Well here we are again back on the Chesapeake our forth (or fifth?) trip. We intended to take the Dismal Swamp Canal route rather than the Virginia Cut. I am convinced that the fifth force of nature is the attraction between the lowest point of our boat and the highest point of water bottom within 500 yards. The Currituck Sound portion of the latter route offers many opportunities for this force to enjoy itself at our expense.

The problem was that the Elizabeth City Bridge which is the gateway to the Dismal Swamp canal was having problems and opening only twice a day (9:00 AM and 5:30 PM). Being that it was a Saturday we thought that it would be crowded with boats trying to get through at 5:30 and Elizabeth City is too far away for us to reach at the earlier time. Besides we had been trapped by the same bridge breaking down when it was supposedly in good shape. We did not want to go the distance and not be able to get through so (SIGH) we would try the 'dreaded' Virginia Cut. The first part of the trip was uneventful, finding us at Coinjock at day's end. We stayed at the Midway Marina and the only problem was, the 10 hour trip in the heat about 'wiped us out.' We faced the Currituck Sound part of the trip the next day and solved both problems as follows. Going through Currituck Sound we would follow our good friends the Honeycutts . They have a 5 foot draft and our's is 4.5 feet. (Get the idea?). To solve the overheating problem we decided to use our 'flapper' which we use to shade our cockpit when at anchor but never when we were under way. It extends from the back of the dodger to a pole strung between our split back stay and then down to the stern railing giving almost complete shade. Good Idea. (Right!)


All went well until we reached Great Bridge Lock. There were quite a few boats waiting to enter and we were one of the many. We brought the boat into the lock and I got the bow line to the one lock hand, and then the first error. It became obvious when Kay (at the helm) looked at me and me at her and both said 'Throw him the stern rope'. Yikes! Where was the stern rope and who was to throw it? Of course, the gremlins that haunt sailors immediately and gleefully took advantage of the situation and the wind caught our stern and threatened to flip us around into the boat in front of us. I scrambled to the back and grabbed the errant line and then... mistakes two and three, the second lock hand tried to catch the stern rope (and failed) twice with the boat hook, when he could have simply grabbed it by hand. And then mistake four, the first lock hand, helpfully, dropped our bow line into the water insuring that if we put our motor in gear we would tangle the line and possibly separate the propeller shaft from the boat bottom. I scrambled forward to pull the bow line on board (I did a lot of scrambling during these events) and shouted to Kay to back us out of the lock (avoiding other incoming boats in the process) so that we could make a new entry. (For those who don't know sail boats under the best conditions back to their inner drummer not to your instructions.) Kay turned around to back the boat. Remember the flapper? She could not see a thing other than the tucked down blue flapper! Ultimately she had to crouch down on the floor to peer under the flapper while attempting to back the boat. During all this, besides breaking the antenna off another boat, the lock hands shouted useful instructions at us like 'what are you doing?', 'take a boating course'. Anyway Kay got the boat to the lock side and we got it tied up with no damage to our boat or to any other. We then commenced with a calm, intellectual discussion as to the cause of the recent occurrences.

After that all went reasonably according to plan. (Right!) We had picked a Sunday to come into Norfolk, since during the week two of the bridges we had to pass through are under opening restrictions. So all was clear. Well almost. There was a fire on one side of the bridges and the fire trucks were on the other side. So no openings until the fire was out. Darn, again. After that, nothing to report, except we arrived eventually, after another long day, at Norfolk's Waterside Marina. Coming into Norfolk we did spot sort of a half size destroyer with the peculiar name ' HS EEEEE' with the last E twice the size of the other. Neither of us could imagine the significance or meaning.

The next day we were to leave for Salt Ponds on the Chesapeake in Hampton. The problem was that the winds were to blow at 20+ knots from The Southwest and we knew from past experience that exiting the Norfolk Harbor with winds like that could be very uncomfortable. Never having been one to successfully figure out what to do under circumstances like that, I none-the-less predicted, based on topography and tides, that if we left the entrance (Hampton Bridge Tunnel) at around 10:40 all should be well and even comfortable. It is about an hour and a half from Waterside to the exit into the Bay at the Hampton tunnel and on the way things looked grim and at one point Kay said 'You know, if you called this wrong, there are three people who are going want to make you walk the plank' (The Honeycutts were traveling with us). I was lucky, the passage was smooth despite the wind and we are now in one of our favorite marinas, Salt Ponds, on Chesapeake Bay. We arrived yesterday and are glad to relax and enjoy the very pleasant atmosphere and the restaurant where we have always enjoyed the food. My only regret is they no longer have Oyster Shooters (1/3 raw oyster, 1/3 Tobassco sauce and 1/3 beer), the perfectly balanced meal.


