Beauty on the water
12 July 2009 | Elizabeth City, NC
John and Cheryl
Cheryl's Notes:
We are now in the beautiful town of Elizabeth City, NC. They have a public town dock that can hold 15 boats. You are allowed to stay free for 48 hours. There is no electrical supply, but there is water to top off your tanks. The city is very nicely laid out with restaurants, shops and historical homes. (I am in heaven. I have found both a chocolate shop and a restaurant that serves ice cream cones.) The town mayor even comes down to the dock most nights to meet the boaters and help answer any of their questions. We have met some interesting fellow boaters here. One couple in their early thirties, purchased their catamaran in Spain, sailed it home to the UK and then sailed over here to explore. The have been way down island and are now working their way up the east coast. They are traveling with their eighteen month old son. We also met a fellow named Peter (and his dachshund, Rocky) sailing a solidly built and well lived in Hans Christian. He mentioned that he has lost over 100 pounds in the past year of cruising. That is one heck of a diet.
The town has a farmers market every Saturday morning, and it is held on the waterfront. We stocked up yesterday morning on some sweet corn, fresh green beans and potatoes. Now we will have some good eatin' on our trek through the Dismal Swamp. For those who have never heard of it, the Dismal Swamp is really a very beautiful canal that was constructed through swampland to connect Norfolk, VA to the Albemarle Sound. We will pass through two locks, one on the south end to raise us up, and one on the north end to drop us back down to sea level. My understanding is that the locks only raise you twenty feet above the normal level. That is considerably less than some of the locks we went through on the Erie Canal.
To our friends back at the dock. We were asked why we would want to take this trip in July because it is sooooooooo hot. Our answer was that it would be hot back at the docks, so wouldn't it be better to be on the water and moving? We had to put a blanket back on the bed because it was so cool the last two nights. I guess that answers our question!
Our big excitement was the local high school art teacher who asked to paint a picture of our boat. It only took her a couple of hours. Most of her time was spent answering questions by the locals wandering along the waterfront. Check out the pictures in our gallery. The painting turned out really cool.
John's Notes:
On our way up the Pasquotank River we passed the Elizabeth City Coast Guard Station. It is the largest Coast Guard facility in the US. All East Coast SAR operations are based out of Elizabeth City. They have at least one or more of every type of aircraft they own based here. A good portion of the civilian population work at the base.
Just to the south of the base is a dirigible manufacturing facility. It was built during WWII and was closed after the war but is now active again. If any of you know what the buildings at Moffett Field in California look like, well that is what the buildings look like at this facility. We took a couple of pictures and posted them in our current gallery.
A boat came in late this afternoon. They are from Florida but the wife is originally from Ely, MN. They are also headed north. If we stay here till Monday we will probably travel the Dismal Swamp with them.
Cheryl told you all the good stuff. Just a really neat place to visit. Very boater friendly.
Worked on a few maintenance projects today. Nothing exciting.
Sunday Morning 7-12-09
Electrical problems. Certainly I couldn't have any more electrical problems. WRONG! Everything has been working just fine since we left. We are so good at energy management that we haven't had to run our engine for a couple of days. Cheryl wanted hot water this morning for dishes so I decided that I would run the engine to heat the water and put back the 111 amps that we have used. Turn the key, push the starter button, nada. DEAD!. Our house bank meter tells me that we still have 73% charge and 12.75 volts. What the hell? I start looking for loose connections. Everything looks good. Check the voltage on the start battery and it reads 12.75V. That's good too.
I ask my neighbor what he thinks based on my info and he says that I probably have a bad ground wire. Surely don't have a power problem though. Back to looking. After another half hour, still nothing. Now my neighbor joins in. Another half hour and we think that we have found a potential suspect connection on the alternator. YES, the ones that Paul and I just replaced. Fix that. Still nothing. Now my neighbor decides to try and jump the starter from the house battery bank. Viola! It starts right up. Now we think that we might have something awry with the starting battery. Still reads 12.75V and a sticker on the side of the battery says that it doesn't need to be recharged unless the voltage drops below 12.5 volts. We decide lunch is in order to discuss the situation. I borrow a phone book at the place we went to eat and began calling around. Half of the auto parts stores I call have never heard of AGM batteries. A local marina says that they can have one in about a week or so. During all this I have made a couple of calls to NAPA but they seem to be closed on Sunday. Talking to a couple of locals they assure me that they are open till 5:00pm. I call again and finally get a live person. They tell me that they have exactly what I need. Back to the boat to take the old start battery out. The official city boat greeter tells me that he will give me a ride to the NAPA store. I wasn't looking forward to carrying a 40# battery over two miles anyway. Jump into the truck and off to NAPA. Guy tests the battery and assures me that I am right. I have 12.75 volts. Unfortunately, I have zero cranking amps left. Totally dead. The good news is that he has a brand new Optima that is even better than the one that failed and has 100 more cranking amps. Best part is, this month only, they are on sale for $159.00. Regular price is $219.00. I can't pass on this deal. Of course if I do, I can't start the engine. This is the first time that I can remember in all my years of boating that anything has ever failed when the replacement was ON SALE. Usually, I have to pay double just because I own a boat.
Back to the boat, install the new battery in the sweltering 90+ degree heat, and bingo, fires right up. Dave and Pat know where this particular battery is located in the aft cabin and can appreciate working back there in this heat.. Not even mentioning the fact that Cheryl has had to completely empty her garage so I could even get to the dang thing. Who says cruising is all fun and no work.
Note to self..............starting batteries only last 4-½ years and give no warning that they are going to fail.