Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Fernandina Beach

Yesterday we planned as a lay day.  Good thing - because when we got up it was blowing stink and raining off and on.  I spent most of my time wiring in the Atlas ham transceiver that my friend David donated for our cruise.  It took me most of the day to snake the wires through the back of lockers, behind our microwave and through holes that were smaller than the wires I was trying to stuff through.  I had to study the back of our circuit breaker panel to try to remind myself where the wires went.  Where does the positive go?  Does the switch interrupt the positive side?  I figured it out.  Foolishly, I did all of this before even powering up the rig to see if it worked.  It did.  The reception was much better than I get from my Icom 710 Marine SSB but I could not get the microphone to work.  That will be my next project.

When the weather let up in the afternoon Maryanne & I took a cab to the local Publix to provision for the next few days.  We decided on one last dinner out at a local Mexican restaurant before we started dipping into our newly refreshed larder.

I liked the juxtaposition of the Christmas Tree
with the Palm Tree.  That may be one of Cortez's
Ships on the obelisk behind us.
As a resident of Nassau County I was amused to see a sign out in front of the Historic Nassau County Court House in Fernandina Beach.  I think I like this courthouse better than our own Nassau County Courthouse where I used to run a court project and bail fund for young people.




















The next morning we had the pleasure of once again following our sister ship, Brilliant Star.  Her skipper made our navigation job much easier - especially since he has set up a spreadsheet showing where to be at what times to make the right tides.  There are some shallow spots where we don't want to be at low tide.  The  number of different cuts and rivers make calculating tidal current almost impossible.  We got to Jacksonville Beach early enough in the afternoon to take a little time ashore.
Beach Marina at Jacksonville Beach.  The bow of our boat is
barely visible at the far left behind a big powerboat.













This is the approach to the marina - typical of the ICW.  The beauty of the scene
 is not enhanced by the billboard advertising another marina

Monday, December 26, 2011

Duplin RIver to Brunswick to Fernandina Beach (FLORIDA!)

Strong (loud) winds, chop, and strong currents did not make for a good night's sleep on the Duplin River behind Blackbeard Island.  Once the anchor reset with a flood tide late at night I decided that would be a good time to try out our newest app on the iPhone: the DragQueen anchor alarm.  Bad idea.  The alarm on the drag queen sounds something like the sirens you hear in European movies.  Despite setting it for 150 feet of movement instead of the customary 100 feet, the alarm woke us from a sound sleep 3 times during the night.  I put out a lot of anchor line to give us the best holding possible - but with the tide and wind in opposition the boat wandered around in the blackness all night.  I will not be using the DragQueen on rivers with flood and ebb currents that change every six hours.

After a restless night we motored for several more hours on the ICW.  The ICW gets a little monotonous after a while.  You can't really relax because you are constantly searching for the next mark while trying hard not to run aground in narrow channels.  Some of the narrow channels are invisible sections dredged out of areas of water that can be a half mile wide.  If the marks are not close enough you can spend some anxious moments looking for them.  In wide sections of water it is hard to tell where the center is and more importantly where the channel is.  We did successfully negotiate Hell Gate with an almost full tide.  At low we would have been a foot short of what we needed to keep Symphony floating above the bottom.

We thought we would put in to the Frederica River to end our day on Christmas Day.  After reading  that the bottom can be hard and difficult to set your anchor in, we decided another sleepless night was not what we needed.  We called the Brunswick Landing Marina for a dock space but no one was home.  This was probably appropriate for Christmas Day - a day when another couple supposedly had trouble finding accommodations two thousand years ago.  We decided to head to Brunswick anyway, figuring that we could probably tie up to a fuel dock and slip away early in the morning before anyone saw us to collect money.  When we got to Brunswick we did find a space on an outside dock.  On our way ashore we saw another Caliber 40, "Brilliant Star," with Chris and Janet aboard.  (http://brilliantstarcruises.net/) We decided we would sail with them the following day to Fernandina Beach, FL.  Before leaving with them we did pay for our dock space.  The early escape plan was not implemented.  Chris and Janet have a blog that has a wealth of useful information for cruisers.  It is always a pleasure to spend time with other Caliber owners.  We hope that we will see more of them - especially when it comes time to cross the Gulf Stream.

