Wed June 3: St James Marina to Carolina Beach Mooring Ball

In which we are longer jaded...

We had a windy night at St James, but still slept well.  I guess we were feeling so confident that we didn't look too closely at the wind, current and tide.  So that bit us in the ass right away.  Pretty quickly we were in the Cape Fear River and it was a S L O G.  We were into the wind but against the current, and, as an open inlet to the sea, there was a ferocious current.  Faithful readers will remember that current against wind = WAVES.  It felt like someone was yanking the wheel from side to side.  I had to turn the helm over to Rick because I couldn't hold the wheel steady.  Neither could he, but he was strong enough to keep fighting it.  We didn't have very far to go, but at 3.5 MPH it took us sometime to get to the turn off into the Carolina Beach area.  Again, we learned a good lesson.  Because we hadn't checked the tides closely, when we turned into the Carolina Beach Harbor we were at low tide.  Coming around the corner (enough with the lessons already) we didn't anticipate the wind (I say we, but actually I did say 'careful that the wind doesn't catch us' which good/bad turned out to be correct) and it pulled us right into the shallow part.  There was a bump and we looked at each other - it was an unmistakable bump.  And, at this point, I feel I have to blame loyal reader Rick who, just the other day, said 'if you haven't run into the dock or hit the bottom you haven't really been boating'.  I know he was just cheering me up after the Terrible Horrible Very Bad No-Good Awful Dock Experience of the other day...  But maybe he jinxed us - or I did by saying the word 'jaded' yesterday.  Well - best to get it over with...

Rick was lightening fast to stop the engine, then he used the bow thruster to bump over to deeper water and gentle nudged us off the bottom.  It was actually quite impressive.  I mean, we have talked through what to do if we ran aground, but all of that info vanished completely out of my mind when it really did happen. 

Anyway - we picked up the mooring ball like pros, in spite of the wind.  I got us right on top of the ball and then Rick did a credible impression of a professional calf roper getting us tied off in the 1 second we had. He even threw his hands in the air at the end, and I could practically see the boots, spurs, hat and cowboy belt buckle.

The plan for dinner was the burrito place we went to last time we were here, but you loyal readers will remember that the dingy motor was out of commission.  Rick's complex plan turned out to be of the 'leave it alone and it will fix itself' variety - and, by golly, that worked out for him.  Motor started right away and off we went. 

Check out how hard his cheek muscle is working - no wonder the boat started!

We had a nice takeout dinner on the top of the boat, and watched all the party people doing the opposite of social distancing...

The almost-full moon came up to bid us good night.