The Best and Worst of Days

June 28, 2011

I was reading the guide book last night and saw Blackbeard Island was going to be on our route today.  Brian found it on the charts, and as we approached he announced "all mateys are going ashore".  Yea, pack a lunch and launch the dingy we are off for an adventure!  The sand glittered in the sun and we were sure that it was silver and gold dust from Blackbeard’s treasure chest.  It is thought to be buried on this island.  We ate lunch and walked the beach, picking up shells along the way.  Several dolphins swam by.  One jumped all of the way out of the water.  What a perfect day!  The tide was rising and soon the beach would be totally under water.  Time to head back. 



Looking for treasure and shells.
Guess what we found -- shells!



Definately the captain of the dingy,



Back on the boat and settled in; Brian pulled the anchor. I drove. Once the anchor was up, I began heading back to the intercoastal heading for Savannah.  Only one big problem -- I ran the boat up on a huge submerged pile of rocks.  The rocks are from Africa and were used as ballast on a slave ship. When the ballast was no longer  needed it was dumped.   Well, I really hit it and we were really stuck.  I put out a call for help on the radio and a local boat came to pull us off.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough power.  To make things worse, the tide was going out -- fast.  The longer we sat the more the boat listed to port.  We put Christopher's life jacket on him and got ours out of the locker.  Brian launched the dingy in case we had to abandon ship.  It was getting very difficult to walk through the boat it was leaning so far over now.  We subscribe to a towing service, Tow Boat US.  Unfortunately, they don’t have service in this area.  Sea Tow does and offered to come to our rescue.  They were about a half hour away.  No other choice.  Yes, come and pull us off…..  After a lot of horrible scraping noises (our hull on the rocks) and $1750 we were once again floating.  All of the equipment is functioning, but we know there is damage to the hull.  The boat will have to be inspected and repairs made.  Not sure where that will take place.  Hopefully, it can wait until we get to the Chesapeake.

300 horsepower and pulling from the right angle
freed us to travel on.

 Gotta smile – We’re lovin the ride!     Yes, even today…..