Neptune Claus

I was working on another installment of Cooking with Cap'n Scott. It was also going to be part of a series of posts about equipment on the boat. I was going to talk about my gas grill. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't come out well. I wasn't attentive enough to the chicken, and I let the skins get stuck to the grill. When I flipped them over the skin ripped. It was still yummy. Just didn't look good enough for a blog post, especially since you at home can't taste the chicken on the boat. I'll try again later in the week.

Seashells by the Seashore

Found these shells on my morning run. I haven't been running since my post about the pirate ship in Baltimore. Feels good to stretch my legs. I'll bet I'll be achy tomorrow though.

I've met a few of my dockmates, including Einstein the cat who lives next door, and Sasha the dog who lives two boats down.

I haven't figured this place out yet. In the resort complex are a Marriot, Hilton and Disney enclave. There are also three golf courses, a tennis complex and a bunch of condo and housing complexes. Some of the areas are clearly public. Other areas have signs that say "Members and Guests only", and others are gated with combination locks. I don't know which areas I as a guest of the marina am allowed in. Am I permitted to use the facilities at the Marriot, or the pool at one of the condo complexes? I'll let you know when I get tossed out of one of these places.

I'm getting readjusted to life on land (re-socialized?). Marina life is much different from life on the hook (at anchor). Now I have to be considerate of others and not play my music too loud or knock about the boat too early in the morning.

There are some benefits like dependable utilities. I do have a post percolating in my head about power and electricity for the boat.

Any Port in a Storm

I've secured a slip at a marina in Hilton Head for the next month. I've instructed Muffy to pack her tennis racket, golf clubs and bikini when she comes to visit in a week or so. I'll give a full report about the marina at some point. It is part of an 1800 acre resort at which we will have full guest privileges. This is the antithesis of my trailer park marina in Baltimore. One thing I did not consider when selecting the marina is that it is surrounded by the Disney section of the resort. Plenty of families and kids, even in off season.

I'll try to keep up with the daily posting. I'm not sure what the topics will be. Some of them may be about golf and tennis. I apologize in advance. I do have lots of repairs to do on the boat, so I'll post about that too.

Pic is of a shrimp boat anchored near me last night. Earlier, I had to avoid him and his nets as he fished around the mouth of the river separating Hilton Head from the mainland.

Strike Four?

I came into Beaufort on Christmas day at just about slack tide. There is a bridge just north of town which I had to pass through. About a half mile north of the bridge was a sign with the hours of bridge operation, radio channel for hailing, etc. It also stated that the bridge was closed on Federal Holidays.

I've seen similar signs at bridges often enough. I guess the Federal Holiday closure thing just hadn't registered in my head. Anyway, there was an anchorage just north of the bridge. From there I rode my bicycle over the bridge to Beaufort. As I neared the bridge house, I saw that there was someone inside.

When I returned from my poo-poo xmas excursion into town, I decided to hail the bridge. The tender answered that he would open the bridge for me. The passage through the bridge was a little hairy, and going through at that time was probably not the best decision. I was running with the ebbing tide into the bridge. But we made it through fine.

At the town anchorage, I turned the boat into the current and put her into idle forward gear. She pretty much stayed put as I went forward to drop anchor. Back in the cockpit, I took the engine out of gear. Instead of just falling back with the current, the boat twisted at about a 30 degree angle to the current. While we had stayed put, the anchor had drifted under the boat with the current. The line was caught on one of the centerboards. I put the engine back in gear, and the line released from the centerboard. We drifted back and the anchor held. All was well.

When I weighed anchor this morning, I found it bent as you can see in the picture. I'm assuming this happened during the incident I just described. I doubt that I'll be able to bend it back, unless maybe I tried the same stunt, but with the anchor line wrapped around the other centerboard. That's now four anchors that I've gone through on this trip.

Weird Christmas

I need to stop reading the guide book, and apparently the New York Times. I was all excited about Beaufort, SC. I was thinking we'd spend the month of January here. This Beaufort doesn't blow, like the one in NC. But it's not nearly as great as the NY Times makes it out to be in this article. It's just a sleepy southern town with a few blocks of picturesque houses and a short main street. I was hoping to find some xmas spirit here, but the streets were mostly deserted and undecorated with lights or ornaments. The aptly named Church street had churches, but none were holding Christmas morning services.

I was returning to the boat in a poo-poo mood when I spotted a boat anchored uncomfortably close to mine. It almost looked like they were rafted up together. I kayaked over to the boat to see what was up. The young couple apologized for being so close to my boat. They were having engine trouble. I offered to help, and it turned out that I had the parts they needed on my boat. Being able to help someone out on Christmas Day did give me a little bit of a warm feeling.

