Thud!

PredictWind Blog Entry - November 30th, 2023

Sidenote: I’m trying something new for our PredictWind Blog. Instead of having multiple places to post blogs, I’m going to start posting all of these to our regular blog site, OnANewTack.com and then link to that from the PredictWind Blog.  This will allow a couple of changes that I think will be beneficial.  First, the impact to you, the reader, hopefully will be trivial and have more positive than negative. You will have to click a link on the PredictWind Blog to see the entry, but at least now you will be able to comment or ask questions. For us, it’s just one place to write to!

We are on our way South again after a great stay in Oriental. Friends Erik and Jean (Sailing Knot Shore) put us up at their dock for the stay, which was very helpful given the very low temperatures and our fondness for not freezing at night. 

I went up to PA for my HS Reunion, which was actually a great time, then a stop in NC for doctor and dentist appointments on the way back to Oriental. Sue stayed with the boat and Chuck!

I got to do a quick meet up with some close friends and rode back with Sue’s friend from soccer, Rachel. Her and her niece Hannah wanted to visit the boat, so we were able to get a ride down with them, which really made things a ton easier. The “we”, is me (Mike) and Jared; he is a future Vision owner and wanted the chance to sail with us to Savannah, which will happen in a few days from Beaufort. 

For now, we are on Adam’s Creek (ICW) on our way down to Beaufort and the scary passage under a bridge we barely fit under. 

The title of this post is in honor of the lovely 20’ long pilling that was floating in the ICW that I did not see. It was a pretty solid thud when we hit it going 5.5 knots, and of course it was lying perpendicular to our travel. 

The bow of our boat is reinforced with a lot of solid fiberglass, so no leaking or anything like that, but there is definitely some fiberglass work to do, which will require a haul out. Sigh.

Not ideal, but the boat handled it as well so what can you do?

[Picture to follow]