Brunswick WWII Memorial
Brunswick was a pleasant town - but almost completely deserted on Christmas Day.  Not a single business was open on the main street.  Two or three homeless individuals were the only people visible.  On a three mile run around the town I did find one taqueria and one laundromat open on the outskirts.  I took a picture of the WWII memorial to remember the town.  This was a strange and unforgettable Christmas Day.  Somehow I think Christmas is more fun when you can be with your family.



Shrimp is the big business in this area.  I was impressed with the forest of
Shrimpers booms in the air on our entrance into Brunswick GA
We would have continued to Jekyll Island on Christmas Day but Jekyll Creek is described as one of the shallowest sections of the ICW with some areas at only 2.5 feet.  Stopping at Brunswick allowed us to motor through Jekyll Creek at close to high water - about 7 feet of extra water to clear the bottom.  We had the luxury of following Brilliant Star the whole way.  Following another boat made finding marks and the channel much easier.  One section of the ICW in St. Andrews Sound is described as being in the Atlantic Ocean for a short way.  We found ourselves rolling hard as we negotiated our way through shoals in a relatively unprotected part of the Waterway.  A few hundred yards away we could see surf breaking in the shallows.  This like many other confusing areas of the ICW made me so happy we have a GPS plotter to show where we are.  The navigation would be much more nerve wracking without it.  I don't know how I found my way sailing through the waters of Maine with only a compass and depthfinder  as navigational instruments 28 years ago!

This large friendly colorful shrimp was the first to
greet us when we first set foot on a Florida Dock,

Finally today we crossed the border of Georgia into Florida!  Hooray!   We were excited.  We filled our fuel tanks and tied ourselves up to a mooring.  Tying up to a mooring was not an easy procedure.  The mooring has a very thick line with a stainless steel thimble.  (A thimble is a stainless steel eye inside a loop of line.)  It took me a while to figure out a way to tie it on so that it wasn't pulling hard on the stay that runs from the waterline at the bow to the bowsprit.  Once I did that I also had to move the anchor to keep it from rubbing against the pennant.  The anchor is now hooked on the bow pulpit rail.  We made it to shore by sunset.  Maryanne discovered a great restaurant off the main street.  We found it because of the colored lights and its sign: "Espana" a hundred yards or so down the side street.  Dinner was our celebration of finally reaching Florida.  Tomorrow we continue the excitement with laundry and food shopping.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Black Beard Island

Today we motored from the Vernon River to Blackbeard Island, GA.  We thought we might go ashore to see the University of Georgia Marine Research Institute and its iconic Turkey fountain.  It was a little too windy to easily launch the dinghy and motor to  the ferry dock.  Instead we watched part of a movie tonight.  It is not beginning to feel a lot like Christmas here with warm weather and palm trees but there was a nice Christmas display on the dock where we anchored last night.  We have had some followers on this cruise -- a dolphin a few days ago -- and these guys stopped by to wish us a Merry Christmas:


And we would like to wish our friends and family and faithful blog followers 

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
and a
Happy Hannukah

Friday, December 23, 2011

South of Savannah

We made our way down the Savannah River in light  rain and continued warm temperatures.  (It went up to about 77 degrees yesterday.)  We could have stayed a night free at the River Bend Marina in Thunderbolt, GA 14 miles from our start in Savannah.  We pulled in to get fuel only to discover that they were closed for the holidays.  That turned out to be fine because I needed to pull our speedometer paddlewheel out of the bottom of the boat to free it up.  It was nice to be able to sit on someone's fuel dock with no pressure to move on.  Ordinarily I wouldn't be concerned about not getting a speed reading from the paddlewheel because I can get the speed of the boat from the GPS.  My problem was that the speed data is shared with the autopilot and the autopilot refuses to work without the speed data from the paddlewheel.  I should be able to reprogram the autopilot to work without the speed data but it was especially stubborn today - refusing to even accept reprogramming.

