Rolling into Beaufort, NC

The high, slack tide at Masonboro Inlet on the morning of August 6 was at 04:23.  We were up and headed out the inlet at the slack tide.  The forecasted 15 to 20 knot southwest winds and five foot swell provided some early morning excitement as we worked to drop the main and set the genny once we had cleared the inlet and set our northeast course towards Beaufort Inlet.  Once the genny was set the winds promptly reduced to less than 10 knots while the swell remained.   We spent the remainder of our 10 hour 65NM crossing struggling to keep a full genny and rolling on a following sea.  Definitely not our favorite day of sailing.  We were lucky with the passing storms.  Two cells passed close, but we dodged the foul 

On August 5^th we moved from Wilmington to Wrightsville Beach.  This short, 20 NM hop was all inland… down the Cape Fear River, across Snow’s Cut, and northward up the ICW.  Other than bumping the bottom a couple times on the approach to Snow’s Cut (it seems the approach  from Wilmington is shoaling)  the day’s travel was uneventful.  Anchoring in Wrightsville Beach set us up for an early departure out Masonboro Inlet the following morning.

The high, slack tide at Masonboro Inlet on the morning of August 6 was at 04:23.  We were up and headed out the inlet at the slack tide.  The forecasted 15 to 20 knot southwest winds and five foot swell provided some early morning excitement as we worked to drop the main and set the genny once we had cleared the inlet and set our northeast course towards Beaufort Inlet.  Once the genny was set the winds promptly reduced to less than 10 knots while the swell remained.   We spent the remainder of our 10 hour 65NM crossing struggling to keep a full genny and rolling on a following sea.  Definitely not our favorite day of sailing.  We were lucky with the passing storms.  Two cells passed close, but we dodged the foul weather.  

We cleared Beaufort Inlet making 8 knots on a flooding tide with winds that finally decided to live up to the 15 to 20 knot forecast.

Unable to find an agreeable spot to anchor and running late for  the Chadwick cookout we succumb to the pull of the town docks.  

   

Sunshine Hits the Water

Ten months on the hard for a bottom job and morning of final waxing proceeded the afternoon launch of MV-Sunshine.  Congratulations to Bud for completing the monumental task of curing Sunshine’s extensive case of blisters.  Of course Carlie was on deck and in charge as Sunshine’s hull kissed the waters (see image).   Sunshine will remain at the Cape Fear Boat Works docks for a couple days for some system checks and last minute projects; it is a boat there is always another project. 

While Sunshine remains in Wilmington, Anne and I plan to resume our northward migration tomorrow.

Hopefully we will reunite with Sunshine and the Lovetts on the water in the weeks to come.

More help from Carlie

We are still in Wilmington working on both C’est la Vie & Sunshine Projects.  As you can see from the image included Carlie continues to prove she is more of man’s best friend the man’s best helper.  This was her station as bud worked on the final touches of bottom paint while I painted the running gear.  Hopefully, after over 9 months on the hard for blister repairs, Sunshine will be floating 24 hours from now.  

Back on C’est la Vie we have installed the repaired tiller head; replaced the lower sections of plumbing on our lower bilge pump; and cleaned all the bilge pump strainers.   As Anne mentioned in an earlier post, our lower bilge pump failed during a recent offshore storm due to all the goopy debris sucked out of the bilge.   I suspect the aggressive pitching of C’est la Vie combined with a healthy flow of water into the bilge served to flush a myriad of crud out from the vessel’s nether regions.  Fortunately we have a scrum box in the bilge and a pre pump strainer in-line, these filters did their job by protected the pump and preventing us from discharging some nasty stuff into the ocean.  

Boat Projects on two vessels

What I feared may be a arduous task proved  go smoothly.  We had the tiller/rudder junction dissected into component parts in under 30 minutes.   Does anyone out there know what to call the piece in Bud’s hand?  The issue plaguing us is that the holes in the “ears” at the aft end (right) if the piece have worn and are now larger that the bolt that passes through the holes.  This creates some play in the tiller and makes an alarming popping sound when we steer in large seas of strong winds.  Tomorrow we plan to take the assembly to a local shop for repairs.

Now on to MV-Sunshine to get her ready to launch.  Sunshine’s projects include painting the running gear; some plumbing projects on the engine exhaust; and general prelaunch checks.

Cat napping dog

The Lovetts and Carlie joined us on C’est la Vie this afternoon.  We have developed a bit of play in the tiller/rudder connection so Bud and I worked to remove the fitting.    In the half an hour it took us to disassemble the parts, Carlie caught a quick nap atop our tools.  Ahh the life of dogs…

THE LOVETT"S ARE IN WILMINGTON!!!

