Ever sit in a seemingly endless meeting and the weather is beautiful and you know that there is a great view just outside and you just can't help but get up, ignore the meeting and take a long look out the window? That was me today.
I made the last couple of satellite photo prints today showing the channel that leads from Harkers Island to Barden Inlet and then Cape Lookout Bight itself. I saved the images from google earth, increasing the contrast in photoshop to make the shoal areas stand out. It seems like there should be a pretty good current there and the more information we have about the shoals the better.
One of my favorite websites while building Spartina was a page put together by Dale Davenport about cruising his Caledonia Yawl Rebecca Ann. He and his friends had some great cruises in the Florida/Georgia area. I got to meet Dale at the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival last fall and thanked him for all the ideas I borrowed from his site. As I'm looking on the web tonight it seems like the page no longer exists. Too bad, there were some great stories there.
One of the stories that I will take to heart on this next cruise was about sailing Cape Lookout Bight. If I remember correctly Dale cut across the bight and when it was too late realized they were heading for the shoals. The boat capsized but they recovered and got to shore, cold and soaked but otherwise ok. I appreciate his telling the story and hope that we learn well from his mis-adventure.
Though it seems like he is no longer posting on the web he did tell me that they are doing a lot of cruising down on the Georgia coast. Sounds like a place I would like to visit someday.
steve
Barden's not as troubling as you think - relatively clear water. I remember coming in there once, strong wind against tide and a heck of a chop/wash. The waves were too close together and covered stern and bow at the same time, so I had to zig-zag across the inlet. Great fun, of course ;)
ReplyDeleteVery good. Thanks for the info. steve
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