2008 Cruising

10/16 to 10/31/2008

This is our log for 2008; our other voyages are now in Prior Voyages.

We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!

Updated on 12/05/2008

10/16/08 - Another great day. I spent 4 hours of it working with Miles trying to get their diesel heater working while Ruth stayed on AA and tried to find paper to trade. Our task was to install a fuel filter and burn a gallon of kerosene through the heater. It was not to be. We could get it running only to have it shut down. The rest of the day I worked on the photos and report on the 440 survey. This is retirement? I think I turned right at the wrong buoy. Then again with our 401k's sinking like anchors maybe this is retirement... move over Wal-Mart greeter. 10/17/08 - Cool autumn day. After breakfast I hopped over to Ariel to work on the heater. We removed the old wiring harness and controls and put in a very logical Sure Wire package from Sure Marine. On completion we fired up the heater. It worked! I went back to AA for lunch... phone rang, Miles, heater back to low output. Arrrgh! Talked to Dan at Sure Marine. He called the Webasto factory, confirming that there had to be an over-temperature sensor coming into play. Miles traced the sensor feed and found Aerodyne's folks had put the intake sensor next to the heated air duct... dahhh! As soon as Miles pulled the sensor away from the duct the unit went to high heat. Whoopie! I went to AA and finished the 440 report. Next task was to get Ruth to the powerboat show so she could order a mattress topper for our berth - nice. I got gas for the dinghy. It's getting to be time to get out of dodge. 10/18/08 - Crisp clear dawn, I turned on the heat for Buddy. We are still stuck to a mooring in Spa Creek like a reticent barnacle. Things are getting sorted out, Miles & Laureen nixed the cat purchase as it just wasn't working out - finding a storage yard the insurance companies would accept, bridge heights, etc. Turns out they would have had to sail the cat up the coast to above Savannah for summer storage - exactly the trip they were trying to avoid. Speaking of Ariel, this morning we finished the kerosene purge and fired the heater on diesel... so far so good. Then on to the cushions in the salon. The factory made no provision for holding them in place and they occasionally fall on the floor when the boat is sailing. Completed the project, another step forward for Ariel. We joined Bradd & Maeve and John and Bobby Jo aboard Rich & Carol Wellman's catamaran The Great Catsby for a delicious spaghetti dinner. 10/19/08 - Cool morning, heater wouldn't fire us; I suspect our diesel supply is too low at 18 gallons - we last took on fuel at Sandy Hook. We caught the 9am bridge out of Spa Creek in the company of Sampatecho. Ariel came thorough later. We'd all be away from sailing too long. I almost passed the wrong side of a green and would have grounded hadn't Bradd radioed a warning. Miles got too involved with getting his sails up and did ground briefly. The three stooges leave Dodge. 20 - 25 knot winds with gust to 30 from the north pushed us south down the Chesapeake. What a great ride. Ruth and I sailed most of the trip to Point Lookout with just our main sail hitting speeds from 4.5 to 9.5 knots in 2 - 3 foot seas. Maeve invited everyone to Sampatecho for a pot roast dinner. Ruth brought a salad, Laureen made brownies for dessert and brought wine. What a great way to end the day! 10/20/08 - We were up and moving as the sun broke over the horizon. It was another cool day with 5 - 10 knot winds out of the north. We motor sailed south all day in order to make Norfolk by nightfall. Enroute Ruth and I installed a grommet in the luff of out mail sail and I replaced two sail lugs. Part of the ongoing maintenance of a vessel. My next task was to find out why our heater was faulting out - a virus brought over from Ariel's heater? An hour of troubleshooting revealed that a fitting was leaking a small stream of air bubbles into the fuel line... easily repaired and the heater ran like a charm. Buddy and my other buddy were pleased as the cabin warmed to a toasty 68 degrees. By 3pm we were anchored at Old Point Comfort. Ariel had beaten us in by perhaps and hour and Sampatecho came in an hour after us. We all got together on AA for Ruth's excellent chili - perfect after a fall day on the water. Bradd borrowed 5 gallons of diesel as they'd planned on more sailing and less motoring today and had pretty much exhausted their supply. 10/21/08 - Maeve's birthday and their anniversary, never said a word last night. Dawn came and went while the 3 boats bobbed in strong winds. About 9 Sampatecho left, off to a later start today in brisk south wind (like right on the nose). Miles snagged a hurricane cable and had trouble getting it off his anchor. Our windlass has been acting up and decided not to raise our anchor. I got the anchor half way up by hand and lost all I'd gained when a gust blew us backwards. Luckily the windlass worked this time and we got the anchor in its holder. A dozen dolphins surrounded us as we left the harbor. We also have pelicans again. They make it feel warmer already. Coming into Norfolk we danced with two container ships that were turning in the channel being helped by tugs to their moorings. Very interesting. Where does a large ship turn? Anywhere it wants too. We stopped for fuel, water and a pump-out at Portsmouth Boating Center. $3.09/gallon... half what we paid at Gratitude on our way north. We're ready to roll again. An hour later and we were anchored in Hospital Cove. I ordered parts for our windlass that we'll pick up in two days further down the ICW; assuming we can get the anchor up to leave here. Ariel took a slip downtown, Don't Look Back anchored near us and Sampatecho headed south to haul their boat in Morehead City - about 3 days south of here. Dinner was pizza on the grille. We're getting better at it. This was our third try. Now we know we don't preheat the pizza stone (burns the crust), we take the pizza off the stone as soon as it's done (or it burns the crust) and we need to turn the stone every 10 minutes (so it doesn't burn the crust in one spot). It's not a science yet; we're getting there. 10/22/08 - A sunny and windy dawn. Last night the winds came up from the North as forecast. Today was blustery all day - temperatures in the low to mid 50's... brrr. Ruth and I did paperwork most of the day, along with a little reading. I also changed out the halogen bulbs in our main cabin overhead. The eight LEDs installed will use 80% of the power of one of the 10 watt halogen bulbs. If we use less we need to make less. We cooked a frozen lasagna in our oven for dinner - excellent. Even better we have enough for another meal... breakfast? Watched a good DVD "Catch Me If You Can" -very good even the 2nd time around. 10/23/08 - Sunny and cool, the diesel heater ran all night on low. Miles wants to stay another day and our windlass parts aren't in at Chesapeake City yet so it only makes sense. Ruth did more address changes while I prepared a mounting for our new solar controller. No shortage of tasks on a boat, now we understand why yachts have crews. We received a call mid-afternoon, our parts are in Chesapeake City so we can move south tomorrow. 10/24/08 - We headed south at 8am after coaxing our anchor off the bottom. In the company of 17 other vessels we worked our way through the Norfolk bridges the the Great Lock, picking up our windlass parts. Running about an hour behind Ariel we proceeded to Coinjock where we took a slip for the night...  expecting strong winds and rain tomorrow. 