Sea Kayaking with Trish

Trish and I launched our kayaks at the Harker’s Island Bridge this morning.  Our hope was to get a bit of exercise, do some recon of the NCOBS OBX course area, and take in some Americana as the masses converge on Shackleford Banks for Labor Day Weekend.  We were successful on all accounts.  

Our first stop, Whale Creek, required crossing back sound between Harker’s Island and Shackleford Banks.  NCOBS uses the Whale Creek area as a course start campsite. We wanted to check out the area to ensure that the water depth and shoaling would still allow egress for skiffs hauling gear and students.   The recon was fruitful. 

After a brief walkabout at Whale Creek, we reentered the kayaks and paddled our way westward along the banks.  The further west we traveled, towards Beaufort Inlet, the more rich the Americana became…

Upon reaching the western end of the banks, we made landfall to check out the inlet and stretch our legs.  The residual swell from Earl’s recent passage dissuaded us from crossing the inlet.  Instead we rode the flooding tide and swells northward and used the high tide to slip across the flooded tidal flats of Carrot Island.   The final push of day trip came as we fought the rising tide westward up Taylor’s Creek to C’est la Vie’s anchorage.  

We arrived to find an empty vessel.    Anne had already made her way into town for some porch time with friends at Handscapes Gallery.  Trish and I hastily packed up gear, showered, and joined the gang on the porch.  A fine end to a day on the water in sea kayaks. 

The morning after Earl

All is well in on C’est la Vie in the South River. Earl moved further offshore, to the east, during the night.  I managed to sleep most of the night.  With the anchor drag alarm set to ring if we moved more that 150’, I awoke at midnight and four a.m. to monitor the boat and conditions.  During my time awake I never observed wind gusts above approximately 50 knots and we did not drag out anchors at all. 

Currently the winds are WNW at about 20 knots with clearing skys off our bow (see image above). 

With Earl departing our area we now plan to return to Beaufort, NC.

Waiting on Earl

The winds continue to build and the skies grow darker.  Save for removing the blades from our wind generator we have made all our preparations for Earl’s arrival (see image above.)  We have found a secure anchorage in Southwest Creek, off South River, off the Neuse River (34°55’N 76°33’W) that provides good protection from Earl’s forecasted N to NW winds. 

Ironically I explored this area via sea kayak about a decade ago as part of a recon for the NCOBS’ OBX Sea Kayak Program.  A friend and individual influential in the creation of NCOBS, Doc Borden, once lived along the banks of the South River.  Myself and other Outward Bound staff used his home as a base of operations during one summer season of kayaking programs along the Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Back to Earl, currently the winds are forecasted to be 40 to 50mph with gusts to 70mph.  Our greatest concern is dragging our anchor and ending up pushed aground by the winds.  Fortunately the shoreline in this area is lined with salt marsh.  If we do drag and ground out we will come to rest in soft mud.  To avoid dragging we have set two anchors in a vee to our NNE.  We chose the NNE because this is the direction of our greatest fetch.   The image below is of our dual anchor set up.  The hose over the secondary anchor rode is serving as a chafe guard.

The community of South River is under a mandatory evacuation due to potential flooding from storm surge and heavy rains.   Since we are on a boat neither of these factors are a threat to us.

We were please to see another sailboat, Sandpiper, a 40+ foot sloop arrive in South River to ride out the storm.  Misery loves company.  They anchored in the main fork of the river just out of sight from us, but we are in radio communications.

Fo0rtunately the anchorage has spotty, but sufficient cell service to both monitor the storm via the internet and to talk with family and friends on the phone.

Now we wait and hope Earl’s passing is uneventful.

time to splice (a.k.a: the splice of life)

We raised the anchor and began motoring up Core Creek along with the morning flooding tide.  On our last trip up Core Creek, August 14, we departed Beaufort midway through a flooding tide and were able to ride the rising tide all the way up to the Neuse River.  Today we departed at the onset of the flood tide.  Somewhere around Bock Marine we outran the flooding tide and spent the remainder of the transit  fighting current.  Lesson:  Leave Beaufort 3 hours into a flooding tide when traveling north up Core Creek / ICW.