Boat Names the attracted our attention:

'C of Love'

'Out of the Woods'


and probably the worse name ever:

'Sucks'

Carl
Spindrift
Tue, Jun 27, 2000
------------------------------------

We planned to leave Salt Ponds on Wednesday, two days after arriving, but alas, rain and thunder storms all day Wednesday and Thursday kept us in place. The forecast for Friday seemed almost ideal, clear skies and winds from the North at 10 knots or less. Since we were heading North the wind direction was not great but at 10 or less...'No Problem'. I should know better than to trust NOAA. When we pulled out into the bay the winds were blowing 20+ from the north and the head seas were running at 4 to 5 feet right on our nose. There is nothing like green water breaking over the bow of your boat and the wave running down your deck straight at you to wake you up in the morning. Better than coffee!

Our goal was to get above the Rappahannock River in order to reach The Solomons on Saturday night. Not to be. Slow progress due to the head seas and our tired skeletal frames dictated a stop short of the goal. We went into Jackson Creek at Stingray point on the Piankatank for the night.Our friends, the Honeycutts, elected to join us there. Both going in and coming out of Jackson Creek we saw... (Pause here for dramatic effect)...lots of stingrays. Certainly an aptly named location. While at Jackson Creek we were able to swim due to the almost total absence of Jelly Fish. A big improvement over our previous trips.

We left Jackson Creek for the Great Wicomico and after about 4 hours arrived without adventure or misadventure (thankfully). We rafted up with our friends at Sandy Point and enjoyed a peaceful and pretty day punctuated at its end by numerous fireworks displays. We left there yesterday (Sunday) with a forecast of SW winds switching to the South. Perfect sailing conditions for a northward passage. Damn NOAA! The winds did start out from the West and we were able to sail...for about 45 minute when the winds inexplicably shifted to the North (AGAIN). Back to the motor! I choose to, in this rare instance, classify myself as a 'Gentleman', as in 'Gentlemen never sail to weather', thus the motor. We made it to The Solomons where we are now safely in a slip at one of the prettiest marinas we know, Spring Cove. (Also the most expensive and the only one without Cable TV so far.) The Honeycutts elected to travel up the Patuxent to Saint Leonards Creek and Vera's Tropical Resort where we both enjoyed good times in the past. They just joined us at The Solomons about a half hour ago and will have to depart tomorrow to head South again and home and work. Our plans at this point are flexible. Possibly seeing which way the proverbial wind blows before we set out, for it seems certain that if we choose a direction to start, the winds will choose the opposite. We have noticed the presence of lots of pelicans all the way up the bay. When we first came on the Bay, we saw none once we left the vicinity of the mouth of the Bay. Ten years ago we stopped at Smith Island 20 miles south of here and I asked about pelicans and was told that the last one was seen in the 1920s. Quite a change.

Boat Names of note:

For those who like double meanings
"Let Me Sea"

For the few who like to tempt fate
"Bottoms Up"

Guaranteed to cause confusion in an emergency
"False Alarm"
(The only worse name I could think of is to name a boat "May Day")

Come Again
"The Abominable Snowman"
"No Egrets"

Best overheard call on the VHF
"Sudden Storm, Sudden Storm...Chaos calling"

That one was particularly good but still in second place to the one from our last trip
"Naughty Lady, Naughty Lady... Mother Superior calling"

Carl
Mon, Jul 3, 2000
S/V Spindrift


--------------------------


If we are any measure, the happiest moment of a cruisers life is the moment after one is safely in a slip. I use the term "moment" deliberately because in approximately 27 seconds after docking you start worrying about 'How am I going to get out of this slip?' (Unstated, of course, is the question 'I wonder how many boats I will destroy in the process?') Spring Cove Marina is especially challenging, for many of the slips have scarcely a boat length of space behind your boat and the berthed boats behind. No room to back and turn without running the risk of joining some other boat's crew up close and personal. So leaving a slip, depending on the wind, involves lots of (practical) physics: Tie a rope here. Bumper there. Pull this. Lever that.Shove here. And...You are out. Oops!, forgot to disconnect the power cord, Damn. Do it again. Too bad my training is in Theoretical Physics.

