Atlantic Yacht Basin

We were in the ICW all day. We got behind some bigger boats that were traveling at a very slow speed and we felt "forced" to just follow them as we were in a narrow shallow channel the whole way. So we dropped back and enjoyed the absolutely beautiful day at a painful crawl. When we got to Coinjock, I decided to find out why these boats crawled like they did. It embarrassed Dave that I asked, but I learned a lot and I made two new friends whom we had dinner with. (The only thing Coinjock is known for is it's prime rib dinner, so we indulged.)

What I learned from questioning and during dinner is that these boats fuel efficiency is at a slower speed than ours because they ride the top of the wave different than our boat. So while going slow was behind the wave for us, it was on top of the wave for them. I also learned that it would have been perfectly acceptable to ask to pass over the coms. Dave and I are learning a great deal about how we communicate with the use of the radio. Let me just say, I am way more suited to using the radio than he is. :) Anyway, today we have the same channel issues and the big boats left Coinjock an hour before us, so we know we are going to practice passing. Wish us luck!

What Could Go Right? We had our first boat couple date with Russ and Sandy from Houston, TX who are doing the Loop in their BEAUTIFUL new to them 58' mega yacht. "It's older", they shyly explained to us lest we believe them to be part of the elite 1%! It's fun when you connect with people you have so much in common. They were close to our age and had 3 kids and were enjoying their time cruising and boating. We had a lot to talk about, the food was decently good (remember, we grew our own cows! nothing really comes close) and we learned a lot from experienced cruisers.

What Could Go Wrong? In the middle of cruising in that narrow channel, a fan belt broke on one engine. We don't really have the option to stop when that happens unless we want to block the channel. So Dave went down while I kept driving. He fixed one engine, while the other one kept on running. I had to drive through a tiny swing bridge by myself on one engine! While it was NERVE WRACKING, I did it!Read more