2006.11.24

Today was the ecstacy and the agony... it all started with the ecstacy of a glorious SUNNY day on the ICW, with still a bit of colour left in the foliage , after all the rain we have had for the last four days it was positively heaven... I even saw my second American bald eagle (well some sort of eagle with a white head and legs) but he flew away before I could take his picture.

Then the agony stated at first it was not so bad... the bridge we had thought would open at 0800 (the guide said so) was not going to open until 0830

...while we were circling around L'Equipe's motor packed up.... so all of a sudden they had no control of the boat in a narrow channel....Jem went back to give them a tow...there was all kind of traffic and activity.. tugs and barges dredging the canal, moving a tree that had fallen across and in the middle of all this mess Jem was towing L'Equipe.

They finally went and tied up to the dock in Centerville to make repairs while Jem and Solitaire1 continued on.

We then got into that infamous Currituck Sound and a good thing it was we did not do it in the rain and strong winds we had on Tuesday... a rather narrow channel with mean shoals and buried dead heads on both side...it was tense navigating and then all of a sudden we get this call on the VHF from Jem "we are aground", so we went to a wider place so we could turn around and then spotted a power boat so we asked them if they could pull Jem off, which they very nicely did.

Anyhow all is well that ends well, we are tied up to Coinjock marina in South Carolina "y'all" and "ma'am" Southern hospitality and L'Equipe made it here before dark which was a relief for everyone.

Yes, a tiring and nervous day - we shall sleep well I suspect ! We missed the shoal that "Jem" had the misfortune to hit by probably no more than three feet ! At least now we are all tied up in Coinjock we have been able to clean the boat - she was an absolute mess after the storms in Great Bridge, covered in pine needles and blowing muck ! She is now back to her pristine self more or less. By the way for those of you who don't know, if you double click on the snaps they are enlarged to almost the same size as your screen - I recommend that you do that with the first picture posted above of the canal bank - it is gorgeous and shows off the scenery that we are passing through very well indeed. A lot of it is pretty wild countryside and there's not much about and then you round a bend and there's a small town or somebody's house with a small dock and almost certainly a small power boat of some description.

OK - I have been told that if i go on I shall bore all our readers so I shall stop - anyway supper is just about ready. Bi 4 now !!