November 12, 2009.

The rain seems to be gone and all we have to remember Ida by is her remaining high winds. We’ll be here for another couple of days as it’s just too crappy to be going anywhere at the moment. Besides the ocean must be wild as hell so we’ll be patient. Offshore early on Saturday looks to be the plan for now.

Last night Lee on Krasna showed up in Factory Creek. Since he and the Alibi’s were here we decided to have a little “survivors of the Spa Creek anchorage” reunion. There was some Mexican food, some drinking and a lot of good catching up. And about Lee’s eyes; he’s a single hander so he uses crazy glue on his eyelids to keep them open for those long night passages. Be sure you double click on the picture to get the full effect. Apparently, it takes a few days for the glue to wear away.

Since we’re sitting here on the boat we decided to update and reinventory all of our food lockers.

We’ll need to have an accurate accounting of what we have on board before we can go provisioning for the Bahamas. We really do have quite a lot on board but there are a few holes in the food groups that will need to be filled.

The creek is very deep but fairly narrow. There’s a strong tidal flow that works to keep you centered in the narrow channel. But if there’s a strong breeze from the northwest during slack tide you can be set fairly close to the waterfront docks of the private homes along the water. So of course the remnants of Ida are out of the northwest. We’ve watched a few of the boats lift and reset their hooks as they swung to close too shore for comfort. We’re pretty close ourselves but our hook seems to be well set and we have the kellet down there as well. So even though we’re short scoped we’re satisfied at the moment.

November 10, 2009.

Today the weather was starting to deteriorate so we decided to make another quick trip to the stores. We hit the drugstore and the hardware store.

At the hardware store we picked up a few odds and ends including a new “Boat Pole of Speed”. I bought this 10 foot long bamboo pole to use as a whisker pole to hold the genoa out in light air. The pole is actually used as a frog gig and sold in the hunting section of the store. I happened upon one last year and was very happy with it until I finally broke it several months ago. So for 10 bucks we’re once again sporting a solid advantage when the light air gnomes strike.

After that it was back to the boat for lunch. Then the sun popped out for a bit and we decided to take the dink across the river into the touristy part of Beaufort. When I use the term "the sun popped out" what I actually mean is that its not pouring at the moment. We spent an hour or more walking around looking at this and that before heading home to the boat.

Right after getting back to the boat the skies opened up. We spent the balance of the day reading. Alibi II showed up just before dark after the long trek down from Charleston. There are 40 boats or more hanging out here in Beaufort waiting to head south after Ida goes offshore to die.

One boat that we’re seen every time we’re here definitely won’t be leaving anytime soon. Each time we’ve passed by in the dink the bilge pump has been running nonstop in this older wooden fishing boat. I guess the bilge pump finally stopped. The owner showed up right after
we took the picture in a small Jon boat and towed the boat off into the shallows. The tidal range here is about 7 feet so when the tide goes out the boat will be high and dry and hopefully the owner can pinpoint and repair the leak.

November 9, 2009.

It looks as if we’ll be here in Factory Creek until Saturday. I put the dinghy into the water for the first time since leaving Annapolis. We headed in to the Ladies Island Marina. Joe at Ladies Island Marina is letting everyone anchored in Factory Creek use the dinghy dock free of charge so they can provision for the upcoming bad weather. So we took advantage and dropped off 2 weeks worth of garbage and then headed down the road to the grocery store.

Lugging all our purchases back to the boat had me thinking about just how well we eat on the boat. To the disbelief of many of our shore based friends and relatives I find that we eat even better than we did when we lived on land. Back in the world when Christy had a full time job there was so many facets to life that all had to be juggled. Dinner was just one more chore at the end of every long day.

Now on the boat with a little more time on her hands Christy has achieved a higher level in the kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, she was always a great cook. I’m not complaining at all. It’s just that now that she has the time she’s been compiling a large and varied repertoire of wonderful recipes.


When I sit and think about it it’s pretty much the same way on most of our friend’s boats. To me, who is completely lost in the kitchen, I am always amazed at what comes out of the tiny galleys on most of these boats. So even if we’re trapped by the weather for a few days at a time at least we’re eating well.

November 8, 2009.