Taking the speedometer out of the bottom of the boat has some excitement and mess associated with it.  Pulling it out leaves a one inch hole in the hull.  A small geyser erupts from the hole while I fumble around trying to put a plug in it.  The in-rushing water makes it a little difficult to get that plug in just the right place as fast as I would like.  One of our carpets is a little wet from this exercise - but the paddlewheel is now freed up and I can continue steering the boat with the autopilot.  I prefer using the autopilot to steering by hand because the autopilot doesn't get distracted and forget to look where it's going.  I can't just let it do its own thing in the ICW but I can press +10 degrees or -10 degrees to adjust the course to the curves of the river.

Under a bridge and across the river we stopped at Bahia Bleu for $4.39/gallon diesel fuel.  It is important to fill up at this point because with the exception of one stop 5 miles down river there will be no more fuel available to us for 100 miles.  We expect to be well off the grid tomorrow deep in the swamps of Georgia with no cell coverage.

We ended our day early in the Vernon River.  We didn't realize until we talked with Chad (cruisingsabbatical.com) that we are anchored in exactly the same place he stopped when he was single handing 2 years ago.  We looked at his blog and discovered that the same shrimp boat that he took a picture of is still anchored out in the same area it was when he came through.  How do we know it's the same?  Dammit we know.  That is the boat's name: Dammit.  How many shrimpers could have that same name and be anchored in the same spot?


Dammit has been here a long time and seems to be listing
badly to port.
It is very pretty here with marshes on one side and wealthy large homes on the other.  No wind tonight but plenty of current.  We used the change in current to test my newest iPhone app: "DragQueen."  No, it didn't help me dress up in Maryanne's clothes.  DragQueen is an app that tells you when your anchor is dragging.  When the current changed on the river we moved far enough to set off the siren alarm on the DragQueen app.  It's great to know it works.  Now when we have high winds in an anchorage that is not in a river I can sleep soundly until the alarm goes off.

Sorry, no time to upload pix tonight.  We'll add them next time around.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Goodbye Beaufort, SC. Hello Savannah, GA!

We spent way too little time in Beaufort - just a long walk to the Piggly Wiggly and back to the boat.  We understand that the historic homes are lovely – something for us to look forward to on our return trip.  We set up an ambitious 48 mile run for Wednesday from Beaufort to Savannah.  The Guides had the usual warnings about shoaling in some of the cuts between rivers – some confirmed by the Army Corps of Engineers.  The area they confirmed at 6 feet on one cut turned out to be no less than 24 feet.  We have another shallow area to traverse when we leave Savannah.  This time we may take the warnings seriously because we are told that stimulus money never found its way to dredging in Georgia.
We were expecting heavy ship traffic on the Savannah river but didn’t see a single vessel underway from the ICW to the City Dock.  The City Dock is in an exceptionally convenient area – right in the downtown historical district.  

After we arrived we saw ships that took our breath away.  They were longer than 2 city blocks and seemed to obscure the sky.  You feel as though you could almost touch them.  We've never seen so many floating behemoths.  The following video was made from our 4th floor restaurant perch - forgive the background conversation - ordering of food - but do watch to see how long it takes for this thing to pass by our window!  Then imagine being at water-level on our little 40 footer watching this thing pass next to and above us.




This is what is across the street from our boat


I called Chad (crusingsabbatial.com) to see if the ship traffic was a big problem at the dock.  I was afraid that the wakes from the big ships would have me rolling hard against the dock.  Ironically, the big 1000 foot plus ships have virtually no bow wave and hardly a ripple behind them.  They come up and down the river as slowly as they can.  It is the smaller craft – usually tugboats that set us rolling from side to side.
Our boat is barely visible through
the trees from Vic's Restaurant.

We had dinner at Vics on the 4th floor of a historic building overlooking the river.  The food was excellent – the price moderate.  The city side of the restaurant was at street level.  Behind our table was a Civil war era map that was uncovered during renovation of the building.  Down the street obscured by a few trees we could keep watch on Symphony at the dock.





The Westin Resort across the river from us.
Red and green lights on the towers for Christmas.