I was hoping to get a Christmas-y pic for the blog in Beaufort, but I didn't see anything. Some of the houses in Beaufort are listed for sale in the millions. I bet the house in the picture could be bought for a more reasonable price.

Bubba

I'd rather not say where I am. I don't want to defame the place or it's residents. My impression of this place probably says as much about me, as about the town. And truthfully, I really didn't get off the boat to take a stroll about and see the town or meet the people.

I'm in the Carolina Low Country. The ICW runs through a series of rivers which are often connected by a short cut. You run down one river and up the next. The tides here run fast, and I try to time it so that I'm mostly running in the direction of the tide, in which case, the motor is only needed to provide steering and doesn't have to run very fast.

I was running low on gas yesterday. There are not many marinas here(or much of anything else). The marinas listed in the guidebook aren't even on the ICW. The closest one is two miles off the ICW, so that's the one where I decided to get gas.

I pulled up to the tiny creek in late afternoon. There was a short row of houses, docks and boats. From the first house emanated a cacophony of barking. It sounded like the hounds of Cerberus were inside. I thought maybe they were aroused by the sound of my motor. Maybe they thought their owner was returning home. But no, they continued on until nightfall. Probably someone's pack of hunting dogs. Seriously, it sounded like there were a lot of them.

About a hundred yards up the creek is the marina. Well, it's not really a marina. Just a convenience store and fuel dock which I ended up tied to for the night. In the parking lot were a group of guys hanging out around a pickup with it's hood open. Almost a quintessential good ole boy scene.

I had a flashback to an unpleasant experience from my younger days. I was on a solo bicycle trip through Southern Maryland. I had stopped in a small town and bought dinner at the convenience store. I decided to set up camp nearby and spend the night. At dusk, a few guys showed up, and I forget exactly what was said, but it was made clear that they didn't want me around.

Fortunately, there was a phone booth nearby and I called 911. By coincidence, the police had an APB out for me. There was a family emergency, and my dad had called them to keep an eye out for me. (A whole other story.) Anyway, my dad ended up driving down and picking me up, ending my bicycle tour.

The pic is of the moon setting this morning as I left the creek.

Jack, Bob and Chuck

I often listen to my ipod while I'm driving down the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW). I've got some podcasts I listen to including Car Talk, This American Life, Marketplace and Big O & Dukes. I also listen to a bunch of music on my ipod which friends and family have given me. But I also have a radio on board, and I listen to that too.

In Maryland there is an adult hits station called Jack. It's radio's response to the mp3 player. Instead of playing the same 20 songs from a specific genre over and over(rock, rap, classical, etc), Jack mixes it up with a much larger playlist spanning multiple genres.

I've now become acquainted with Jack's brothers, Bob and Chuck.

The other day, Bob played "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. It's a fun song, and there are some lines about being on the "Cat Walk." Fred is talking about models in the song, but I thought it was funny that I was dancing around on my catamaran to the song, so I downloaded it from itunes. Amy gave me a gift card to itunes, but it's linked to her account, so she got an email receipt when I bought it. The next day, I got an email from her that simply said, "Yes you are."

I was listening to Chuck today as I motored along, and he really rocked. There were even a few songs I'd never heard before. I was jamming to Chuck's playlist, dancing around the cockpit and making a spectacle of myself to the pelicans and dolphins who were accompanying me on my journey. I was running fast with the tide. We were doing 8.5 mph at one point while the engine was running at just enough rpms to give me some steering. At a certain point, the engine died. I'd run out of gas.

This happens often enough. I have an internal fuel tank, but I haven't gotten around to cleaning it so that I can use it. Instead I use five jerry cans which I rotate as they empty.

It's a good thing that I ran out of gas because in my clueless bliss, I had passed my intended anchorage. Changing the gas tank brought me out of this state, and I found that I needed to turn back about a quarter mile.

The pic is some birds I passed when I was listening to Chuck.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful

But inside it's delightful? Let it rain. Let it rain. Let it rain.

I rarely get seasick, but I felt a bit queasy today when I was folding clothes in the forward berth. And we weren't even going anywhere. We were at anchor in the Charleston harbor. The problem was that the tide runs fast through the anchorage and the wind was coming from a different direction, so those competing forces were spinning the boat at anchor. And the wind was kicking up some gentle swells. Of course with the crappy weather, I had all the hatches closed, so the air inside was a bit stale. I didn't do much all morning but sip Coca Cola.

Between the spinning, rocking and stale air, I didn't feel so hot. Being seasick sucks.