On our trip inland Anne took the helm so that I could focus my energies on creating a new anchor rode.  On our secondary anchor, a 35# Bruce, we have used a 20’ section of chain with a 130’ section of 1/2” three strand line.  We plan to set both anchors to ride out Earl, but feel that the ½” rode minimal for the task.   Our primary anchor has 100’ of chain and 320’ of ¾” three strand line.   Our solution is to cut 200’ off the end of the ¾”, three strand primary rode and create a new 200’ section of ¾” to use as a rode for our secondary anchor.   Confused yet?

To join the new rode to our secondary anchor, must splice the rope around a shackle via a chain splice.   Since my splicing skills are a bit rusty I started by creating a simple eye splice in the bitter end of the new rode (see image above.)  This proved helpful, but frustrating since this section of rope was well used and very stiff. 

Eye splice complete, I was all too happy to move onto a chain splice in the opposite, less used, and more supple section of rope.  The final product is pictured in the image below.   This will be joined to 20’ of ¼” stainless steel chain to create our new rode.

Hurricane Earl preparations

We continue to hope that Earl will track further east.  The image above is the forecast track as of Wednesday morning.  We are preparing to move C’est la Vie out of the Beaufort and head inland to a secure anchorage in the South River.  I placed a red thumbtack on the map below to highlight our planned anchorage.

This seems like the best area for us to hide from Earl’s passing.  Unfortunately the Verizon coverage map is less than favorable for staying in touch with everyone.  Hopefully we will have cell phone connection, but coverage in the area is spotty.

Our plan is to set our anchors in the South River by this afternoon and begin to prep the boat by removing sails, canvas, etc.  The storm is expected to pass during Thursday night.  If all goes well then we will be back in Beaufort/Taylor’s Creek by Friday afternoon.  

kayak project day

We made a long one day drive back to Mooresville, NC on the 27th.  With the time created via the marathon drive, I took on the task of finally addressing some maintenance and repair needs on my personal kayak.

Ten to twelve coats of color restoring wax brought back some of the original color to the deck of the kayak.  In the image included the bow is waxed and the stern is awaiting attention.  Note the ever present assistance from Carlie the dog.

With some help from Bud, I also addressed the nagging leak in the forward hatch.  We found a crack at the base of the hatch.  We hung the kayak upside down and laid up a doughnut section fiberglass cloth on the inside of the deck.

With my personal kayak looking good I am all the more eager to head back out to the Outer Banks for the NCOBS Staff Sea Kayak Camp.   It has been too long since I last visited the Core Banks.

a summer visit to our winter home

Our terrestrial travels are going well.  Anne and I departed C’est la Vie on Tuesday.  She is hopefully resting peacefully in Taylor’s Creek.  We spent Wednesday in Mooresville, NC visiting with the Lovett’s.  Thursday we drove to NCOBS’ Table Rock basecamp for an end of season debrief and the Staff Appreciation Dinner.  Anne and I enjoyed catching up with friends and co-workers.  Friday we caught a flight to Fort Myers and then rented a car.   By Friday afternoon we had the power, water, septic, phones, and internet up and running on Sunset Island.  The caretakers have been doing a good job of maintaining the base and thus far nature has been kind.  The image below was taken as we departed on the ferry boat.

Now we are headed back north in our personal car.  We have packed up supplies to do some sea kayaking, bottom paint C’est la Vie, and attend an October wedding in Maine prior to returning to Sunset Island in mid October.

Parting ways with MV-Sunshine

Here is an image of this morning’s sun rise alongside the Cape Lookout lighthouse.  

After a week of traveling alongside MV – Sunshine, we parted ways this morning.  Sunshine motored out of Lookout Bight early in the day.  Anne and I remained in the bight until the afternoon and then headed into Taylor’s Creek to prepare C’est la Vie for our departure.  We plan to attend the NCOBS Staff Appreciation Dinner on the night of the 25^th and visit Sunset Island, FL on the 26^th.  Life at 6 knots is about to give way to some high speed travel.