Years ago, a bunch of us from Hobie Fleet54 would rent houses in Avon, NC in the fall ... one day John "Hollywood" McLaughlin and your's truely hatched this brilliant idea/plan ... we would single-hand our boats from the house on the bay we had rented, to the other house we had rented on the ocean (we were a large group) ... so John and I "pushed off", John on his H16, me on my TheMightyHobie18 ... The plan was to sail down to Hatteras Inlet, out the Inlet, around Hatteras Point, and up to Avon .... it took us several hours to sail down to the inlet, over sands bars running beside the boats ... but we got there. There in the channel, just inside the inlet was a Coast Guard boat, when it became apparent from our course that we were heading out the inlet the Coast Guard boat came charging down the channel .... I remember the "chief" who was the senior rating on the boat leaning over the side looking down at us ... "what are you intending to do?" When he heard our plan he gave us a look that must have been the same one you recieved ... so they did a "Safety Inspection", but we had all the required equipment and some extra (including personal safety strobes on our PFD's) ... The chief gruffly asked one final question, "do you know the weather report?" Yes, I replied and repeated it verbatim from the marine forcast. The chief ground his teeth together and said "I don't want to have to come and get you guys"... "give me a phone number for where you are staying". Which we did, and off we went ... the out going tide sucked us out the inlet and through the standing swells just off-shore in a flash. By the time we reached Diamond Shoals it was dark .... its very scary when you hear waves breaking OFF-SHORE of you in the dark. And then we were in the shoal .... waves were breaking all around us ... But eventually we passed through Diamond Shoals and came out the other side. It took us several more hours to beat up the coast against a strong current to Avon ... our friend Glenn Ross had strung up some strobes on the halyard of a H16 sitting on the beach ... I was never so happy to see those flashing lights ... So we finally hit the beach, and one of our friends handed us a cell phone ... "Call the Coast Guard" Why I asked, "They have been calling once an hour , every hour!!! And they want you to call them immediately upon reaching the beach and check in"

The Coastie's were our guardian angels that night ....

May the GOOD LORD always protect them and hold them in the palm of his hand when they venture out to save fool's like us from our own stupidity ...