Later, I drove a mile to another anchorage in a creek. I found it at Cruisers' Net. I'd been to this website months ago, but forgot about it. It's now added to the links section of the blog. If I'd come here yesterday, the whole seasick fiasco could have been avoided.

The pic is of a boat hard aground. I took it coming into Charleston. I just thought it was funny. Ok, maybe not so funny to the owner. (There's a fine line separating comedy from drama. Perspective may also play a part.) I could have taken another picture of a small sailboat in the anchorage which had turtled overnight (turtling is when your mast points to the bottom, and your keel to the sky), but I was fighting some wind and waves as I was leaving the tight anchorage and didn't feel confident to multi-task.

The Grinch

Apologies for the title, but Amy brought it on herself by not providing one for her guest post. And now the Grinch herself speaks:

I'm not usually one for touristy activities in New York, but every year I've lived here, I've managed to do the Christmas walking tour of Manhattan. This walk traditionally begins in Herald Square at the Macy's flagship store, and heads north past all of the other big department stores, ending up at Rockefeller Center and Saks Fifth Avenue. Last year, I did this walk with Scott and we ended our evening thawing out over a nice dinner. I know this post takes us even further off course from boat talk, but I thought it'd be nice to share some seasonal cheer from land with Scott.

Mid- to late- December is also the end of the fall semester, filled with grading exams and papers, dealing with students who have finally realized that they are failing my course, and rushing to file grades before I catch a plane to Illinois for the holiday, leaving little time or energy for holiday preparations. Not surprisingly, I tend to be a little cranky around this time, and have on a few occasions actually been referred to as "the Grinch." The Manhattan Christmas walk helps get me into the holiday spirit and ready to drink cocoa, sing carols, and be pleasant to others.

This year, I caught up with my friend Allison who was visiting NY for the weekend. Unfortunately, she did most of the walk during the day before I met up with her after work, and so I caught up with her at the end. We met up at a Thai restaurant in Times Square and then went to Rockefeller Center and Saks. Many thanks to Allison, who as a native New Yorker, is usually loathe to do things like this, and even more repulsed to be seen with someone taking pictures like a tourist. This is why I made her stand in front of the M&M store in Times Square.


And then, she got me back by making me stand in front of the tree at Rockefeller Center.


We did stop short of ice skating at Rockefeller Center, but did take lots of pictures of it and the other decorations.



We ended our walk watching the light show on the facade of Saks 5th Avenue, and taking some pictures of the windows and St. Patrick's Cathedral next door.




Happy holidays to all!

Charleston

After spending the day before doing chores, yesterday I got to ride my bike into Charleston for some sightseeing. The town is incredibly beautiful. It's just block after block of the most adorable houses you will ever see. Lots of trees and bushes, some in flower even this time of the year.

The picture is of the old City Market. It's four open air buildings filled with venders' stalls. Most of the stuff was a little too crafty and kitschy for my taste. But it is reasonably priced, and I was able to pick up a few Christmas gifts, including something pretty for my girl.

Marinas

Having spent yesterday doing laundry, shopping and cleaning/organizing/fixing the boat, today's post is another in a string of non-sailing posts. I'm at Ashley Marina in Charleston. It's the nicest marina I've ever seen. That's not saying much, seeing as I spend most of my time on the hook (at anchor), and my marina in Baltimore was only a step above a trailer park. But over the years, I have stayed at a few dozen marinas, so I feel I'm a somewhat competent judge.

The marina is a little pricey. Two dollars a foot plus electricity. But I've made full use of their amenities, so it's been more than worth it. Laundry is free. I've done five loads. They have a van service. They chauffeured me to the supermarket and West Marine.

Their bathrooms are impeccable. I'm usually happy if a marina's bathrooms are clean and in decent repair. My marina in Baltimore had a porta-potty. This marina has private stone tiled shower stalls, glass showers and upscale fixtures. I'd add a picture of the bathrooms to this post, but I felt a little weird about bringing a camera into the bathroom.

This wouldn't be a bad place to spend January. Their monthly rates are quite reasonable. And Charleston is an incredibly nice town.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I got to go sailing today! Or maybe I should rephrase that as, I had to go sailing today. It was only for a few hundred yards, and maybe I didn't have to do it, but it made everything a little more comfortable while I worked on my conked out engine. The engine died after I had again just passed through a bridge. Where else would it die?

The engine's starter motor has been on the fritz for the past few days. It just makes a clicking sound when I turn the key. So, I've been using the rope pull to start the engine. Of course, the time for the rope to break would be when I'm in a channel just past a bridge, not in the morning at anchor.

