By 8.30 am Mike and Bob are gathering together their tools for the morning’s investigation, including the all important very long length of line for measuring the height of the two masts.
Mike winches Bob up our mast first. Once at the top he removes the antennae which is hanging straight down (we never did know what that did) and points the other one forward and ever so slightly up then tapes it into position there. He removes the wind vane which amazingly still appears to work but is hanging precariously and is better off than on for the time being. He then tapes up all the electrical bits to protect them until we get new lights etc.
Photo: Bob waves from the top of our mast
He then drops the line to Mike and I stand at a distance checking that the line is straight down. Once Bob is back down they measure a horizontal line from the top of the coach roof where the line met to the nicely positioned piling by the side of the boat while I again stand at a distance and check that it is truly horizontal. From that mark on the piling they measure to the water. That is the total measurement, give or take a few inches. She measures a few inches under 65 feet. Our antennae were at least 3 feet. How did we fit under the first two bridges? It’s impossible. They measure again but it’s virtually the same. This is more than the designers’ website gives for the boat (63 feet). The 64-foot bridge route is definitely out!
Measuring the height of Silver Moon’s mast the same way, Bob finds out that he is actually lower than he thought - 62 feet.
Mike and I spend some more time on the internet trying to find the depths along the channels that we will need to travel to avoid the aforementioned bridge and remove the necessity for backtracking all the way back to Norfolk. Eventually we find a website that shows the dredging that was done in the channel earlier this year by the US Army Corp of Engineers and it shows more water than any of the charts or the ICW Waterway Guide. I fire off a couple of e-mails to them hoping for clarification but we slowly come to the decision that coming to a stop in shallow water on soft sand is preferable to hitting a concrete bridge and that we will therefore carry on to Roanoke Island.
It’s late when we leave and we have to motor hard to get down the Pasquotank River and into Albermarle Sound. Once in the Sound, it is so wide that apart from the depth (shallow) you could be in the ocean. It’s a boring old bit of motoring - one of us, normally Mike, has to sit at the helm because there are pots dotted around – not many but enough to keep you on your toes. We stop just in front of the highway bridge at Northwest Point on Roanoke Island and put our anchors down.
Mike and I are just getting in the dinghy to go over to Silver Moon when Maggie hears on the radio another large boat captain telling us both to move as we are in the middle of the channel. What channel? There is no channel marked on the charts but we move anyway. Only after our anchors are settled a second time does she realise that the message was not meant for us and that the big boat bearing down on us is actually the lane markers in the middle of the 45-foot bridge just a short distance away! Oh how we rib her about that!
Dinner aboard Silver Moon is oysters, now thankfully cooked and made into a beautiful chowder by Bob, with parmesan and garlic biscuits from Maggie and salad from me. Mike gives Bob copies of the updated depth charts from the USA engineers and convinced that we can make it through, we relax and have another lovely evening.
Position: 35 deg 55 min N, 75 deg 44 min W
Distance so far: 2914 miles
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