10/02/2014 Morehead City Yacht Basin to Wrightsville Beach, NC 74
nm
Total Miles For Voyage: 74 nm
O're the glad waters
of the dark blue sea,
our thoughts as boundless,
and our souls as free.
Lord Byron
Spritsail Skiff |
Sometimes You Da Entertainment
“Sometimes you da audience and sometimes you da entertainment,”
or so the saying goes. It was our time to be on “stage”... but
I'm getting ahead of myself.
It was an absolute “bluebird” day – a good day for beginnings
and heading South. Not a cloud in the sky with light NW winds and 1
to 2 foot waves - a prefect day for the run off shore from Morehead
City to Wrightsville Beach, NC. Galen Newton and friends helped us
slip our docklines and we were away by 7:30. We even had the current
with us and cleared the inlet by 8:30.
The only fly in our ointment was the watermaker. I had rebuilt it
this summer and needed sea water to test it but there was a “but.”
In a casual conversation with the manufacture of the membranes he
said, “Oh they only have a shelf life of 6 months before they
should be installed.” We had had ours stored in the bilge for 2
years. The kind man speculated they would probably not work. If not
we had just pounded $900 and 2 days work down a rat hole.
Once off shore and in clean water I cranked the generator, brought up
the watermaker and held my breath. After an hours run time we were
making water with only 184 ppm salt, better than that straight out of
the tap at the Yacht Basin. Life is beautiful...and we were lucky!
More to the point we were $900 richer and I don't have to rebuild the
damn thing again.
Rickshaw |
The Fates really were with us on this day. We caught a nice Spanish
for supper. Had dolphin dancing our bow. Scared hell out of a lot
of flying fish. Our new friends on Rickshaw (another Defever-44),
and Kenny on Tortuga, a friend that runs a dive charter out of
Morehead, caught us just before Wrightsville Beach Inlet. We
anchored just before the bridge in Banks Channel. Dropped the dink
in the water and had sundowners with Jim and Belinda Wolfe on
Rickshaw – a perfect end to a perfect day...or so we thought.
Tortuga |
The weather was supposed to continue to be trouble free until late
Friday night when a significant front was supposed to pass thru
Wrightsville. At 2:00 AM in the morning (Friday morning not Saturday
morning) a squall hit with probably 40 k gusts. It was about then
that the horns started blaring announcing someone was
dragging. Why! Why I ask! Is it always 2 in the morning when shit
happens! Rain was blowing sideways, visibility sucked, and as it
turned out the Turtle and Rickshaw were the someone and
consequently ordained as the entertainment for the evening. I'm
still not convinced we were going walkabout but we were closer to the
boat behind us and elected to move.
Let me tell you getting up an anchor in a driving rainstorm with a 52
thousand pound boat to hoss around is no small task. An hour later
drenched to the skin after wandering around a bit we re-anchored a
little further South in Banks Channel off the Wrightsville Beach
Yacht Club. Like I said, if you voyage sometimes you are gonna be
the entertainment and not the entertained.
Wrightsville Beach Morning |
There is a little “Ying and Yang” in everything however. We may
have lost a bit of sleep and got soaked to the skin but we did get
our clothes washed for free even if they were on us at the time.
Morning Peace |
Faiwinds and Rum Drinks,
Vic C.
PS – The Saturday night front was a
non-event...go figure.
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