Over the years I've used numerous small engines with pull starts, and yet somehow, I've never had to replace the rope on one. The boat engine manual has instructions on how to do it, but I think it's one of those things which is easy to understand if you see it done, but hard to describe in words. It took me a number of tries before I was able to figure out how to replace the rope, rewind the spring mechanism and get the rope pull mechanism reattached to the engine.

Yesterday, I was bitching in the comments about not being able to go sailing, and how the blog has turned into a cooking and football blog. Well, I got what I wished for, some sailing today. The pic is of a newer Gemini which went through the bridge with me. They didn't have any engine trouble.

Maybe I'll start a small engine repair business when I get done with this trip. I'll certainly have the experience.

Oyster Bed

The tides here are about 4 feet. At low tide the oyster beds are exposed. I would love to be feasting on oysters right now, but they are all pretty small. I learned from the guy at the marina where I got gas, that that's just the way they are.

I had to wait until the highest of high tide to get the boat ungrounded. Even then we did not float off. I had to rev the engine and do some rocking and pushing of the boat. The wind had really driven her hard onto the shore. Fortunately, I was on mud and not an oyster bed.

I'm just north of Charleston now. I'm going to spend tonight at a marina and check out the town. It's been about three weeks since I've paid for a marina. I've gotten pretty adept at the whole sponge bath thing, but the boat does need a power-wash, and I have a lot of laundry to do.

For the past couple days there has been a crackling noise in the hulls. Apparently, the noise is krill feasting on the algae on my hulls. I'll see if I can get a picture of them for you.

Egg Drop Ramen Soup

I know the picture doesn't look like much, and if I get any comments on this post, they will be ridiculing my cooking. But this soup and a cup of tea are how I start many a cold morning. It's delicious and nutritious. As anyone can tell you, ramen is a salty, yummy, and easy to prepare soup. It just doesn't have much nutritional value. It is an excellent base for adding other stuff like meat or canned vegetables.

A single egg isn't very filling, but it's packed with nutrition. An egg has everything you need except vitamin C (So again, eating this meal, and only this meal for several months at sea, will give you scurvy). When you eat an egg, it's like eating an entire chicken from beak to tail feather. And before you get on your high horse about dietary cholesterol, saturated fat is a much more important factor in determining blood cholesterol. Eating an egg a day isn't going to kill you, like a big juicy steak and a milk shake a day might.

I once got in a heated discussion at a party with a woman about mayonnaise (As my friends and family can tell you, it's sometimes seemingly innocuous things which will set me off, while the ordinary things which start arguments, like politics and religion don't seem to affect me). This woman worked for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. This is a group of busybodies who condemn all sorts of foods as being bad for you. What sticks in my mind is when in the 90s, they got lots publicity for condemning Chinese food. How about just saying that you should eat a varied diet? I don't know anyone who eats Chinese food everyday, except maybe a billion Chinese people, and these people look pretty healthy to me. I don't see a lot of overweight Chinese people.

Anyway, the woman said that around the office they had a saying that "Mayonnaise equals death." In fact, the exact opposite is true. Mayonnaise has every vitamin and mineral you need, including vitamin C. And besides, mayonnaise is a freakin condiment. I don't know anyone who sits down with a spoon and a big jar of mayonnaise and eats the whole thing, like some people do with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Mayonnaise, spread on a sandwich adds a lot of flavor and nutrition to that sandwich.

So that's my rant. Fire away in the comments section. Oh, and the recipe. Cook the ramen per instructions on package. Beat an egg. Slowly pour the egg into ramen while stirring the soup. The speed with which you stir the soup will determine the consistency of the egg. I'm not too particular.

If It's OK with You

Per the previous post, I've been up since just after midnight. Around 5 am I began to get a sense that the boat was listing. I checked the hull which I felt was sinking, but there was no water in it. I decided that in my exhaustion I was probably hallucinating. Maybe my sense of balance was off. Kind of like when you are in a highway tunnel, and there is no frame of reference, and you can't tell whether you are ascending or descending.

Well the off-balance feeling got more and more pronounced. Dawn and low tide came at about the same time. This was what I found. We dragged our anchor last night with all the wind. This is as hard aground as I've ever been. If no one has any objections, I think I'll stay here a while.

Sleepless Nights

I've had a string of nice days and restful nights. It's 4:52 am as I write this. I've been up since 12:45 am. The wind is howling and the rain pouring. The boat is bouncing against the bottom which feels hard like sand. I guess the anchor wasn't able to hold us, or maybe it's just that the tide is low. I'll survey the damage once it's light outside. I guess a lot of the country is enjoying this crappy weather. At least it's warm here.