We woke early to find an anchored boat next to us. Its sails were prepped and ready for the wooden boat race held today in Southport. We toyed with the idea but I felt that we had promises to keep and the race was to take all day. I did not want to fight the tide so that meant either leave at 8 am and ride the tide to Wilmington arriving around noon or wait till the next ebbing tide 12 hours later and I did not want to roll into an unknown place at midnight. I guess we could have fought the tide but it does lend about 2-3 knots. When we go on average 5 knots fighting that much current seems to me a bit crazy. Jeff wanted to stay and we probably could have done the race stay another night and then roll in tomorrow. The Lovett’s had said that they were arriving on Saturday afternoon and I didn’t want to have them waiting on us. So, with hesitation we decided to leave. Just as Jeff was releasing the lines Robert came down the dock to check in on us. It was at that point I was really regretting pushing our departure. He had on a tee shirt from a previous boat race. He has a cape dory that he was going to have in the race. Could we really do both? No, we have promises to keep…right?
Robert said good bye to us and took on the responsibility of mailing my post cards. He gave us a healthy shove as Jeff slipped C’est la Vie into reverse. She eased into the harbor and as cruised by the stationary yellow boat awaiting the race. I took over the helm as Jeff cleared the lines and put up the fenders. There are still limitations of my shoulder and coiling lines is a motion that is a bit agonizing. Another port to our stern, on to Wilmington!
I turned on the grill and cooked our dinner from Charleston. That’s right-potatoes, chicken and steak for lunch. Bud and Muriel found on their trip great circular metal skewers that I string red skinned potatoes and garlic cloves, drizzle with olive oil and speckle with salt and pepper. I have grilled potatoes a few times and its different each time.

We motored the whole way. The wind was on our nose at every turn. I took a video with my Ipod to prove it. We had clear skies and calm seas. It took us a little under 4 hours to get to our next dock. As it was in Charleston, 2 attempts were the call of the day. The first attempt ferried C'est la Vie into the dock not the slip Jeff was able to pivot off of it with nary a scratch. The next one was better. I got nervous as I was out of practice and did not quickly lash the line on the cleat so the side of the boat smeared along the rubrail of the dock. There were fenders on our boat and the dock so, no damage just an ugly black streak pronouncing the error in docking. Yuck. We would need some goof off pronto! We got all the lines secured and turned off the motor. Not a taxing day.
We hopped off the boat to meet some more of the Lovett’s friends, Hugh and Kathy on Joint Effort. They are the de facto dock masters of this area. They were not aboard their  boat. We will have to hail them later.
After lunch and a bit of a rest we received a phone call. It was the Lovetts and they brought along Carlie the dog! I ran up the dock to meet them. I spooked the little dog and she flinched and growled. I lowered my hands so she could sniff me and then she realized who I was and the tail was wagging and then off into spaz mode running in figure eights and if a dog could squeal that was the sound eminating from her body. It was good to be reunited with that little love.

Southport, NC

July 30 Southport FREE DOCK!

The Lovetts had made friends with a couple Robert and Kay aboard C-Life.  They lived close to the free dock and Jeff’s parents said to call them when we were close to see if the one free space was open.  So, At around 10 am I hopped on the cell phone to call up Robert.  Sure enough the dock was open.  We slipped into the basin and docked.  It was a good docking not our best but pretty good.   We had a chance to get all the dock lines arranged and this cute boy came over and asked us about fishing.  Then he asked us if this was our boat and if we had a tiny boat.  I told him that the thing that looked like a surfboard was our tiny boat.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  I told him that it unfolds into a boat.  He thought that sounded ok.  He told us how he traveled some with his grandparents on their boat C-life.  Ah, the connection.

 Robert and Kay came over to welcome us a moment later.   What super generous folks.  We told them we were a bit tired and thought we’d go have some lunch and then walk around town.  We really were pooped.

It took all we had to get dressed to walk around the basin to eat at the provision company.  We met a woman who was selling her jewelry outside the restaurant she was from Walpole, nh and used to live in Brevard, nc and just moved to Southport.  She had some neat things. I wish I had picked up her card so that I could link it.  
Alas, we meandered back to the boat and Jeff went to the V-berth to read and I remained in the cockpit under the super shade with my book.  Neither of us got very far in our novels.  ZZZZZZZ.

It was 5 o'clock somewhere and my phone rang. Robert invited us up to the porch for a cocktail.  Jeff and I rallied and brought up a couple of beers.  We met Robert and Kay's family and neighbors.  They welcomed us onto the porch and for hours we laughed and told stories.  It was a nice change of pace.  At boat midnight -9 pm- excused ourselves to head back to the boat and the party went on without us.  

July 29, 2010 Tempestuous voyage

July 29 Transition between Charleston, Sc to Southport, NC
Good Morning! We woke up rested and ready for another transit outside. We listened to NOAA no storms were predicted. The winds were to be light and the waves 1-2 ft. Perfect for our overnight. We needed to have this kind of day out in the ocean. I didn’t want to be beat up again.

