Passage

So the open steel deck bridge made last night every bit as long an noisy as feared.  The people at Centerville Water Marina are good folks, but it is not a place to try and rest from a long (or even short) day on the ICW.  We powered our way out of the mud to launch south through the first bridge opening of the morning.  Along side for a couple of minutes was the determined-looking ketch rig Passage.  When asked her single handing Captain said, "I'm going to Mexico".


"I'm going to Mexico."  Kintala's destination is "south".  Friend John is heading to the BVI.  David and Nancy to FL.  Bill and Christy are off "to the Islands."  Most of human kind has put down roots, put up borders, and now protects those same borders with violence and hate.  There are a few tribes of gypsies left however; who hunt and gather and wander.  The cruising community is one of those tribes; Deb and I among its newest members.  Sure, the hunting is mostly for the best ice cream cone (or the closest laundry) and the gathering mostly for sundowners, but we are certainly wandering.

It must be admitted that today's wanderings were a bit constrained.  The ICW in these parts is shallow and narrow.  Even when the water spreads out in all directions, as it did today in the North Landing and then the North rivers, getting more than a hundred feet or so off the track would stop all wandering by sticking the keel in the bottom.  A good part of the day had the depth sounder showing 10 feet or less ... sometimes a lot less.  Here in a place called (mistakenly) Broad Creek, the depth showed "0" under us at one point, and now we are anchored in about 7 total feel of water.  Two other boats have joined us, one being Passage from this morning, the other a cruising sailboat that has been in here before.

Tomorrow we will wander some more, across the Albemarle Sound, around Roanoke Island, into the Pamlico Sound, and eventually to Oriental...or Mexico??