Compared to yesterday, today we moved at a sloth like pace. Swansboro is a lovely little town but it does have amazing currents. At one stage we were going round in circles so fast it felt like a merry go round ride. The second anchor solved this very quickly, though our fingers were crossed that we would have an easy retrieve in the morning.
One small problem with the cold weather is that the docks have turned the water off so we jerry juggled water cans while filling up with diesel. What a good workout for the arms. As a reward we went to Yana's 50's cafe for hamburgers ( except for the vegetarian in our midst )and root beer floats. Great food and service though going to the bathroom was slightly disconcerting due to be watched by a life sided figure of Elvis - the men's evidently had Marilyn.
This was to be our easy day as we had got further than expected yesterday and we could hear the firing of explosives from Camp Le Jeune which meant no go through that section until they had finished. Picture of a APC just on the side of the canal.
We set off behind a convoy of 4 yachts and a launch on the long straight stretch. As we moved closer to marker 61 the sounds over channel 16 moved from routine to more urgent. Requests for advice on navigating the shoal turned to warnings, to oops, to sorry but we are also stuck. As we got closer the marker was looking like a beach party with yachts and trawlers scattered across the roadway. Discretion being the better part of valour we dropped anchor and waited for high tide.
Freya using the time wisely.
It was actually a lovely spot and quite entertaining as boats approached the debris field with inevitable results. One captain confidently sailed up to the spot, was warned by radio, replied that he had been through this spot in July. Another skipper said "Good luck boat with red sails" and we all watched with fascination as he came to an abrupt halt. To be fair when the boats cleared away and we approached we did bump on the shoal a couple of times until Jerry showed us the exact angle to get through.
Our new cockpit furniture
We are anchored at Mile Hammock Bay with all the boats who, like us got held up with shoals and bridges but it is a lovely spot.
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