Heading north.

Those of you sharp observers who check our SPOT position daily will have noticed that we have turned around, and have headed back north.  Not to worry, it's only a temporary change (I hope!).  It turns out when we went into Spooners Creek yesterday it was at high time.  We had about a foot to spare, so we weren't too concerned about getting back out this morning.  We had planned to leave around first light this morning with Hairball.  They left first so we asked them to radio back the depths they saw, as high tide was still 4 hours away.  They called back with 5 or 6 feet, depending on which hull depth sounder they looked at.  We decided to wait just a bit longer.  Shortly thereafter another keel boat left.  We called them on the radio to ask what their draft was.  They called back and said 5' 3" and that they were hard aground.  A half an hour later I heard them calling the local Tow Boat.  We decided to wait for high tide, around noon.  It turns out overnight the wind shifted offshore, which blew some of the water we needed away, making the tide just slightly lower.

The problem is the next possible stopping point is 35 miles, though there are reports that you might be asked to leave in the middle of the night.  The anchorage is by Camp Lejune, and if they are having exercises you can't transit the area, or you can't stop overnight.  The next stopping point is around 60 miles, so if you haven't left early in the morning you can't get there before dark.  We are now anchored right off the ICW, and since we have a GPS bread crumb trail 4 miles south we can leave at first light, or even a bit earlier.