The Republican journal., 1912-09-19
From Nassau to New York in
a Cat-BOat.
CROSSING MOSQUITO INLET BAR.
BY ALFRED JOHNSON.

CROSSING MOSQUITO INLET BAR.
1t seems worth while, for the benefit
of other amateurs, to describe in detail
our coming out over Mosquito Inlet Bar.
This we accomplished against the eX-
press warning of the local pilot, at
time when the sea was running high, the
tide only half in and the buoys still out
of position, it having been too rough for
the notwithstanding" gentleman from
Nantucket whose duty it is to tend them
for Uncle Sam after every storm to get
out in his power-dory to replace them.
The thrilling experience of crossing
this bar, after cautiously buffeting our
way out under power alone through the
S-shaped channel that meandered through
these two miles of broken water, leaping
and tumbling like succession of water
falls, whose ten-foot-high crests were at
times not fifty feet away from US, afford
ed me, perhaps, one OF the most intense
ly exciting three-quarters of an hour of
my whole yachting life. incidentally,
too, it provided a sensational morning
for the winter resorters" from the little
winter hotel who had gathered on the
splendid beach which leads from here to
Sea Breeze and Ormond, and for those
also in the top OF the tall lighthouse
likewise eager to watch US go out--or,
rather, as they predicted, to see US
brought back by the lite-savers.
1t was on this very bar that the little
oil steamer broke up awhile ago, and OF
it the U. S. Coast Pilot, part Z, page III,
says, .;, :; oho,+ milo
wide. is INSTRUCTED by shifting shoals
which extend about ga mile seaward
and form a bar, over which the channel
ranges from to 7 feet. Vessels of about
Z feet draught can enter the Inlet at high
water and with a smooth sea, but the
services of pilot are necessary for any
stranger, as the channel changes fire.
uuently. Pilots will come out to
vessel making the pilot signal outside
the bar
And on page Sc of Southwark by the
Inside Route find the following about
this place:
SIN former times, when schooners went
there for hve-oak timber, there was a
regular pilot station there, but now few
vessels come there. There have been
number of lives lost on this bar, and it
is not place to be tritled with"
1t was my first experience at trying to
run out over really bad Southern bar,
but did not have to do much analyZing
of my sensations 10 determine just what
it was like, for l had been bounced
through the same motions before, though
never all at the same time, i. e., for
about twenty minutes it was like con-
tinuous performance at both shooting
the chutes and driving a sleigh over a
succession of closely placed 'thank-you-
mans" in a well-worn New England
country road after the January thaw.
Charles arms were locked around the
bare pole mast as he presumably STOOD"
on watch forward. But as a matter of
fact, there was not much standing
about it, and l could catch glimpses of
his bare feet and legs and rolled up trous-
ers swinging out over the seething water
as Myrtle" would shoot down diagonal
lv on one bow, and then, after making a
half circle, they would dangle ..out equally
far in the opposite direction, as she made
an bhliQue Give to the other side. was
braced astride of the wheel myself, my
caIloused hands gripping a spoke firm y
in each palm. Prohting by the expert
ence of New River Inlet bar we had
closed the companionway hatch and every
port hole in the boat up tight; this time,
however, she took the waves for the
most part bow on, and beyond flying and
pI-iIuliiS HPi aS' ",Iie" ~ - y.
my lace only to be Washea OH IN tlnle
by another succession OF luxe warn
doucnes. she ald not thro" wafer aiaiiii'
ingly. ,.-,
SO strong were the lresn heau Willu
and swiftly running heaa tlue 1ogether'
however, that we were ! shoulo say,
fuIly ~ minutes puIletlhg our way
through the one-half 10 thfee-quafters
mi Of broken water. Al last we r9ach1
ca a comparatively smootn zee, PACK OF
the inner sand-bar, Whlch at TINS stage
OF the. TIDE was covered by ABOUT TWO
feet OF water an0 across Whlch me waves
Were fairy hisslng as they toAoiea ana
churned and sWirled III thelf ch&slf'
nlghl al the way from Morocco On lhe
North African coast, across the western
OCeen to Florida. ,,
Here was the parting OF 1He ways
Tor Us, ana | was Ial! conscious al the
tine OF MAKING as Wen CONSIDERED arc
carefully CHOSEN geclsloh as was ever
forced to make af1oat or perhaps any,
where else; and upon Its correctness ana ID
consequent results, roo, ~, / actually fel1
that my lie depended, Inc unusual de-
mahds mace ny lhe SITUATION hau put me
on my metal. was conscious OF an eH
traordinary mental activity; my mlnd
seemed never to have worked better. 1t
struck me forclpiy, 100 that was never
IN -, a n