Symphony's last night on the City Dock

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Beaufort, SC


We were a little on edge this morning because activecaptain.com and other sources indicated that some of the cuts we had to take between rivers today would not have enough water for us at low tide.  We were leaving on a falling tide and would hit the most difficult cuts at just about dead low.  We were on the Coosaw and Ashepoo rivers today.  One of the cuts - the Ashepoo Coosaw cut showed 3.6 feet on our depthfinder near the end of the cut.  Obviously our depthfinder needs to be calibrated but I'm so used to it that I'm afraid to change it.  It is nice to know that when it says 3.6 feet that we have enough water for our 5 foot draft.  Without our GPS we would never find our way through the labyrinth of waterways that brought us to Beaufort today.  The GPS was especially helpful in helping us navigate through narrow channels in mile wide rivers that had numerous shoals.  It is strange to be on a wide river and realize that right next to you in the middle of the river is a 2 foot deep spot.

We took a long walk into a local grocery store.  How could they be out of ricotta cheese?  Lasagne will not happen soon.
This was my day for trees. We loved the long soft hanging
moss on the old twisted oaks on the waterfront in Beaufort.
Maryanne in front of some expensive waterfront real estate.
Notice the length of the hanging moss on the tree behind her!






This barbershop quartet sang some Christmas carols for us
outside a local salon.  It reminded me that I need a haircut.
This tree caught my attention in one of the cuts.
You can tell the tide is very low.





Days end at the dock in Beaufort, SC
(We got lazy - we have to anchor out next time!)

Monday, December 19, 2011

Goodbye Charleston

Finally we tore ourselves away from Charleston.  We did our utmost to stimulate the economy there including the purchase of a new mainsail.  We told the sail maker that we did not want to hear that the reason our inmast roller furling mainsail was getting stuck in the mast was because it was blown or stretched out.  He ignored our instructions and told us that because it was stretched out into 3 dimensions it was not going to roll up into a 2 dimensional space.  That's techno-speak for "you are screwed."  Four weeks from now we are to give him instructions as to where to ship the sail.  Meanwhile we will be very careful with furling and unfurling our old mainsail.  It will be a pleasure to have a mainsail that furls and unfurls effortlessly.

Hard to believe this guy could fit through the narrow
passages of the ICW that we went through today.
During our 5 hours of motoring we did not encounter any other sailboats.  We did encounter one large tug and barge that left us little room in the channel.

Despite the many cautions we read in the Waterway Guide about shoaling and/or rocks on the sides of the channel we had no serious problems.  Without the GPS to guide us it would be hard to pick our way through all the different connecting cuts, creeks, and rivers that make up the ICW.

We ended our day anchoring in the South Edisto River.  It's pretty here - marsh on one side - trees on the other.  It is perfectly still and quiet this evening - no wind - no waves - and just a little bit of current to hold us in position behind our anchor.  Tomorrow
we head for Beaufort, SC.
Another day ends, anchored on the ICW on the South Edisto River in South Carolina.
(And as short as our day is the sun sets here 52 minutes later than in Glen Cove, NY.)

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Charleston

Not too crowded on a Saturday morning in December.
There are 3 interconnecting free trolley routes in
Charleston.  Great idea!
We have tried to do the full on tourist thing here in Charleston.  We took a free trolley to one of the iconic breakfast places in the city.  The Hominy Grill is the place to breakfast.  After we arrived a crowd quickly lined up - waiting outside in the chill morning air.  We ate dinner at Magnolias - thanks to our daughter Meg & son-in-law Mike.  We managed to see the Slave Market, the open market, took a horse & carriage ride, and finished one of our evenings with a holiday concert by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.  More info and pictures to come!
I'm sure my doctor would disagree.







Charleston's open air market with hundreds of vendors

Culture everywhere.  
Charleston Symphony Holiday Concert








Charleston is a hard place to leave.  Irene Rose the featured singer at the open market told of leaving for tours in Europe and in the Bahamas but ultimately she had to come back.  We heard the same story from one of our cab drivers.  No... he wasn't on tour but he had to come back after years up North!



