The Treacherous Ditch (Part Two)

It wasn’t going to be a good day. I awoke in the middle of the night. I felt terrible!!! Was it the raw oysters? The dreaded swine flu? I wasn’t sure but one thing was for sure, I WAS SICK!

Somewhere in the fog, dawn broke and it was time to shove off. The last thing in the world I wanted to do but if we didn’t keep moving we would lose the tide and quite possibly miss Thanksgiving in St. Mary’s. We cast off and as we waited for Euphoria to join us the fog settled in and we couldn’t see 50 yards. We went back and tied up to wait for the fog to lift. My prayers had been answered. I went back to bed. Several hours later the fog did lift and we were on the way. Mary took the helm and I supervised from the prone position. Here she was doing the dreaded ditch, in Georgia of all places, and I could care less. I felt like death warmed over.

We anchored that night in Vernon Creek and I sensed that maybe things were getting better but couldn’t be sure. Off again at first light Mary again took the helm. It was a lousy day and as we closed in our destination, the Wahoo River, the wind began to howl and the skies poured down. We were thoroughly soaked and cold. We couldn’t wait to get out of our foul weather gear and head for the warmth of our down comforter. It was time to think seriously about adding that full cockpit enclosure.

On the upside I was feeling better and so we were glad it wasn’t the swine flu which would have ruined our Thanksgiving. I live all year for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner and so I wasn’t looking forward to missing one.

The weather remained gray and cool but we continued on with a journey. A stop in the Fredericka River and then on to St. Mary’s. We had made it through the ICW without touching bottom once!