In From The Sea

On the ICW, North Carolina
34 50.10 N 076 41.37 W

As of 06:30 this morning we are back on the ICW. We joined on ICW mile 203. That means that the week of sailing At Sea, alloed us to skip 893 miles of ICW south of here. That's a lot. As much as we love the ICW, traveling that distance all on the inside would have taken at least 30 days. We would have had to traverse 180 pages on our ICW chart book, after having annotated each page with the latest in info on where danger spots and shoaling are this season. We sure avoid a lot of time, trouble, fuel, and expense by sailing on the outside.

The main reason more cruisers choose traveling on the inside is because of the the rocking and rolling the boat takes from the ocean waves. We're more tolerant of the rocking than most, but yesterday I learned a lesson about that the hard way. It was afternoon and I was taking my post-lunch nap. I was in deep REM sleep lying on the setee on Tarwathie's port side. Suddenly I woke on the floor with a stabbing pain in my right arm. I fell out of bed, or rather I was propelled out of bed. The cushion I was lying on wound up on the starboard side of the boat. It must have been a rogue wave that rocked the boat and ejected me. I surmise that my arm hurt because it whacked the wooden frame of the bunk on the other side of the boat. Today, I have a big goose egg on my forearm and it is sore and very tender to the touch. Could it be broken or cracked? I don't think so, but it must have been a close call. Breaking one's arm while out at sea would not be cool.

After rounding Frying Pan Shoals Light yesterday we headed for Beaufort. The wind and waves picked up, and soon we were flying at 7.5 knots. The only trouble was that we would arrive at Beaufort just after sunset. Uh Oh. Navigation around Beaufort is tricky. Not something we want to do at night. So, what to do about that? We could go for Masonboro Inlet and take a different route. We could find an anchorage near Beaufort, such as at Cape Lookout. We could heave to and wait, we could anchor off the beach near Beaufort, or we could slow down to time our arrival for dawn. We chose the latter. I never had too much experience trying to sail slowly before.

I took down the main sail and reefed the jib 50%. Our speed was too fast. I reefed the jib to the size of a beach towel. Still too fast. I reefed the jib to the size of a bath towel. Now our speed was just right. I probably could have reefed the jib 100% and sailed with no sails at all, (called sailing on bare poles). I never did that before and I had theorized that I would be unable to steer. Steering worked fine though. We did arrive at the entrance to Beaufort Inlet just after dawn. Perfect timing.

It seems that we jumped in to the middle of the pack of the northward migration flock of cruisers. Usually before, we enjoyed being ahead of the pack or behind the pack. Being in the middle means that every place we go to, like Oriental and Elizabeth City, will be crowded. So be it.

Today, Sunday, we plan to anchor at 10AM and just spend the day napping and enjoying our privacy once again. We had 10 days with Nancy on board, followed by a week with Jim on board. It was great to have them, but it is also great to have just the two of us once again.