While almost everyone we met was friendly we did have a funny feeling about our horse drawn carriage ride.  We got a good history of the city and of some of the homes.  Our driver talked about the number of men killed in the Civil War and then asked if anyone knew how many years of occupation the South had to endure after the war.  She asked how many years the Yankees remained in Charleston.  From the back of the carriage a voice loudly called out: "TOO LONG."  It was an uncomfortable moment.  Our guide was eager to point out the the Brown Family of Brown University made its money from slavery.  Yes, plenty of New England's old money came from the slave trade - a horrible and uncomfortable truth - but despite the economics the North did not go to war to maintain slavery.



One of the many opulent waterfront homes on the Battery in Charleston


Friday, December 16, 2011

Changing a light bulb

How many people does it take to change a light bulb?  On a boat?  If it is mounted on the mast?  Two - but preferably 3.  On our overnight sail we discovered that our steaming light mounted halfway up the mast was not working.  I hoped that it was burned out and that we didn't have a short circuit somewhere. Maryanne a/k/a Deck Ape willingly volunteered to winch me up the mast.  She managed to get me up above the boom when our neighbor on the H dock volunteered to help.  No, he didn't winch me up - that job was handled my my Deck Ape who only needed someone to tail the line while she winched.  I felt myself defying gravity - gently rising in the bosun's chair to the middle of the mast.  Maybe I've lost more weight than I thought.

I may be tall but this is a perspective
I am not used to.
The housing for the steaming light did not come off easily because I didn't realize that the bulb for the deck light had to be removed in order to remove the housing around the steaming light.  It was a little hard to use the screwdriver on the small screws because my hands were shaking.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with my wobbly perch 20 feet above the deck.  Eventually, it all worked out and Maryanne lowered me smoothly to the deck.  I was impressed.  Maybe if I need to go all the way to the top Maryanne will be the one to get me up there.
A midmast perspective of our fossil free energy
systems: Two 85 watt solar panels on our
bimini and a wind generator on a transom
mounted mast.












Here I am enjoying my perch at midmast - or
am I gritting my teeth?


Thursday, December 15, 2011

Overnight to Charleston!

Arthur Ravenel Bridge,  Charleston, SC
Maryanne lost her mind.  She suggested that sailing offshore overnight to Charleston might be better than taking 3 ten hour days to steer the boat down the ICW.  She may be a psychologist but I suspected something inside her head wasn't working properly.  I pointed out that our first night on the boat in Southport we were freezing inside the boat on the dock at 5 o'clock.  What would it be like to be out on the open ocean in December at 4 a.m. with 45 degree temperatures?  Also, we were dead tired by 10 pm.  She said sure it might be miserable for a little while - say from 1 am to 5 am - but wouldn't be worth it to put up with that time limited discomfort to be in Charleston the next day?  I guess that's the "Rip the bandaid off" approach.  I figured some of the time we saved would be lost as I slept the next day to catch up on a night without sleep.  I also was a little uncomfortable with the fact that once you are out on the ocean in the dead of night there is no turning back.  When conditions deteriorate you are stuck with them - no escape -- and you are all alone out there on a very big ocean.

We compromised.  We would head out of the Cape Fear river into the North Atlantic Ocean and see if the conditions were OK for an overnight.  If everything wasn't perfect we would head to the Little River Inlet only about 20 miles away.  If conditions were OK we would head for Charleston.  We consulted the NOAA marine coastal forcast: Northeast winds 10 knots turning East overnight.  Waves: 2-4 feet; highest in eastern sections.  This forecast was for up to 20 miles offshore.  Passageweather.com showed 2 foot seas and winds the same.  The two foot seas would be on our beam.  Two feet is OK but on the beam can make for some uncomfortable rolling.

Our son, Chad, (cruisingsabbatical.com)said he had the same forecast when he sailed from Cape Fear to Charleston - 4 foot waves.  Maryanne asked him about tricks to keep yourself occupied and distracted as you stand watch in the small hours of the morning.  Chad's reply:  "Mom, I was getting my butt kicked.  Those were the biggest waves I ever saw in my life!"  It seems that NOAA doesn't always get it right.  He was surfing down 6 - 8 foot waves with the boom jibing loudly overhead.  Hmm...more reason not to go off shore. Sooo...