I did finally capture a picture of a dolphin. It's hard to get a picture of them with the latency on the digital camera. I've seen dolphins almost daily since the middle of North Carolina. Some get quite close to the boat. I've been surprised at the small creeks I sometimes find them in. I mostly think of dolphins as ocean creatures.

Crabs for Christmas

I haven't been very successful at living off the bounty of the sea. I've been eating a lot more ham and cheese sandwiches than clam chowder or fish sandwiches. Yesterday, I tied up to a dilapidated dock. When I went ashore to stretch my legs, I found a drainage ditch full of crabs. I may not be the most talented clammer or oysterman, but one thing this Maryland boy knows is crabs. I grabbed my net and scooped these suckers up lickity split. I could have easily scooped up another dozen and more. Maybe that's breakfast this morning.

My favorite xmas album is Crabs for Christmas. Here is the title song: Crabs for Christmas. Oh Little Town of Baltimore is pretty strong, too. The other xmas songs on the album are pretty funny, but the rest of the songs are filler. If you have a Baltimoron in your life, and are looking for a xmas gift for him/her, you won't go wrong with this cd.

Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Left Little River early. I had been tied up to the fuel dock at B&W marina behind a huge gambling boat. I got in early enough last evening that I could have ridden that boat out three miles from shore and gambled to my heart's content until the boat returned later in the night. Fortunately, my brain is wired in such a manner that gambling does absolutely nothing for me. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy most vices. But gambling just irritates me. Instead, I just enjoyed the prop wash when the gambling boat left and returned.

I motored for a couple hours in the morning until I reached mile 387.5 on the icw. The tide was against me, and I wasn't making very good speed. At 1:30 or so the tide would turn and I could ride it down the Waccamaw River. The guidebook mentioned Brookgreen Gardens at mile 387.5, and made it sound very enticing. It sounded like an interesting side trip to make while waiting for the tide to turn. Unfortunately, the guidebook also said that the creek leading to the gardens was fenced off.

When I got to the creek, it was indeed fenced off, and No Trespassing signs were posted. I decided that the signs weren't really meant for me and my kayak. (And truthfully, fencing off a navigitable (sp?) creek off a public waterway sounds very sketchy to me. If I were arrested for being on that creek, and I had the time and money to waste, I'd fight the fence.)

I kayaked about half a mile up the creek and found this: Brookgreen Gardens

Temporary Rudder

It usually takes me three tries to get some sort of repair or home improvement project done right. The first attempt is often a total disaster which I chalk up as a learning experience. On the second attempt, I usually come up with a product, which if I'm not too fussy, I can live with. The third try is usually the charm.

I'll call this temporary rudder the second attempt rudder. The plan was to build some sort of temporary housing for the mahogany board. After I had bought the lumber and was thinking about how the board would fit, I realized that the board was unnecessary. Instead of buying these pieces of wood and connecting them together, I should have bought a single piece of 2x10. Then I would screw in a half dozen eye bolts which would connect it to the steel rod that it pivots on.

Andy, another Gemini owner who is replacing his rudder cages, has offered me his old cages. I should get them in January when I'm at a marina in Florida. But I think I'll also make another temporary rudder out of a single board and keep it on the boat. If a rudder busts again, I'll have a temporary rudder which I can pop in.

Wrightsville Beach

This is a destination. The guidebook speaks glowingly and vociferously about towns which are not worth dropping an anchor at. I'm starting to believe that the niceness of a town is inversely proportional to the amount of page space the guidebook devotes to the town. If it just says that there is an anchorage, and you can get gas and groceries, that's the place to stop.

Wrightsville Beach has a very large anchorage. It also has a small public dock that you can tie up to. You're not supposed to spend the night there, but it doesn't appear to be enforced. How do I know? The guy I was anchored next to disappeared last night, and when I tied up to the dock early this morning, he was there. Using my incredible powers of deduction, I concluded that he spent the night at the dock.

The laundry next to the public dock has been replaced by a restaurant. Too bad. All my cold weather clothes stink. But that's ok, the weather is warm, and I've switched back to shorts and tevas. There are a few stores and restaurants next to the dock, including a small grocery. The beach is a block away.

There is a West Marine, and hardware and grocery stores about two miles away. About five miles away are all the box stores you need. If you don't have a bike, you can rent one at a shop at the dock.

My only complaint about this area is that the people are not very friendly or nice. It's an affluent area and there are tons of pickup trucks with trailered fishing boats using the public boat ramp. This is a class of watermen whom I'm only fleeting aware of, but they seem to own this area. As a group, they are not very considerate, and some take particular pleasure in making as large a wake as possible with their small boat.