10/25/08 - Light rain during the night... warm enough that the diesel heater didn't fire up. Ruth spent most of the day house cleaning the boat. I tried to disassemble the windlass and install the new parts. I finally isolated the problem as being the relay... problem is the part I got is different than the part I ordered. That said, I disassembled most of the windlass and lubricated it. Broke off a couple of bolts and had to drill and re-tap them. Someone threaded stainless fasteners into aluminum with no barrier. Arrgh! With the wrong relay I temporarily solved our problem by wiring the down side of the relay to up meaning I will drop the anchor manually be unlocking the windlass and will use the power down to hoist the anchor. At least we can anchor and retrieve it. Wind and rain all day... needless to say the windlass is on the deck and I got pretty soaked. We stayed in Coinjock for a second night - good thing as I couldn't have anchored if I wanted to. Voyager pulled in behind us for fuel. She's a sister ship of AA; we first met them in Spanish Wells in the Bahamas. When they pulled out, a 100 footer pulled in for the night. On a clear day we can see their deck. Miles & Laureen took Ruth to dinner last night, finally getting a chance to haul her out of her cocoon to celebrate it. Very enjoyable restaurant at the Coinjock marina. (by the way, Coinjock means Mulberry Bush. Somehow singing "here we go around the Coinjock" just doesn't feel right.) 10/26/08 - A sunny fall day greeted us when we awoke to Miles tapping on our hull... most of the sailboats left at dawn and I think Miles was feeling the pull of the herd. We quickly dressed and headed out. We soon found ourselves in a cluster of 25+ boats heading south down the ICW. Everything from 26' sailboats to 110' cabin cruisers. I could feel the envy of the large cruiser owners... wow, I could be doing this on a gallon a hour and actually be qualified to drive my own boat. Okay, I didn't feel those vibe's. As we are traveling south, I keeping special note of water depths as Brad Abbott and family will be making this trip in the next couple of years. Their boat draws 7' 6", 2' 3" more than we do. So far from Norfolk to the Pungo-Alligator canal I've seen nothing under 10' with most of the water running 12' plus. We ran until 3pm, anchoring at the north entrance to the canal. It was our first anchoring with no power for lowering the anchor. I figured the weight of the chain would cause it to run out fast. Nope, I had to pull chain out of the locker until the anchor bit the bottom and Ruth could pull chain by backing down. At least we have power up! Buddy has been corresponding with our Grandson Lofton. Ruth helps Buddy because "his claws get caught between the keys". I've been enjoying the e-mails. 10/27/08 - We hoisted anchor about 7:45 heading for Oriental. A long day on the water but we are expecting strong winds the next 3 days and wanted to get somewhere sheltered. It was a beautiful autumn day for travel. Not much color here as compared to WI, but you can tell it's fall. We were watching for bear as we ran the Pungo-Alligator Canal, we'd seen one a couple of years ago and folks saw one yesterday. No luck today though. We passed a catamaran we'd locked through the Great Lock with. He'd found a nice parking place in a marsh. I know he's traveling alone and that's hard. I don't know if his autopilot had a lapse or if he was below longer than he expected. Heard his call for a tow boat. We'd have helped but there was no way we could get in water that skinny. As a cat owner once pointed out, shallow draft just means you run aground further from deep water. Ruth helmed while I tried to figure out the French wiring diagrams for the boat... trying to determine how to put in the new parts for the windlass control (naturally the replacement parts were different than the original). I think I have it figured out, if we get stuck here tomorrow I'll install it. Watching the depths for Brad... nothing under 12' today so things look good to Oriental. Well, okay, I lied... I did see 8.5 feet but I think we wandered out of the channel overtaking a powerboat... must have been the rush of overtaking a cabin cruiser. AA rocks! The winds started building as we entered the Neuse River. Fortunately we only had to deal with 1 1/2 hours of that. The sky was pitch black as we entered Whitaker Creek Marina; looked like a nasty storm brewing. It turned out to be mainly wind though the temperature dropped 20 degrees. 10/28/08 - After a very windy night, gusts near 30 knots, we had a cold (40's) clear morning. Ruth and I read and did paperwork until noon when we walked to Oriental with Miles & Laureen. Our favorite fresh seafood shop was closed (open Fri - Sat). So we wandered over to M & M's for lunch. Good food! We went shopping at the Provisioning stop - boat parts, gifts, etc. before heading back toward the boat. Oriental folks being Oriental folks we turned down several rides so we could get some exercise. However, after we bought groceries the four of us readily accepted a ride to the marina. 10/29/08 - Another cool clear morning, 34 - 36 degrees with light winds. The forecast is calling for 15 - 20 knots from the west. We are about a half day from Beaufort, NC where our insurance dictates that we hold until November 1st (us and more folks than you could shake a boathook at). I spent most of the day flat on my back in the forward berth... wiring in the new windlass solenoid. Naturally the new part wasn't the same size or shape as the old one so I had to take the wiring harnesses apart, remove the old solenoid, drill holes for the new one and mount it, then connect the wiring harness. After a couple of tests to make sure all the wires were connected correctly I bundled the wiring up again, taking pains to do a better than factory job of protecting the wire terminals. While I was below the day warmed into a pleasant autumn day. Ruth and I walked up to the harbormaster's office to connect to WiFi and get our e-mails and publish the blog. A note from Bradd & Maeve indicated they had an acceptable bid on their boat. If all goes well they will pick up the 440 and bring it south to work on. I started the wiring upgrade for adding 2 more solar panels. It will take a while as heavier wiring is need through the whole solar system. I mounted the new controller and will install the heavier wiring from it to the batteries and then switch the current panels with their light wiring to it, pulling heavier wires when we add the 2 new panels. 10/30/08 - Another cold autumn morning, brrr! We headed south toward Beaufort, NC under power. Still no Sprint cell phone or internet signal along the ICW here.  While transiting the ICW, we saw Sampatecho on the hard at Bock Marina.  We tried to call Bradd and Maeve but no-go. They have a good offer on their boat and it looks like they are going ahead with the purchase of the Beneteau 440.  When we arrived at Beaufort we were wonderfully surprised that we had awesome internet connection and good phone signals.  You don't realize how much you rely on the phones and internet until you are without!  After 3 tries, we were safely anchored and Ruth made some hot chili with onions, cheese and sour cream.  Just what the doctor ordered as our feet and hands were almost frozen.  Thank God for the diesel heater that quickly thawed us out while reading. A great dinner of grilled chicken breasts, green beans and mashed potatoes finished out the day. 10/31/08 - It was a quiet 42 degree night. About mid-morning Barry attached four stuck sliders on the dodger side panels. Had to take a Dremel and split the sliders, replacing them with nylon sliders. Now that the panels could be removed it was the perfect time to add zippers along the aft edge in preparation for adding side panels to enclose more of the cockpit (trying to beat the snow). We ordered the  two additional solar panels we want to install while we are in Boca Raton. They will ship directly there. Halloween, Ruthie wanted to do costumes but I was a party pooper... said I would go to town as grizzled sailor. We had a nice dinner and went of to the wine bar. Wow, they really get into Halloween - some really great costumes! We'll have to keep that in mind for next fall.