After a good nights rest we were both up and ready to go at 0600. Immediately after leaving the anchorage southbound boats have to negotiate the Wapoo Creek lift bridge. It’s a pain in the ass because it stays in the down position from 0600 until 0900 for rush hour. Unless of course it’s Sunday. Guess what?; woooohooooo it’s Sunday. So once through the bridge we settled in for the 60 mile trip to Beaufort, SC.

Things really lined up nicely for us as we rode the tide southward. Several times we had a push of over a knot and a half as the current swept us along. It was a really nice trip and we were pleasantly surprised to find that several trouble spots had been dredged since we were last here.

The only real potential for excitement was an encounter with a procession of tugboats towing a huge dredge and all its associated support equipment. It was a tug with the dredge, a tug with a barge and 3 tugs with the lengthy pieces of pipe. We were one of 3 sailboats along with a trawler that had to stop off to the side as this mile long parade of big heavy machinery plodded northward through a high rise bridge. Fortunately, there was enough water for us to all get outside the channel as we backed and filled while the tugs crept past. It was kind of nerve racking as we had over a knot of current pushing us down onto the bridge while we all held position. It was a really tight spot and there were crab pot floats as well so the thought of snapping a few pictures never entered our minds. It all went as well as if we had spent time choreographing this maneuver. Once clear of the tugs and their charges we were all underway unscathed.

So now we sit in the protected stream known as Factory Creek. We’ll do some food shopping and await the remnants of Ida. The river is narrow so I don’t have as much scope out as I’d like but there
is no fetch at all so sea state won’t become an issue. The forecast as of right now has Ida dumping some rain on us and perhaps 30 knots of wind. We’ll have to see.

November 7, 2009.

It’s funny how quickly things can change. All week the weather “experts” have been talking about how Friday was NOT the day to even think about being out on the ocean.

We looked at all the weather inputs we had to consider and it just all became a bit more confusing. We wanted to jump out into the ocean at Cape Fear. The forecast for Saturday called for pretty much no wind from here to Charleston. That would mean 24 hours of motoring to get to Charleston. I hate that crap, we can handle a few waves, just give us enough wind to keep the sails full.

But the forecast for Friday had mellowed a bit. The wind was supposed to blow 25 out of the north until noon with 9 foot waves and then drop to 20 knots in the afternoon. The ocean looked like it was supposed to smooth out a bit as the wind abated. Through the night the wind was supposed to continue to lighten until it was less than 10 knots.

So we hit the ocean on Friday. We waited until the tide changed in the Cape Fear River where a tide versus wind condition is a recipe for a 3 hour ass kickin’. We left the anchorage at 1100 and headed down the river riding the tide with the wind behind us, we found ourselves hitting over 9 knots.

The Cape Fear River spit us into the ocean, an eerily calm ocean. Barely a swell, with just tiny wavelets lapping at the hull. Somebody must have leaned on the wind switch because it absolutely died. We sailed for the first 2 hours while maintaining a speed of between 2 and 4 knots. I couldn’t believe this shit. We were worried about getting blown off the ocean and here we were unable to find any breeze. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we had waited for the calm that Saturday promised. Just before dark we did catch a small fish that we threw back. He was small, it was getting dark.....

After 2 hours we had to start the engine and make some of our own wind as we motorsailed along. Finally around midnight there just wasn’t enough wind to keep the sails full and we had to put em’ away and motor through the night.

It wasn’t to be a dull night though. As soon as we had established our course the Coast Guard broadcast a Notice to Mariners. It seemed that a 63 foot fishing boat had sunk that morning and the 1 mile wide by 1 mile long debris field was last sighted 30 miles away, exactly on our rhumbline. Crap.

There were about a half dozen or more boats out there with us. We could only see one of them but more and more of the scattered boats started to chime in with opinions as to what course they should set to avoid a possible collision with the ever expanding debris field. Some headed east while others veered west. One boat even headed straight for the debris figuring that it had to have moved by then.

One guy stuck out though. There’s always one. He called the Coast Guard a half dozen times to clarify “exactly” what happened, when it happened and when the last sighting of debris was etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Four hundred thousand questions, HEY, I’m tryin’ to sleep here! This guy was obviously very impressed with his own use of the vernacular.

