Date:Wed, 16 Nov 2022 10:01:20 GMT
WAKE!
Day 1 pt 2 Adams Creek Anchorage
It's 3am and you can hear the rain and the wind howling through the
rigging. We're rocking gently on about 75 feet of Anchor chain. The rain
comes and goes in waves as well. We say we like the silence of sailing vs
motoring but there is actually a lot of sound. If you know what the
sounds are it's quite comforting. The lapping of water against the hull
or the gentle slapping of lines against the mast. I try to keep the lines
tight and away from the mast so they don't slap till the wind goes over
20knots so I can tell if I need to pay attention to the wind based upon
how the lines and howl sound. Hannah has a little Frog wind chime that we
have in the main salon and when it starts ringing we know there are waves
or a wake over about 1 1/2 feet. It doesn't ring all the time but when
it does you know it's moving a little more.
This is our first real cruise since 2001 and it brings back so many
memories. It feels good to be on the water again. We took this creek and
anchored here in 2000. That time we dragged the anchor in a storm. Today
we know better how to anchor and all is fine. I was up at this time
before trying to reset the anchor and we were worried we'd drag ashore.
When we brought Grace down from Maryland last year we saw many of the same
sights along the way as well but we knew we were going to dock and this
morning we really don't where we are going or for how long. We have
tentative plans but nothing solid. We're traveling with some good
friends who we met this spring and they want to go the Bahamas or the Keys
so we decided to come along for the ride. Of course there are lots of
people going south right now after the Hurricane including several from
Blackbeard's. We hope to meet them along the way as well. I think I'm
addicted to the freedom and excitement of not knowing what the future
will bring. It's a lot of work on a boat and if you don't enjoy
fixing things then this is not the life for you, but in the end for me
it's very worth it. After decades working for other people it's good to
be back running my own life again. Though, I might say, I'm really
working for the sea. The wind and waves ruin all plans I think. There,
the wind is quieting down again and the latest squall line is passed.
The run from Blackbeard's to Adam's creek was a little blustery. We
had 20g25 knots out of about 120 and decided to just motor as tacking back
and fourth would have made us miss our weather window for going off shore
tomorrow. It was choppy on the Neuse but we made about 5-5 1/2 knots the
entire way. We Anchored at the mouth of the Creek at about 15:30 and our
friends came and tied up next to us. The raft up went really well till
about 18:30 when a very large power boat entered the creek at about 30
knots and sent a huge wake our way. We were just finishing dinner of
baked potatoes and baked beans with some corn and freshly baked ginger
molasses cookies. Mom was teaching K a new version of Solitaire and B and
I were talking about the Mandela effect and it hit. Immediately the frog
chime went crazy and as I went up to the cockpit to see the two boats were
rocking fiercely and the masts and spreaders were nearly bumping into each
other. The bumpers did their job and no damage was done but it taught us
a lesson about not rafting up except in a no wake zone. The lifelines
nearly hooked each other and I was worried the bumpers would pop. I'm
glad we had both our sets of bumpers out! We finished dinner and cleaned
up and then un-rafted in the dark. That was the easy part. We just
untied the lines let them drift back and about 50-60 feet off our port
stern then dropped the anchor in 15 knots of wind and let it pull them
back. When we released the lines we released the bow before the spring
and so the bow fell away pushing the stern very close to us. We should
have released the spring before the bow. If we had been trying to get off
the dock in a wind we could have done the same maneuver and it would have
worked better. So that was our second scare of the night that their stern
pulpit would hit our mizzen boom. All went off however with no contact
and we sighed and went below.
I tried to contact the Tennessee phone net on the ham radio at 20:45 but
the propagation was not good enough and though I could hear stations in
the distance I wouldn't have been able to check in. There is a lot of
electronic noise from the other systems on the boat so I turned off the
freezer to use the radio, but as I just noticed, I forgot to turn it on
again so I just did now. The temperature was still below freezing but I
don't like forgetting things like that.
Tomorrow we plan on leaving about 06:30 or right after sun-up providing
the rain has stopped as we are in an open cockpit. I know I have rain
gear but the rain is supposed to stop by 0700 and there's no reason to
get wet at the start of the day for just 30min. So, we'll see when we
leave exactly. We are meeting friend for lunch in Beaufort, so we will
anchor early in Taylor Creek and dinghy in for lunch. We still plan on
going out slack tide and will spend tomorrow night off shore. According
to the forecast we should have a beam to broad reach off our starboard for
the next 2-3 days at 10-25 knots and seas less than 5 feet! It should be
a nice run to Charleston SC St. Mary's GA. I'm hoping the forecast is
correct because our auto pilot didn't want to work yesterday. We were
doing some work near it a couple days ago getting ready to leave and we
might have broken a wire so the hydraulic pump is not turning on. This
will save us power if we have to sail the entire way on the wheel but
I'm hoping to fix it underway tomorrow. As we are motoring down Adams
Creek for a few hours I'll empty the starboard lazerette and check the
wires. I'm not going to do much more because I don't want to possibly
mess up the hydraulic steering. It was working fine a couple weeks back
so I'm hoping the motor didn't choose now to die and we can just re-attach
a wire. People are going to wonder what is up as we motor by with
everything tossed in the cockpit and Sam and I headfirst in the lazerette
with our feet in the air.