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Griffin Update #3: Exciting Crew Opportunities Available!
Underway, Beaufort, North Carolina, Monday, December 1st, 0700, Onboard M/V Griffin.

Yesterday, we got underway in a rush to catch up with the 50' Motoryacht "Just Us" from Salisbury. They had radar and as vis was only up to about 1 mile in fog we thought it would be prudent to follow in her wake. We had chatted briefly with the crew the evening before and they had told us about their trip down the Chesapeake getting slammed around in 6 ft. seas on Friday so we felt we had a shared experience even though on Griffin we were estimating the uncomfortable sea state as more realistically at 2-3 feet.

We piled on the coal and pleaded with the Alligator River Bridge operator to hold the bridge open for another couple minutes so we could make the opening and she obliged. We fell in to the wake of "Just Us", but in a few minutes it became apparent that we were significantly faster even though we both said we cruised at 17 knots. I chalked it up to the fish size/sea state calibration error factor and we moved out to the side and passed her.

Unfortunately, this put us into the point position with no radar. Andrew put some waypoints in the GPS, but I learned last year from my Israeli Missile Boat Engineer/Delivery Skipper buddy, Ron Novak, that there is nothing that beats the Mark 1 Eyeball for confirming position in shallow waters. Find every mark by eye was Ron's philosophy and we stuck to it. The three of us spent an exciting hour peering ahead going from one mark to the next.

The windows were fogging up pretty badly so we fired up the generator and turned on the small quartz heaters and aimed them at the windshield. They worked great. It was raining fairly heavily so we had the windshield wipers going. With the heater on, we were as snug as a bug in the pilothouse.

We rounded Bear Point, No bears in sight, and entered the 25 mile long Alligator-Pungo Canal. Nothing much to see as we zipped along dead in the middle of the channel at 17 knots. We came to the one and only draw bridge we encountered and it was closed, and not due to open for 15 minutes. The great equalizer allowed the Motoryacht "Just Us" to catch up and we stayed together for the rest of the day.

As we passed Belhaven, North Carolina and turned south into the Pungo River heading for the Pamlico Sound, the weather worsened. The rain started coming down stronger and the visibility dropped to a half mile. For some reason, both "Just Us" and "Griffin" lost situational awareness and we started Thatch Weaving across each other's wake as we tried to figure out where the hell we were!

The General Prudential Rule of good seamanship would have suggested that we slow down, figure out where we are, and then get going again, but, of course, neither of us did that. It was kind of a weird adrenaline rush to go blasting through the mist at 17 knots trying to QUICKLY figure out our position and correct course. I guess in retrospect we are nuts!

When we hit the Pamlico Sound the waves kicked up to 2-3 feet again, but this time on the beam. In the Chesapeake we were pounding right in to them. We were behind "Just Us" at this point but she delayed the turn and we ended up beating them across the Pamlico and retaking the lead heading into Goose Creek.

Goose Creek gave us a 10 mile break from navigation as we were back in a narrow cut. Little did we know what was next!

We dumped back into open water at mile 160 of the ICW when we entered the Neuse River. There is a fairly long stretch of water for the waves to kick up and we started to beat into waves slightly bigger than in Pamlico. At this point, we were so far ahead of "Just Us" we had lost sight of her. We pounded through the waves until we rounded Maw Point Shoal and turned southwest into the Neuse River itself. Running with the seas, the ride calmed down but then the vis went to hell! Yikes.

We were into a fog bank. We could only see 200 yards. We were in a very wide channel; 3 or 4 miles, so navigation and shallow water wasn't the worry. Other boats looming out of the fog was our concern. We set up a fog lookout with all three of us peering through the mist in all directions like 3 drug dealers looking out for cops.

After about 30 minutes the fog lifted to a half mile, and there, directly on our starboard beam, our arch-nemesis! "Just Us"! Like Moby Dick pursuing Captain Ahab! I guess she really can go 17 knots.

"Just Us" pulled into the lead and led us through the sedate Adams Creek canal towards Beaufort.

We decided that we had had enough excitement for one day and peeled off from "Just Us" to pull into Town Creek Marina at Beaufort, NC for the night. A strong on-setting breeze to the fuel dock gave us our first exciting mooring evolution. Thankfully it wasn't pushing us off the dock!

On our way in we had been trying to remember the different pronunciation for the two "Beaufort"s. North and South Carolina each have one but they are pronounced Bow-fort and Bu-fert. We just couldn't remember which was which. After mooring, we asked the marina manager how they pronounce the name of this place. He looked at us like we were stupid, and very slowly said: "T-o-w-n C-r-e-e-k M-a-r-i-n-a". We did eventually ascertain that we were actually in Bow-fort, North Carolina.

Dinner was onboard. Appetizers followed by Wendy's turkey dinner, hot out of the microwave. It was as good as on Thanksgiving. Russell had his scuppernong wine which he enjoyed. Jon though it tasted like cough syrup and knew that if brother Russ was along we would have been pouring this stuff down the scuppers and popping out a bottle of California Chardonnay.

After dinner we watched two videos of China and heard Dad's story of his excursion to meet with emergency managers in Beijing last month. Early to bed for a dawn start.

We are going to try and make Myrtle Beach today. Will probably stop in Wrightsville Beach for fuel as we don't quite have the unrefueled range.

Jon, Russell & Andrew

P.S. Andrew's head is fine. He is going to get off the boat Wednesday Morning in Charleston. If anyone would like to join us we have room for 1 or 2 more and would enjoy the company. E-mail if you have any interest and we will set up a rendezvous. This could be your big opportunity to join the e-mail adventure in progress!

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