Swansboro, NC (The Idiot strikes again)

Wednesday October 21, 2012
34 41. 107 N 77 07.284 W

Barges and Bridges

Engine start at 8:15 AM and thru the bridge at 8:30 AM sharp. Nice cool sunny day but not much breeze. We are running with the engine room door open for the heat - 44 degrees outside.

We seemed to be fighting wind and current most of the day except for the last 10 miles when the force was  with us and we started making good time (8 kts plus) - until the idiot in me struck again. To make a long story short we went hard aground at the Swansboro inlet.

The logical part of my brain (the little bit hiding in the back of the rest) has taught me that when I am piloting the boat I need to pay attention to all the major inputs -
     #1: what I see outside,
     #2: what the chart tells me, and
     #3: what Deidre tells me.

This time I just followed #1 and here we are stuck hard and fast. and right in front of our two friends (so now they knew I was an idiot rather than just thinking it.) I messed around with the engines for 15 minutes or so and probably dug us in deeper. So then we called Tow Boat US and asked for help. They had to come from Beaufort and were 45 minutes away. The two other boats headed off to the marina - there was no point them hanging around. The good news was that we were at the low point of the tide and there was a bit of a current.

Deidre sounded around the boat with a hammer on a rope, and we concluded we had some "deeper" water to starboard and stern. The boat was swinging around in the current. After about 15 minutes I tried again with the engines and we powered ourselves off. Time for a beer.

Tonight is Halloween. Deidre and I dressed up in togas and went "next door" for dinner. Dinner was good and I probably drank too much. But it was fun, despite the headache.