Nonetheless, without disaster, we left Spring Cove yesterday. We stayed for four days as we really enjoy this marina. Spent the last day relaxing by the pool readings our books. For those that have not been there, Spring Cove has a park like atmosphere, nicely wooded, well kept, picnic tables and park grills scattered about. Very pleasant. I should also mention the outstanding and PRIVATE bathroom/shower facilities. perhaps what we like best is that everyone , staff and boaters, is very friendly. Sometimes it was difficult to walk the dock to your boat without being stopped by people wanting to talk. That is how I met Steve Smith. Steve is a retired planetarium director, ex-sailor and Trawler owner. (The last two may be redundant as I have never met a trawler owner who was not also an ex-sailor.) Ultimately Steve and his wife invited Kay and I to join them atop their flying bridge of their "Marine Trader" trawler to watch the July 4th fireworks. Like all "ancient mariners" we have talked about getting a trawler many times and welcomed the chance to get a close look at theirs. Our overall reaction while standing at the steering station (high up!) on the flying bridge was 'this is intimidating'.

Since leaving Edenton we have had several problem. The knot meter, which worked fine the week before, suddenly no longer worked becoming instead a random number generator. When I went to pull the through hull transducer it was jammed so thoroughly that I broke the pulling bail. There is no way this could happen, but it did and I am still puzzled by it and probably will be until we have the boat pulled in the fall. By pure serendipity we had an alternative. Before leaving we had ferried Kay's car to Salt Ponds for our use when we got there. Not wanting to leave the GPS in the car we left it aboard the boat. Kay said at the time 'although I can't imagine why we need three GPSs on board', well as it turns out the GPS from the car has a speedometer feature, we mounted it at the steering station with velcro and we had our knotmeter. If President Clinton had not ordered the 'Selective Availability' for the GPS system this would not have been an option, as the speed feature of the GPS was notoriously unreliable under previous conditions. Now it is fine. A regular knot meter measures speed through the water whereas a GPS measures speed over ground, which if a current is present, are not the same thing. Actually the GPS output is more useful. So no loss there.

We also have had some problems with our Air Conditioner. It shares a through hull with the head sink and for whatever reason ( change in trim, buoyancy of salt water?) it started sucking air through the sink rather than water through the 'through hull' which caused it to overheat and shut down. Easily solved by plugging the drain in the sink (or so I thought). On the hottest day at Spring Cove, after walking to a shopping center to buy groceries, walking back to return the cart, carting ice from the marina store and generally 'dyeing' from the heat, the AC shut down just as I sat down to enjoy it. Something happened that had never happened before. We had sucked a Jelly Fish into the Air Conditioner! Yes indeed, we had puree of Jelly Fish. What a mess to clean up, and yes, Jelly Fish soup can still sting. The same event occurred the next day and it also happened to the Honeycutts before they left. The technical term for this is 'Yuck'.

On the evening before we left, a mute swan and her two half grown cygnets joined us. I had truly never appreciated the children's story "The Ugly Duckling". Baby chickens are cute, baby ducks are cute, baby swans define ugly. But still nice to see.

After leaving Spring Cove we decided to let the winds decide our destination. Depending on conditions when we reached the mouth of the Patuxent River. We would either head North to Oxford, East to Crisfield or South to the Rappahannock. We got to the mouth, the winds were from the NE, we went south.Shortly after leaving the Patuxent, not ten feet from the boat, a large shark surfaced and grabbed something on the surface. Whatever it grabbed, the grabee didn't like it, as there was much boiling and trashing at the surface for a few seconds. Kay was not pleased as I hummed a few bars from Jaws.

It was a easy trip South and we decided to put in at Mill Creek off the Great Wicomico. We had not been there before but all the cruising books highly recommend it and it lived up to our expectations. Beautiful. More like a small lake with 'high' wooded shores. It was really protected, as it turned out, possibly too much so. The next morning all was peaceful. NOAA said winds from the North at 10. All was well until we pulled out of Mill Creek and discovered 20 knot winds from the North. We should have expected this since it was exactly one week since we came out of Salt Ponds into exactly the same conditions. The reason we have the 7 day week on our calendar is that weather tends to repeat itself every 7 days and so it did. This time however we were headed South not North. It was bumpy but doable. We headed to Windmill Point and then to Jackson Creek where we are now at anchor.

