Mother f-ing nature

From Beaufort to … Beaufort

Ok. So you solo-ed Hatters! You’re a bad ass! You’ve got this! No problem. There’s a nice weather window for you to go from Beaufort, NC to Wrightsville Beach. It’s 5 pm. You leave the marina docks on your own and head out. An hour later you are in the dark, the waves are batting you around (this wasn’t predicted - is it just the channel or is the forecast wrong?). The boat is being thrown around, everything is crashing below, I don’t want to spend 12 hours in these conditions - let’s turn around. I head back to Beaufort to an anchorage that has many other boats. I’m nervous that there might be a boat without an anchor light, so I just anchor at the edge of the anchorage (probably in the middle of the channel). But all in all, I’m happy not to be at the whim of the wind and waves being tossed to and fro (and I bet so is buttercup).

I wake up in the morning and get ready to start a day of work. I’m listening to my headphones and hear a few blasts of a horn. Is that part of my audio book? I take out my headphones and hear the blasts again. I head up to the cockpit to see what is happening and it’s my neighbor. My boat is barely a few feet from his, definitely at a different angle - so I will soon swing into him. I’m a bit frazzled and taken off guard. He’s trying to talk to me and I’m running up to the bow to take the snubber off so I can re-anchor. He sees me running around without anyone else coming up to help and incredulously asks if I’m on my own. I say yes and he seems to try to calm me down. He is literally pushing my boat away from his, it’s so close. Did I drag? Did the current change? My alarm didn’t go off. Why are we so close?!? He offers to help me on my journey south. He is an experienced mariner (Capt. John) and we talk about compensation. I decide it would be helpful to have someone knowledgable help me and we agree to a price. In the meantime, I get the snubber off, pull up anchor and move slightly over. It’s a crowded anchorage and I’m trying to stay out of the channel. I end up anchored in front of another boat. I’m trying to assess whether I’m too close when I see the captain of that boat (Walter). I ask if he is uncomfortable with where my boat is and he says - no, it’s fine. We chat for a minute and I learn he is traveling south with another boat. Although they are going via the ICW, we exchange information and I go below to start work for the day.

There is a good weather window starting the next day (Thursday), and I talk to Captain John, but he has a conflict that day and can’t start until Friday. I have booked flights out of Ft. Lauderdale to go to Texas for Christmas and don’t want to waste even a day of sailing south. So I tell Capitan John I won’t be able to wait until Friday to leave.