Of course, all this has been amplified by the beautiful weather on a December weekend.

The Worry List

Amy blogs again!

I'm looking forward to Amy's future post about Christmas in NYC. We walked Manhattan at Christmas time last year. Checked out Macy's, FAO Schwartz, etc. It was really pretty, despite the cold. And now Amy has a new camera. Her future Christmas post may be a little off topic, but it will remind me of xmas past.

And now, Professor Amy:

I am normally a bit of a worrier, and I come by it honestly. Whenever I would tell my mom about what I was up to, or thinking about getting up to, she would shake her head and call me by her pet name for me. These days, I find myself sitting in my warm, dry, office on land, reading this blog, shaking my head and thinking, "Oh, Scott."

Certainly, part of the problem is my lack of boating experience (addressed in my previous guest blog). Most of what I know about boating comes from movies involving some sort of man versus nature plotline. Movies like "The Perfect Storm," and "Titanic." Let me know when someone makes a movie about a calm and happy sailing trip down the ICW, and I'll be the first in line to see it.

Those of you who know Cap'n Scott, and his adventures in ingenuity, may also understand why I worry. This is the man who made eggnog by fashioning an egg beater out of a wisk and a power drill. (The nog was delicious, by the way.) And he dreams of making his own pressure-fryer to make the most succulent fried chicken. I think I'm speaking for others as well when I say that we're a little surprised that he hasn't blown himself up yet.

I've joked with Scott that he needs to add "Amy's Worry List" as an additional side bar on his blog. This list would be a tribute to the many times when reading his blog makes my stomach clench (and occasionally turn, as in the "cooking with Scott" feature). At present, this list includes: tugboats, small craft warnings, scurvy, Southern belles, and everything on his "Lost to the sea" sidebar list.

More to come, I'm sure.

Bridge Etiquette

There a lot of bridges on the icw. The modern highway bridges have a clearance of about 65 feet. The railroad and older highway bridges open for a sailboat to pass through. Some open at convenience. Most open on a schedule which may be on the hour and/or half. Schedules can be found in the dozier guidebook. When approaching a bridge, you should have your radio tuned to channel 13 (at least in the part of the icw I have passed through. Other areas may tune to other channels).

At all other times, your radio should be tuned to channel 16. I turn my radio on at least an hour before I weigh anchor, and first check the weather channel, and then tune to 16.

As I approach a bridge, I hail the bridge tender. "Such and such bridge, this is south bound sailing vessel Split Decision." The bridge tender will acknowledge. I respond, "Requesting passage during your X:XX am/pm opening."

Usually, s/he will acknowledge in the affirmative, with further instructions. I will respond, "Rodger", and slow my engine and approach slowly so that I will be near the bridge at opening.

Yesterday, that didn't happen. I was informed that the bridge would not be opening on schedule. I anchored off and waited. A little earlier than the newly scheduled opening, we were hailed by the bridge tender to prepare for passage. The other sailboat waiting did not respond. The bridge tender asked me to verbally hail him as I passed his anchorage. I was able to wake the owner from slumber. Good thing, because otherwise he might have spent the night anchored in the channel.

After you pass through the bridge, it is good etiquette to thank the bridge tender for passage.

Waylayed

Plan A is usually to make 20-30 miles and be at a snug anchorage by early afternoon. In the morning, I study the guidebook, charts, online satellite imagery, weather and tides. Plan A works about 50% of the time.

Yesterday, Plan A was derailed by the Figure Eight Island Bridge being closed from 1-4 pm. During the two hour break I jumped in the water very briefly, then paddled to shore to do some clamming and oystering. I wasn't very successful. Although there were a bunch of exposed oyster beds (It was near low tide), all the oysters looked a lot smaller than the ones you see at a restaurant. If anyone has advice on how to clam and oyster down here, I'd appreciate it.

I got to Wrightsville Beach at sunset. The anchorage here is huge and uncrowded (at least this time of year). The weather is nice, and I'm wearing shorts and tevas. The winds are supposed to be calm all week and temps are to reach to 80 F. I've already had two (count 'em. two) back to back nights of restful sleep. I'm looking forward to a nice string of such nights. Already my aching muscles which have been contracted against the cold for a week, are starting to relax and loosen up.

Oorah!

Despite a small craft advisory in effect for the entire day, the weather calmed and the sun came out as I passed through Camp Lejeune yesterday afternoon. Not much action going on at the camp. I heard the distant thunder of what may have been artillery. And saw some helicopters practicing low flying maneuvers.

