Sun Bum.....SOME BUM!!!! Dinky Doo, we love you!

What an eventful couple of days. We left our lovely little anchorage in Spooner Creek, and not too far away encountered the first of numerous inlets from the Atlantic Ocean. What we didn't know is that there are these little moveable buoys that mark the newest shoals. We were supposed to follow them. We didn't. We went aground. After launching the dinghy, putting the motor on it, and putting an anchor out, the combination of me gunning the boat in reverse and Wayne pulling HARD on the anchor line got us off. More motoring in dangerously shoaled waters, taking turns at the helm. We were rounding the very last turn toward our anchorage at Camp LeJeune's Mile Hammock Bay and I handed the tiller to Wayne and whammo. Aground again. He was disgusted of course. This time, we were prepared and we were off that shoal in 5 minutes or less. He handed back the tiller, said "I'm NOT driving!". We made it into the anchorage, dropped the hook, and there were naval helicopters circling and circling above while the mortar rounds were going boom in the firing range close by. Wayne was even more dejected as this was reminding him of his draft experience during the Vietnam War. Thankfully the noise stopped after about 1/2 hour and he was able to relax. That is, until today. I took the boat out of the anchorage and through the very first dangerously shoaled inlet. We had just about made through, when some IDIOT on a Catamaran named Sun Bum comes screaming in reverse, right into our path. He had run aground far to starboard (how I don't know) and when he came off, he simply gunned it in reverse into the oncoming boats. There was nothing to do to avoid him, but throw the tiller over. Regrettably, this caused US to run aground, hard. There are not enough nasty words in any language to describe how we felt. Let's try...oh that's right we have a Francophone readership so I can't even use those for fear of offending the ladies. So anyway, poor Claude has to come back, wrangle his motor onto his dinghy, come get Wayne, get a line hooked to the main halyard, dinghy around in this horrible chop and blowing wind in a narrow, awful ocean inlet with boats all around...but he persists! Claude had to drop his own anchor in order to come and save us, but even his mighty motor was not enough. Finally, a lovely man in a large power boat named Dinky Doo (for real) came and attached a line to our stern cleat and with him pulling, Wayne pulling on the main halyard, and Claude pushing we came off. Now, for the third time, I almost collided with Merope, but I managed not to do so, not to dump Claude into the drink as he came off Cassiopeia and back onto his dinghy, and not to run aground again today. What a miserable day. Claude and Wayne both got soaked and were both exhausted. We decided not to turn around, but to continue on to the Harbor Village Marina where Claude and Cathy had stayed some 10 years ago. The wind was hard on the nose, lots of current, and even a swing bridge to wait for, but we made it! As soon as we got to the marina it was delightfully calm and warm. That's where we are now. Just REALLY PO'D still at this bum guy. Oh, the pictures...well it is pretty as you can see in the first picture. And it can be scary, as you can see the patrol boat in the second pictures. Oh, do you think your tax dollars pay for us to get help from the patrol boats? Think again, no way. They just cruised past us as if they never saw us. Enough whining for today, we are about to savor Claude's famous pancake supper and then get a nice, hot shower. Life could be worse. We are still headed south at about 20 miles a day. Never mind we could walk there faster and easier. What could be more fun than boat life?