09/29/2009, 35.31.0'N:82.60.0
Tuesday, Sept 29, 2009.
We left Rochester on September 10 and headed toward North Carolina. There was no need to push it like we had been doing on Eos so we took a leisurely two days on the road. We stayed in the outskirts of Weston, WV and were once again reminded of what a small world it can be. We met a couple at the motel's continental breakfast who were on their way home to - ready? - Rochester, NY. And it turned out that Scott and Joyce Heise live about 2 miles from where Eos is sitting on the hard. We have exchanged emails and phone numbers. Joyce said they would kind of keep an eye on her and to be sure and let them know when we were back so they could take us to the grocery store and such. Now what are the odds of meeting someone from Rochester in Weston, WV; let alone someone who lives so close to Shumway Marine. A small world story, for sure.
We got to Bruce's the next day and spent about a week with them getting our selves a little oriented. They are NW of Ashville in Leicester and we are SW of Ashville in Etowah. So we are about 45 minutes a part. With them about the same 30 minutes from Ashville itself, I expect that to become a meeting place as time progresses.
We are now settled in a trailer in the hills of North Carolina. Etowah has a population of 2762. It is right down the road from Horse Shoe where we found a coffee shop with great coffee, lunch and breakfast and free WiFi for Saturday afternoon and Sunday when the Etowah library isn't open. The library, gas station, grocery store, Dollar store and a few other businesses are about a mile from the trailer. The library is a nice new branch of the Henderson County Library system. The two fairly large sized towns closest to us are Hendersonville and Brevard. Hendersonville in Henderson county is about 25 minutes in one direction and Brevard in Transylvania county is about the same distance in the other direction. The first time we drove by the Transylvania Hospital's sign for their blood drive Bill was ready to do 10 minutes on it.
We are slowly learning how to get to both places and as well as get back - a very important consideration with all of these winding mountain roads. Bruce has loaned us one of their GPS units but so far we have succeeded in getting the GPS lost three times. The roads change names constantly and in one case it had us turning onto a non-existent NC county road. You can believe we keep maps in the Bronco he has loaned us and don't take off on side roads thinking we can take a short cut. The roads follow the rivers and the mountain valleys and are seldom straight. They are a far cry from the grid roads we are used to. But we are adjusting and the area is beautiful and will certainly be a lovely and warmer place to spend the winter than Minnesota or Wisconsin.
We have been to two Thursday bluegrass jazz sessions at a coffee shop up Bruce's way and last Saturday, Bruce and Dorothy came down our way to go to the fourth annual story telling festival at the historic Johnson Farm in Hendersonville. It was supposed to be by a campfire but had to be moved to a high school auditorium because of the rain. There were 5 story tellers telling ghost stories that would have been marvelous in the woods by the fire but were still wonderfully enjoyable even in the auditorium.
It rained almost constantly for a week resulting in flooding in Hendersonville but the last couple of days have turned glorious. Now we can look at doing some more exploring in the area. We hope to get to the Biltmore Estate this week. I saw it during a stop over to see Bruce after a business trip but I am looking forward to seeing it again and am sure Bill will be impressed with the house and gardens as well as the ingenious technical innovations that were built into the house. We will end the day with a couple of nice glasses of wine at the Biltmore winery right there on the estate.
We are going to take a week and drive up to the Annapolis boat show. We will be staying with Betsy and Russ Armstrong - cruising friends from the Twin Cities - at Betsy's mother's home in Arlington and driving up to Annapolis about an hour away. We have picked out several seminars that look interesting and will, of course, enjoy seeing all of the boats and paraphernalia that will be on display. Then we will come back stopping in Fredericksburg, VA to see Cathy Hagerty a good friend who used to work at Unisys with me.
We have added a picture gallery to this blog which shows the keel damage. The shots are close-ups so when looking at them keep in mind that the damage at the aft end spans only about a foot and the damage on the lead in front can be hammered out and simply repainted with fresh bottom paint. The titles on the pics describe what is shown. Click on the title of the gallery and then place the cursor on the picture to see the caption.
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09/09/2009, Rochester, NY
Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009 - Eos is hauled and sitting very comfortably on her own piece of dirt at Shumway's. They hauled her yesterday and it was more than just a simple haul out since their travel lift can certainly handle her weight but it wasn't as tall as the one at Barker's. Their buildings and doors aren't as high so their travel lift is shorter in order to move boats into the building. They started to haul her stern first and then realized after lifting her up to ground level they wouldn't be able to get the travel lift off. The arch was in the way at the stern and the mast was in the way forward. SO they put her back in, motored her out into the Genesse River and brought her in bow first so they could just take the forestays off. Because the mast is keel stepped and not deck stepped there wasn't any concern about the mast not being attached forward. They then hauled her out and very gently drove her over to the storage field and blocked her up, re rigged her and settled her in.