Click on the photos for an 8" x 10" view. Use Back to return to the site. AA and friend? by Miles Looking back at Don't Look Back Ship under wraps in dry dock Waterside Marina, downtown Norfolk Cruising & Connecting We've had very good internet connection along the East Coast this year. The exception is the stretch south from Norfolk to Coinjock and on past Oriental, NC. Coinjock has a t-shirt that says what happens in Coinjock stays in Coinjock. Probably because they can't reach anyone to tell them. In all fairness Coinjock and Oriental have WiFi - however our WiFi card's software drivers appear to have been damaged in the virus attack we had earlier this summer. Our phone service pretty much mimics our internet... if we can get one we can get the other. PS: Got the WiFi working later, dirty contacts. Told Miles, with a cat you don't have to mess with an anchor and chain - just park it in the rushes. Where'd the water go? Sign right after cat, speed a factor? Buddy the pirate in Oriental A few of the boats waiting in Beaufort for November 1st Beaufort waterfront from anchorage More waterfront, note the waterfront faces of the buildings - nice Very small dinghy... Morehead City / Beaufort, NC Morehead City, across the ICW from Beaufort seems to be a favorite place for insurance carriers to use and the line you have to be above for hurricane season. The favored date seems to be November 1st. The net result is that this part of the waterway gets choked with boat in the fall as folks trying to get out of the cold stack up between Oriental and Beaufort. On the first it looked like Lemmings heading to sea at dawn... the gate had been opened. We elected to take the offshore route to Wrightsville beach, making a long day of it but covering the distance in one day versus 2 on the ICW (same distance but no shallow spots, no slow passes and no bridge schedules to wait for. As we motor sailed about 6 miles offshore we could hear the constant calls for SeaTow and TowBoatUS made by vessels on the ICW. It is always neat to see families island camping Traffic on a weekend ICW

