11/01/2009, Mile Hammock Bay, NC

October 26th, 2009 Oriental, NC to Cape Lookout Bight
I woke up at about 3:30 am and stayed in bed awake until sunup. It happens sometimes. I just could not get back to sleep. We finally got up about 8 to a dreary dark morning with steady drizzle. I worked on getting ready to cast off ... but there was really no rush, it's 5 hours to Cape Lookout and the winds on the ocean (the last 6 miles) should be easing some in the later afternoon.
I returned the 50 to 30 amp splitter to Jerry and walked back to the Condo with Steve to steal all the ice in their refrigerator. Back at the boat, we wasted more time... ( it was hard because both Kathy and I were ready to be gone) until about 10 am. Jerry came over to help us cast off and we were gone. We sailed slowly across the Neuse River on our staysail while "Fine Lion" made a trip to the gas dock. There was nice wind and it pushed us up Adams Creek until we ran into some oncoming barge traffic and doused the sail to be able to maneuver if necessary.... (the channel was narrow there).
After lunch we heard "Inspiration" calling the Beaufort Docks and hailed them a few minutes later. We spent a few days with Bill and Betty last year and wanted to touch base. They are heading to the Bahamas so maybe we will see them in the future.
The wind was more east than had been predicted and we didn't really know the state of the ocean but decided to stick our noses out at Beaufort to see if the hour trip to Cape Lookout was possible. As it turned out, the ocean was much more comfortable than the Intracoastal and we had a nice sail the rest of the way to our anchorage.
I cooked some shrimp that we purchased off the boat in Oriental and Kathy put together a salad.
With a 5 am date with the anchor ... we didn't stay up too late.
October 27th...
We were up at 5 and on deck at 5:30 weighing anchor in the pitch dark. It was cloudy and seemed windier than the forecast called for. Outside the Bight we were in the ocean running southwest into southwest seas. It was so dark that we couldn't see the waves that hit us. In an hour or so there was enough daylight to see that the seas weren't all that big. But our course ... which was dictated by Frying Pan Shoals, took us almost dead into the wind and seas. The forecast was for northwest winds ... which we could have worked with, but the out of the SW.... motoring into them was not worth it. We turned back north and in about 2 hours we in Beaufort where we headed south on the ICW.
There are very few places to stop along this stretch of swamp and scrub. In the afternoon we entered Camp Lejune, where they often stop traffic in the ICW for live fire exercises. We were lucky and only had a short wait for the bridge there.
We pulled into Mile Hammock Bay, which is a dredged area on Camp Lejune property that has a very soft bottom. There were lots of boats there ahead of us but we found spaces between them to anchor for the evening, which called for storms.

Comments [0] | | More

10/31/2009, Oriental, NC

October 25th, 2009 Oriental, NC
This morning I spent some time getting things back in their places and then went through the junk drawer. Kathy vacuumed and then got out the printer to work on printing some boat cards and a few other printing jobs.
I cooked some soup for lunch and then we walked over to The Condo to do another load of laundry and to bake some chicken for our trip on the ocean. Kathy went to the store with Kim and I returned to "Sapphire" once the chicken was cooking to scrub the cockpit floor while we still have lots of water.
I walked back to tote laundry about 3pm and once again walked back to the boat. Later in the afternoon we returned to a wonderful meal of scallops and spaghetti squash. Steve loaned us some movies so when we returned to the boat we picked one and watched it...

Comments [0] | | More

Mike
10/25/2009, Oriental, NC

October 23th, 2009 Oriental, NC
I started putting things away in the cockpit while sipping on my coffee. Then I transferred the fuel from our Jerry cans to the main tank. Kathy put together a load of laundry and around 10 a.m. we walked over to Kim and Steve's condo. They were running errands and voting in Bayboro and the plan was for me to tag along to fill our cans with diesel while Kathy stayed to do some clothes.
Before we left, Steve and I went into town to pick up some fresh shrimp and scallops. The place wasn't open yet so wandered down to the Free Dock to and found Nils attempting to spin "Fairwinds" around on the dock with lines. It was much easier with the two of us helping. By the time we were finished the seafood place was open and I made my purchases.
Back at the condo we used the food saver to package shrimp and scallops and then popped them into the freezer.
We stopped at NAPA for oil filters, the CVS, Food Lion, City Hall, the gas station, and a bank before returning the 10 miles or so to Oriental.
I rolled the diesel out to "Sapphire" in a dock cart and transferred it to our main tank which filled it. Then I took the empty cans in the cart to the marina downtown to get another load to carry on deck. After returning and properly stowing the now full fuel cans, I got the hose and filter out to fill our water tank. With the water running I emptied the Lazaret and separated out things that we didn't need or hadn't used in a year...and came up with a nice sized bag of junk.
Kathy returned about that time with the clean clothes and began putting things away below. With the tank full and the hose out I rinsed off the deck, scrubbed a layer of grime, and rinsed again.
I heard someone yelling at me.... and turned to find "Second Wind", Ken and Donna's Bayfield 40, anchored in the harbor with Ken on deck waving. We met them in Annapolis two years ago but didn't see them last year. Hopefully we'll see them before they take off.
Just as I finished, I heard someone yelling at me again and turned to find Jerry on the opposite dock. Jerry is a Coast Guard Auxiliary Safety Inspector and he had offered to inspect us earlier in the week when the boat was torn up. Now was a much better time, so we invited him over.
The inspection took about 30 minutes and we passed without any shortcomings. The decal which is attached amidships on the port side, might save us a Coast Guard boarding when less convenient.
We walked back to the condo with a empty Lemmon cello bottle to fill with olive oil that Steve had ordered and ask us to split. Kathy already had one bottle full but they insisted that we take another. There was a bon-voyage party for them at their "Club" tonight which we were invited to, but we begged off. It would have been fun but we were both tired and it would have been a hassle getting cleaned up and finding good clothes.
We ended up sitting in the cockpit until dark and then watching a movie.

October 22st, 2009 Oriental, NC
After coffee I finished the final installation of our new/old Radar. It took a while because I had to make a splice in the power cable but eventually everything was in order. Then I wired the Water Maker. Knowing that we wouldn't be using the water maker until we got to the ocean, I had put off connecting it to power.
I installed a bus bar and ran the refrigerator power there. Then came off the bus back to the frig and to a switch in the water maker line. It took more time than I expected. By the time I finished, the morning was about shot and we had plans to ride to New Bern with Steve and Kim for a trip to Walmart.
After way too much shopping we returned Oriental and with two completely full dock carts, headed back to "Sapphire" to unload. With things at least on the boat if not in their place, we walked back over to the Condo for a Conch Salad Dinner which was delightful.

Comments [0] | | More