Cape Fear

Day 15,16,17 (Sun, Mon, Tues,  Nov 27, 28,29): This was supposed to be our “easy day.” Huh… more of the ICW and narrow passages. I finally told Patrick how happy I was that we had his $6k laptop. I thought it was totally foolish when he bought it but by golly, he was right. The laptop with an application called Polar Navy with Active Captain loaded… is the only way to travel the ICW. I navigate using the laptop while Patrick navigates and drives using our chart plotter. Redundancy is good. First 3/4ths of the trip was reasonable. Narrow channel but OK. Then, we entered this cut and over 5knots of current heading to the Cape Fear River. We were moving at over 9.1 knots (sog). And that is flying for a sailboat. Gaia was zooming through some pretty tight and very tricky areas. Quite exciting. Honestly, never have seen Patrick tense. May have caught a glimpse of it today. But I tell you what, if I was going to pick a pilot (air type pilot) after seeing how calm he is and the precision he can call on when he needs it, it would be him. Now, the ADD, adjusting the seat, fixing shoes or doing weird things just after a stressful situation or before it is finished… drives me crazy but he is remarkable.

We came into a nice marina in Cape Fear, Deep Point Marina. Very clean, well- run and organized. The staff is wonderful. Jessie let us use his jeep to see the town. It is defiantly “southerer and southerer here.” Beautiful old, live oaks and palm trees. Patrick got a haircut. I got Dobbie a harness so we can start taking him ashore for walks. Nice day.

 We decided today to hold up for a cold front to pass through and then head out for our first off shore leg of our journey. I am honestly a little nervous but after shooting the rapids a couple of days ago on the ICW “different is good.”

Monday was a great day for people connections. Made me feel comforted. I talked to Brad, Randy and Diane called and we spoke to them for the first time since their passage to the Virgin Islands and the hurricane. All was fine. Sounded like it was “exhilarating” but they made it. To quote Patrick, “No living with them now. The bar stories are already spreading from the islands to Iceland.” Seriously, great to hear from them and wish we were with them – hopefully will catch up with them at some point. Talked to Al today too. He was doing well. I needed assurance that the trip out was a good idea and that his rule of thumb re offshore aligned with what I had in my brain (3ft and under 15 knots – nice going…). Wish he was going to be with us on this leg but I know we can manage. Should be a nice trip. Lastly, heard from my old boss… Jim. Not OLD but previous J. Sounds like he is doing well. Was great to hear from him and he may have a bit more consulting work for me later this month.

The connections are comforting.

Tues: The front came through last night. Pretty windy. Sure glad we were at a safe harbor. Cooler today and rainy. Dobbie’s not too pleased with 2 days at the same spot. He has been trying to get us up early to get the boat going. He pulls covers off and does a “no claw” dig, dig, dig maneuver to get us going. He also knows that we check the engine room before starting out. Today he sat in front of the engine room meowed feverishly and started gnawing on the door hinge. “It’s not moving the boat.” He is into the new spot each day thing. Today we will stow things and get ready for our off shore leg tomorrow. Anxiety is building but this will be good. I just need to keep myself calm. Patrick has done a tremendously good job planning the route. Looking at weather and getting all the details down. We will go from Cape Fear to Charleston. Then, spend a day or two in Charleston and make our next leg off shore to upper Florida (Fernandina).