The Lonely Sea

At Sea
33 25.01 N 078 53.48 w

Ah it feels good to be out here again. We like the sea, albeit in small doses and when the weather is nice. It is sunny day, but a little chilly. Tonight should be spectacular, very clear, very dry and very cold. That's OK, we'll put on long johns and several layers so we'll be comfortable.

There's a meteor shower going on but I neglected to look up which direction to look before leaving. Oh well.

A power boat just zoomed past us 100 feet away. Other than that, we're totally alone out here. No ship, no dolphins, no whales, no traffic, no radio calls. No radio? You know there must be something wrong with our VHF. We should be picking up radio traffic from the ICW which is less than 20 miles away. Coming down from NYC to Norfolk we also had trouble receiving VHF, but not transmitting. We get strong signals, like NOAA weather radio, but not weaker ones. I'll have to look into that; not sure what the problem could be.

Just because we don't see fish doesn't mean they're not here. I was watching some nearby terns. They were having a grand time diving on the surface to snatch something to eat.

By the way, I saw a scene this morning I wish I could have caught on film. As we left Little River Inlet around 0700, a little aluminum boat was coming in. In it were a couple about as old as we were. Between them was a net bulging with fish. I guess 300-500 pounds of fish. It was a big catch. The fish were all small, 305 inches long. I don't know what one would do with them other than make a grand fish stew. There are famous seafood restaurants near there, perhaps they sell the fish to them. Anyhow, the boat, the fish, the net, the couple, the light and the morning mist would have made a grand photograph if only I had a high quality camera at hand. Perhaps even a fine camera would not be enough; a rocking sailboat is far from a stable platform for taking great pictures. If I was artistically talented, I could paint a picture from memory. Alas, my art never progressed beyond stick figures.