We rode the out going tide feeling so set up for our 100+ mile transit to Southport. We hailed a boat that was incoming and checked to see if NOAA was correct. Sure enough they reported the same. With smiles on our faces we were out into the Atlantic ready to transit Bulls Bay and Long Bay on our way to Southport. We are on our way to NC!
I was on the helm out of the inlet. It was noon and we decided to switch so that we could be on our previous schedule. We get Otto set up and began the 4 hour watch routine. This is great. We have the Genoa up and the main sail set. It is not nearly as humid out on the water as it was on land. The sun is out and we have a hazy horizon but with Otto on we are making great time.

Jeff was on watch and he just did not like the look of the horizon. I did not know what he was talking about. “Anne, look at the clouds. Do you see the column there and then the one over there? They might have rain but what is in front of us is massive and might be a huge thunderstorm.
We tried to get NOAA on the radio. It was picking up Jacksonville, fl weather and we needed Myrtle Beach, SC. This was not helpful. Back to listening to Charleston weather. We were too far away for Wilmington. The fact that we could not raise the Myrtle Beach weather fueled Jeff’s fears that what I thought was just haze was in fact something we needed to be aware of. So, we dropped the Genoa and then proceeded to put 2 reefs in the sail. I really thought this might be crazy as we were only feeling 5-10 knots of wind. Really light air. I kind of resented it as our speed went from 6 knots to 3.5 knots.
At around 7 pm Charleston weather came on with warnings of severe storms and this warning would remain until 8:45pm. Uggh. That is when I learned again not to second guess Jeff when it comes to reading weather.

Soon, the squall line was upon us. It looked like a gray portabella mushroom cap from Alice in Wonderland. Under the cap it was dark and scary with flashes of light, the top was not much better at least there was no caterpillar. There were layers of clouds on this front. I have never seen anything like this. It was huge It went from light behind us to darkness in front and to the side of us. I began to get a bit nervous. Clenching my teeth and looking to Jeff for directions.
Jeff took the helm and then the winds began to blow. The clouds were sucking all the air up and growing in size. Lightning was next. Finally, the rain hit-cold, hard, driving rain. We were in the mix of weather for about 4 hours. The most intense of it lasted about and hour. I was in shear panic mode. All I could do was hold onto the hand held VHF with at death grip in case our boat was struck by lightning and broken and half and we were swept out to sea at least I could push the distress button. It made sense in my head at the time. Jeff made me put it down as it was made of metal.
The flashes went from flashes like getting your photo taken and far off growling noises to rips of light across the sky and a CRACK and vibrations that I felt at my core. I was scared. If I had to be on the helm I don’t know if I could have done it. I was stiff, my lower lip was quivering and I tried so hard not to hyperventilate. Tears were streaming and I just kept thanking Jeff under my breath for being so damn brave and so together and so focused and ….Thank you.
As the storm let up and I moved a bit Jeff asked me to go downstairs get warm and dried off. It would be light rain from now on and if I did that then I could take the helm so he could do the same. I did not want to go away from him. I was afraid that he would be swept away or hit by lightning or something else just as terrible. I was really in a negative spiral.
I reluctantly agreed and went downstairs. I found a mess. My plants had fallen over during the worst of it so dirt and basil was all over the floor. I mopped up rainwater and sea spray that came in through the vents. We had taken on some water and it was pooling in the lockers under the quarter berth so it was seeping out through the floor near the stove. It was not as bad as it could be since every basket was in place and all of our food and books and pelican cases were on their shelves.
As I dried myself off and changed clothes an alarm went off. Again to panic mode. What was this noise, what was happening, Jeff!? “Push the button on the white panel”, he shouts over the roar of the engine. I have no idea what he is talking about. I shoot out of the cabin and into the cockpit and tell him he has to take care of it. Down he goes and in an instant the alarm is silenced. He yells up to me” it’s the high water alarm.” Oh shit. I begin to go into worst case disaster mode. Have we been struck by lightning and we have a hole in the boat? Is the hull broken from the waves? Why can’t the bilge pump get all the water? Where is this water coming from?
Jeff opens the engine compartment; I stay at the helm and remain calm as the light show is still quite impressive, mostly cloud to cloud creating spider web designs. If it didn’t frighten me so much I might be able to appreciate the beauty of the designs the electricity was making.
Jeff figured out that the filter on the lower bilge pump was clogged and was not keeping up with the rain and sea spray. He removed it and the pump did it’s job and the alarm dried out and stopped howling. Phew.
The rest of the voyage, 7 hours, was a piece of cake. Can you believe that the wind died and we had to motorsail the rest of the way? We actually were able to ride the flooding tide into Southport and arrive at the free dock for slack tide as if we had planned it that way. It took us just about 23 hours to go 124nm. That’s pretty darn good for the sailboat!