Dreamtime Sailing

5 December – Palm Coast Marina, Palm Coast, Florida

We are constantly learning lessons with this lifestyle, and today we were reminded to definitely trust our instincts when something with the boat feels different.

We were beginning to talk ourselves into believing that everything was fine and second guessing our need for a diver.  Maybe we should just take off and head to Daytona Beach and see how things are feeling today if the divers don’t show by 9:30.

But no, it is better to be safe than sorry and the divers did arrive at 9:15.  It didn’t take long for him to come back to the surface saying, yeap you snagged something, and it is HEAVY.

  Going back down he unwrapped the styrofoam float and line from the rudder and pulled and pulled and pulled some more on the line trying to find the end.  Frustrated, and with no leverage while int he water to pull the heavy weight, he threw the line and float up on the dock, and Bob kept pulling what was over 20 feet/ 4.5 meters of line until he finally found a lead weight attached to a large steel crab trap (2’x2’x1.5’/ 61cmx61cmx13cm).  It took a lot of effort for Bob to raise the 20 pounds/9kg of trap (with crabs inside) and weight off the bottom.  

As a precaution to getting our prop snagged by fish traps we had invested in  razor shaft cutters, which are designed to cut the offending line before it can wrap around the prop.  But in this case, somehow the line did not get wrapped around the prop but rather the float must have gotten caught up between the prop and the rudder.  And so it was firmly attached and we dragged.

It blew our minds that we had been dragging this thing for over 20 miles.  We felt sorry for the crab inside.

We were definitely thankful that we trusted our instincts and didn’t talk ourselves into “letting it go” and seeing what happens.

After securing the trap to the dock so as not be a hazard for other boats until the diver would be able to dispose of it safely, we untied from the dock and were on our way to Daytona Beach by 10:00.

4 December 2016

Due to forecasted strong southerly winds for the foreseeable future we have decided to make our way down the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) for the rest of our trip to Ft. Pierce, Florida.

The downside is that the trip will take an extra week or more.  The upside is that we have our favorite restaurants at each of the expected ports of call.  Today we will he arriving in Palm Coast for our burrito and margarita/cerveza dinner.

But first we untie from the mooring ball in St. Augustine, timing our departure with the Bridge of Lions opening at 0900.  The rest of the bridges today are on request, so we won’t have to rush or time anything else except the tides and currents for transiting the Matanzas Inlet  with high tide which we were able to do with no issues or dramas.

We begin to see some of the carnage left behind by Hurricane Matthew which hit this area of Florida pretty hard in October.  Yesterday, the water taxi driver had told us that during the storm at least 20 boats broke free from their moorings, during the surge the water was way above the seawall protecting the city.  The marina across the way was demolished.  Boats were found down river, beached, de-masted and/or sunk.  As we motored down the canal we did indeed see a few beached boats, and many damaged private docks. 

Once though the bridge we continued on the ICW and have our first dolphin sightings — yay! Hopefully this means a lovely day on the water.  A short while later we spot a manatee – double yay!

A few minutes after that we heard a “thunk” on the bottom of the boat — uh oh!  We must have hit something, but there was nothing we saw in the water before or after the thud.  We were in the middle of the channel, there shouldn’t be any fish traps or obstructions.  We thought it might have been a sunken log, but didn’t see anything in the water.

After a bit of time, Bob noticed the boat was not going as fast as it had been or that he thought it should be given the engine RPMs.  He also felt like the steering wasn’t feeling quite right.  Bob said it felt like we were dragging something, but we couldn’t see anything or any evidence of this.  We hoped it was only the current slowing us down.

However, better to be safe than sorry, once we arrived at Palm Coast Marina, we called a diver and arranged for him to come tomorrow morning to take a look at the bottom to be sure all is well before we continue on to Daytona Beach.

With nothing more we could do, after cleaning up, we made good on our promise to ourselves and made the 10 minute walk to European Village and shared an awesome burrito at Burrito 101 — we highly recommend this place.

Overall, the day was sunny, warm and beautiful.  Other than the constant concern that the boat was not responding as usual and that the thud either caused some damage or something got caught up in the rudder, it was a lovely day.

Cabin fans are on, we are wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops/thongs — we are in Florida!!!!  Yay for warmth.  That one uncomfortable night off shore was worth it!!!

