2008 Cruising
11/1 to 11/15/2008
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 01/28/2011
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11/1/08 - We were up before the sun getting ready to head offshore to Wrightsville Beach, a 70 mile jump. The temperature, wind and seas we all in our favor. By 4:30pm we were in Wrightsville Beach. Enroute we were shadowed by Warship 41 for 2 hours. They matched our speed on a slightly converging course. At the start they were 3.5 miles away, when they finally turned back they were a mile from us. Wouldn't respond to our radio calls... we must not have paid enough taxes last year.
Ruth wet a line offshore. While she was letting the bait out she had
her first strike. It surprised her and got away. Then she caught a 15#
fish about 30" long. At the Beach we fueled, anchored, and went to Ariel for a drink with Beth, Miles & Laureen. It was great to see Beth again, sorry we missed George. They took me to a clinic last spring to have my stitches taken out. Neat folks! Beth brought Ruth a Christmas present, a very nice collection of small NC shells. 11/2/08 - Got an e-mail from frat brother Bill Rhode this morning. They left Wrightsville Beach yesterday morning and are now in Holden. They will be 2 days ahead again as we are holding for a day at the beach. Close but no cigar. We were going to have them over for dinner when we caught up... Bill must have heard stories about my cooking - they're picking up speed! Barry spent the morning working on the forward 2 side panels of the aft enclosure. Got them about half done. What is this human trait that drives us to constantly expand our habitant? Once the enclosure is complete the entire cockpit area will be enclosed giving us more living space in bad weather. We went beaching and kite flying most of the afternoon. Wrightsville has a phenomenal beach with miles of sand. The beach was fairly crowded with couples and families taking advantage of a warm sunny day. 11/3/08 - Daylight savings time sure messes with your mind the first few days. We were up at dawn but elected to stay in Wrightsville Beach given the windy rainy squall moving toward us. It proved to be a good decision... within 2 hours mist arrived and quickly turned into rain. Under dark gray skies it rained all day. Barry got the two side panels each about 75% complete before the rain stopped progress. A couple more hours and they'd have been done and ready to use when we start moving again. Oh well, nice day for reading and a nap. We've been watching more DVD's as a substitute for reading and the variety has been nice. We have our own DVD store on Ariel and it's free! 11/4/08 - A wet windy night led to a windy day. As we danced around on the end of our anchor chain I worked on completing the two cockpit side panels. Ruth helped feed the panels through the sewing machine, making the job go much faster. They are now completed and installed for a greatly improved weather shield. Very nice! No more were we done with the installation we got the wind driven mist test... passed with flying colors. 11/5/08 - Yet another wet windy night... the weather seems stuck in a pattern. Ruth had her pre-dawn coffee in the cockpit, enjoying the added protection of the side panels. We had light mist and wind most of the day. The new panels kept the whole cockpit sheltered... very nice. Enroute we saw a herd of wild goats on an ICW island. One wonders how that got started. Everywhere we look fall is in the air. NC lacks the color WI has, they are more into shades of brown and wheat. It was a relatively long day, dawn until 4pm when we pulled into the dock at Barefoot Landing, SC, a unique shopping mall. We showed Laureen & Miles around the mall... a cluster of small shops, restaurants, and a theater encircling a small lake. It is the off season so the place was pretty quiet and some of the shops were closed. Even so, still an interesting break in the trip. 11/6/08 - Another beautiful morning, not too cold though the amount of dew on the boat was the most I've ever seen. We talked to Bradd & Maeve last night, they will depart Havre de Grace today with the Beneteau 440 they just bought; ferrying it to Morehead City for short term storage while they and Sampatecho go to Cuba to meet the requirements of their cruising permit. The best thing we can say about the election is that it was, past tense. Now comes Obama's freshman year and a big dose of reality. Hope it goes well. Actually I can't believe anyone would want to be president. Must be the satisfaction of making significant change? We've been seeing more dolphins, egrets and pelicans each day as we got past Wrightsville Beach. Also large flocks (swarms) or swallows heading south. So many we wonder why they don't collide as they swoop and dive like synchronous swimmers. We were passed enroute by two beautiful classics that we understand were built by the Electric Boat Company. Both were obviously wood having been built in 1930 and 1905 respectively. The proud owners had spent the summer on the St Laurence River and were headed south for the winter. Definitely eye candy for the classic proper yacht clan. We anchored mid-afternoon just north of Georgetown. We'd had a beautiful run in balmy temperatures. With the new side panels in place Buddy got to come on deck all day... you should have heard her talk! 11/7/08 - We ran to Charleston under bright sunny skies, arriving mid-afternoon. A dolphin ran alongside us for about 15 minutes, not more than 18" from Ruth's helm. As soon as I brought the camera up it disappeared. We had intended to anchor just north of Charleston while Ariel went in a took a slip so they could do some more city visiting... "site" seeing. However, the two locations we'd selected were both too small for AA so we anchored off the mega-dock. It's fun to watch the traffic around the mile long dock... everything from mega-yachts to 24 foot sailboats. 