33⁰49’37” N – 078⁰42’30” W
Well “Somedayers” we found the sun, it’s still a bit chilly though. Today we had wonderful bright sunny day, and by the end of it we were shedding a layer or two. The morning found us in the Cape Fear River, after having traversed Snow’s Cut, a very confusing channel. In the river we encountered a huge oil tanker (you’ll see the pic below). After that we traveled the rest of the way through the state of North Carolina, and anchored just inside the South Carolina state line. And, we seem to have fallen in with “Pirates”!!! But being pirates ourselves we are too concerned by the situation. We are moving south in a loose convoy of four or five other sailboats, one of which is a black hulled Choy Lee 33 ketch named “Pirate Witch”, from Wisconsin. One of the others is a small boat named “Ragtime” being single handed by a young man on his way to Miami. We haven’t spoken to him much, other than to find out his destination, but he seems to be a real gypsy/pirate. His boat “Ragtime” is kind of slow, covered in gear, he sits on a bucket while at the tiller and doesn’t seem to be monitoring his radio… we’ve named him “Mikey”. All the best Mikey, if you ever see this!! One of my favorite things about this trip, so far, is the people we’ve run into. Some of them we don’t even ever meet, like Mikey, but we know that on some level we’re not that different from them, and if a meeting ever does take place… I’m sure we’d like them. One of things that all of us out here share (and many of you who couldn’t make it this time share as well) is our love of boats and what they represent. I have a favorite quote that I had my Mom send me to add to the blog for today (thanks Mom), it is…
“If a man must be obsessed with something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble.”
E.B. White.
That pretty much says it all, don’t you think so? More to come tomorrow “Somedayers. Till then Banana Winds standing by on 16… Clear.
