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.