Mike
11/07/2007, Wrightsville Beach, NC

Wrightsville Beach again. November 6

I know that there are those of you who want new scenery every day along with a new dot on the map ... but it is just not happening today. We have decided (and all decisions are revocable at any time for any reason) that we are going to sail from here to Charleston and forsake the ICW for as long as possible. It does mean an overnighter, but I think we're ready for it...

There is a good weather window starting Thursday morning and we are not sure yet if we are going to go down to the Cape Fear River to stage or to leave from here and deal with the Frying Pan Shoals off the Cape. That decision will be made tomorrow before noon.

Today we didn't do too much. I tried, in vain, to rewire our auto helm to accept input from one GPS to another but I couldn't make it work... .

We got together on "Restless" with Steve, Carol and Carl for a while this afternoon to chat and drink beer.... and then came back for some reading and supper.

The low-light of the day was when Kathy looked over and our dinghy was full of water... the plug had come out and the weight of the motor had forced water in until the lift of the air in the tubes brought things to and equilibrium.

I got it bailed out and then decided that it was time for a good cleaning ...

Later..Mike

Ps.... Dan, I've learned from my good Catholic brother-in-law that envy is not such a bad thing, it's just such a waste of time that old folks like us rarely go in for it much....

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Mike
11/06/2007, Wrightsville Beach, NC

Wrightsville Beach day 2 - November 5

We stayed here today primarily so that I could figure out the starting problem. After reading everything Nigel Calder had to say on the topic, and gathering ideas from folks, I ran some diagnostics before heading out to purchase a new battery. The tests indicated that our battery was fine, the solenoid was fine the starter was not. So I dug out our spare starter and replaced the old with the new ...and it worked. Our engine now starts like it is supposed to.

In the process of laying on top of the engine on my stomach working upside down...blind half the time, I also found a loose hose clamp on the run between the heat exchanger and the muffler which has been the cause of raw water under our engine every day for the last month. I've been trying to track it down about that long.

After cleaning up, we walked to the grocery store that was a little over a mile away to restock our freezer. Shopping is a little different when you know that you have to carry everything you purchase home in a backpack. Anyway, we had a nice walk and are now restocked. It was about 70 with no clouds and a very slight breeze so it was off to the beach which is only a block away from the dinghy dock. We had late lunch at a Mexican place and returned to the boat.

Our last trip of the day was to the sea food place. We went by water to the dock at Mott's Seafood to pick up some shrimp for supper. They also had some nice looking grouper which couldn't resist. Later, Steve and Carol came over to help get rid of some of the shrimp.

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Mike
11/05/2007, Wrightsville Beach, NC

This is "Discovery", Carl and Marilyn's boat and "Peace" behind us.

Mile Hammock to Wrightsville Beach. November 4th

It's really quite lucky that I don't believe in stress because otherwise today might have been categorized that way. There were three bridges on our route, two of which open only on the hour and the third was being sandblasted with reduce openings. The day seemed to be one big mental math problem... distance, speed, time, current with conversions back and forth between statute and nautical miles.

We got away about 7 am, which is now daylight thanks to the time change, and into and outgoing tide. Before we had gone a mile we hit the New River Inlet where I failed to notice a green daymark that wasn't on any of our charts, and slid over some mud before getting back to the new channel.

We made the first bridge with about 10 minutes to spare and figured that if we could make the 18 miles to the next bridge in two hours, we could make the last one without waiting. There were about 6 boats traveling loosely together and we slowly separated ourselves form the pack. After an hour or so, moving along nicely at about 8 knots with a little tidal help, we came upon a dredge in the middle of the canal Proper form is to call the captain of the dredge for directions but I could see that all we had to do was stay to the port and cut to the starboard just as we made the pass... As were we were in the process of passing, we ran directly into a sand bar. A little late, I called the Dredge Captain who was very helpful, and said that I needed to just back off and stay closer to the dredge next time. Well, easier said that done...after using the propeller in reverse to loosen the sand around our keel we began slowly move backward toward the dredge... as were about to run into him I attempted to make a turn and head back the way we had come...bam, stuck again. Now about this time, the boats that we had pulled away from began to arrive and they all had so drive between us and the dredge that was about 20 feet away. We both felt a little like the hare who had gone charging ahead of the tortoise.

About this time we noticed for the first time a Sea Tow boat lurking like a hungry vulture in the distance. When all the boat traffic squeezed past we were free to back off again, head back up stream until there was room for a 360 and then... finally pass the dredge.

Now that we had wasted about 10 minutes, there was no reason to hurry, the next bridge opening was out of reach mathematically. So we sheepishly, stayed behind a slower boat about a mile behind the pack. We could see the bridge open when we were about 2 miles away to let our group through so we slowed down to about nothing to wait for the next opening 30 minutes from now. As we watched, the bridge stayed open. Finally, I noticed a wake from Restless who had slowed to stay with us, and got a call from Steve saying the Bridge operator was going to leave the bridge open a while longer. We were full speed ahead....making the opening even though we were 20 minutes late.

The last bridge was uneventful and we pulled into the anchorage at Wrightsville Beach. As we began the process of locating the best spot to drop the hook, Kathy spotted "Discovery" so we drove by to say hi to Carl before anchoring. After we were settled, he came over for a chat. The last time we had seen Carl and Marilyn was dinner at Crosswinds with Russ and Robin when they gave us lots of very helpful hints about traveling south. There were two other Michigan boats here as well. Besides "Discovery", "Windborne" left from crosswinds a few years ago and "Tilt" is from Muskegon. "Peace" is also here, so we stopped by to chat with Ann and Neville.

We are going to stay tomorrow to try to get our starting problem solved and pick up a few groceries.

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