Visit earlier portions of our 2008 voyage...

Boca Raton to Miami, FL - Jan 1 to 15, 2008	Miami to Key West, FL - Jan 16 to 31, 2008
Key West to Marathon, FL - Feb 1 to 15, 2008	Marathon, FL to Nassau, Bahamas - Feb 16 - 29, 2008
Norman Cay to Georgetown, Bahamas - March 1 - 15, 2008	Georgetown to Royal Island - March 16 - 31, 2008
Royal Island to Green Turtle Cay - April 1 - 15, 2008	Green Turtle Cay to Fort Pierce - April 16 - 20, 2008
Fort Pierce, FL to Savannah, GA - May 1 - 15, 2008	Savannah, GA to Norfolk, VA - May 16 - 31, 2008
Norfolk, VA to Deltaville, VA - June 1 - 15, 2008	Deltaville, VA to Cape May, NJ - June 16 - 30, 2008
Cape May to Point Judith, RI - July 1 - 15, 2008	Point Judith to Gloucester, MA - July 16 - 31, 2008
Gloucester to Acadia to Portland - August 1 - 15, 2008	Portland to Gloucester - August 16 - 31, 2008
Gloucester to Point Judith, RI - Sept 1 - 15, 2008	Point Judith, RI to Havre de Grace, MD - Sept 16 - 30, 2008
Havre de Grace to Annapolis, MD - Oct 1 - 15, 2008