2 -3 December 2016 – Brunswick, Georgia – St. Augustine, Florida

We were starting to think we should plan Christmas holidays in Georgia.  Looking at the upcoming weather forecasts we decided if we don’t leave today we’ll be here for probably another week.

There was some discrepancy regarding today’s forecast.  We were hoping the more mild wind predictions would prove to be the reality.  One forecast predicted 10 knot winds with gusts to 15, while another predicted 10-15 with gusts to 20 and seas up to 6’ or a bit more.

We left the Brunswick Landing Marina around 1430 wanting to make it through St. Simon’s Inlet into the open ocean before sunset and hoping to reach the sea buoy at St. Augustine, Florida no earlier than 7am with first light.  We had never navigated St. Augustine Inlet before.  The buoys are not lit and we definitely didn’t want to even attempt it in the dark.

As we backtracked through St. Simon’s Inlet, we kept our eyes open for dolphins.  Playful dolphin sightings have proven to be good harbingers for comfortable off shore passages. But alas, today there were no sightings.  As the sun was setting  we did see a turtle swim by, and hoped that would work as well.

The evening started quietly with calm waters and the wind directly behind us.  Knowing we needed to take it slow and average somewhere near 5 knots per hour we didn’t raise the sails so we could better control our speed.  With the wind direction straight behind us, we would also have had to be careful not to jibe if the sails were up.

It wasn’t long after though that the wind piped up and so did the seas.  By midnight the boat was rolling quite a bit and we decided the more pessimistic forecast is proving itself to be.  With the motion, it was hard to sleep, and neither of us really felt like eating very much.

Even with holding back the RPMs on the engine, we were making faster time than we wanted, and Bob changed our course to add some miles to the passage and go further out to sea so we wouldn’t arrive at the sea buoy too early.  This change in direction meant the 6 foot waves were now coming across our beam (side of the boat) which made for even more uncomfortable motion.  The boat was rolling from side to side, and you had to hang on to something to keep your balance or be able to move about.

They were short choppy waves with a period of no more than 4 – 5 seconds between just made for an overall uncomfortable night with very little sleep.  Neither of us were having fun.

Even with the altered course we arrived before the sun, and so to waste more time waiting for the light Bob steered the boat directly into waves which would also get us into a better approach position but also continued our discomfort.  Pitching into 6 – 8 foot choppy waves with a period of no more than 4-5 seconds, made for a hobby horse motion, which at a slow speed of 1 knot was probably better than having them powering through them or taking them on the beam.

Unfortunately the motion finally got to Christina and she did everything she could to just hang on and not “lose her cookies”.

The sun finally started to make its appearance and we found our way to the sea buoy and found the channel markers, watching the path the outbound powerboats were taking. The waves were still pounding us, but now from the starboard side.  Christina was recovering and actually able to help navigate.  

By 0800 we approached the north St. Augustine mooring field, radioed the dock master to get our assigned ball, and tied up without incident.

As Bob reached for a beer (0800 means nothing when you have been up all night and have no where to go but bed in the morning) Christina called out for one too.  Finding herself hungry from not eating much for the past 17 hours, she pulled out the donuts that were meant to be our pre-dawn treat, and proceeded to discover beer and donuts make an awesome combination for an after passage breakfast.

It seems like overtime we are in St. Augustine there is a parade.  Today we were able to enjoy the Christmas parade from our mooring.  

We ultimately did not take that planned nap, but instead went to town using the free water taxi to find a place for lunch – enjoying some great creole and etouffee at Harry’s.  The historic town of St. Augustine is definitely worth seeing and exploring more, but not today.  We were back on the boat by1400 (2pm) and asleep a few hours later for a nice long quiet night.

29 November 2016 — A week later we are still in Brunswick, Georgia

When we arrived last Tuesday, we weren’t sure if we would stay in Brunswick for 2 or 3 days, but we opted to stay for three, through Thursday and enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at Brunswick Landing Marina.

One of the benefits of staying at marinas on holidays is that more often than not, the marina or residents put on a party.  This Thanksgiving holiday was no different.  The marina provided the wine, beer, turkey and stuffing and the boat owners brought sides and desserts.  Well over 150 people attended which translated to over 70 different side dishes and desserts creating a fabulous array of food options.

These events are usually really good times.  It is hard to explain, but you are surrounded by people you don’t really know, and most likely will never see again, but you share so many things in common, there is never a shortage of conversation.  Everyone learns from everyone else’s experiences and so many stories are shared.

