Thalia's Voyage
A chronicle of a 1985 Passport 40 sailing days with Pat & Judy O'Brien
| Vessel Name: | Thalia |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Passport 40 |
| Hailing Port: | Oriental, NC |
| Crew: | Pat & Judy O'Brien |
| About: | Pat & Judy are old moutain people from Colorado exploring new adventures of the water world. |
07 June 2012
06 June 2012 | Bellhaven, NC
06 January 2012
24 December 2011 | Oriental, NC
19 October 2011
15 October 2011
02 October 2011
25 September 2011
12 June 2011
09 June 2011
03 June 2011
02 June 2011 | Oriental to Ocracoke & Return
Recent Blog Posts
07 June 2012
Belhaven to Alligator River Swing Bridge
We left the slip at Belhaven Waterway Marina as Brenda pushed out our bow with her boat hook (longest boot hook I've ever seen!). The wind caught our bow as Brenda held our stern line in towards the dock. Such a graceful exit in a narrow channel from a lovely place to visit.
06 June 2012 | Bellhaven, NC
Sunset in a Gazebo
Bellhaven, NC 35' 32.2" N Lat 076'37.3" W .Long 6/5/2012
20 May 2012
Sunsets, Sea Turtles, Moon Rises, and Flying Fish
The 70 nm overnight trip to Masonboro (Wilmington, NC) commenced on Thursday (5/10/12) at 10:30 hours when our crew threw off Thalias dock lines. Judy, Cameron (aka Railmeat) and Jim Privett stowed the fenders and dock lines as I turned south towards the mouth of Adams Creek and the ICW to the Beaufort [...]
24 December 2011 | Oriental, NC
Christmas Post
Direct from the CrabPot/Christmas Tree show room in downtown Oriental Judy and I wish all our scattered friends (?) and the soon to be BIRTHDAY GIRL (you know who you are) Peace and Love from Sidney’s. Those who have been to Sidney’s are on the scattered friends secret list.
Channeling My Inner Captain
15 October 2011
Captain Pat
Channeling My Inner Captain
Well the major activity this week was channeling my inner captain. That begins to describe the nuances of our electrical system. It all began with observations by a crew member on one of the many fine instruments on Thalia. Why does it go from 12.15 to 11.55 ? Well the captain observed the numeric variations and knew it was neither his power ball number, the admirals lottery ticket number or barometric pressure! He was certain that somehow it was bad ju ju! So…off to the oracle in New Bern. See her add board if you to wish to consult with her. It was during the séance that channeling your inner captain reached the upper level of consciousness! It then became obvious that the DC electrical system was heading south. This was confirmed by the rituals of cereal voltage measurements, a new breakfast food?, and specific gravity readings (one of those cosmology things). Sure enough the house battery bank was wandering south. The captain called an advanced oracle, the electronics guy, and gave him the cosmology and breakfast thingeys. Not only did he reach the same conclusion but found that the AC to DC battery charger was not talking to the batteries! Obviously bad…bad…ju ju! With additional testing the battery charger was declared and we ordered and had installed a new charger. Thru all this we were trying to devine the amp meter readings and unraveled the mystery of the missing amps! Well we have two other chargers, it’s a luxury boat you know. There is both the solar charger and the DC charger for the starting battery. With more cereal voltage measurements and gravity readings the starter battery turned out to be both dead and sucking charging current out of the house bank. With the new charger and now a new starting battery all things electric are happy!
The other big event of the week, thanks to a suggestion from a reader (you know who you are!), was dinghy diving! This was a big hit with the first mate aka The Admiral. We thought we should get to know our new hard dinghy and the davit system off the stern. At first the captain lowered it to the water with guidance from the first mate. She observed the water well up in the dinghy bottom. I suggested that I could put my thumb in the hole and she could row. Perhaps we might want to wear our life jackets so we could swim with the dinghy since it was obviously a submersible. She wanted a more robust solution so…we hauled the dinghy up on the davits and watched ii water drain out. The captain was elected by the entire crew to climb into the suspended dingy to find & install the drain plug! It was sort of similar to a bad ferris wheel ride with a nice tipping and rolling motion as the first mate looked on. With the drain plug in the dinghy floated nicely and new lines to control it were installed. Those are the events over the last 1.5 weeks.
Scout, our weather guru, has been seen with his head just protruding out the entry way hatch most of the early part of the week. Its been raining and he is not changing his forecast. We’re considering a hot dog offering to get better weather.
Well the major activity this week was channeling my inner captain. That begins to describe the nuances of our electrical system. It all began with observations by a crew member on one of the many fine instruments on Thalia. Why does it go from 12.15 to 11.55 ? Well the captain observed the numeric variations and knew it was neither his power ball number, the admirals lottery ticket number or barometric pressure! He was certain that somehow it was bad ju ju! So…off to the oracle in New Bern. See her add board if you to wish to consult with her. It was during the séance that channeling your inner captain reached the upper level of consciousness! It then became obvious that the DC electrical system was heading south. This was confirmed by the rituals of cereal voltage measurements, a new breakfast food?, and specific gravity readings (one of those cosmology things). Sure enough the house battery bank was wandering south. The captain called an advanced oracle, the electronics guy, and gave him the cosmology and breakfast thingeys. Not only did he reach the same conclusion but found that the AC to DC battery charger was not talking to the batteries! Obviously bad…bad…ju ju! With additional testing the battery charger was declared and we ordered and had installed a new charger. Thru all this we were trying to devine the amp meter readings and unraveled the mystery of the missing amps! Well we have two other chargers, it’s a luxury boat you know. There is both the solar charger and the DC charger for the starting battery. With more cereal voltage measurements and gravity readings the starter battery turned out to be both dead and sucking charging current out of the house bank. With the new charger and now a new starting battery all things electric are happy!
The other big event of the week, thanks to a suggestion from a reader (you know who you are!), was dinghy diving! This was a big hit with the first mate aka The Admiral. We thought we should get to know our new hard dinghy and the davit system off the stern. At first the captain lowered it to the water with guidance from the first mate. She observed the water well up in the dinghy bottom. I suggested that I could put my thumb in the hole and she could row. Perhaps we might want to wear our life jackets so we could swim with the dinghy since it was obviously a submersible. She wanted a more robust solution so…we hauled the dinghy up on the davits and watched ii water drain out. The captain was elected by the entire crew to climb into the suspended dingy to find & install the drain plug! It was sort of similar to a bad ferris wheel ride with a nice tipping and rolling motion as the first mate looked on. With the drain plug in the dinghy floated nicely and new lines to control it were installed. Those are the events over the last 1.5 weeks.
Scout, our weather guru, has been seen with his head just protruding out the entry way hatch most of the early part of the week. Its been raining and he is not changing his forecast. We’re considering a hot dog offering to get better weather.
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