"Paging Capt. Harry Schiffman!!!"

SHIP'S LOG:

When I rose at the crack of 7AM, it was a bloody cold 42 degrees and as much as the wine and cheese sounded like a good idea, I gave Elizabeth City a pass. It is no fun really drinking all the wine and eating all the cheese by oneself.

I was having morning coffee in the cockpit, cold as it was, as the two Canadian boat who were anchored by me last night took off. Actually I only saw one go. When it passed, the crew bundled up like Nanook of the North, I looked around for the other boat and he was gone. I mean, he wasn't even on the route of the ICW as far as I could see. They really must have wanted to go south . . .or get to Elizabeth City to be first on the dock for wine and cheese.

I had to re-reef the pennant on mizzen topping lift, repair the radar reflector, and dismantle my new, jury rigged anchor light system. I had an old kerosene anchor light which worked great but the bashing of the wind the last few days destroyed the chimney and it will not function now. Another item to get somewhere, sometime.

Got out and away about 9;30. i am sure that many ICW pilgrims would cringe at the thought of such a late start, but I am just going at my own pace. I'll get there, wherever there is, eventually. Out on the ICW, I was passed by an "American" sailboat. The guy must have great insurance or he is pay for the privilege of going south at this time. The home port is Fort Pierce in Florida which is where my buddy Gerry lives. He is one of my goals. I have been meaning to get down to see him for a couple of years now. He has a bottle of FINLANDIA in his freezer that we are planning to do some serious damage to when I get down to the sunshine state.

Albemarle Sound is beautiful and I was all set for it. When I cleared the last buoy to the sound, up went the sails but the heralded winds of Albemarle failed to put in an appearance. What I thought would be a nice, fast reach across the sound turned out to be another dull motor. I keep looking over my shoulder for boats to be overtaking me on their way south, but so far they have few and far between.

Oh Yes, Capt. Harry Schiffman . . . . Capt. Harry is the local Towboat/US operator the area of the Alligator River. I broke one of the 10 rules of the ICW, I failed to make my turns wide when I was going around a mark. Mark "8" FL R got me. Plowed right into a sand bar and got stuck, not hard and fast, but well enough that I couldn't get myself off. So off went the call and out came Capt. Harry. It took him more time to fill out the paperwork than it did to free me from the grasp of the Alligator River. Just prior to leaving, I bought Boats/US Unlimited Towing Package. It is sort of like AAA for boats. What it would have cost me to get freed today would have been more than what the package cost. From now on, it is gravy . . . so long as it isn't a hard grounding . . . like those previous one, by why bring up bad memories. Ok, I am 2 for 4!

It took me about an hour after Harry left to get to South Lake just off of the Alligator River where I am spending the night. A truly beautiful spot. Tomorrow, it is back out onto the River, a quick stop for fuel and a pump-out and picking up a few things and then off I go south. . . . . "towards where the water doesn't freeze in the bilge!"