It is fun when we do actually run into people we met last year on our travels.  While we were in Annapolis in October we met up with a very friendly couple a few boats down from us.  After some basic conversation we realized we had shared last Thanksgiving dinner with them at Ladys Island, in South Carolina.  We instantly connected like good old friends quickly helping each other out, sharing multiple dinners and learning from each other’s experiences.  They were in the process of buying a new boat and started their journey south a month or later than us.  We wouldn’t be surprised if we run into them again in the coming months.

On Thanksgiving  a couple we had met in Jekyll Island last year pulled into this marina to spend a few days.  We recognized and remembered each other and again we were like old friends.

We realize that we probably won’t keep in touch with most of these people, but when we do run into each other at a future port of call, it is fun to reconnect and catch up.  We exchange boat cards so if we ever do need to reconnect we are only an email or phone call away (provided anyone has cell or internet coverage wherever they are).

We woke up Friday morning with every intention of setting out that afternoon to do an overnight passage to St. Augustine, Florida.  Once there, we would tie up to a mooring ball Saturday morning for one or two nights.  Then another overnight passage would get us to Cape Canaveral, Florida for a few nights and then we would arrive in Ft. Pierce, Florida where we plan to spend the month of December.

But, living by the weather, we know plans sometimes change.  As we looked at the weather forecasts that morning, we discovered that although we could still make the plan work if we really had to, and it wouldn’t put us in harm’s way, the wind was not going to be our friend.  It was forecast to kick up to 15 – 20 knots with gusts to 25-30 and clock around to the south meaning we would be beating into it once we arrived in St. Augustine.  The seas were forecast to get churned up as well and it didn’t look like it would a very comfortable set of passages or time on the mooring ball overnight.

So, although the weather here never seemed too significant, we have no regrets looking ahead and planning our travel for what will be where we expect to be, rather than what is where we are.

Maybe we are getting a little spoiled and are becoming fair weather sailors when we can be, but we are in no hurry and there was no reason to move on if it wasn’t going to be comfortable or fun.

We decided to stay here in Brunswick, Georgia until that system blows through — looks like that may not be the case until Thursday, two more days!  So what was originally going to be a 2 or 3 night stay has now turned into a 9 night stay – this means we qualify for the monthly rate here at the marina – maybe we’ll stay here for the month instead of moving on to Florida right now.  (Just kidding – sort of.)

There are definitely worse places to be stuck.  We love the restaurant offerings and are eating very well.

The weather forecast is constantly changing, and this morning it now looks that another system will be arriving bringing more southerly winds to our itinerary.  We still plan to leave Brunswick on Thursday and arrive St. Augustine on Friday morning, spend one night on a mooring ball, and then head out on Saturday.  If the forecasts are correct with the southerly wind, we do have options and we may opt go back inside on the ICW for the remainder of the trip to Ft. Pierce.  But to be honest we both are still preferring the prospect of being able to knock off the miles by going off shore.  Stay tuned.

Until then, a few boat chores are done everyday.  The birds here are tenacious and many and we end up cleaning the deck daily.

For those keeping score, today’s chore was putting the dinghy in the water and firing up the outboard to see if it works or if it needs some TLC after being dormant for so long.  SURPRISE!!! — it started with no problem.  Of course the big test is when we actually NEED it to start, like when we are on the mooring ball in St. Augustine.   We will keep you posted.

The rest of the time when we are not doing boat chores, we enjoy being bums just lounging around.

21 November 2016 – Charleston, SC – Brunswick, GA

We scheduled our departure from Charleston, SC with slack water so as to make it easier to back the boat out of the slip and navigate the fairway with as little current as possible.

It was a beautiful, albeit cooler than desired, morning as we navigated the Charleston Inlet and headed out to the ocean for what will be our longest passage to date to Brunswick, Gerogia.

Sometimes you just feel small, and that was the case as this large container ship came up from behind us in the inlet requesting that we give him room as another equally large ship was inbound and they would need the entire width of the channel to pass safely.  We happily obliged as the the water just outside the channel has plenty of depth and we drove around in circles until the two ships had passed.