When the Coast Guard gives a position they say 079 tack 34 decimal 234. Most normal people just give a slight pause instead of using the words “tack” and decimal”. But this guy was the consummate mariner and tried to impress his professionalism on all within earshot and insisted on dragging things out as long as possible. We were rolling our eyes at his ponderous use of the airwaves until he asked the Coastguardsmen if they had any “facilities” still in the air to give an update on the current position of the debris. Facilities? I’m sure he meant “assets” and even the young guardswoman had a bit of a chuckle in her voice when she declined saying that no other updates were available. Facilities in the air, perhaps toilets in the sky, maybe that’s what they mean by Eau de Toilet, I dunno.

Christy and I just adjusted our course 10 degrees to the east because whatever wind there was had been from the east and the ocean swell was heading westward as well. We didn’t see anything but then again it was pitch black out and it was probably just a fuel slick, a styrofoam cooler and a couple of empty beer cans. It was interesting to listen as some of the people were pretty much paralyzed while they ran set and drift programs to figure out where this garbage could have floated to. I’ll never understand why they call it common sense.

It was great to pass Fort Sumter as we reached Charleston Harbor. We dropped the hook in the Ashley River at 0930 and spent the remainder of the day loafing before turning in around 1930 hours for a well deserved rest.

November 6, 2009.

We were up and underway at 0600. If you think that’s bad consider the fact that we weren’t the first boat outta there. Alright, we were second but you’d think that at an ungodly hour like that we’d at least be first. But most people realize that at this time of year you just can’t waste daylight.

It was to be a long day of motor sailing down the ICW. We had 3 bridges to deal with that all had restricted openings. We timed the first 2 within minutes of their appointed openings so they didn’t cost us any time.

Doing the same with the third bridge would have required us to run 5 miles in 30 minutes. There’s no way we can do 10 knots so we killed the engine and sailed slowly up to the last bridge. After the bridge we only had another 12 miles to go until our selected anchorage in Carolina Beach.

November 4, 2009.

Anchored here in Morehead City we didn’t have the luxury of internet to aid us in making an informed weather decision. There are dozens of wifi signals but all are password protected. Bastards. So we listened to NOAA on the VHF, we used Skymate to grab an update and called our friend Jay for a weather update. Based on all these inputs we decided that an overnighter on the ocean wasn’t in the cards. As it stands there’s some ugliness scattered over the next couple of days with Friday being unfit for neither man nor beast out on the deep blue. So our choice was to either sit in Morehead City (with no internet) until Friday rolled around to see what happens or to head off down the ICW making our way slowly south. I guess something is better than nothing, so away we go.

When we retired for the night the wind was non existent. Since we had dropped the hook so early in the day I forgot that our American flag was still up on the backstay. I usually take it down every night at sunset. Of course by 0200 the wind had started to kick a bit and had the flag flapping vigorously. The metal clips for the flag bang against the backstay. The sound travels straight down the backstay right into our frontal lobes as we pretend to be able to sleep through the racket. So, as a result we were both wide awake and ready to go before 0600.

We had the hook up and retraced our way out of the anchorage. The mainsail was soon up and shortly afterwards the genoa made its debut and the engine was off. It was only to be a 45 mile day ending at Mile Hammock Bay. We were able to sail the 25 mile length of Bogue Sound at better than 8 knots due to a great tidal push. We had to start the engine and drop the sails for the last 20 miles of the day as we wove our way through the ICW to our anchorage.

Mile Hammock Bay is part of the military base at Camp LeJeune. It’s a wonderfully protected, very popular anchorage along a stretch of the ICW with very few options besides a stay at a marina. While we were sitting in the cockpit reading we were treated to the sight on a small intracoastal cruise liner making his way along the ICW. How the hell he can make it through these waters just baffles the hell outta me and I was glad we were anchored when he came past. Talk about a big fish in a small pond.

The next suitable stop for us is at least 40 miles away at Wrightsville Beach. Even leaving at first light an 80 mile day was out of the question as days get shorter. With our early departure we arrived early and had the hook down by 1300 hours. We spent the afternoon reading and watching the anchorage fill in around us. And I did remember to take the flag down at sunset.

November 3, 2009.

We left Oriental and the hospitality of the Small’s in our wake this morning. We headed across the Neuse River and entered Adams Creek bound for the inlet at Beaufort.

One part of our revamping of the automatic bilge pump system was the installation of a new control panel as well. The thing keeps track of how much the bilge pumps runs and there’s even an alarm that sounds so you realize that’s it running. I was happy with the installation and hoped it would make a difference in our daily lives.