Anchored a couple miles past the camp. Soon after, a local waterman motored up in his skiff. I was anchored about 50 yards from his dock, and he invited me to tie up to his dock. His four kids had quite a time climbing all over the boat that evening.

Fatigue

Left Beaufort at dawn's early light yesterday. There was a small craft advisory beginning at 11am, and I wanted to get a few miles down the road before that set in. Ideally, the time to go through Beaufort/Morehead City is low tide. You can then ride the rising tide down Bogue Sound. The tide was strong as I went against it. At times I was making less than 4 mph.

I saw a bunch of dolphins as I passed under the bridge at Beaufort. One surfaced so close to the boat that I could have touched it with my whisker pole. I suppose they were feeding on fish pushed through the narrows by the tide.

Bogue Sound is unremarkable. It's just a wide expanse of water whose shores are lined with nondescript houses and McMansions. I'm down where there are some sandbar/islands. They're nice to look at, but I haven't seen any goats on them, as the guidebook suggested I might.

The small craft advisory turned out to be overblown. Maybe the sound is just so shallow that there isn't enough water outside the dredged channel for waves to build up. I spent the night in a tiny inlet. I was as protected as I could be, but the wind still howled and I got another lousy night's sleep. This morning it is very cold, and felt even more so as I made about five miles with the wind at my back. No dodger to hide behind.

I'm at another inlet waiting a couple hours. I want to go through Bogue inlet at low tide. The guidebook suggests the tides can be quite strong through there and I do have to pass under a bridge.

The cold and sleepless nights are beginning to wear on me. I have no heat on the boat. There is a built-in heat pump, and I have an electric space heater, but I can't use either of those while at anchor. I'm quite jealous of the little heater that Leon and Kim have on their boat. Recently there has been some discussion of this model on the Sailnet forums. I grabbed the picture from one of the postings (L&K, if you have a picture of yours, I'd replace this picture with your picture. I don't have permission to use this picture. And I think the inside of your boat is even nicer than this boat.)

Everyone had nice things to say about the heater. I might have to get one someday when I have more time and money. It's externally vented, so there are no worries about CO and fumes. The model name is Newport, and it is manufactured by Dickenson. It costs about $700.

The NWS is calling for temps in the 60s and 70s, and calm winds this weekend. They better not be lying.

Beaufort Blows

I decided to come down to Beaufort after the tide rose and I was ungrounded. Big mistake. There is next to nowhere to anchor here and protection from the weather blows. There are two small anchorages. The one I'm in is full of derelict and most likely abandoned boats.

From Dozier's Waterway Guide:

The Beaufort waterfront is one of the best on the ICW, offering a wide selection of antiques stores, shops and restaurants within a short walking radius.

If they mean a bunch of knick-knack and t-shirt shops, and a half dozen restaurants, I'm all in. Otherwise, they are smoking crack.

I did walk about two miles and back, to the strip mall area where I bought groceries and some lumber and hardware to make a temporary repair so that I will have two rudders. I'll post a report when I have that done.

Best thing about Beaufort, two dollar shower at the public dock.

This'll Give Ya Scurvy

It's another episode of "Cooking with Capt' Scott". In this week's episode we learn what to eat when we're hard aground and can't make it to the grocery store for fresh vittles. Chop up two or more hot dogs. Boil water for mac & cheese. Toss in mac & dogs.

(Tossing in the dogs now will help kill anything that might be growing on the dogs because you don't have refrigeration. Probably nothing is growing because hot dogs are already cooked and full of chemicals. But we're just being safe.)

Finish mac & cheese per instructions on box. Consume. Warning: do not eat this everyday. There is no vitamin C in this meal, and you will get scurvy after a couple months at sea eating nothing but mac & dogs.

Status Report

So, I'm at mile 200 of the Intracostal Waterway (icw). Mile 0 was at Norfolk. I hope to spend January at a marina in Florida. That will be at mile 717+. According to the gps, I've been averaging 5.5-6.5 mph while motoring, depending on current and wind, etc. I can comfortably motor up to 30 miles a day. More than that and I get too fatigued. It's sort of like driving a car, although I don't have to keep my hands on the wheel all the time. I can scurry into the galley to make a sandwich.

I think I should easily make Florida by January, but I don't want to be in a rush. The trip is as much about the journey, as it is the destination. I won't be crushed if I end up somewhere in Georgia for January.

The traffic in the cut between mile 190 and 200 was the heaviest yet. Most of it was small boat traffic, so it wasn't all that hairy. Although a couple powerboats got uncomfortably close. I felt like I could reach out and touch their bow. I don't know what their problem was. There was plenty of room in the cut.

