Tuesday, Nov 17th

ICW Mile Marker 267 – On the move again, after spending fantastic time in Swansboro hanging with friends and Cousins Burnetskys. I had to perform a trapeze trick on Casper’s Marina dock every time getting on and off the boat since their dock was built too low & tide was too high. So one time, I almost ended up in the water, but luckily Bill was able pull me back to the dock. We had a beautiful calm sunrise to start the trip. We got to travel thru Camp Lejeune (Bill’s old stomping grounds) and then thru the Onslow Swing Bridge. We had to wait 15 minutes for the bridge to open and the current was pushing us into the bridge, so Bill was going around in Circles trying to not run into the bridge or aground. Finally we got thru, along with a heavy sail boat named Sea Gypsy. Then the currents and winds really started to pick up unexpectedly. As we come thru an interface where a inlet from the ocean joins the channel, the current literally pushed our boat sideways almost into a marker and we watched Sea Gypsy behind us going totally sideways fighting it. But we managed pass that near miss. But we see many boats along the way that did not make it. Then we are planning to anchor into Swoop Point-Back Channel – recommended by Waterways. But winds were picking up to 15-20 knots West and this Channel water was moving – we were swinging around trying to get into a spot that was more covered but no luck. So we had to turn around and head back out. Now we had a problem, because there was no place to anchor for next 20 miles, small craft advisory was now into effect and it was going to be dark. Luckily, we were able to get a fuel dock slip for the night in a private marina. As we docked, we heard on the radio that Sea Gypsy and 3 other sail boats that had headed down the ICW were stuck on a shoal about 5 miles ahead of us. We hope they were able to get off of it, but we feeling so blessed and lucky tonight. As the Texas sailors on ForPlay said it “Sailing is pure relaxation filled with intermittent moments of sheer terror”. But really an another amazing day on our adventure.