We got out later than we wanted because we had to wait for the tide to turn with us.  I was a little nervous about our ability to make Little River before dark.  The seas seemed to be pretty flat.  We were rolling a bit but not too much for a long overnight cruise.  We decided to go for it.  Maryanne took the helm while I tried to take a couple of naps during the late afternoon.  She also cooked a delicious spaghetti dinner to fortify me for the cold night to come.  The forecast made it clear that the worst seas would be the furthest out from shore.  I was a little dismayed when we began rolling hard to see that we were 20 miles offshore.  I was  very surprised to find that I was overdressed in my long johns and flannel lined jeans.  The combination of the our cockpit enclosure and the 60 degree sea temperature kept the temperature in the cockpit surprisingly comfortable.

I was unpleasantly surprised to find that time seemed to slow down after 7 p.m.  I had to remember that our last overnight to Cape May had taken place when it was still light at 7.  Now we had almost 2 hours of dark.  At 11 p.m. it felt like 2 am.  I wondered how long this night would be!

We were rolling pretty hard from time to time but we were making great time.  In fact, our GPS showed that we were going to get into Charleston at 4 am.  We were doing 7 knots - 1 knot faster than usual.  We were going to have to kill time when we got to Charleston until we had enough light to enter the harbor safely.

I got a little impatient and started into the harbor channel before the sun was up.  The many lights blinking all over the place were confusing but I was able to sort them out as I approached them.  Once I sorted them out I realized that the sunrise was going to make it impossible to see the lights I had worked so hard to identify.  I was a little tired after a sleepless night but I concentrated as hard as I could on the buoys  - referencing them on the GPS and radar.  I really didn't want to ruin the whole night's run by parking the boat on top of the partially submerged breakwaters!
Early morning Charleston
Both Maryanne and I felt enormously accomplished when we brought the boat into the harbor and tied up at the Charleston City Marina a/k/ the Megadock.  Overnight we had covered what would have been a 3 or 4 day 150 mile trip down the ICW.
Finally!

Return to Southport

We made it back to Southport.  We did lots of grocery shopping to completely reprovision our icebox.  Left over laundry was taken care of and several boxes of goodies that we had shipped were unloaded.  Maryanne discovered that her new heat diffuser worked well as a toaster on our gas stove.  Kudos to Brittany of windtraveler.blogspot.com.  She has one of the best and most useful blogs that we've seen.

 Our wind generator now has a governor to protect it from burning up in high winds.  It was a 20 minute job that took several hours.  I had to hacksaw a large washer to fit the generator.  After I finished I realized it covered up some screw holes.  Jesse, one of the harbormasters at Deep Point, had a grinder in his and Rob's little workshop that made short work of the rest of the trim job.  Rob Gandy, the marina harbormaster and Jesse were incredibly helpful during our entire stay.  They give meaning to the concept of Southern hospitality.  We were amused to find a boulevard named after Rob Gandy in Southport.  Apparently, he was well loved as Southport's City Manager.  While the comings and goings of the Bald Head ferry are a minor nuisance the Deep Point Marina is definitely a place that we would return to.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Returning to Southport

Maryanne and I find that it takes time to adjust to living on the boat and time to adjust from the boat to living on land.  We will be in transition again as we arrive in Southport, NC Monday morning.  We have a few tasks to attend to including installing a governor on our wind generator.  The wind generator will overheat and fail with winds above 25 mph.  Some nights when I go to bed I have trouble sleeping if I'm afraid that the wind will be too strong for the wind generator.  On many of those nights I get up and tie it up.  With the governor on it should be possible to sleep easier.  I'll soon find out if the governor is so noisy that it interrupts my sleep anyway.

I also hope to install a SSB amateur radio tranceiver that was generously donated to our cause by my boyhood friend David.  David and I first met through amateur radio when our licenses would only allow us to broadcast morse code.  He was in 7th grade and I was in 9th.  We managed to send each other our phone numbers so that we could spend more time talking on the phone about what we had sent in code than the time we actually spent on the air.

