(35° 40.5’N 076° 03.5’W) Mile 102
Trip: 47 nm/ 248 nm total. Eng: 837 hrs.

Weather forecast for today was South 5-10kts increasing to 10-15 in the afternoon. I planed on being at the Alligator River swing bridge by about noon so we should not have to worry about the higher winds while in the sound.

This morning we didn’t have a lot of wind, but we did have a lot of fog. Thick, rolling, fog. We didn’t see the fog when we first left the dock. It wasn’t until we got to the end of the canal that we saw it. When we did I said to Jane, “If this gets too bad we’re going back to Coinjock to wait for it to burn off. Then when I saw how thick it was in the river I added that, “If I can’t see the next mark from the current day mark, we’ll turn around and just wait that the current day mark." The fog was thick in patches as it rolled across the water.

As we exited the canal, I heard a discussion on the VHF radio. A boat (s/v Clear Day) had gone hard aground at day mark 32. He said “I’m in the channel, but hard aground.” We always think we’re in the channel,too, don’t we? As we got closer we first made out his mast sticking up out of the fog. He was about 60-feet too far to port and clearly out of the channel. We slowed down and asked if we could help. The skipper of said “No, thanks. The tug and barge behind you will probably throw enough of a wake to bounce us off.” We motored away. The tug and barge was catching up to us quickly. In this fog I don’t like a long duration pass. So I did a U-turn and heading back to pass the tug port-to-port. I was about to turn around again and continue on my way behind the tug when we heard Clear Day saying he was still stuck. He was calling for TowBoatUS but was getting no answer. We were headed right for him so we continued back to again offer assistance. This time he was happy to accept. I told him to secure a bow line and we would attempt to pull him free.

There was a lot of the usual “We just have to move about a boat length.” And “Don’t endanger your vessel, Captain.” And “We sure appreciate this.” They said they were in 5 ½ feet and drew 6 ½ feet. Galena only draws 5-feet and that only at about half-way back from the stem. I knew I could nose up to them without much problem. In fact I never saw less than 8-feet of water during the maneuver. Jane went out on the bowsprit and as I maneuvered Galena’s bow toward Clear Day’s bow she took a line and made it fast. I immediately started backing away. Now, Galena doesn’t have much power in reverse. But what she does have is momentum. You get 20,000 pounds of boat moving at a couple knots and it can give quite a tug. As we backed, Galena’s prop walk started to swing us clockwise. As the line came taut it caused Galena to swung bow-to, taking up some of the shock. That big, new, forty-something-foot sailboat just swung around and followed us. Even as we lost momentum, we continued to pull her off.

Then my concern switched from “Will this work?” to “we have to get out of the way!” Jane was already nucleating the line. Clear Day motored past us starboard to starboard as we cast off and, still hard astern, swung out of the way to port. All in all it was a rather well done maneuver. Jane handled the lines like the pro that she is and Galena used her momentum to show that big boat what a real ocean-going vessel can do. I was very proud of both.

Clear Day said, “We really owe you guys. We’ll just follow you for a while, ok?” And they did for about an hour. Then, being much faster, they passed us and said they would see us down the road. Nice guys. I felt very good about having helped them. We had a guy come back for us one time on the ICW. It really makes you feel indebted.

We motor-sailed down the Albemarle without much ado. This was Galena’s fourth crossing of the sound and only the first was “exciting.” We were making over 6-kts most of the way. The weather was sunny and about 65°. The route across the Albemarle and into the Alligator River is just about a straight line south. But just before the swing bridge there’s a couple of shallow areas that require a small zigzag. We saw that the boats ahead of us didn’t do the zigzag right. There’s a shoal named Middle Ground just before the bridge. The charts show a small zig to the West and then a zag to the East. But in reality Green “3” has been relocated about ½ mile west of where it is on the chart. We noted that last year and so the route we enter into our chart plotter directs us to the proper marks. But the charts show the old ‘small’ zigzag, not the new ‘big’ zigzag. We saw several boats miss that Green “3” and go across the edge of the shoal. One boat was on the radio saying he was in 7-feet of water and his chart shows 15. When Miss Wanda of the Alligator River Marina replied with the sage advice of “follow the marks, not the chart” the guy comes back with “it’s a little late for that.” Some people just don’t pay attention.

As usual, everyone was passing us up all day long. We were concerned that getting to this anchorage behind everyone else would mean that it might be difficult to find a good spot. As the anchorage came into view we were surprised to see there was no one here. We sounded our way in to about 9 feet of water and dropped the anchor. Now, Skipper Bob’s book warns about the numerous snags in the water here. He recommends using a trip line. (A trip line is an additional line attached to the other end of the anchor. If it gets caught on something you can lift with this trip line and essentially back out the anchor.) So I did. On the second attempt at setting the hook, we were making about 1 knot astern and about to give up when the anchor hit something solid. Galena came to a sudden stop and we knew were well set. Jane said that an Alligator River Gator got our anchor. And asked what will happen when he lets go or walks away with us? I was just happy I had attached that trip line. I was sure that this would be the first time I ever needed one to get the hook up.

We had a very quiet night. But around sundown we were reminded of the other feature of this anchorage: mosquitoes. So with Galena buttoned up, we were in bed by 1800. At the 2200 hr anchor check I noted that there were a couple other boats in our little anchorage. At 0200 the bugs were still out there, waiting for us.