We had a couple of dolphin sightings on the passage, the first one while we were still in the inlet, when Christina called out “flying dolphin” as she gazed to port and saw a dolphin breaching fully out of the water.  He and another dolphin then swam quickly to our boat and swam alongside for a few minutes.  Later in the afternoon there was one swimming along side and dropped behind the boat and seemed to look us in the eye to say “hello”.  The last one of the passage was in the middle of the night when another few swam alongside again.

On land, we love all creatures great and small, but birds are not our friends on the boat, due to the mess they can create with their droppings.  After several hours on the ocean this little guy landed on the shroud and was obviously very tired.  He is clearly a land based bird, and somehow got caught out in the ocean and now there is no land in sight.  Normally we shoo birds off the boat, but this guy was sooooo tired we didn’t have the heart to scare him off and we let him rest.  He would fly off every now and then and quickly come back, as if he was hoping to find land or a more suitable perch.  After a while we didn’t see him anymore, and figured he had gotten his rest and flew away to another boat closer to land or beyond.  (After we had arrived in Brunswick and got settled into our slip we saw the same type of bird on the dock.  We don’t know if this was the same bird and he had found a comfortable place to rest in our sail pack or if it was a cousin.  We may learn more the next time we raise the sail if there is a mess that falls out.)

When you are out on the ocean there isn’t much to take photos of – except the sunsets and sunrises.  This was tonight’s sunset.

As the night wore on the water and wind churned up and we were rockin’ and rolling for several hours.  It was the most movement we have experienced on the boat in some time.  For the person sleeping it was great for lulling them to sleep, for the person on watch it meant holding on as they moved around the cockpit or went below.  But all was well.

After 150 miles and nearly 27 hours we arrived at Brunswick Landing Marina, having to navigate around dredging equipment that went across virtually the entire river to the marina.  We radioed and he moved a bit to the side so we could pass without much concern – but it was a good thing that Bob was looking ahead to see the equipment – or else we may have had a rough end to the trip.

We will be at Brunswick Landing Marina for 2 or 3 nights, probably partaking in the marina Thanksgiving festivities before we head on down to St. Augustine, FL.  We are enjoying the overnight passages.

17 – 18 November 2016  — Bald Head Island, North Carolina – Charleston, South Carolina

Yay!!! We scored a slip at Charleston Harbor Marina – or so we hope.  With our departure at slack water here in Bald Head, it means we will be arriving in Charleston at Max Flood  with the current ripping strong.  Getting into the marina may be challenging, but we have 20 hours to contemplate that while we are on the water.

Shortly after leaving the shipping channel we spotted breaching Dolphins on our starboard side.  They turned and headed our way.  With the boat on auto pilot, we both left the cockpit to watch the dolphins enjoy swimming in our bow wake for a few minutes.  Pretty darned cool.

Let’s hope this is another harbinger for a quiet and peaceful passage.

As the day wore on the water and wind got more and more calm, and motoring on the ocean was much like motoring on a quiet lake.  Although we like being able to put the sails up, we definitely don’t complain about the calm days and nights either.

We prepared for our 2 hours on and 2 hours off watch schedule, with Bob getting rest before he would be on again.

 

We didn’t know we were about to have an awesome night of visitors.

We had a peaceful and calm night.  Then at midnight, at shift change as Bob was trying to go to sleep, he was disturbed by all the noise (over the engine) and we peered over the starboard side to see a pod of dolphins frolicking alongside the cockpit.  These stayed with us for almost a half hour.

Then again at the next shift change at 2am as Christina was getting ready to lay down. we peered out and saw two dolphins half breach, as if in excitement, and then quickly come swimming over to play and swim alongside the cockpit again (they may also have been in the bow wake – but we didn’t go out to see)… (It was very similar to how a dog gets excited to see someone and comes running over to play.)

Images wouldn’t come out of the dark dolphins in the dark water at night so there is no footage.  We just sat and enjoyed, with Christina getting sprayed in the face as the dolphins blew through their blow holes as they passed by.    Even though they keep us awake, dolphin sightings make us smile!

22 hours after first leaving Bald Head Island we arrived in Charleston, South Carolina at first light – along with a few more dolphins in the inlet.

Charleston was hit hard by Hurricane Matthew and as mentioned in yesterday’s post, finding room in a marina was more challenging than expected.  No marina in the city was unaffected.