I would like to have a Pactor modem but the cost is about $1000.  The pactor modem enables you to send and receive email via on your computer through the SSB transceiver anywhere in the world.  No need to be near a wifi hotspot out in the Atlantic.  I was hoping to get a weather service that would send me regular emails but access to the emails will be spotty.  I am hoping that I can find another way to find weather information in the islands.  There is a way to download weather files from the SSB to the computer.  I'll report on that once I make an attempt.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

My favorite picture from this summer's cruise:
The island is the largest residential island in MA north of Boston.
5 miles out from Salem, MA
The iPhone camera telephoto distortion makes it look like a painting.  I really like this one!
From the many accidents that has happen’d & frequent Mistakes made by Vessels coming into this Port in the Night & in thick weather for want of a Land Mark to ascertain Bakers Island so call’d we the Subscribers agree to give for the Purpose of building a Beacon on the Northernmost Part of Sd Island the Sums by us Subscribed . . .


Video from area near Camp Lejeune:
Harrier Jet (filmed blind with my hand over the bimini)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkRw8QtHxTA
Camp Lejeune

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Why No New Posts?

Finally, in Southport, a palm tree.
But those don't look like tropical birds!
We are on hiatus - also known as Long Island, NY.  Maryanne has to teach to help support our cruising so we will not be returning to the boat until Dec. 12.  We have been  collecting items that we think we would like to have on Symphony when we return.  We'll ship those items sometime this week.  We miss the cruising life - but there are some comforts of home that are nice to have too.  Comfortable showers and baths are among those we like the most.  Having a car is nice too.  I have this one picture to remind me of the climate I hope to see next month.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Southport

We made it to Wrightsville Beach from Mile Hammock.  We could have made better time if we had realized that one of the bridges (Figure 8 Bridge) that supposedly (according to our 2012 Dozier Guide) only opened on the half hour also opens on the hour.  We took our time getting to it when we should have been pushing it.  Oh, well.  That gave us one and half hours to go 5 miles to the Wrightsville Bridge.  We managed to maintain a slow pace by riding the current and sailing at .5 - 3 knots with the engine off and the jib unfurled.  That technique kept us from having to spend too much time waiting at the bridge with the current carrying us toward it.  The channel into Wrightsville was difficult to follow - at points our depth finder read 3.9 feet -- we need to calibrate it.  We think 3.9 feet means 5.9 feet giving us a clearance of .9 feet off the bottom.  We anchored near a bridge that had a resurfacing machine grinding away concrete loudly until dark.

Wrightsville itself was fun.  We saw more joggers there than anywhere else in our travels.  With all the surfers out and the surf up (and almost 70 degree temperatures) it seemed like we had been transported to Southern California.  I thought I saw 2 seals on our way in on the dinghy.  It took a moment for me to realize that seals don't wear swim caps.  Two triathletes were doing some open water swimming in their wet suits.  I would love to do a triathlon there.

After considerable double checking of current charts we set off down the ICW to Snows Cut.  Snows Cut connects with the Cape Fear River.  Our multiple checks of current charts were related to the considerable current in the Cape Fear River.  We were relieved to see that the current was against us in Snows Cut since that is an indication that the current would be with us on the Cape Fear River.
Snows Cut - a canal through ancient sand dunes

In Southport I learned a little more about
Maryanne's decision to be a vegetarian.
Rob Gandy, former City Manager of Southport is the Harbormaster at the Deep Point Marina in Southport.  He was extremely helpful with docking, transportation, and general information about Southport.  For once our landing at the fuel dock was picture perfect but our fuel system decided to rebel against the diesel fuel nozzle.  It took us 45 minutes to fill our tank as it regularly belched up diesel fuel into the cockpit. Our transom mounted fuel vent kept hiccuping fuel into a little bottle that we have suction cupped to it.  We made a decent landing at our berth in the marina. The next morning I used my bicycle pump and the air pump for the dinghy to blow out my fuel vent line.  It seems that fuel pools in a low section of the vent line.  With the line blocked, fuel bubbles into the cockpit when I try to fill the tank from the cockpit fill line.  From time to time enough pressure builds up to push fuel out of the vent.  The dinghy air pump seemed to do the job.

