We don't have shore-side electricity here at Great Bridge, so we walked to McDonald's for breakfast. By the time we got back, it was nearly ten o'clock, so we got off to a late start and then had delays waiting for a couple of bridges to open. The Sea Aura hadn't stopped in Great Bridge but had kept going yesterday, so she was well ahead of us. Roy began remembering more about the Sea Aura and her skipper. We first met him in Puerto Madero (see April 12 to 17th, 1993, of the Log). He had left ahead of us but went aground in the outer harbor and lost his anchor trying to kedge off, so he returned to the inner harbor but later went out with a friend and recovered the anchor. He left again the next day. Then, a day or two later, we caught up with him. He was becalmed but didn't want to use his engine, so he was just drifting and waiting for a breeze. We chatted for a few minutes, and then we motored on. How remarkable that we met each other again in the ICW!
The ICW is interesting. Parts of it are straight, fairly deep, man-made channels. Other parts are twisting, natural rivers. And there are also some wide sounds, especially the Albemarle, where you almost feel as if you're out on the ocean. We crossed the Currituck Sound today, which is much smaller and shallower than Albemarle. At times we were in less than six feet of water, which is scary, but apparently the bottom is soft mud, so we didn't ground. However, we heard part of a Coast Guard broadcast on the VHF. I couldn't understand every word, but I heard them say "Coast Guard Cape Hatteras" and something about a sailboat in Currituck Sound near some point. We wondered if it might be the Sea Aura; there aren't many sailboats on the ICW this time of year.
I finally worked out a method for navigating the shallow areas in the ICW. My crooked eyeballs won't let me gauge the channel the way Roy does, by looking at the channel markers. I even have a hard time figuring out if I'm in the middle by judging the distance from the banks. So today, I started keeping an eye on both depth sounders. If the one on the starboard side showed more water than the one on the port side, I steered slightly to starboard. If the one on the port side showed more water, I steered slightly to port. If they were both about the same, I held her steady as she goes. This worked very well and kept me from going aground. It should prevent a repeat of our first trip up the ICW when I had ten feet of water on one side of the boat and three feet on the other. That was not pleasant.
This was another unbelievably hot day for December. In fact, it set a new record -- 78 degrees! The forecasters keep telling us a cold front is on the way, but it sure hasn't reached us yet.
We arrived in Coinjock about four o'clock, and there was the Sea Aura, tied to a fuel dock! We talked with her skipper (whose name we don't remember) and found out the Sea Aura was indeed the sailboat that had gone aground in Currituck Sound. He's sailing without charts of the ICW, which is really a gamble. Roy had seen on the chart that you have to stay well over on the west side of the channel going through a very narrow stretch just before Coinjock, so we didn't have a problem. The Sea Aura was probably out in the middle. She sat there for an hour, and then the Coast Guard came and pulled her off.
Most of the so-called marinas here in Coinjock charge 80 cents a foot, so we went back to Tate's, where it's 50 cents a foot. (By "marina", they mean you can tie to the pilings on their wall.) The half-dozen friendly doggies who live here gave us a warm welcome. They seemed to remember us. Mr. Tate also remembered us. He's always pleasant and nice, and he speaks with a wonderful No'th Ca'lina drawl.
So we've finally gotten away from Norfolk and are in North Carolina, headed south! This time last year we were way up in Long Island Sound or someplace like that. This year we have a fighting chance of avoiding the snow and ice.
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