Voyage 2000: Chapter 1

Chesapeake Bay to Frying Pan Shoals

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Bob and I got up at 0730 and took a walk around town. Toby had a bit too much to drink the night before and was in no shape to lift his head from the pillow. Bob and I filled up our fuel tank with three 5-gallon jerry jugs. We had run the engine 25 hours since Coinjock. We went back to town to the Hardee's for lunch and then to the food store. Stopped by a bookstore on the way back and bought Bob Bitchin's book "Letters from the Lost Soul". Of all the boating rags out there we enjoy his "Latts n Atts" the most. We can't wait for it to come every other month and flip a coin on who gets to read it first. When we returned Toby had made his way off the boat and to the land head. As we were coming down the dock we were greeted by our fellow cruisers saying that our first mate was 'decorating' the restroom-the ups and downs of the cruising life. By 1530 he was feeling much better and washed the deck for us while Bob and I took a tour of the 'Bonnie Lynn'.

Tuesday at 1134 we left Beaufort Docks and headed for the Atlantic. At 1300 we passed our first sea buoy and a saw huge sea turtle on our port beam just 'hanging out'. Winds were 5 kts with 1-foot seas so we decided since we had time we would put all sails up and turn off the engine. At 1545 the little wind dissipated to nothing so we doused the main and turned on the iron genny. Our night watch schedule was 2 hours on helm, 2 hours on watch and 2 hours sleep. During the night the winds increased to 9 - 13 kts with 2' seas.

It was a beautiful night, the sunset was spectacular, and we were motorsailing. The moon should be with us until 0300 to give us some light. The presidential election was on the radio that night but the signal would fade in and out. We could not understand why they kept changing who won Florida. We would have to wait until we get in port to find out the results. The first shifts went pretty good but when it came time to take the second it was murder. No one really wanted to get up. It seems 2 hours was not quite enough.

At 0700 when the sun was due to rise we were hit by heavy fog. Visibility was about 25 feet. At 1000 Bob was still at the radar looking for boats, buoys and obstructions while Toby and I were out on watch. We were close to the Frying Pan Shoal Slue (a 100 foot opening in the shoal) that provides us a short cut to Cape Fear. We knew the red and green buoys had to be close but due to the fog just could not see it by necked eye. Bob kept telling us where they were since he could see them on the radar. I went up to the bow to see if I could get a better view and all of a sudden the red buoy came into sight. It looked like it was at least 200 feet high and confused me a bit on what I was looking at exactly. At 1030 we were through the slue and the fog had lifted. We had a family of dolphin's come up on the starboard side of the boat. Winds dropped to nothing and the sun beating down on us at 80 degrees. By 1100 the fog returned with a vengeance and we couldn't even see the bow of the boat. The current in the channel was running 5 kts which made radar navigation very difficult. We dropped anchor outside the channel at 1430 and waited for the current to decrease. At 1535 the current was down to 2 kts so we started the engine and headed up the channel for Bald Head Island Marina.

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