I had been keeping up with weather developments at the coast all week by reading the Town Dock website (www.towndock.net). It seems that tropical storm Nicole was a much more significant weather event than hurricane Earl who passed off the coast a few weeks ago. The website and other news media reported torrential rain all along the Carolina coast and as far inland as Charlotte and points west. We saw a lot of rain at home but there was major flooding in cities along the coast the likes of which had not been seen except for major hurricanes. I am no weather expert but it seems to me that Nicole (barely a tropical storm) decided to amble up the southeastern coast at a very leisurely pace. There was not a lot of wind or stormy conditions, just a lot of cold hard rain because the storm was moving so slowly. It dumped rain on the entire area for days.

It had been over three weeks since we had been to the boat. That is a long time for us, but we had some obligations at home and we had been doing some yet unfinished remodeling in the kitchen and living room of our house. This was our first opportunity and we were glad to know that at least the forecast was nice on Saturday. Sunday was questionable.

Friday October 1, 2010
The town dock website referred to the tropical storm weather event as the "Great Monsoon of 2010. Based on what I read, and saw it was true. We left home at about 4:30 and stopped for "not so fast food" at a Burger King in Ramseur, NC. You would think that with our combined 117 years on earth, we would know better than to frequent fast food joints but we seem to repeat the same mistake over and over. Traffic was unusually heavy and we seemed to catch every red traffic light along the way. The brutal heat we had experienced just 10 days ago was gone. When we arrived at Ensign Harbor I was glad I was wearing jeans instead of my typical shorts and t-shirt. A light jacket felt good.

When I walked out on the dock, my first thought was of the weekend last spring when we sat in the cockpit with Benny and Bonnie, waiting for at least two hours for the wind tide to raise the water level enough for us to get out of our slip. Low water was a distant memory this weekend. The water was much higher than usual by at least 2 feet. Getting out of the slip would not have been a problem. This condition was due of course to the flooding conditions in the area as well as a stiff northeast wind that tends to raise water levels on the west side of the Pamlico sound.

Getting clothes and the cooler on to the boat was a major chore because the gunwale was at least two feet higher than usual. Even boarding the boat was difficult. Once aboard we found everything was damp. Of course we have some leaks, all boats do, but it seemed moisture had permeated the entire vessel. There was even water collected on the ceiling. If the humidity level could be higher than 100%, that's what it felt like. We sopped up as much moisture as we could and turned in to what seemed a soggy bed.

Saturday October 2, 2010
We woke to cool gray skies and were concerned that we were in for more bad weather. It was after 9 am when the clouds finally parted and old "Sol" made his appearance. The sky cleared and the wind was stiff and cool. We opened every hatch and encouraged airflow with our trusty electric fan. By mid morning the dampness began to subside.

We have a new dock neighbor, albeit temporary. The dock master is choreographing a very complicated three-boat slip swap. Last time we were here the Catalina 30 owned by Jay and Joany (who we just met) was in the slip next door. This time our friends Ken and Jan had their Catalina 30 tied up next to us. Their ultimate slip destination will be a few slips down but for now we are neighbors. Ken and Jan have just recently moved their boat to Ensign Harbor but we have known them for a while since Ken and Don from Ragtop (docked on our other side) are brothers. Ken had started a discussion via email about comparing boats and systems this weekend so I invited him aboard while Jan and Judy went to town for some supplies that had been forgotten.

On this trip we did not intend to actually take the boat out of her slip. I had a couple of little projects to do in preparation for an upcoming trip with guests aboard. It's a good thing that we were not planning to sail because the 15 to 20 knot northeast wind would have been less than fun on a 30 footer. My main project was to fix the head A marine head serves the same function as the porcelain facility in your bathroom but it is typically smaller with more levers and knobs. Our head is perfectly functional but one of the mounting lag screws in the back tends to break free and allow the toilet to tip slightly forward while in use. This is only a slight movement and Judy and I are used to but to the uninitiated, feeling like the toilet is going to tip over could be quite disconcerting.

I had actually attempted to fix this problem several times before and nothing seems to work. It would not surprise me if my solution fails this time but I always like to try the simple fix first before I get out the big saws and hammers. I made a trip to the Village Hardware Store in Oriental to have a chat with the "helpful hardware man". We discussed the problem and decided that maybe a lead anchor would work. These are typically used to place lag bolts in cement but there is no reason they wouldn't work for fiberglass and plywood. The problem is that the existing lag bolts go directly into the fiberglass-covered base that the head is mounted on. Over time the plywood gets wet and the threads work their way out. These anchors provide a much bigger surface area than just a lag screw, which will hopefully provide a secure fastening for the toilet. After a couple of false starts, I got the new anchors and bolts in place and the head seems to be on a more solid footing. We shall see.

