Day 5

Today’s blog is brought to you by Captain Shirl.

We've included pictures from several days in this blog becuase we couldn't get a good internet connection on the two previous days. But the biggest reason for no pictures being posted is that John sent his brand new Blackberry Storm cell phone that he was using as a modem to Davy Jones' locker (at the bottom of the Morehead City Marina, by accident of course). Today, he paid a handsome ransom to Will to use his Blackberry phone as a modem so now we are back on the internet.

The three captains awoke at 5am and began to work together to ready the ship, eat a light breakfast (toast and coffee for John and Will, toast and juice for Shirl), stow the power cords, water hose, and lines, and were underway about 6am. As we cruised, we watched from the helm for about an hour and marveled at the beautiful sunrise (this was the first day we started the trip with calm seas and THE SUN).

This was just a beautiful day (no rain, calm water, and sun) on the Pungo River which was as smooth as glass, and we ran at 23 knots for more than an hour, when we came to the ICW channel again in Hobucken, NC where we had to slow down to no wake speed because of the narrow channel and marinas and boat slips in the area. We sometimes run faster than we should in these channels but this time in the mouth of the channel was a Coast Guard Station and three chase boats moored, but at the ready if we did. The Golden Eagle was running smooth and when we came out of the channel we immediately went back up to 25mph.

Reflecting back to this time (7am) yesterday, we were leaving Hampton, VA and Shirl stayed on the dock to take pictures of the Eagle. In this beautiful setting, he took several pictures and then waved to John to come and pick him up and then the adventure began. The wind was very high and John was catching heck maneuvering the boat back into the dock. I saw Will smiling and immediately thought that he was thinking he would leave me on the dock for a while. After several wind blown minutes and having to restart the effort several times John finally maneuvered the Eagle close enough to the dock to allow Shirl, with the assistance of Will, step from the dock to the ship. AND THEN, the wind blew the ship in between finger piers with million dollar ships on both sides. John began to spin the Eagle around against the wind, trying not hit these boats. With Will and Shirl both spotting for him he carefully spun the Eagle around and we were on our way with no damage to the Eagle or the million dollar yachts.

Further down the ICW we ran upon a beautiful ship named Wan Fo, styled like a Pirates of the Caribbean ship from the movie of the same name. We talked to the captain who said he had just purchased the ship in Delaware and was on his way to Guatemala, and we marveled at such a trip. All along this part of the ICW (the Adams Creek Canal) are beautiful homes with private slips with boats on lifts. One of them was a beautiful 48-foot SeaRay Sundancer, which I would love to have!!!!

After about another hour (9:15) and a half tank of fuel, we pulled into Morehead, NC to fuel up. After we killed the motor we heard a quiet alarm, which turned out to be the float on the shower pumpout motor, which was full of gunk and stuck in the on position. We washed it down with water and bleach the alarm ceased, and we were on our way again (10:15 – one hour stop).

At about 11:15 running through Bogue Sound on the ICW, just north of Swanboro, we saw a pod of dolphins frolicking in the wake and along side the Eagle. What a sight.

At about 12 noon it occurred to Will that he was hungry and John and I agreed. Will and I appointed John to galley duty as the lunch chef and requested Dagwood sandwiches with double cheese, double ham, double turkey, lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickles, mustard, and sunchips on 12-grain whole wheat bread. John made excellent sandwiches and we all ate our lunch with much pleasure while on the move.

The remainder of the day was uneventful. We ran without problems past our designated stop of Wrightsville, NC and on another 50 miles to our destination for the night at the South Harbour Marina in Southport, NC. After gassing the boat, pumping out the holding tank and mooring the boat we proceeded to the Dead End Saloon Fish Factory Grill at the marina and had a leisurely and delicious dinner and jaw jacked with each other about life experiences over 50 (Will) 60 (Shirl) and 70 (John) years.

Tomorrow we will shoot to begin the next leg at 6am with a goal of arriving as early as possible but before 4pm in Charleston, SC where we have made arrangements with a boatyard to pull the Eagle out of the water and check the props, as we have been experiencing some vibration which John and Will thinks may be caused by a bent prop blade.

If all goes well, we will be on our way by midday Thursday and on to the next adventure.