The big marina with the “mega” dock (for mega boats) that boasts 19,000 linear feet of dockage and the longest free standing dock (1,530 feet) where we stayed last year at this time (and they have awesome happy hour 4 nights a week), had no room and didn’t anticipate having room until early December.  Our preferred marina for location and price (not amenities) was destroyed by the hurricane and is closed indefinitely.  The marina up the river that is not close to ANYTHING walking distance and has no courtesy car to borrow was full up.  The other marina we have stayed at twice up the other river (having to time a bridge opening and the current through a narrow part of the canal) we really didn’t want to deal with again was damaged and they lost their transient slips.

So, we had to “resort” to Charleston Harbor Marina & Resort, but even that we didn’t know for sure until the morning we wanted to cast off the lines.  We arrived with no drama and a slip waiting for us.

This is a destination resort next to the USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier museum we toured this past Spring.  They too were impacted and reported at least 3 boats were “totaled” due to damage from the hurricane and not all of their docks are operational (nor was their wifi evidently).

We are able to take advantage of all the resort amenities – pools, hot tubs, etc.  Only downside is you have to rely on the water taxi (which only runs on Saturday at this time of the year) or the every other hour trolley to get into town.  So it is not really convenient.

We guess we will spend the afternoon tomorrow lounging at a pool, enjoying lunch and sipping cocktails at the bar, after a morning of boat chores that include changing the oil and filling the water tanks.  Life is rough.

Monday we will head off shore again for a passage to Brunswick, Georgia.

15 November – 16 November – Morehead City – Bald Head Island, NC

The winds and rain have passed by Morehead City, and it is now time to leave.  We definitely enjoyed our 6 nights here, discovering some mighty fine restaurants, but are thrilled to be on our way again.

We were very pleased to calculate. while planning our departure, to be at or near slack water in Morehead City upon our departure and arriving in Bald Head Island at slack water if we maintained about 5 – 5.5 knots per hour.

As we left Beaufort Inlet, a couple of dolphins played off our starboard side, and we hoped this was a good omen for what we expected to be a pretty uneventful 24 hour overnight offshore passage.

Listening to the radio from the ocean we heard alot of chatter from the vessels navigating the ICW, announcements about shoaling, crab pots and other hazards in the channel, boats passing each other with a slow pass, others getting yelled at because they didn’t slow down and caused big wakes, inoperable bridges, etc.  We were very glad we made the decision to go offshore as we found it to be so much more peaceful on the big water.

As the sun set and the temperature got cooler, we closed up the enclosure and the cockpit stayed at a pretty comfortable temperature, not needing to fire up the heater.

Bob traded his deck shoes for his fuzzy slippers for the night, keeping his feet toasty warm.  We traded times on watch, and both decided to sleep in the cockpit when we were off watch to be ready for each other if anything arose that required attention.

The night was quiet, very quiet.  We would check AIS regularly to learn of any other boats that would be approaching our vicinity, and there was only one that passed us in the early afternoon.  Once the sun went down there was only one other vessel we ever saw on AIS that could have come close to us but made a turn long before and passed by a couple of miles away from us.  The radar screen was blank most of the night, which really made us both wonder if it was even working.  It was – but there was just no other vessels out tonight.

The moon was still pretty bright, as the Super Moon had been the previous night.  So, when it wasn’t behind the clouds, the moon lit up the water.  For the twelve hours of darkness we took turns watching the instruments, and peering into the dark to be sure there was nothing else out there, as the autopilot steered the boat forward to Bald Head Island.

Around 3am, with Bob asleep and Christina on watch, she looked out and saw what appeared to be funny looking waves in the dark water.  After looking hard, she realized that they weren’t waves at all but rather a pod of dolphins that were swimming along side both sides of the boat.  It was pretty magical as they stayed with us for a while, and made for great middle of the night companions.

Alot of cruisers avoid making the passage around Frying Pan Shoals and Cape Fear inlet.  The shoals come pretty far out into the ocean, but with good charts and proper planning of our course, we did not have any concerns or worries as the depth dropped from over 60 feet to just 30 as we passed over the shoals.

In bad weather we know rounding the Cape and transiting the inlet can be daunting and challenging, but the weather this morning was clear and calm.  We turned into the shipping channel approaching Cape Fear Inlet with the sun rising, 2 hours ahead of schedule.  There was a bit of traffic as working boats were starting their days, but nothing that caused any concern.

