Everything is Wet

Our third weekend on the ICW was the least crowded. This weekend, the weather wasn't quite as beautiful and we saw about the same number of boats we had during the week - there wasn't the spike in recreational boaters like in FL and SC. Yesterday, we realized we weren't going to make it all the way to Beaufort, NC so we stopped at at Dudley's Marina at ICW mile 228. Shortly after we docked and fueled up, it started to rain and it's been raining ever since.

For the most part Whisper is a great boat. We're (usually) warm and dry inside the cockpit/living room watching other sailors bundled up on their mono-hulls with out even a bimini. However, when it rains, the open bridge deck design shows it's downside. The windows don't make a perfect seal with the hull, so water drips in down the mast and sides. The deck gets wet, and basically everything stays that way.

In the middle of the night on Saturday Ben realized that the window over the bed was not completely closed and the bed was soaked. We quickly realized we would need to ditch the sleeping bag for some dry sheets. Luckily we had power, the heat was on, and we had taken the extra blankets from the night before off the bed, so they were safe and dry. Luckily we have heat again tonight because that sleeping bag is not drying anytime soon.


Despite not getting a good nights sleep, we were up this morning and off the dock early because there was thunderstorms forecasted for the afternoon. We ended up making it all the way to River Dunes, north of Oriental, despite the XM Weather/Thunderstorm alert around 1 pm. The waves were pretty rough and the wind was over 30 knots, so combined with the rain and thunderstorm warning, it was a stressful trip up the Neuse River. As much as we love to squeak out every bit of speed, we both got pretty nervous when Ben saw 13 knots on the GPS/speedometer. Of course, it started pouring again right before we made it to the dock, and I was soaking wet by the time the boat was tied up. The redeeming factor: this is by far the nicest marina we have stayed at, which is why we came back, and the rain and cold probably made the steam shower feel that much better.

Ben says calling this place a marina is like calling a Hilton a motel, it is really in a class by itself. Right now we are sitting in the marina "lounge" in front of the fireplace watching college basketball, enjoying the internet, and trying to decide where we're going to go out to dinner. Not too bad.


The other interesting moment today was when we passed a dredge boat in a narrow part of the ICW. The boat seemed to be taking up the entire channel, so we hailed to ask if we could go around them. He said we could go by on his starboard side, but like an ugly dog we had trouble telling which end was which, so he had to hail us back and say, "my starboard side" (which was to port for us).

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