Saturday, November 17, 2012

Mile Hammock to Wrightsville Beach

ICW 244-283

We were up by 7 and underway to time the bridges.  Not far down the ICW, we passed a Hunter 46 (My Pleasure) at New River inlet (72A) that was aground.  We asked if they were okay, and they weren't.  Although the tide was coming in, it was pushing them farther into shallow water and the current was 3 kts from the Inlet direct on their broad side.

We decided to try to throw them a line. Not my brightest idea.  Bonnie was at the helm and not able to keep us moving perpendicular to the current.  The current pushed us into them and bent our BBQ up a bit, and knocked the base off of one of their life line sanctions .  We got away from them before we did any more damage, and I dropped the lines - which quickly proceeded to wrap around their rudder.

We could not leave them like that.  So... we anchored nearby and I took the dink over to them.  I should have done that in the first place.  The lines were all wrapped up and not coming out. So it was time for a swim.  I was really hoping the next time I put on my wet suit it would be in a warm place.  But that was not to be.

It did not take too much effort to untangle the lines.  Of course after unbending the rudder the other day, anything would seem easy in comparison.  We did have a real problem with passing boats.  A group of USMC boats and a few large power boats all passed without slowing down at all, even after repeated hailings on the radio - and seeing them pointing at us.  I can almost expect that from large powerboats, but I was more than a bit disappointed in my fellow Marines.

I then used the dink in combination with their bow thruster to get them off the bar against the current.  It took a bit, but eventually worked.  We were back underway at 9:45am, but our bridge timing was now a mess.  We waited 20 or more minutes at both bridges, with strong currents and winds driving us towards them.  At least the rest of the day was less eventful.

A view of the strong currents while waiting for the bridge

Bonnie called around for slips, and we got a nice one at Seapath Yacht Club.  They were great, and even have a courtesy car and on-site laundry.  We walked to the beach and found a cute surf shop to look for a present for a friend's son's upcoming birthday.  We ended up buying  a used paddle-board for us instead.  The guy there, Mick, delivered to our boat in his pick-up truck.

We ate at the South Beach grill, which was okay.  We enjoyed the Wifi at the Yacht Club and caught up on things while doing laundry.  Its nice to have power and water.  We crashed by about 11pm.  

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