NAMES OF NOTE:

Truer words...
"Financial Drain"

Steve Smith's Trawler
"Partners' Ship"

For those who like alliteration
"Tub for Two II"

Cute
"Rolly Poly"
"Just Ducky"

Seem to go together (overheard)
"Sure Pleasure, Sure Pleasure...This is Delightful"
"Comfort Expert, Comfort Expert...This is Copacetic"

and also
Opus III
Key of Sea

Carl
Fri, Jul 7, 2000
S/V Spindrift

-------------------------------------


Nothing noteworthy happened at Jackson Creek other than we finally used our dinghy, which has followed us patiently everywhere. We used it to go into Deltaville Marine for ice. While almost all cruisers use small gas motors for propulsion, we do not like to carry gas on a diesel powered boat. So we use an electric motor. Not wanting to invest much money in something that might not turn out to be satisfactory we opted for a small electric motor, almost a toy, marketed by Sevlor. It really is satisfactory but rather flimsy. In a 'nice' wind half way to the marina the motor quit working. Fortunately I discovered that if I held the off button on, the motor would run (?). Time for a new electric motor. The only other points of interest (to us) while at Jackson Creek were two short calls from our children, Chris called to tell us he was enjoying Aruba and thought that he would stay forever and Dawn called with a short message: "I saw 'The Perfect Storm Last Night', Get Off That Boat".

After leaving Jackson Creek we headed for the East River off Mobjack Bay where we have anchored before in a little bay across from 'Put in Creek'. We were able to sail most of the way that day at 6+ knots, really nice. The day was great, the ending less so, when we tried to anchor that afternoon, nothing but trouble. The anchor would set but when we tried to back down on it, our 'plow type' anchor (Delta) simply plowed through the muck. (Go ahead and chuckle, Chuck, that one is for you.) We had not had this problem in the past and despite trying to anchor in several different places it persisted until we finally got a 'reasonable set'. In the middle of the night when the wind shifted 180 degrees I stayed up for a couple of hours on anchor watch. The next morning the anchor came up way too easy!

A few years ago we anchored at the same place along with a local boat, Cottontail, a beautiful Pearson 40. Yesterday I had a chance to talk to them and asked them about their experience. They use a large fluke style anchor (Fortress) which might work better than ours in soft mud. They told me that they never went back and that most locals use the North River for an anchorage on Mobjack Bay. They also said that the Ware River offers a sandy bottom at some locations.

Our plan for the next day , depending on the weather, was to either stay in place (immediately abandoned upon discovering the poor holding) or sail to Kiptopeke Beach on the tip of the eastern shore. Kiptopeke, now a state park (1992), is an artificial harbor created by sinking 9 large concrete ships towed there from Texas. It was a ferry terminus prior to the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The next day the winds were fine for the crossing, but small craft warnings for the following day called for high winds from the southwest and we certainly did not want to cross back into those winds. Normally we would have waited the weather out at Kiptopeke but the cruising guides were conflicted on the protection available at Kiptopeke . So...Salt Ponds it was, and there we are now. We will head for Waterside in Norfolk in a couple of days meanwhile we count our blessings as the winds were as predicted for today hitting a high of 49 mph early this morning.

Boat Names of Note:

I did not know that the Chesapeake Bay extended to Minnesota,
"Zamboni"

I wonder what he means by that'
"Little Damn Boat"

Must have been an Orthopedist calling an Anesthesiologist,
"Pain Killer, Pain Killer...Joint Venture Calling"

I thought Kathleen Turner made a Movie about this,
"After Glow, After Glow...This is Summer Heat"

And from a Pediatrician or OB/GYN?,
"Apgar9"
(I had no clue about that but Kay tells me that this is a term to rate new born babys)

Mon, Jul 10, 2000
Carl
S/V Spindrift
-------------------------

I guess the last part of our trip can be summarized: "We no longer need 56 feet of clearance to go under a bridge, 53 feet will do nicely now." We left Salt Ponds on Wednesday for Waterside (Marina) in Norfolk. It is a short, 3 hour trip, and presented no problems with the exception of one very large container ship, 'Sea-land Intrepid', entering Hampton Roads at the same time as we were. It was the largest ship I have ever seen, bigger than any aircraft carrier or battleship, at least, so it seemed. To be safe we moved over to the left side of the channel, figuring that it would go in on the right side as normal. Alas, it hugged the left side of the channel forcing us out of it and into a maze of dredges and such. As big as the boat is, it may have been simultaneously hugging both sides of the channel. When it went by us it felt like we were at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Very Strange Indeed.