11/8/08 - Another beautiful autumn day though the nights are a little warmer than they were a week ago. Ruth and I did boat chores most of the day. I enhanced the new side panels adding leather in a couple of potential wear spots, zippers to create a door for getting out to the deck and zippers for attaching the next panel. I have the next two panels designed for each side and will build them when we have down days. Ruth assists me in handling the panels as I sew - couldn't do it myself no how. Alan & Patricia, on the catamaran Nauti Nauti, of Fond du Lac anchored just behind us. Good to see them again. We first met in the Bahamas and since have crossed wakes several times up and down the coast. One of the neat things about the ICW is that you have a community of neat folks with common interests that you keep re-meeting. The weather report says it's snowing in Appleton, WI with an expected low of 22 degrees. Ouch! 11/9/08 - Up at dawn for a late (8:30 start). Heard Miles on the VHF calling the dock master for help him depart at 8. Last night we had an invasion of crows about half an hour before sunset. Thousands of them circled the anchorage and surrounding brush, landing by the dozens on masts and rigging. Bombings aside the bigger danger was their breaking masthead instruments. Ruth stood guard for a while, then we raised a bright flag to the top of the mast... that seemed to do the trick. By dark the birds had all settled in the brush and we still had all our instruments. Ariel came by at 8:20 and we headed for the Wappoo Creek Bridge, expecting them to be opening on the hour and the half. We'd just missed the half and were slowly advancing on the bridge when the tender asked for our boat names and home ports... I realized the bridge intended to open for us when we got there and called to Miles to pour on the coal. He did and they did. Saved us a 20 minute wait. It was a windy day all day... directly on our nose so we motored all day. Around 3 we arrived at the Bull River, about 16 miles north of Beaufort, SC. We ran about a mile up the river and anchored by a small island and a grove of stunted palms. Enroute we passed a dredge working the Ashepoo-Coosaw cut, a stretch that sorely needed dredging... big improvement! Miles and Laureen came over for supper. Ruth did a turkey breast and potatoes, Laureen brought a salad and stuffing. Great meal and a chance to catch up on their Charleston visit. 11/10/08 - Up at 7 for a 9am start. Got an e-mail from my brother Karl. He is in our neck of the woods... hope to see him. Also got an e-mail from frat brother Bill Rohde... we leap frogged him in Charleston. They had taken a slip in one of the marinas (hiding in case we caught up?) Anyway, it was their first visit to the gracious southern city and they spent 3 days exploring it. Well worth the time. Ruth and I have a total of a couple of weeks touring the downtown. We ran to Beaufort, arriving in time for the 11am bridge. After taking on fuel we moved to a slip so Stanley Steemer can reach AA in the morning to clean the interior cushions. After docking Ruth did the laundry and we grabbed a pizza at a waterfront eatery. Our mail had arrived at the marina and it took us an hour to sort, discard, file and respond to a couple of months worth of snail mail. 11/11/08 - The sky was crystal clear as the sun rose over the Downtown Beaufort Marina docks... clear and cold - the diesel heater ran all night. Busy day - I washed the deck and topsides with fresh water. By the time I was done Stanley Steemer had come to the dock and we hauled all our interior cushion landside so they could clean and Scotch Gard them. They came out great - look like new. We also had them do the cockpit cushions and our rugs. While Stanley steamed, Ruth took advantage of the empty interior and vacuumed and polished the interior. AA's like a new boat! From the boat we could watch the Veteran's Day parade along the waterfront street. You sure could tell Beaufort is the home of two military bases... what a parade they put on for the size of the town. Four very good school bands (they were so good I thought they were military), veterans, ROTC cadets, and hardware... quite the show. After polishing stainless steel deck fittings we took a walk downtown. Ruth got a nice gathering fix, picking up a few items for Christmas. We went back to Luther's for supper... another pizza. We don't have them often traveling and Luther's have a nice one. 11/12/08 - Dawn snuck up under overcast skies. We tossed our lines at 9, using the early ebb tide to back out of the slip and down the fairway - finally anchoring south of the marina. Ariel stayed in their slip as Miles felt their fairway was too congested to safely get out with the high currents. As soon as we anchored the sun came out