S.S. Mayday - A Three Hour Tour

Dr. Cyndi and I took the S.S. Mayday out on the Pamlico Sound this weekend. Well, looking at the map again, I’m not sure we were technically that close into the ocean. I’d say we were on the Tar/Pamlico Rivers, but I digress. It took us about 25 to 30 minutes to get to Washington to put in. I thought this would be bad, but it was an easy drive.

Thankfully, Mayday didn’t live up to her name. After dropping about $900 in repairs and maintenance, I was happy to actually take the old money hole out on the water. Although Cyndi didn’t appreciate me checking the hull every half hour to see if we were taking on water (none), I still felt the urge to check. We put in on Runyon Creek and proceeded to go down the Tar/Pamlico River. We stayed to the left, crossed the river and came back up the other side just to look at the sites. I never really thought of a river being so wide you would have to cross it in order to look at the houses on the other side, but that was the case. Eventually we went north of where we put in and saw the Washington, NC city waterfront.

Washington Waterfront

I really enjoyed this. Eventually Cyndi convinced me we should stop the boat and swim. This involves doing two things that worry me:

1. Turning off a perfectly fine engine.
2. Throwing away a perfectly fine anchor.

If you recall from previous posts, I haven’t have good luck with either. Most notably at Bird Key Island Mayday tried to float away while Cyndi and I were on the back side of the island. Someone (I’m not naming any names. We’ll just call him L. Funk) didn’t set the anchor properly when he beached the boat. Then, there was the time, also at Bird Key that Cyndi put the anchor in the boat and pushed Madison and I off before the engine had cranked. As we were floating towards a rather large barge that was ‘coming right for us’ Madison abandoned ship. She looked at me-back at land-back at me and jumped out of the boat for the first and only time she has ever done that. I pulled out a wrench, jiggled the battery connections and started the boat with let’s say 30 feet to spare!

So, the first time we anchored in shallow water just up river of where we put in. My logic was, if the boat won’t start, we’ll paddle with the current to the creek. Apparently, I hadn’t explained how to operate our 20 year old depth finder to Cyndi. What she thought was 10 feet was actually 3. We found out when she jumped in the water and hit bottom. Luckily, 3 feet is the minimum we need to not beach. So, we were fine. The second time we anchored and swam in 10 ft of water down river as far south as we went. It was truly a beautiful spot. Luckily Mayday had a brand new battery and started right up both times.

We weren’t completely unscathed in our adventure however. Putting the boat back on the trailer took no less than 30 minutes of WTF?!?! Cyndi was driving the boat towards the trailer and couldn’t line it up right. I can’t really blame her thought. She couldn’t see the trailer to line it up because the ramp ended too soon. So, while frustrating-it was understandable.

We then proceeded to eat lunch at Backwater Jacks. This place was awesome. It felt like we were on vacation. Backwater Jacks is a Tiki Bar/Margaritaville type restaurant with outside seating. We sat outside on a porch with fans blowing cool mist on us and drank beers with limes in them. Cyndi had coronas and I had something called a Landshark.

Well, that sums up what I will hope to be a regular occurrence this summer. If anyone wants to come down and go out on the boat, let me know.

Sincerely,
Lawtonious Funk