Downtown
We spent a lot of time exploring Southport.  The restaurants were good and the little shops for kids were fully crammed with goodies.  Our granddaughter Lucy would be very happy in these shops.

We returned to NY for a wedding - to see our grandchildren - and because Maryanne is on part time sabbatical - and has to come back to teach.  We will return to sail again in December. We're praying for a mild onset of winter this year.
Southport B&B

Some of the Southport natives can make you feel
horribly under-dressed.  I really wanted a top hat.   

One of these fairies now lives with our granddaughter in NY
A candidate for figurehead
under our bowsprit.
Could they fit any more stuff in here?


One of the reasons we flew back to NY
Our nephew's wedding in Newport.
Congratulations Courtney & Evan!
Evan and his brother Adam are up to  BIG things
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2081274/
2 more reasons to go back to NY
Juniper & Lucy

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Oriental (Nov. 2- Nov. 6)

Oriental was one of the nicer towns that we have visited on this cruise.  We stopped at Deaton Yacht Service.  Our charts showed a channel leading into Whitaker Creek where Deaton is located but no information on the depths in the channel.  All around the channel were depths of 3 to 4 feet - not enough for our 5 foot draft.  A short conversation with a worker at Deaton gave us some instructions on how to get in and reassurance that several boats with 6 foot draft had come in earlier that day.  Gingerly, we headed down the channel.  Just as we had been told the water was good.  When we got closer the worker, Buddy, told me I would have to back into my slip.  I asked which side should I have my fenders and lines on for docking.  "Don't worry," Buddy said, "You don't need them - we'll just catch you."  I'm embarrassed to admit that then I may have told him I loved him!  The docking was a little nerve wracking but he and his crew made it almost easy.  Buddy, it turns out, is part of the management team at Deaton's.  Everyone there was not only professional and helpful, they were also friendly.  When I asked Buddy a question about my anchor windlass he encouraged me to go to work taking it apart and doing some preventative maintenance.  If I had any problems he assured me that he would be happy to help.  I struggled with several corroded sticking parts but eventually got most of it apart.  The last two pieces were beyond me.  Buddy researched the windlass on the internet and spent considerable time with me in the shop pounding the the two pieces apart with a mallet.  He gave me instruction on which parts to lubricate with which type of lubricant and gave me some solvent for some of the smaller pieces.  All of the cruisers that I met with various problems at Deaton's (including one who had to be towed in) all agreed that if you were going to have a  problem with your boat you that Deaton's was the place to be.
Maryanne at The Bean - great coffee shop
 

Places that we liked in Oriental: The M&M cafe where I had my first shrimp, sausage, and grits dinner.
The Silos - tasty Italian food.  The Bean - (only recently opened after Hurricane Irene this summer) good coffee and excellent hot chocolate.  The Marine consignment store with an infinite variety of items.  The free municipal dock (where you better arrive early for one of the 2 berths).  And we loved the homes - all beautifully kept all the way from the Boat yard to downtown.
One of the many lovely homes in Oriental

Outside of town there is some blight and poverty -
probably true for most communities.



















There are no tides in Oriental but the water does rise and recede based on the wind strength and direction.  The gale force winds that forced us to stay in Oriental, flooded some of the streets in town and covered the town dinghy dock.   When we went to bed our deck was even with the dock.  When we got up in the morning the dock was even with our waterline.  The water was just about lapping at the bottom of the dock.  This is what is called a wind tide.  This type of tide could be a real problem when we are trying to pass under a bridge with what should be 65 foot clearance. The clearance could easily be reduced to 61 feet.  At 61 feet our mast might not clear the bridge.

Cruisers take note - I could find no fuel in Whitaker Creek.  I had to make 3 trips with the loaner car to fill my 2 diesel jugs enough times to fill my tank.
Partially submerged dinghy dock - a result of the gale force winds