Oriental to Swansboro, North Carolina

     Rising early, we idled out of the shallow anchorage and headed across the Neuse River toward Morehead City.  An easy bright cool day made the trip easy to follow the well marked course all the way.  We watched as a couple of early risers passed us several times going from one fishing hole to the next and several cruisers passed us going up toward Pamlico Sound.
    We turned at Morehead City to begin the long ICW ziz-zag down the coast along Bogue Sound. The bay was filled with people out in their boats. Lots of boats and lots of inexperienced people and a few complete dummies! One fellow blithely putting along alone,  pulled directly across in front of me. When I honked the air horn he turned and looked directly up at me waving for me to slow down.. !!!!! I was only going 5 knots....Dummy!...learn the Rules of Navigation.  Another, with a boat full of people raced up from my stern, cut in between me and the green buoy we were hugging prior to going through the "cattle gates" of a bridge....then slowed down not more than 30 feet in front of me.  His eyes widened when he looked over his shoulder and realized that the big boat, now behind him couldn't slow down and he hit the throttles to avoid a collision.
    The worst of them  though, were the dummies dragging their children behind them on inner tubes. Some of these were grandfathers that just wanted to have fun on the water with the kids but didn't have the sense to take them to a safe place for not if, but when they fell off.... They should not be in a  heavily traveled shipping channel! Not only can the big boats and trawlers not slow down fast enough to avoid running over kids in the water but there is always the testosterone laden Sea Ray and Sports Fishers who were swamping everyone in the water. They absolutely would have trouble avoiding kids in the middle of the channel at the speed and carelessness that they routinely travel.

                                                                               

                           Guy in the sound fishing........his dog waiting for the catch!


    My final rant about "dummies on the water" is the young kids in kayaks floating just beside the shipping channel waiting to ride the big boats wakes. They couldn't have been more than 8 to 10 years old and no, they weren't idiots.  They were just kids wanting to have fun.....Their parents are the dummies for not making them wear life jackets.  Far from shore, I guess they could have held on to their kayaks if they fell off.....but  I ask, "What are your parents thinking!!"
    Yes it was Sunday, so maybe next Sunday we will just stay in port so I can avoid more grey hair.
     We entered Dudley's Marina in Swansboro, tanked up with fuel at $2.18/gal and stayed for the night.  Shallow water would have us moving early tomorrow to avoid low tide.

                                                                           

                                                      Sunset on Bogue Sound