![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aleta.life\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Aleta-Missing-1.jpg?resize=225%2C399&ssl=1\")
\u201cAleta\u2019s gone!\u201d, Carol suddenly cried out.<\/p>\n\u201cAleta\u2019s gone!\u201d, Carol suddenly cried out.<\/p>\n
“What do you mean, gone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLook – at my Navionics – she\u2019s dragged her anchor and – gone! Oh, my god!\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019d gotten in the habit of turning\u00a0 the Navionics charting app on our phones once we\u2019d anchored as a way of monitoring Aleta\u2019s movement. It works pretty well. With Navionics you can track your progress while underway, or hopefully, lack of it once you\u2019ve set the hook. But, as I\u2019ve mentioned in the past, all electronic gizmos have their limitations, and indeed some may simply cause more stress, rather than less.<\/p>\n
Take the humble cellphone. Back in the day, when they were becoming ubiquitous we\u2019d give our partner a cellphone for Christmas and by New Year\u2019s we were worried sick if they didn\u2019t pick up immediately. Around the same time, car-based navigation systems used to lead us on merry chases as they ruefully misinterpreted whatever address you wanted for something, or somewhere, completely different. And what did we know? After all, the technology must be smarter than we are, right? Besides it was so cool! So liberating! And all so confusing.<\/p>\n
Wrightsville Beach stretches for several white sandy miles along the Atlantic coast and is something of a surfer\u2019s hangout. We\u2019d just about reached the end of the beach at the point where it meets Masonboro Inlet when Carol pulled out her phone to check on Aleta to make sure she hadn\u2019t slipped her mooring. In that instant the red Navionics arrowhead that we\u2019d grown familiar with while underway was gone – simply gone – with nothing but a squiggly yellow line in her wake. Carol\u2019s heart lept into her throat and adrenaline flooded her veins. Aleta was there only a minute ago! I turned around and made sure she hadn\u2019t followed us up the beach like a lost puppy then reassured Carol it was almost certainly her phone that had moved and that Aleta was doubtlessly still at anchor. There\u2019s a moment we all have to get through when adrenaline has clouded our thinking, that moment when you regain control of your faculties and your amygdala is beaten back into place by your ego. Carol\u2019s eyes cleared and she started breathing again.<\/p>\n
We left the beach and stopped into the SUNdays coffee and brewski emporium, mainly because it was open and had cool surfing videos. What more could anyone want on Boxing Day? We laughed about Aleta\u2019s little excursion, and I even fancied I saw her peeping in through the second story window of the coffee shop now and again. Such is the power of anthropomorphizing. We laughed, but such is the power of suggestion that we still couldn\u2019t wait to get back to the boat, just to make sure Aleta was still there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAleta\u2019s gone!\u201d, Carol suddenly cried out. “What do you mean, gone?\u201d \u201cLook – at my Navionics – she\u2019s dragged her anchor and – gone! Oh, my god!\u201d We\u2019d gotten in the habit of turning\u00a0 the Navionics charting app on our …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8,18,17],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learnin-and-doin","tag-aleta","tag-feral-sailboat","tag-navionics"],"yoast_head":"\n