By the time we were in Adams Creek the alarm was sounding for 3 or 4 seconds every half hour. That’s craptasic. It’s crappy that we evidently have a leak, but it’s fantastic that the system actually works as designed.

We stopped at a tiny marina along Adams Creek to top off one of our fuel tanks. When I was done fueling I flipped back the mattress to see if the freshly packed rudder post stuffing box needed adjustment. Nope, not dripping, it’s coming from somewhere else. Crap.

We (Christy) decided rather than put to sea with a leak of unknown origin we should drop the hook in Morehead City and check things out. That’s why she’s the admiral. So we called it a day after covering 25 miles and slipped behind Sugarloaf Island.

After setting the hook I went and checked out the engine room while the motor was still running. Crap. The raw water pump is leaking through the seal. Crap. It can’t be properly repaired underway and needs to be sent out to be rebuilt. Crap.

As luck would have it, the other day when I was repairing the manual bilge pump I noticed a forgotten unopened box in a dark corner. It looked like the box a new raw water pump would come in. Today when I needed one, the first thing we did was get out the ships inventory and look down the list for a new pump. None, nada, zippo. Crap. I went below and dug to the back of the locker and pulled the box out into the light of day. Eureka! A brand spankin’ new raw water pump. We’re in business. I knew Christy wouldn’t have let us go to the Bahamas the last couple of years without a spare pump in stock. I probably stuck it back there before she had a chance to inventory it. Oh look another locker to inventory, it’s on her to-do-list. I’ll take the blame, whatever, we had a new water pump.

It was quick work to remove the fittings and pulley from the old pump and flip them over to the new pump. The new pump was installed and ready to roll in an hours time. Since we were already dug in for the night we decided to just sit here until tomorrow.

The weather on the ocean is supposed to be a little “lively” tonight anyway. They issued a small craft warning, with winds predicted to be 15-20 knots, climbing to 25 knots after midnight. There had been some serious discussion as to whether we should go or not so it looks like the leaking pump made the decision for us.

The anchorage is really nice and we can’t believe we have it all to ourselves. I’m not even gonna predict what we’re going to do tomorrow.

November 2, 2009.

Once again we were up before the sun and underway. This time we were one of a steady stream of boats headed south.

The breeze was a little lighter today as we headed south. Pure sailing was going to yield us about 3 knots so like everyone else we opted to motorsail.

We made excellent time down the Pungo River and across the Pamlico Sound. The wind was pretty much non existent in Goose Creek but when we popped out into the Bay River we were able to kill the engine and sail for 2 hours. The wind soon died away leaving us with a 10 mile motor to our destination of Oriental, NC. As usual we slipped into Whittaker Creek and tied ourselves up at our friends; Ken & Carol’s backyard dock.

We’ve spent a few days here seeing our people, meeting new people, catching up with other cruisers and doing boat chores.

Since we’re only a few days from going offshore I decided to see if I could once and for all exorcise our bilge pump demons. Our automatic bilge pump wasn’t working again so we’ve been using the manual bilge pump to pump the bilge dry.

We’ve noticed that there’s been a significant amount of water getting into the bilge since we left Annapolis. The rudder post turned out to be the culprit. I found that there just wasn’t enough adjustment left to get the rudder post to stop dripping. I’m able to adjust the stuffing box without to much trouble but to repack the stuffing box meant that I had to disassemble the steering quadrant and the autopilot attachments to gain the necessary access. It all went well and turned out to be a simple repair.

With the source of the leak resolved it was time to fix the bilge pump. I’ve done this so many times that I just said “to hell with it” and ripped out the whole system right down to the last wire. I replaced all the wiring and even installed a new fancy assed panel.

Our old panel had a fuse and a toggle switch with “manual, automatic or off” as possible choices. The new panel has those choices and also includes a counter so you can see how many times the bilge pump has cycled and an alarm that sounds whenever the bilge pump comes on. It all seems to work real well but we’ll see how it goes once we’re at sea.

I also got the upper hand on a leak that’s been killing me in our fresh water pressure system. With that fixed I replaced all of our sail slugs along the foot of the mainsail and the line on our Lifesling. We also reactivated our Skymate weather reporting system.

As it stands right now we’re heading down to Beaufort in the morning with the hopes of heading offshore tomorrow bound for Charleston, SC.