Ah, Open Waters

Silver Lake, Ocracoke Island, NC

35 06.77 N 075 59.06 W

It was another fine day for sailing. A bit gray and cool, but just the right amount of breeze. We sailed as a flotilla; the Vessel Rachel, and Aruba II and Tarwathie. The purpose of bunching was to share knowledge of the treacherous channels, shoals and markers.

Long time blog readers will remember that we ran aground about one year ago attempting to get out to Old House Channel.

I wrote a long blog post about it. The area is a place where numerous channels intersect, where buoy numbering starts over at one, where sandbars and shoals intrude into the channel and where the red-green marker convention switches to green-red. All in all, it is about as confusing a place as it gets.

Last year, we were attempting to go around a dredging barge when we ran around. This year as we rounded the corner, I looked. Oh no! There was the same barge in about the same place. This year however, the captain of the barge gave us clear instructions so we were able to go by without problem. Soon we were out in the open waters of Pamlico Sound and under sail. Life is good.

Ocracoke is a place we really like. It is Charming as can be. We'll stay here a day or two, just walking around and enjoying the place.