We had planned to time our arrival with slack water as the current here is pretty strong, and we have to cross the current to enter the channel into Bald Head Island Marina.  But, arriving two hours early means we have to deal with current.  Bob has been getting more and more practice with this and he glided Dreamtime across the current into the marina channel beautifully.

We arrived at the marina before they were open.  So, we pulled up to the fuel dock, tied up and planned to wait a short while.

We have heard great things about Bald Head Island Marina and the island itself where there are no cars and everyone gets around on golf carts.  Most workers don’t live here but rather commute via the hourly ferry between Southport and the island.  It is mostly a vacation/holiday destination and it is at the end of the season.  We were looking forward to renting a golf cart and exploring and re-provisioning at the local market the next day, but after looking at the weather forecasts for the next few days, we realized that if we didn’t leave tomorrow (Thursday) we probably wouldn’t want to leave until Tuesday.  The forecasts all converged and agreed that the wind would be howling as a cold front makes its way up the coast.  If we leave tomorrow, we will get ahead of the front, and we could wait out any bad weather in Charleston, South Carolina.

We plan to come back to Bald Head Island again and see the sights next time  But for now, we will plan for a midday departure tomorrow and try to find a marina in Charleston.

Finding a marina with space available ended up being more difficult than expected.  Hurricane Matthew had hit Charleston pretty hard.  Charleston City Marina  where we stayed last November has no availability until early December, Charleston Maritime Centre where we stayed in April was destroyed and is closed indefinitely, St John’s Yacht Center was severely damaged and they lost most of their transient dockage, Charleston Harbor Marina couldn’t commit one way or another and said they would give us a call back, even Cooper River Marina which was our last resort due to its location was full and couldn’t say when they might have availability again.  We’ll just go to bed tonight, wake up in the morning, check the weather again and see if anything opens up.  If not, we’ll stay here for a few days, there are definitely worse places to be stuck.   This is some of life’s uncertainty when living the life of cruisers.

14 November, 2016 – Morehead City, NC

We are still in Morehead City, NC and waiting for good weather to go offshore.  We had planned for a Sunday departure, but all the weather models finally converged on unfavorable conditions.  The wind howled over the weekend, and last night steady rain was added to the mix .

Tomorrow is looking good for our planned 24 hour passage to Bald Head Island, NC (near Southport) so hopefully the next post will be written from there.

In the meantime, we have watched and helped a number of different boats come and go to this marina.  Today we just helped an old Bayfield 32 (Hull # 71) dock in the slip next to ours.

Bayfields were designed by Ted Gozzard before he sold his interest in 1981 and started his own company building Gozzard Yachts.

You can still see many similarities in the design particulars the Gozzard yacht still includes, such as the scroll work and clipper bow that makes the Gozzard such a distinctive boat.

It’s good to know Ted’s earlier designs have held up well and have stood the test of time.  This bodes well for Dreamtime to carry us safely into the future.

 

9 November 2016 – River Dunes – Moreheaad City, NC

Our destination for the day is Morehead City, NC which we know has especially strong current.

When we were making our reservation for the City Docks we were told by the dock master to try to plan to arrive around 3:30 during slack water because the slips are positioned perpendicular to the current making entry and exit a bit tricky when the current is running.  (In reading reviews on the internet we learned watching the boats attempt docking is entertainment for the locals.)

But first, we navigated the rest of the Neuse River which is known for being choppy and unsettled, i.e. “nasty” as our cruising friends have said.  Today was no different.

We had to beat into 15+ knot winds with gusts to over 20 as we went down the Neuse with water splashing over our bow.

We made the turn into a smaller creek and caught the current behind us.  We were flying!  With the engine running at low RPMs (less than 1800) we were moving along at over 6 miles per hour.  There is no way to easily slow down and if we continue at this pace we will be arriving in Morehead City at the current’s peak.  Oh well….

But silly us, we should have known we really didn’t have to worry too much because as we crossed an inlet the current instantly shifted and we suddenly were slowed down. Ramping up the RPMs to 2000 we were barely able to make it 5 MPH.  The joy of currents on the ICW.

Morehead City Docks are managed by a different marina where there are fuel and pumpout facilities.  We radioed ahead and with the assistance of 3 dockhands were secured to the fuel dock without incident.  After paying for the fuel, the dock master and owner of this marina suggested we stayed tied to the fuel dock for 90 minutes and wait for slack water before making our way to the City Docks.