When we were down on Labor Day, I had taken the bimini cover off in anticipation of another hurricane. Since it is essential equipment I put the cover back in place so Southern Star could look a little more civilized.

We had a nice lunch of cold cut sandwiches, after which I took a 30-minute nap. My next task was one of my least favorite jobs, the one I call "pumping the crapper". Ken was already using the waste caddy, or "honey wagon" as I sometimes call it, so when he finished, I suggested that I go ahead and use it too before he took it back. The good news is that Nick has replaced the pump, which made the task a lot easier than last time when the pump was faulty. I showed Ken where to empty the tank and my procedure for cleaning the "honey wagon" for the next poor slob who uses it. The unusually wet conditions left a muddy mess under the bathhouse and since the water was still slowly rising we actually had to wade through water to get from the dock to the parking lot.

We saw Richard and Frances briefly on Saturday afternoon. Retirement seems to agree with them. Richard suspects their Catalina 36 may have been stuck by lightening. Hopefully he can get things back in working order quickly.

At home, our kitchen is partially disassembled because I am laying tile on the countertops. Judy informed me earlier in the week that she would not be preparing a meal to take to the boat because her kitchen was broken. Ken and Jan had planned to go to dinner in town so the four of us drove to the Silos Restaurant in Oriental. Getting from the dock to the car still required fording the 4 inches of water at the end of the walkway. The Silos serves Italian food and it is really quite good. The service is also good and we enjoyed our meal. It wasn't fresh Spanish mackerel on the grill but it was quite tasty and reasonably priced.

We returned to Ensign Harbor where we waded to get back on the dock. Fortunately, the water was no higher than when we left. We read and wrote for a while and turned in on a much drier bed that the night before.

Sunday October 3, 2010
Sunday's questionable weather was just plain nasty. It was cool and cloudy and raining off and on. When we first go out of the boat, the water was beginning to recede and slightly lower than the night before. I invited Ken aboard again to examine our forward water tank after Judy un-made the bed. He also showed me the drain plug on my water lift muffler. I am embarrassed to say that I had never noticed it before and was unfamiliar with its purpose. He enlightened me, saying that if you run the engine's starter motor for more than 30 seconds, and the engine fails to start, the muffler should be drained (using the plug) because the raw water pump is pumping water into the muffler but the engine's exhaust is not pumping it out. Not draining the muffler under these circumstances could result in drawing salt water into the cylinders. This would be a highly undesirable situation at least and a catastrophe if not corrected. Luckily, we have never had to run our starter for an extended amount of time. Our only starting problems have been linked to the starter motor not running at all.

Now that we have offspring living in Raleigh we hoped to stop by for a short visit. Since the rain set in at the coast, we decided to go ahead and leave earlier than usual and possibly catch up with them for a late lunch. By the time we left, the water level was noticeably lower and we could not step across the water at the end of the ramp. High water events are fairly common in the area especially when there is a lot of rain and a northeast wind but we had never actually been there during an event this severe. I saw Nick on the docks checking dock lines at least once during the weekend, making sure lines were not too taught due to the high water. The weather forecast is for better conditions next week so the water levels can return to normal. This was a nice weekend in spite of the high water. We had a good visit with dock mates and got some maintenance done. It's always nice to get away.

Before I close this log entry, I have a technical gripe to present. Regular readers know that I have had many problems with the pressure water system in Southern Star. This is a relatively simple system that delivers hot and cold water to the faucets in the head and galley. I have fixed broken water pipes and made repairs to the water heater on several occasions. The all of these issues plus many others can be traced to a faulty water pump. When we bought the boat, the pressure water system was inoperable. The Jabsco water pump did not work at all. I replaced it with the same pump of the same brand. After about 5 years I started having the problems mentioned above. It turned out that the pressure switch on the Jabsco water pump was faulty. I should have picked up on the fact that the pumps were crap and changed brands but I made the mistake of buying the same pump again. The new pump was a plug and play installation that took only minutes which is about how long the pump lasted. By the time I figured out that the pressure switch on the new pump was faulty the window of opportunity for sending it back for a replacement was over. The box the pump came is had a banner across the front that touted a 3-year warranty. I was well within my three-year timeframe so I called Jabsco customer service. It seems that some conglomerate as is true with so many small companies has purchased Jabsco. When I finally reached a customer service representative, he was a real jerk. He did not treat my call seriously and played cat and mouse pretending he didn't understand the problem. He insisted that I test the pump motor by shorting out the pressure switch to see if the motor would work. I already knew that the motor worked fine so his response was, "Oh the 3-year warranty doesn't cover anything but the motor, the pressure switch is not covered". My reply to him was "Oh well, then my mistake was buying a Jabsco product in the first place." I assured him further that it would never happen in the future. The moral of this story is that I cannot recommend a Jabsco pump of any kind.