Day 27 Topsail, NC

We stopped and stayed the night at Swansboro, NC.  Our Inter Coastal Waterway guidebook by Bob suggested this was a great idea.  Im not sure if Bob knows what the heck he is talking about.  He either has never been to the anchorage at Swansboro or the joke is on us and Bob was the guy in the restaurant by the docks pointing and laughing as we fell into his trap.

This place has wind pushing hard one way and the tide smacking back the other.  It was getting darker and darker as we circled around and around trying to find a spot with enough depth to hold anchor.  On what must have been our fifth time around we did find ground to hold but it wasn’t with our anchor.  As the front of the boat made an abrupt stop our back end started turning to the side.

John yelled ,”Back end of the boat, Back end of the boat” and Carrie and I jumped from our front positions on the boat and scrambled back.  I crawled all the way to the back of the transom with my bare toes gripping the end.  John powered her in reverse while Carrie and I tried our hardest to put all our weight on the end without going swimming.  The dinghy that had been behind us the whole trip was moving wildly between the engine and the wind and the tide.

Slowly we made headway and finally we were released. The sun was down and that last adventure zapped our strength. We gave in and motored to the empty docks across the water. We left the dock master a voice message and tied Irish Eyes in for the night. I am not exaggerating when I say she was tied in with 5 lines. She wasn't going anywhere!

John and I took a walk around finding a take one/leave one mini library. These are everywhere at ports and I love them.  Being dyslexic, reading as a child was torture. As an adult I am making up for it. I am often reading or listening to 3 different books at a time.  I call it ‘mood reading’ because I pick whichever one I am up for whether it be murder mystery, funny, enlightening, educational, or juvenile. Right now I am hooked on a sister murder book. I told Carrie all about it when she ate the last twizzler on the boat!