12-7-10 dolphins and sand bars

Today started out at 6am… brrr cold again… we happily had a tail wind or a favorable current most of the day.

I charted our course for the day the night before.  I had a route for 45 miles and then for 60 cuz there was nothing in between to anchor at. So we either stop early afternoon 2ish or we go till 5ish.  We got to the 45 miles at 1:30 plenty of time to continue on.

First let me say I did motor in the morning and take my due shift in the coldest part of the day while Ben made the coffee. Brrr I was glad to be on the inside the icw!

Ben is the designated motor cuz machines and man go together naturally… well for some guys and I think Ben is included in this stereotype.  I’ve  seen the way he throws the throttle into fast and reeves up the engine. I’ve seen how he likes to power us off the sand bars/shoals.

Now for some fun… I’m going to make Ben blog and I will type his recollection of the day’s events.

I am now Ben…. No Ben is Ben and I’m his secretary…

“That’s just silly… people will read this and think it is just silly…

…oh I’m being recorded… well the first time I got stuck today it totally was not my fault. The sailboat in front of us had his sail out and he was coming toward us or what looked like it was coming toward us … he was on the pink line on the chartplotter so I thought I would pass him port to port so as I moved to the starboard I realized it was getting shallower and I grounded and the bouy that was shining in the sun was RED and could not tell cuz of the sun… I thought it was green…  yeah… a mistake anyone would make oh by saying it was a mistake I guess that means it was my fault after all but oh well we got right off. No harm done… maybe a little less bottom paint.

But the second time we got stuck on a sand bar… I should have known better to have gone so far out of the channel or near the edge but I was moving over to allow a big motor trawler to pass and I still had the green bouy to my port.  But it was too late…

But it was fortunate to be stuck for a few hours cuz then we got to see all of the things that swim and fly by us… like pods and pods of dolphins leaping out the water, surfacing for breath, splashing around and making a fine ruckus fishing for their suppers… oh and storks and seagulls and all the other sea birds were also beautiful as they flew by us!

And the tide got us off the sand bar just fine and we are safe and snugg just fine all happy ready for spaghetti and bed… after we play family feud online.  That’s it.”

And there you have Ben’s story… finally…I’m glad I typed this up for him cuz my recollection might have been a bit different like he says about my blogs they are 80% right as my view goes.  Ha ha ha

Love  you all sleep well.

Pam n Ben