The original forecast for today was partly cloudy, not much wind and no rain. When we slipped the lines at 10a it was completely overcast, windy and a light rain was falling! Glad for my boat tennies on the slippery deck but nothing could keep us from slipping on the highly polished steps up to the bridge because they were wet.... once going down them if I had not been holding on I would have seriously injured my back... as it was my bad hand took most of my weight but it could have been so much worse.
I had spent Sunday afternoon charting our course out to the channel and then on toward Pamlico Sound. We left early intending to calibrate our autopilot but it became way to rough on the water to do this. Even though we have a large screen Garmin I was pleased that the Captain asked ME what our course should be. It is always a good idea to check the Garmin with the chart every hour. This way you are prepared should the Garmin quit suddenly.
I was very apprehensive about today's trip since it would involve us going into Whittaker Creek in Oriental where there is much shoaling and a very narrow shallow channel. We had looked up extra info on this channel and thought we might call TowboatUS for local knowledge when we got close. But we didn't have to as someone else did before us... we hear these calls and can also tune to same channels to listen in.... they recommended what we had thought.. “hug the red markers” going in.... but they didn't say anything about one red can being one to avoid as it was sitting on shoal. ???
We were opposite the creek in about 2.5 hours from Northwest Creek Marina in New Bern. During this time the water just got bumpier and bumpier... there is probably a nautical term for this... ha! I was surprised that I became woozy after going down to the salon a couple of times while we were bouncing around. Me? Sea sick???!!! Guess we will load Dramamine for sure.
As we neared our destination we saw a small sail boat. He didn't seem to be moving but then started up. Reading the boat's name through the binoculars, we tried to call him on the radio but he didn't answer.
During the trip Walter had left the Helm to tend to other things and I took over. No big deal as the autopilot was working just fine. I did have to keep my eye on two dials.. depth indicator (which will be connected to the Garmin this week) and making sure our little boat on the Garmin screen stayed where it was suppose to be and of course looking for other traffic. But then, just as we were gaining on the sail boat, the Captain left! Miss gg was NOT on autopilot!! What? Me take over?? EGAD! I could see that before he returned I would have to either start down the questionable channel or hit the sail boat OR go in circles! And the wheel was so easy to turn!.. yep... my choice was a big circle and I was executing my second spin when the Man returned, laughed and took over. Just about this time the sail boat called us: “Trawler behind me at entrance to Whittaker Creek.” We had been excited to see that he might be going into the Creek also and we knew that his sail boat would have a deeper draft than we did.. so we planned to just follow him in... but he had another idea: “I have a 6 ft draft so I will tiptoe in following you”! All of us laughed at that and we began our scary trip with our 4.5ft draft boat hugging those red markers.
So far so good as we crept along... creeping for us is still 4.5 kn which seems fast in this big boat. This Creek was a puzzle having three branches and we mistook the markers for our branch to be for another one and went on the wrong side of them... We stirred up the mud just as the the depth alarms went off!! Walter pulled the engines back and into reverse quickly and those two big diesels (main reason he bought this boat) backed us out! With my heart pounding I was instantly cured of any sea sickness!!
As I watched the piles across from the narrow slip to make sure we didn't hit them, the guys at the haul out dock talked us through a sharp right angle turn into the slip ....we never even bumped any part of it..... at last Miss gg was tied and awaiting her haul out.
We stayed and watched the haul out and Walter gave them some instructions for things he wanted done. He will be returning in the morning to do some of the work on it himself.
On the way home the Captain said to his Firstmate: “If I didn't tell you before, going in circles when I had to leave was a very good idea”! :-)
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