Shad-sunny and windy
04/08/2010, Beaufort, NC USA

Doc is alive (again)! For anyone who cares about the technical aspects; I removed the transmission, replaced the main crankshaft seal, the trans seal, the throw out bearing, the throw out bearing cross arm shaft, the clutch pressure plate, the clutch plate, pilot bearing, reconditioned the flywheel, swaped the trans-axles, repacked the CV joints, and then put it all back together again. Took about 12 hours over 3 days. Drives very nice.

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Shad
04/04/2010, Beaufort, NC USA

We have a new crew member. Juno (named for the Roman Queen of the Gods) is a rescue kitty about 1 1/2 or 2 years old. She is all black (like Buddha) and is a very affectionate cat. It took her about a week to get comfortable with the other cats.

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Shad - perfect weather for NC
04/04/2010, Beaufort, NC USA

On Friday while returning from the Salter Creek trip Doc (the VW Vanagon) started to smell like burning fiberglass/plastic. We stopped acouple of times but could not pinpoint the location of the odor. Just about 3 miles from home Doc started to slow down and the engine kept up its RPM's. We pulled over and that was all she wrote. We had burned out the clutch (this time I could see the smoke) and could go no further. Friends helped tow us back to the boat, and I ordered the parts on the Internet, they should be here on Tuesday. So...no trip to the mountains of North Carolina. Doc is an older car, and we don't really know all his history. Slowly we are replacing all of the bad parts, problem is, except for the parts we fix we don't know what will go next. Such is life with old cars (and boats). The picture is at the Cedar Point Campground in the Croatan National Forest.

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Shad-Sunny and warm
04/04/2010, Coastal North Carolina

The weather (and work schedules) finally allowed us to go camping and kayaking. We had planned to camp/kayak nearby for acouple of days and then on towards the mountains. The weather has been perfect, sunny and warm, but not humid or too windy. The photo was taken on Salter Creek near Atlantic.

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Shad
02/21/2010, Beaufort, NC USA

2009 Newfoundland cruise stats
Planned Route: North Carolina to Greenland to NC
Storm damage forced MAYA into Lunenburg, Nova Scotia - Seasonal time constraints caused abandonment of Greenland portion.
Actual Route NC to Nova Scotia around Newfoundland to NC
Departed: June 18, 2009
Returned: October 30, 2009
Days Away: 134 days - approx 4.5 months
Days underway: 80 days - 59.7%
Days at anchor or on a dock: 54 - 40.3%
Miles (nautical) traveled: 4502.4 NM
Ports and Anchorages visited: 57 (in Canada) 1(in France)
Largest city visited: (outside USA) St. John's, Newfoundland
Countries visited: Canada and France (St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands)
Longest offshore passage: (NC to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia) 941.3 NM
Bad weather encountered: hurricanes - 2 (in port), storms at sea - 7,
storms in port (non-hurricanes) - 6
Worst weather underway: winds 55 knots (63 mph) gusting to 65
knots (75mph) - seas 20 + feet
Storm encountered June 23 south of Sable Island, Canada 170 miles offshore. Maya sustained minor damage and forced to put in to Lunenburg, Canada for repairs.
Calms encountered: 18 travel days (33.3% of days underway)
Engine Hours: Engine ran 552.5 hours (using .78 gal per hr = 430 gallons used)

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Shad
02/17/2010, Beaufort, NC USA

Beaufort, North Carolina is not known for it's winter snowfall. Coastal NC is usually a fairly mild winter environment, but this winter has been different. Lots of rain (locals can't remember when it has rained this much), lots of wind (most recent front brought 45-50 knots with gust up to 60 knots), and now...lots of snow (for NC anyway). This past week we got 8-9 inches overnight of the wonderful white stuff. I love snow and I had a great time playing in it, I really miss living with snow. It was a nice change of pace. 2 days later it rained (again) and the snow was gone. But remember, winter is not over yet.

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