.
After settling in on the anchor, we had dinner watching the news just like home. I have learned a new trick of leaving the GPS on overnight with some anchor bearings set up electronically. Now I can tell at a glance if we move an inch. Much more comforting that just visual bearings. Interestingly, out of the dozen boats here at leave a third have failed to show anchor lights which seems a bit crazy considering the potential for collision.
We have now been on the boat for a solid week and a day, having covered a total of 430 miles of our 1000 mile trip to Ft. Pierce. We were going to break up the trip with a flight home as we did on the way up. But, with Thanksgiving coming and other commitments building we have committed to pressing on. This means we have at least 8 more days of hard travel and we are both getting a bit tired. It would be great to head out into the ocean and just sail on, but without a crew to share the watch standing, it would be overwhelming. So we have opted for the easy but longer way on the inside, that is the ICW. The benefit will be to see all of the southern coastal towns that we missed on the way up. Tomorrow night we will anchor near Wilmington, SC. Then Beaufort, SC, and finally back to the city docks in Charleston on Sunday.
The beauty of the Carolina coast is breathtaking at times. Millions of uninhabited salt marsh acres and barrier islands teeming with birds and fish. The seagulls have learned to follow the big yachts because their passing stirs up a feast of shrimp and other fishy dinner courses. Along the inhabited side of the ICW are mile after mile of stylish coastal homes, to the point that it seems that every family in North Carolina must have a summer home here on the sound.
In any case, it is a peaceful and colorful place to be in this late fall weather. We should be in the upper seventies tomorrow and keep the sun with us for at least four or five more days�..and by then we'll be back in the sunshine state and back to shorts and Ts.