Steady rain all night. Wake feeling so comfortable in my sleeping bag I wonder where I am, then realize I am on the boat. Heavy rain in the morning. A couple of very strong gusts whip through the cove.
Hot chocolate with breakfast, then a cup of hot tea. Forecast shows rain all day, strong winds until late morning. I read the news, sleep a bit, read a chapter of my book.
10:00 light rain, cloud not as dark and low as they had been. Lunch. 12:30 rain mostly gone. A few strong gusts of dry wind roll through. The back side of the front?
2:00 wind swings to the east and the anchorage becomes uncomfortable. Think of moving down the creek to a better spot, but soon realize that the front has moved through much quicker than forecast. Checking my Storm Radar app confirms this. Start packing up the sleeping and cooking gear. Everything tucked away, take down the boom tent as blue skies show through the clouds.
2:25 under power out of the creek, 2:40 on the South River and full sail. 3:45 passing red marker "2", head out on to the Neuse River. Making 3.4 with low broken overcast, blue skies to the west. One last dark cloud passes overhead, the water quivers.
Lovely downwind sailing across the Neuse, particularly when I consider the forecast called for steady rain in the afternoon. Oriental is just across the wide river.
5:10 through the jetties into Smith Creek. I've used up my two free nights at the town dock, so pass under the bridge, round the point with the boat ramp and turn up into Camp Creek. 5:40 anchor down.
I'm under the boom tent reading when I hear a voice say "Did you damage my boat? I saw you right up against her when you came in." I turn around to see what could best be described as an old hippie. He is rowing a little boat. Long grey hair in a ponytail, missing a few teeth, old fogged glasses. I asked him what he was talking about.
"I saw you. You were right up against my boat! I just rowed around her but couldn't find any damage." He's pointing to an old wooden trawler style boat up the creek about 60 or 80 feet away. I realize he had come from Blackwell Point, and looking from the little marina there he had seen SPARTINA in line with his boat, but not near the boat.
"If you find any damage on your boat, it's not from me," I tell him. "This is as close as I have been," motioning to the distance between the two boats.
I hear a man calling from a pier across the creek, asking the old hippie if he needs any help. "I don't," he says, "but this guy here needs a tow. Can you help him with your power boat?" He is pointing at me.
"What are you talking about?" I ask him. "I've got sails, I've got an outboard, I can go anywhere I want. And I am anchored just where I want to be."
I think about this time he realizes that from a different view, he would have seen I wasn't anywhere near his boat. So he starts to make some small talk. "We call this Cove Creek right here, I've had my boat anchored here for a couple of years. Got a good deal on it and bought it. Brought it here, haven't moved it since."
"Cove Creek?" I say. "Isn't there a Camp Creek around here?"
The old hippie looks confused. He glances around a bit, says "Oh yeah, this is Camp Creek." Turns his little rowboat around and rows aways. Later I see him standing at the marina looking down the creek at me, probably wondering if I was going to hit his boat.
11.95 NM
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