Thursday, June 4, 2009

day four - leaving Bath

Started the day by borrowing the marina van and driving to the Country Kitchen for bacon, eggs and toast. Topped off the 2 gallon fuel tank and got the boat loaded for the next leg of the trip. We had talked about an easy morning and getting a late start, but somehow we had the lines off just after 9 a.m. It is hard to pass up on blue skies and a nice breeze.

Motoring down Bath Creek Bruce got a couple nice photos including the fledgling osprey, above, sitting in a nest of branches and Spanish moss, and the royal tern (with two fish in its beak!) below. Nice job of shooting with a long lens from a moving boat.

With a nice breeze out of the southeast we raised sail near the mouth of the creek, gave a wide berth to the shoals on the eastern side - easily recognized with all the crab pots - and tacked across the Pamlico River on a close reach. Our next waypoint was Goose Creek and the intra-coastal waterway a little over 13 miles to the east.

5 comments:

DancesWithSandyBottom said...

Steve and Bruce,

Wow great trip reporting! Much appreciated. Reading each post is like opening another Christmas present. Thanks for so generously sharing these rich adventures and amazing photos.

What cameras were ya'll carrying this trip?

--Paul

Steve said...

Glad you are enjoying the blog. It has been fun to put together (but more work than I thought).

I brought my little optio pentax waterproof camera. Bruce had a Canon slr with 16-35 and (I think) a 100 - 300 mm lenses. The slr and lenses lived in a waterproof bag (at one point I saw the bag with cameras inside sloshing around in a couple of inches of water - I cringed but we found that the bag did its job and kept the cameras dry). I'll get the camera model from Bruce.

Steve

DancesWithSandyBottom said...

That's a good view of your cockpit tent / boat cover.

Ever use it as a shelter on this trip while at anchor; or, is it intended to be a boat cover only?

Looks well-made. Sail fabric? There's no ridge pole (right?)

--Paul

Steve said...

Yes, I've used the tent at anchor many times. It is made out of polytarp, polytarp tape, two sided tape and grommets. Cost about $60. The main boom in the support.

I use it when there is rain in the forecast, but it can get hot in there so my preference is just to use the bivy. Cooler, easier to set up and quicker to break down (and love the mosquito mesh on the bivy.

Twice on this trip we had "possible" rain in the forecast at night. We used our bivy's, but strung the tent up under the boom and just let it hang there between us so it would be there if we needed it. We put it over the cockpit one night for about thirty minutes then the rain moved on and we dropped the tent.

Bruce said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.