Thanksgiving #2 Thursday Nov 27

Morning sky

Ominous clouds south of us

Strange finials on the posts

Not sure what the sign was for

Taking off

No anchoring? No kidding !!!

GO faster!

How big do they need to be?

Live fire targets

Passing wind in the wrong direction!

Setting the second anchor

Thanksgiving #2 Thursday Nov 27

So what kind of a day was this? Well, first thing this morning we woke up to bright sun on the north side and ominous clouds on the south side, but we figured if we went fast enough we could duck under the clouds and come out the other side, and we were right! It was a bright sunny day with lots of wind...on the nose!

We decide to go 35 miles today to an anchorage because there were no marinas between Mile 229 and 285 so we didn’t have a lot of choice. We weren’t going to be able to run for more than 7 hours and no-one likes traveling in the dark at this time of year.

The other problem is the bridges that only open on the hour or half hour. If you miss one, you wait for another hour, and we had two to get through today. Luckily we hit them just right so we didn’t have to wait, but the faster boats. C-Soul and Cynthia Gale, a monohull that was anchored in the same area last night, had to wait for them. As we approached the first bridge the bridge master asked if we had heard the securité about the car that was floating in the river. Apparently a car had driven off the road sometime in the previous 12 hours and along with the barricade it dragged in, was floating somewhere in the channel, so we should be careful. He had no idea what colour it was, which wasn't helpful at all. The people had been rescued but the car was still MIA along with the barricade.  We didn’t see it or hit it!

The trip today was just as fascinating as it is every day...bigger houses, now on stilts so when storms come in the basements don’t flood. The houses are all different...not rows of boxes. And all colours.

There were lots of dolphins again today and pelican. They are not the brightest bids either. A few of them skimmed the water beside the boat then dropped in front of us!

The winds came up even more today, and I grounded us again! I was sailing into the sun and couldn’t see the markers, and was slaloming between the crab pots! I didn’t realize the wind had pushed me off the channel but I managed to stop before I went hard aground. We backed off and got back into the channel. Later on when we caught up to C-Soul and Cynthia Gale under the bridge, there was a tug pushing.

Cynthia Gale called him and said” Captain do you see those sailboats in front of you?” 

C-Soul had moved off the channel out of his way.

“Yeah, Cap’n I see ya’. Ya’ might want t’get outta the way.”

So we moved over out of the channel into 2 feet of water!

We are anchored in Topsail Basin and having Thanksgiving dinner with Gail and Mark.  She has made turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and corn muffins. We are taking sweet potatoes and oatmeal cookies and homemade bread. Dinner was awesome and there is a clear sky tonight with lots of stars. The winds have died down and we are sitting still with two anchors out. And I am very thankful to have Gail and Mark as new friends. They have made this trip even more fun!