We stayed at Waterside for two days and used the occasion to visit 'The Nauticus', The National Maritime Center, There was a lot there but overall a disappointment. Many of the interactive exhibits were poorly done if they worked at all. I think we were disappointed because, having been to the spectacular Virginia Marine Science Museum in nearby Virginia Beach, we expected too much. On Thursday I called the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center and learned that the bridge at Elizabeth City had been fixed that day (well, sort of, as it turned out) and would open on demand starting on Friday. Great news, we would not have to take the dreaded Virginia Cut without our trusted escorts, the Honeycutts, long since returned to North Carolina. In fact, not wanting to take any chances on it closing again, we decided to leave on Friday.

The Dismal Swamp route requires you to pass through 5 bridges (3 normally open) on the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River. One regret we had when we left Waterside was that on our entire trip we had failed to seen any porpoises, but, almost immediately, that was removed, as a group of about a dozen joined us and escorted us all the way to the Jordan Highway Bridge. That bridge is my least favorite. It is one where the whole center span lifts vertically to a height of up to 142 feet. Sounds great, but the lift operator lifts it only high enough for you to pass under it and you always wonder if he got it right. He did!

You leave the river at the (misnamed) Deep Creek and at the town of Deep Creek you enter a lock to be lifted 8 feet (to protect the water level in Lake Drummand in the Dismal Swamp), unlike the lock at Great Bridge on the Virginia Cut route which adjusts for tidal difference and when we passed through it dropped us a grand total of 6 inches. Anyone that knows me would not be surprised to learn that we arrived at the lock an hour early and as we expected it was closed. I called the lock operator on VHF 13 so that he would know we were standing by for his 11:00 opening. Much to our surprise the lock operator replied "Welcome back Spindrift, I will let you in early so that you can tie up and relax." And so he did. He had us tied up without us having to do anything and then brought us each a cup of coffee. What a change from the rudeness and ineptitude (some of it mine) at Great Bridge three weeks before.

After leaving the lock you have to pass through another bridge and you enter the canal itself. The only problem (or so I thought) with this route is that there is a lot of floating debree. Usually logs, stumps and such, but, also possibly dead bears and on one occasion a live bull. As I was congratulating myself on my skill at dodging everything that came along I had occasion to remember a story I read in Readers Digest many years ago. There is a road in India, 500 miles long which has exactly one tree along its length, two people have been killed in separate accidents by running into that lone tree. Well there are a lot of trees along the canal and they are all, save one, have been well trimmed back by the Army Core of Engineers. Yes I had hit that one with my mast and lost my 3 foot VHF antenna at the mast top. Drats!

The other problem with the Dismal Swamp route, at certain times, is biting flies-the yellow ones. At this time of year they are not as big a problem as they would have been earlier but at times they were quite nasty and repellent only works for about 10 minutes. Fortunately for me they seem to prefer 'food' of Mediterranean origin and really did a nasty job on Kay while generally leaving me alone.

You leave the canal at South Mills in NC passing first through a bridge and then into a lock where you are dropped 8 feet into the upper Pasquotank River which continues down to Elizabeth City. The upper Pasquotank is absolutely beautiful and given that this route is poorly traveled (we saw 2 boats in 40 miles) you feel like you are on the African Queen. Really a pleasant trip. As we neared Elizabeth City the winds picked up from the South gusting up to 25 mph. We had to choose a Marina. The Pelican Marina is relatively unprotected and in any case by the time we got there no one would be around to help and having never been there we did not want to risk going in 'blind'. There is a small protected marina just as you pass through the bridge and we hoped to use it. We called the bridge as we approached and were told that yes it would open but they were still having problems and could only get one span to open. Oh well, we got through, but, the little marina was full and that left only the Elizabeth City free docks. We had been there 10 years before and were unimpressed. The free slips are open to the SE and are difficult to get into and out of under those conditions, as well as, uncomfortable. But the winds were from the South and predicted to move to the SW so in we went. We were tired after 11 hours and definitely were in a "any port in a storm" mood. Yes, as you might expect the next day the winds switched to the SE!

We were helped into the slip by Bob and Jean off the Camano trawler "High Cotton", also in a slip there. We had first seen the very attractive Camano compact trawler a year before while anchored on the Scuppernong River near Columbia NC, although at the time we did not know what it was or that Wolfgang Dietrich at the International Yacht Center in Columbia was the US distributor. On the trip up to the Chesapeake 3 weeks before with the Honeycutts we stopped at Waterside and both ended up in slips next to one of these boats and for the first time learned what it was and also saw up close that it was indeed very nice. On our return trip into Waterside a few days before we again ended up near one. This one, "Fire Dog III" was owned by Ray Smith an associate of Wolfgang's and we were given information on it and a tour. Indeed it was very nice and well done, but, at about $150000 for what is really a 28 foot boat is a bit pricey. Still....?

