Well, today's excitement - a barge aground. There we were on time for the next bridge early this morning and noticed that the barge seemed to be standing still....in the middle of the channel. We watched, We slowed down. We waited. We hailed John Parrish on the radio. "Captain, are you moving? What are your intentions?" "I'm hard aground here and taking up the whole channel." "Okay, we'll stand by and give you room."
We watched. We waited. Barge called to say he was backing out so that we could go around. Sweet. There was a boat following us so we all passed the barge. We told the captain about the water we were seeing under our keel. Captain concluded that he'd swung too close to the red marker.
Wind forward. The barge got through that tricky part and is baring down on us, not really, but gaining on us and there is a swing bridge coming up that isn't supposed to open for 45 minutes. We're late - or early - now due to stuck barge delay. But, bridges usually open for barges. Hail the bridge. "May we follow the barge through?" Yes. So we get out of the way so John Parrish can pass us and away we all go through the bridge....earlier than expected. Pass the barge.
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| Passing John Parrish and barge |
Forward again. We are well ahead of barge and come to a very complicated turn - complicated due to shoaling AND the fact that there is a dredge operation with several dredge boats there. Slowing down. We hailed the lead dredge which told us to pass its starboard side to our port. Now that's a simple instruction and we know how to do that. BUT, which way is it facing? Which is its starboard side? There's a crane on each end of the platform, pilot house sort of in the middle. Can't figure which way is forward, thus which is port and which is starboard. Confusion reigns. We go in a squiggly circle almost and..........here comes John Parrish to the rescue. "Do you know what how we should manage this passage?" "You should follow me." We're all over that suggestion. Turning into Jon Parrish wake and here we go.
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| follow that tug and barge |
Captain David admits he was out of practise with his day signals. However, the regular red navigational aids were in place, plus the additional yellow and red balls that marked the dredge operation. When John Parrish came around the corner some work boats moved some equipment out of its way. They didn't do that for little ol' Grace.
Our leapfrogging with John Parrish came to an end only a few miles later when we turned off into this anchorage at Mile Hammock. Really wonderful pilot on that tug/barge combo. He was very helpful and generous. And we helped him out, too, calling out the water depths when he was behind us after grounding.
The other interest of the day were all the Osprey nests, nearly every day marker had one, usually with a hawk on the nest and another circling or fishing nearby.
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| this marker only has a hat |
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| this marker's hat has a bird, as did most |
So we pulled into Mile Hammock around 1330 (1:30 PM) and were the only boat here. It is a large bowl, larger than The Basin in Maine for those of us who know that site. It is really in the most rural area of Camp LeJeune. There is a big parking lot with a big boat ramp at one end and a number of cars parked there. Marines on maneuvers? Portable toilets but I don't think we're allowed ashore. I took my book out to the aft deck to read in the sun. Read. Took a nap. Read. Came inside and noticed that David was napping in the pilot house and Amelia was napping in the saloon. By then I was ready for a project so worked on scraping varnish off the rails. Seems like a never-ending job. David rallied and worked on an outside project. Now we're all awake and ready for some dinner. Sun is sinking. Life is good.
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