This was the first time we could see the damage caused by the rock grounding. The damage to the lead ballast is cosmetic and can be fixed with a hammer and some new bottom paint. The damage to the aft fiberglass portion of the keel is what caused the slow leak. There are two kinds of damage to this section. The very back end of the keel where it tapers aft has some de-lamination of the fiberglass so parts of that section got wet and will have to be dried out and new structure and fiberglass work done. This is not where we think the actual leak into the bilge occurred, however. That is just behind the seam between the lead keel and that aft fiberglass structure. In this area the aft fiberglass structure has been damaged and is dripping water. So it, too, will have to be dried out and the structure re-enforced there so we don't have a problem next time we are grounded. And we are sure we will be grounded again sometime.
The fellow, Tom Frank, who is winterizing the boat and will be fixing the keel is someone we are very comfortable with. Bill spent half of today with Tom as they talked about the problems and Tom discussed how he envisioned them being fixed and it agreed with how Bill thought things should happen. There was a meeting of the minds that was very comforting to Bill and to me as well. Tom has a lot of experience and doesn't see any problem fixing it and will keep us in the loop as things progress. He is also a master wood worker so we are having him put a rub rail on each side of the hull. We couldn't put one on and get the boat out of the barn in Hugo and besides now we know exactly where they need to go on the sides of the boat. Just look at the scrape marks that are there now and just install the rub strake down that line. It is kind of like waiting to see where the students on campus make paths in the grass and then putting the sidewalks there. We now know where she tends to rub on the docks and the pilings so that's where the rub strakes belong.
We have a local canvas worker who is going to see about building us some shade in the cockpit. And there is another fellow who will shrink wrap her for the winter but with an access door so Tom can get on board and do a few things inside for us over the winter lay-up.
Now we can move on to the next months of land cruising. We are off to North Carolina tomorrow and will be there for some time. Bill will have to see if he can adjust without some chemical assistance to having no boat to work on. It will have to be mental work like getting familiar with all of the nuances of the equipment that we have. We are taking manuals with us for study. And we will have plenty of time to plan our more leisurely trip out the seaway next summer.
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08/22/2009, Rochester, NY
We have gotten a couple of phone calls wanting to know where we are and what is going on so I better get this updated.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
We finally got a good weather window with no thunderstorms predicted where we were, where we were going, or along the way so we were up and out of Kingston at 0530. It was just light but we could see all of the channel markers and we wanted to get going in order to get across Lake Ontario to Rochester in one day.
The weather was beautiful and it would have been a lovely day for a nice broad reach all of the way BUT we couldn't take advantage of it with the leak in the keel. We didn't want to put any side force on the keel and so wanted to travel on "an even keel" as the expression goes. We expected it to take us 14 hours thus the early start but we did it in 12 and arrived at Shumway Marine in Rochester at 1730. We did discover on the crossing that the water in-take didn't increase at all while we were moving which was a good sign.
Saturday, August 2, 2009
We are now settled in here for the rest of the season. We talked to the service manager yesterday and they will haul Eos on Sept. 7th. They want to get her out and see what the problem is and see what they can do before the late September push to get all of the boats out for the winter.
That gives us about 2 1/2 weeks to do a few things on the To Do list - such as install some strategically placed 12 volt fans and talk to the local canvas guy about getting some shade for the cockpit. These will certainly make next summer's trip much more comfortable than this year's. And, of course, we will be busy trying to eat up the things in the freezer so we don't have to feed them to the dumpster when we haul out. And the list of all of the things we need to take off that can't handle the winter freeze has to be put together. There is plenty for us to do as we stay close to the boat and run the bilge pump every 2 or 3 hours for about 45 seconds. We aren't letting it just run automatically because the in-take of water is slow enough that the pump would turn on and just have enough water coming in to keep running continually. There is really no need to make the pump work like that.
We will get a motel room for a few days when Eos is hauled so we can see that she looks like and be around to hear what they think and plan to do. Then we will take our own-way rental loaded with enything that can't freeze and our clothes, electronics and such and head to North Carolina. We won't be staying here for the winter. My brother Bruce's oldest daughter who has a trailer about 30 miles from Bruce (Ashville, NC) left Friday for California to be there for the birth of two grandchildren and will be there until the first of the year. Bruce has an extra car and has told us to come on down. He has several time shares on the coast so it will be a great opportunity for us all to get to the coast and then do some wandering to check places that we might stop at next year. And we hope to get to Annapolis for the Sail Boat Show in Oct and connect with some cruising friends who are going to be there.
My brother Scott has invited us down to New Mexico for part of the winter so we may just do that as well and then go back to Minnesota in the late spring to see everyone and take care of the yearly standard doctor's appointments. Gary and Judy Robinson have offered us their house again this year and Barb and Jack Sheldon have an extra car for us when we get to MN. And, we have had numerous offers from other friends in the Twin Cities as well as from our friend Steve Shick in Superior, WI.
So we are land folk again until next year when we can take a more leisurely trip out and get to see some places along the way for more than just an over night stay.
We will keep up the blog some so friends and family can find out what the verdict is on Eos' keel and where we are. Thanks to everyone for your concern, help and advice.
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