Elizabeth City is famous for the Rose Buddies who bring roses to all the woman on the boats at the free slips. They also throw a wine and cheese party for the boaters if enough boats are present. They were there 10 years before when we were first there, as I recall there were 4 of them, all older gentlemen. Apparently there is only one left, a Mr. Fearing at 86 years old. Sure enough he showed up the next day. I was up on the railing trying to do some work on my TV antenna while at the same time trying to hold on in the SE winds when I was summoned to the dock, a tricky maneuver in the winds and waves. When I told him my name he remembered that I was a College Professor at ECU. Pretty impressive after 10 years. Kay and I, as well as Bob and Jean were invited to a Wine and Cheese party at his home on Fearing Street at 4:30. As none of us thought that the invitation was optional we all agreed to go and indeed off we went at the appointed time. We enjoyed the party especially when we were joined by a friend of Mr Fearing, Joe Simonwhich, a Bread and Breakfast operator, professional chef, and Jazz musician who played with Louie Armstrong.He was also a sponsor of a boat in the 1000 mile ocean catamaran race off the US Atlantic Coast. 'A very interesting time was had by all.' The only other event of note was I was able to give my newly minted 'boat card' to Bob. On our earlier Pamlico trip I was introduced to boat cards, when given one by David Semonite off the Hinkely Picnic Boat, "Sand Owl". I immediately felt inferior as I did not have one for Spindrift. When I gave mine to Bob he reacted in exactly the same way, telling me that he felt badly that he did not have one.He had meant to make one. I said, great, that is exactly what I hoped for, I was vindicated. <<smile>>

While we where at Norfolk in the Nautilus gift shop I was looking at a book on restaurants on the Intercoastal Waterway, one of the featured ones was Mulligans on the waterfront in Elizabeth City and sure enough there it was not 100 feet from our slip. Our first night there they featured a great music group on their outside stage and we had ringside seats, the best in the house. Unfortunately we were both so exhausted that we could not stay awake to appreciate them. The next night the group was not quite as good but we were able to appreciate them. We also ate at Mulligans that night and it was excellent. (We ran into friends from Edenton, Dale and Karen Gokel and their son Dean). We discovered that Elizabeth City had changed quite a bit since our last visit. In addition to the restaurant
there were several bookstores, we visited one of them, "Page after Page", and found a book we were looking for. There was also a wine seller/deli that had two wines I had been looking for, a Shiraz and a Syrah. All in all, we found Elizabeth City to be much nicer than when we were last there.

We left the next day for Edenton on a perfectly still, clear day, the kind that you can be sure will bring afternoon thunderstorms. At around 1:00 we where in sight of the Albemarle Sound Bridge, 6.5 miles away. I went down to check the radar and saw a 'black cloud', symptomatic of a thunderstorm, about 4 miles on the other side of the bridge, but, very puzzling, there was a smaller one between us and the bridge. When I told Kay, we were both confused because we could see nothing between us and the bridge, but, sure enough, there was a storm when we got there, not severe, but, lots of rain. The second storm looked pretty bad but passed in front of us. For the rest of the day the Coast Guard broadcast warnings about that particular storm as it tracked to the East. The only annoying aspect to this last day where the crab pots; at points, along the way they were spaced every 10 feet in all directions for miles. Even if there had been wind sailing would have been impossible under those conditions. What makes matters worse is that in NC, as opposed, to Virginia or Maryland, the crab pots are poorly marked with much smaller floats of almost any color, including nearly invisible black. Not smart, the crabbers, I am sure, are counting on boats making every effort to avoid fouling their props by running over a pot, and not counting on boats like ours with rope cutters installed on their props. Still with effort and calm seas we missed them all and are back in Edenton and will return to Greenville tomorrow.

Boat names of note:

A sailboat 'named after my long term friend and college roommate:
"Bellina"

Well put:
"Between Storms"

For those who like word play:
"Trade Wins"

One I especially like:
"Next Chapter"

A great name for a Sailboat too bad it is on a powerboat:
"AirWaves"

Overheard on Channel 16

Coast Guard:
"To the boat on fire, is the boat still on fire?"
Reply:
(Could not make out)
Coast Guard:
"To the boat on fire, is the boat on fire taking on water at this time?"
(unfortunately could not hear the rest)

Carl
Mon, Jul 17, 2000
S/V Spindrift