After waiting for a while the dock master offered to take us on a town tour and drive us to the marina so we can get familiarized with the layout and check out the status of the current.  It was obvious he is quite proud of his city and told us alot about the interesting history of the area as he drove the few blocks, making us feel very welcome.

We returned to the boat, untied and made our way down the mile to the City Docks.  Theoretically there should have been no current — but obviously slack water in this area lasts less than 10 minutes as we were already being pushed down river.  Not wanting to be the source of the town’s entertainment, Bob adjusted his planned approach and did a great job angling the boat into the slip.  As we had motored, the dock master had driven back down to the marina to catch our lines as we elegantly entered the slip, disappointing the onlookers on shore who were hoping for a better show.

Our next planned leg is to go off shore for a 24 hour passage to Bald Head island / Southport, NC.

Looking at the various weather forecasts it appears none of the models agree with each other, but Friday definitely doesn’t look good, and Saturday is forecast for big winds and big waves in the ocean.  Possibly Sunday will be a good day to aim for.  We will plan to enjoy the Morehead City hospitality and good restaurants for at least 3 or 4 days.

We are taking these days to watch other boats getting caught by the current and struggling to enter and exit their slips and are learning from their efforts some of what not to do when the time comes for us to depart.

Update:  All those divergent forecasts have started to converge and it doesn’t look good.  As we sit in Morehead City, listening to the cold wind howl on Saturday, we are seeing that although Sunday doesn’t look bad itself, Monday morning is looking pretty rough when we would be rounding Cape Fear with high winds, thunderstorms, etc. …. soooooo we might be here another couple of days and not leave until Tuesday.  Stay tuned.

8 November 2016 – River Dunes / Grace Harbor, NC

A stitch in time saves nine — we never really considered what this phrase meant until we found ourselves having to sew virtually the entire hem of the foot of the staysail.  We had plenty of time to contemplate these words of wisdom.  If we had caught the loose thread earlier, or probably if we hadn’t unrolled the staysail a second time yesterday the repair area would have most likely been smaller.

But, as we unrolled the staysail today to survey the damage, we realized there was a lot more stitching coming undone.

Borrowing the marina’s courtesy car we planned to go to West Marine to get supplies (strong waxed thread for the sail, sturdy needles and sail repair tape) – unfortunately West Marine doesn’t open until 10am and we had to get the car back to the marina for the next reservation.  Next stop was the hardware store who suggested the sail loft (a business specializing in making and repairing sails).  There we explained what we needed and why.  The guy recommended using dental floss for thread.  What?!?!  Are you serious?

Apparently dental floss is already waxed (making it easier to go through the sail fabric), is strong and the container has its own cutting edge so easy to manage and store.  Flavor doesn’t matter.

He sold us a strip of sail repair tape for a few dollars and sent us on our way to Dollar General to purchase the dental floss.  All they had was mint flavored so now the next time Bob has to go forward to cut a loose thread with his teeth, he will have minty fresh breath.

We returned to the boat pulled out our regular sewing needles, threaded them with dental floss and began the job of sewing.  It was slow going, and it became obvious that a stronger needle would make the job easier.  Christina was able to borrow the courtesy car again for a quick run to West Marine before the next car reservation was scheduled and picked up a pack of needles designed for sails and boats.

The new needles made the work a bit easier as we proceeded to sew and sew and sew.  It took over 4 hours, and provided plenty of time for random thoughts, remembering our respective mothers who taught us the basics of sewing in our youth, and how Christina took her first sailing lessons and first sewing lessons during the summer of 1973.  Who would have thought at the time that she would need both skills at the same time over 40 years later!

We were thankful we were in a marina because this job would have been a lot more unpleasant if we had to make the repairs while underway.

When we were done our fingers were sore and covered with bandaids from where we had stabbed ourselves with the sharp needles.  (Bob even had difficulty opening his beer because his fingers were so sore!)  We were happy that the foot has been repaired and hopefully the sail is fit to fly again.

We had noticed a few other tears in the sail fabric, and will be patching those with sail repair tape in the near future.

We think it might be time for a new staysail…..this might just be our Christmas present to ourselves this year.

We decided to reward our work with a long soak in the marina hot tub followed by a decadent steam shower.

Tomorrow we head south to Morehead City, NC hoping to be able to unfurl and sail our newly repaired staysail.