Saturday, June 23, 2012

    I wake up early, have a good breakfast, and think about the long day ahead. I raise my anchor at 7:30 AM and head for the bridge. BTW the depth of the water where I am anchored again corresponds to the chart depth. I get up to the bridge and notice that the depth of the water there is 20 feet. The chart says 15 feet. So I figure high tide? It turns out that right now it is low tide. So maybe all the SW winds have raised the water level in this area? . But why not where I was anchored? I don't know. Maybe they dredged under the bridge? I don't know. So anyway I am just about to go under it and I get the feeling that the mast won't clear. I turn off. There is no yard stick on the side of the bridge indicating clearance in feet. So I decide to use a trick that I had used a long time ago in the past. I raise my main sail. Pull in in tight, and again head for the bridge. The wind was not blowing too strong, but still it might help to heel me over a little. So as I get up to the bridge I slow the boat down to a crawl. Reason, if I hit, I may just get hung up as oppose to breaking my mast. I put the boat in auto pilot, so that I can stay out of harms way, in case the mast comes down. As I get under the bridge I look up and see my VHF antenna, which is not very long, bending on the bridge.Now I duck. a few moments later I look up again,  I am clear. Great,  I am on my way again.
    The rest of the day goes pretty good. I cross the Albemarle Sound and go into the North River. I go about 10 miles up the North River and anchor behind Buck Island. This is a quiet little ancorage with protecton on all sides from the wind. The only thing to upset the water here, are the tugs pushing barges. BTW, these are big barges. The barges are very wide and long. To tell you the truth I don't know how they do it.