We woke early to find an anchored boat next to us. Its sails were prepped and ready for the wooden boat race held today in Southport. We toyed with the idea but I felt that we had promises to keep and the race was to take all day. I did not want to fight the tide so that meant either leave at 8 am and ride the tide to Wilmington arriving around noon or wait till the next ebbing tide 12 hours later and I did not want to roll into an unknown place at midnight. I guess we could have fought the tide but it does lend about 2-3 knots. When we go on average 5 knots fighting that much current seems to me a bit crazy. Jeff wanted to stay and we probably could have done the race stay another night and then roll in tomorrow. The Lovett’s had said that they were arriving on Saturday afternoon and I didn’t want to have them waiting on us. So, with hesitation we decided to leave. Just as Jeff was releasing the lines Robert came down the dock to check in on us. It was at that point I was really regretting pushing our departure. He had on a tee shirt from a previous boat race. He has a cape dory that he was going to have in the race. Could we really do both? No, we have promises to keep…right?
Robert said good bye to us and took on the responsibility of mailing my post cards. He gave us a healthy shove as Jeff slipped C’est la Vie into reverse. She eased into the harbor and as cruised by the stationary yellow boat awaiting the race. I took over the helm as Jeff cleared the lines and put up the fenders. There are still limitations of my shoulder and coiling lines is a motion that is a bit agonizing. Another port to our stern, on to Wilmington!
I turned on the grill and cooked our dinner from Charleston. That’s right-potatoes, chicken and steak for lunch. Bud and Muriel found on their trip great circular metal skewers that I string red skinned potatoes and garlic cloves, drizzle with olive oil and speckle with salt and pepper. I have grilled potatoes a few times and its different each time.
We motored the whole way. The wind was on our nose at every turn. I took a video with my Ipod to prove it. We had clear skies and calm seas. It took us a little under 4 hours to get to our next dock. As it was in Charleston, 2 attempts were the call of the day. The first attempt ferried C'est la Vie into the dock not the slip Jeff was able to pivot off of it with nary a scratch. The next one was better. I got nervous as I was out of practice and did not quickly lash the line on the cleat so the side of the boat smeared along the rubrail of the dock. There were fenders on our boat and the dock so, no damage just an ugly black streak pronouncing the error in docking. Yuck. We would need some goof off pronto! We got all the lines secured and turned off the motor. Not a taxing day.
We hopped off the boat to meet some more of the Lovett’s friends, Hugh and Kathy on Joint Effort. They are the de facto dock masters of this area. They were not aboard their boat. We will have to hail them later.
After lunch and a bit of a rest we received a phone call. It was the Lovetts and they brought along Carlie the dog! I ran up the dock to meet them. I spooked the little dog and she flinched and growled. I lowered my hands so she could sniff me and then she realized who I was and the tail was wagging and then off into spaz mode running in figure eights and if a dog could squeal that was the sound eminating from her body. It was good to be reunited with that little love.
No comments:
Post a Comment