to rule over a beautiful day. We used it to clean the ICW tea stain off the bow and hull sides. Then off to work on the internet download software upgrades and cleaning up communications. I even got a rejection notice for an article I never submitted... hey, at least they know how to reach me. 11/13/08 - Dawn revealed the dance of the seven veils - fog falling and lifting like the swirling gauze of an exotic dancer. Sitting in the cockpit with our coffee we'd get flashes of vessels anchored a mile away only to be closed in to a vista of the 3 boats surrounding us. We started late as Ariel had to wait for the tide to change to get out of their slip. Fortunately it was not a long run to Hilton Head. Around 9 we headed off together in the fog. At times it was so heavy we couldn't see 1/10th of a mile. We were sounding our horn every 1 - 2 minutes (finally it pays off). Occasionally we'd hear a response. Ruth helmed and I manned the radar. On the scope I saw a boat heading head-on toward Ariel - Miles had it on his radar. The boat passed close to Miles then cut across his transom toward us. Miles radioed us a heads up. I could see the boat heading toward our bow, 90 degrees off our starboard. Ruth hit full reverse as the boat fumbled out of the fog, the helmsman focused on his instruments and didn't see us until I sounded 5 horn blasts - danger. He looked like a deer in headlights as he hit full reverse. Dah? Along the way we picked up a tag-along, a fishing boat that explained to Miles they had no compass or GPS and could they follow us to Skull Creek - of course. By Hilton Head the fog lifted. We easily found Windmill Harbor by noon and locked in as guests of Bob & Judy. Bob stopped by to say he'd be back after a boat trip with friends. Judy arrived later and wanted to revisit Buddy... they had a great reunion, lots of excitement on Buddy's part. Judy was able to stroke Buddy's feathers and get verbal responses. Then Bob joined us and Buddy, that fickle bird, had no further use for Judy or Ruth... she wanted nothing but Bob's attention (watch out Bradd - apparently with birds absence makes the heart go wander). After a tour of their new home we had dinner at the Yacht Club, right next to the wall where AA and Ariel are tied. It was great to catch up with Judy & Bob, filling them in on the progress of Sampatecho and our respective journeys since we last met at Warderick Wells in the Bahamas. While we were dining a thunderstorm gave the boats a good rinse... dinner and a car wash - one stop shopping. 11/14/08 - Overcast but not raining. Bob took us on a abbreviated shopping trip followed by a beach walk and a tour of one of their condos. The beach was fantastic, one of the firmest and widest ones I've visited. The condo is on the beach and overlooks the ocean. It is bright and welcoming... a great place to spend a vacation! We had supper in a good restaurant near their condo. Full and tired we headed back to the boats for the night. 11/15/08 - The weather forecast for later in the day looked nasty. A couple of large powerboats were slated to be on the wall for a wedding so it was time for us to move on. We left before noon in very nice weather with 15 knot winds. Our first anchorage choice, Broad Creek, had too much wave action so we went on to Bull Creek. This turned out to be more protected and prettier. We'll come back here! We dropped our hook in 15' of water, expect 10' at low tide. Ruth noticed dolphins procreating in shallow water. We'd never seen that before and she tried to get photos but the f.... dolphins were too quick for her. Good thing, this ain't no porno site. At 3pm the front passed through. Strong winds (20's) and horizontal rain marked the event. We had collected 7 boats in the creek by then and everybody had plenty of room. Dinner on Ariel was cancelled as we didn't want to make the 1/8th mile run in the wind and rain. Laureen had prepared chicken and stuffing - we hated to miss that! Tomorrow a great weather window opens and we plan to jump to Fort Pierce offshore. The trip will be a couple of days and nights but we'll put Georgia and quite a bit of Florida behind us. Ruth and I are making holiday plans. She'd like to be in WI for a month... since we've sold the house and cars that means a rental car and places to stay. Fortunately she has a large family and friends. Time for her to pick a point of departure and buy tickets. I have a number of jobs to do on AA and two other vessels, hence will likely stay with Buddy in FL. |
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New panels, putting on the snaps
Added weather protection
ICW gets crowded sometimes
We've watched this bridge grow for 3 years
SC autumn colors
Classic 1930 woody - too new for you?
How about this 1905 model?
Yes Tom, there's still Spanish moss left down here.. Ruthie didn't get it all.
Laureen steers Ariel around a patch of migrating water lilies... even the plants are heading south. Two whistles lilies!
Grandson Lofton as a firecracker
SC excursion boat gets a face lift
AA sports new side panels in Beaufort
Bright, clean new look of our salon
Sailboat entering Windmill Harbor via their private lock
Troubleshooting on Autumn Voyager
Walking the beach in the fog
Bob and the gang (photos by Ruth)
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Visit earlier portions of our 2008 voyage...