Swansboro to Oriental
Carla was up
at 0600 anxious to get underway. It only
took her a few moments to realize something wasn’t quite right as the boat was
listing about 5 degrees. She woke Dwayne
who confirmed we were aground and so was Second
Sojourn, the Beneteau 49 which rode out the weather at anchor with us the
past two days. During the night, the wind
must have shifted 180 degrees and moved us at high tide onto the spoil area
just north of Red 4 and left us there when the tide went out..
 |
| Getting a Little Help from a Friend |
We knew there was a spoil area just outside the channel as we had anchored here before and saw others grounded where we were located. We thought our anchor was set far enough from the spoil area to avoid this very thing from happening. We misjudged by a few feet. Dwayne knew we were at the very edge of the spoil mound and was happy that our anchors were perfectly set for kedging into the channel. Best of all, the tide was rising and we expected a delay of no more than two hours. So, we had a leisurely breakfast and watched the tide come in on our depth gauge. Dwayne tried a couple of times to see if there was enough water to get the boat to move without success. About a half hour before high tide, Dwayne called BoatUS to request they place a towboat on call should we need one but not to dispatch it until we were sure we could not get underway on our own.
 |
| Need Some Water Here - 5 1/2 Feet (Gauge has 2 foot offset) |
A short while later, we gained another 6 inches of water and felt the boat sway some when passing boats created a wake. Dwayne started the engine and went to the bow to bring in the snubber lines so we could use the anchors as kedges if necessary. As he was doing so, the tow boat appeared on the scene. Since she was on site and since it didn’t cost us anything for the tow, we took advantage of the situation and attached the tow line. Soon, we were in deeper water and recovering our anchors. While we were doing this, Second Sojourn raised sail and motor-sailed off the spoil. She weighed anchor and was on her way north with us not far behind.
 |
| Second Sojourn - Waterline Indicates She Needs About 8 More Inches of Water to Float |
We eventually caught up with Second Sojourn at anchor just south of Beaufort. She has a mast/instrument height of 63 ½ feet and wasn’t sure she could safely pass under the Atlantic Beach Bridge. She hailed us as we passed and requested we read the height board for her as we approached the bridge. It read 64 feet. Second Sojourn thanked us for that information and waited a bit longer for the tide to fall before attempting to pass under the bridge. We later heard her on the radio as she was requesting a slip at a Beaufort marina. About the same time we heard s/v VonYachtSki, on the radio as she was heading out the channel to make an off-shore run north. The last time we saw her was at Tahiti Beach in the Abacos.
We arrived
at Oriental too late to get one of the free slips the town makes available to
transient boats. We ended up anchoring
in the harbor instead. It was a quiet
night after a long day.
No comments :
Post a Comment
Leave A Comment...