ICW: Alligator River to Goose Creek
Today’s leg was the penultimate leg before arriving at my second port-of-call at Beaufort. Now that my mind and body has been used to this environment, today felt like a blur. The monotony of the tasks and the similarity of the environment makes it feel as if I was in some dream. One of those dreams where you can’t tell how much time had passed. I’m seeing the same sights over and over again. Alligator River canal was beautiful, but I am a bit tired of seeing trees all around me. At one part of the day, some turkey vultures flew alongside my boat, lazily circling above me. Maybe I looked as dead as I had felt. I am kidding, I feel physically fine. It is just my state of mind that is foggy. This kind of thinking is dangerous at sea. The water is never the same in two spots a quarter-mile apart. Nor is the same spot of water the same between any given hour. I must force myself to stay vigilant.
Yesterday, I briefly met a guy taking his boat south – the Rosas Dos Ventos. It means compass rose*. I was joking about how we’re the only sailboats in the vincinity with Spanish names. I ran into them again today. They were passing me as I was coming down the Pungo river. I took a few photos of their boat and e-mailed them to them while I had data reception.
To pass the time, I rigged up a real towing bridle for my dinghy. I think it has made my boat a little bit slower, but it should help take off the strain on the dinghy side bridle. I think tomorrow, if I get bored, I will clean up and organize a bit to make room for Dallace to join me. That was one thing I was looking forward to. Having a buddy who had the same goals as me – get ourselves and the boat safely to our destination.
I had some interesting thoughts I wanted to write about but those thoughts have faded away. I must have been more tired than I felt. Still, I’m a lot less tired than when I was at the bay, when I used to spend two thirds of the day sailing. Or maybe its the solitude that’s getting to me? Is there another layer of ‘getting used to’ I haven’t unlocked yet? This is yet another danger. Your body gets used to the fatigue, and you start to overestimate your mental capacity. It really isn’t mind over matter. It is quite the inverse when you are doing anything like this. I do think physical fitness is important for a single handed sailor, and I will typically train up for a long journey like this.
Each night for the past few nights I’ve been having dreams. This is notable for me because I rarely dream. I guess the sleep I am getting is not deep enough. I’m also getting tired of the food I’m making on this boat. Its pretty sad really. Sonora doesn’t carry refrigeration, so all the food I have are non-perishable items. For example, I have loads of Spam and corned beef hash. I have some cans of horse radish and fruits. I have a bunch of home canned items that I made using my pressure canner. They aren’t all that bad, but aside from the pickled items, they all have the same texture. So imagine eating beef that has the same texture as potatoes. The only thing that hasn’t had a element of grossness are pancakes. But I’m not trying to eat pancakes every meal! Every time I get cellular reception and I see someone’s meal on social media, my mouth waters. My friends can be so cruel to me.
I guess I hadn’t talked about much negatives about this trip until now. I don’t mean to sound so doom and gloom. I haven’t been emphasizing how cold this trip has been. On good days, I got to enjoy high forties. At night, it gets as low as high twenties. I’d been dressed in several layers of clothes for about ten days now, and I had rashes all over my body. I thought it was a cold rash at first, but I thought its just from constant contact with clothing, and from my skin not being able to breathe from all the layers. I sure hoped my body gets used to this at some point because the nightly itching was really getting to me. I pretty much had to have a twenty minute scratching session before I go to bed. And sometimes this itchiness wakes me up in the middle of the night.
I did push ups at the back of the cockpit in what is probably a vain attempt to maintain some of my physique. I found a spot and an angle in the cockpit where that works. While this daily routine hasn’t been too bad on my strength levels, I could feel my cardiovascular fitness fading away. Other than that, I tried to read. Sometimes I got my harmonica out and played some sad tunes. I am not sure if any tune would sound cheerful from a diatonic harmonica. Then I thought about some of the people I missed back home.
I travelled forty three nautical miles on this leg. Left at nine in the morning and arrived at six. I anchored in Goose Creek, just south of the Pamlico River. Turns out that the second set of weird flashes of light I’ve been seeing are indeed from lightning. I was much closer to the light source this day, and I could see the streaks of lightning among the clouds. Crazy! There’s been that isolated thunder cloud just in that area for a few days now. Everywhere else is sunny with clear skies. I would lean later that this area generates several different weather patterns in a relatively small area. The NWS forecasts are separated into five sub-categories for the surrounding hundred miles. This is why sailors often caution against the offshore route to round Cape Hatteras– winter weather here can be unpredictable.
Tomorrow is a longer, forty six nautical mile trip with a gas stop in the beginning. I can weigh the anchor and get underway in about twenty minutes now. I’m interested to see what the town of Beufort has to offer, but if things go to plan, I’ll only be there for a day and a half. Weather window is short and it ends this weekend when we are forecasted to have crazy southerly gusts offshore. We either have to stay, or leave in time to make Wilmington. The other concern is looking out for onshore conditions. We don’t want to try to leave or enter the inlets when there is an out current and there is a onshore wind.
This day’s journal entry is devoid of any cheer and excitement. I’m trying not to think about how this is still such a long way from the Bahamas. But I do think progress will speed up once I’m able to go offshore. I ate candy some I bought at the Alligator River marina and see if it would cheer me up a bit. At least this night was a little bit warmer. Trying to focus on the positives, I welcomed the opportunity to save on propane for when it was supposed to be really cold on Tuesday.