Also saw a couple pods of dolphins frolicking in Adams creek. That was pretty cool.

And for those of you waiting for me to finally run hard aground, I've done it, sort of... I guess I came in to this inlet at high tide yesterday. I was planning on motoring the last couple miles to Beaufort this morning. But my "too powerful" engine can't get me out of this muck that we're stuck in as the tide lowers. The tide will start rising again around ten am. Coincidentally, that is when a gale warning goes into effect. Guess I'm stuck here another day.

The picture is me watching football yesterday. It's a little hard to make out the game on the screen. Something about the scan rate of the camera and tv. Reception on the tv was pretty good. It's the first football game I've been able to pick up in the icw. The internet, tv and phone have been pretty sketchy since Alligator River. All that should be a lot better from here on out.

On a Gem with No Name

I'm getting new rudder cages! Or maybe used ones? I have the contact info for the manufacturer of the original steel cages. Richard, on the Gemini forums, pointed me in the right direction. Thanks Richard! Another guy on the forums is replacing his cages, and might let me have his old ones. That would be great because new ones are very expensive, and I've been hemorrhaging cash the past couple months.

One of my main concerns about the cages is that my mahogany boards will fit into them. My boards are a slightly different shape than those on the newer Geminis. By fortuitous happenstance, there was a classic gem in the creek with us last night. In the morning, I kayaked over and took a ton of pictures and measurements of the rudder cages. Then I paddled back and got one of my boards. I was able to fit it into the cage. It isn't an exact fit. I'll have to make some modifications to the new cages, but it will work.

I don't know who the other Gemini belongs to. The boat wasn't even named. Whoever the boat belongs to, I apologize for molesting your boat. I did not board the boat. I was able to do everything from my kayak on the water. Recently, there has been some discussion on the Gemini forums about boat security. One guy suggested he would shoot anyone who messed with his boat. I'm glad the boat didn't belong to that guy.

Great Expectations

Belhaven, and the River Forest Marina had come highly recommended to me. Peter had nice things to say about it. The guide book had nice things to say about it. And the marina had a full page ad in the guidebook touting it's amenities. I thought I would be relaxing in a jacuzzi, playing tennis (my racket is on the boat), and eating dinner at an extravagant smorgasbord in a Grand Southern Mansion.

I did none of these things.

I don't want to dissuade you from coming here. It is nice enough. But it's nothing to write home about. The best thing was the golf carts at the marina. You can ride them about town and to the freeway bypass where there is a grocery store, strip mall, and a couple dollar stores.

The town and marina have seen better days. Everything is just a little run down. It is not without charm. You will easily find most things you need. It just wasn't the treat I was expecting.

On a brighter note, my anchor supply is replenished. And I have a lead on new rudders.

Drivin that Train, High on Cocaine

The first twenty miles or so of my journey yesterday were in a ditch. There is nowhere to anchor in this ditch, until you reach mile 120. The ditch opens up a little there, and there are some private piers. Even there, I wouldn't anchor, unless it's an emergency. The charts show a small inlet before that, and the guidebook mentions it as a tight anchorage. I don't know how you could get anything more than a dingy or skiff into that inlet.

The drive down the ditch was uneventful except... early on a tug passed. I tried to get off to the side to let him pass. When I passed into his wake, and back into the center, my steering was seriously degraded. I checked the centerboards. They had been pushed up into the hull. They could have been pushed up by a shoal while I was off to the side, but I actually think the tug's wake pushed them up. The wake didn't look like much on the surface. There were no waves. It mas just a lot of swirls behind. But I bet it's prop was putting off a lot of force underwater.

The wind picked up over the course of the day. It was at my back, and I was tempted to put up a sail. You'll be happy to know that I waited until I was out of the ditch to do so. I motor-sailed another 5-10 miles to Belhaven.

My gas worries were unfounded. Maybe I had been leaking a lot of fuel from the fuel bowl. Maybe putting up a sail really helped. All I know is that the engine sipped gas compared to it's past fuel consumption. That's great, because I spent about $100 on fuel at the Alligator River Marina. I don't do a lot of driving on land, so I'm not used to dropping a c note at the pump. Nice to know that I won't have to do that on a daily basis.

The shore along the ditch was mostly undeveloped. But even there you can't escape the billboards.

Cooking with Capt' Scott

I'm out of fresh food. I was going to resupply while getting gas in the Outer Banks. But as you remember, I got a ride from a passerby to the gas station and back. I did not want to impose on the guy's generosity by asking him to wait while I went grocery shopping. I figured I would be able to stock up at the Alligator Marina. I was wrong. Although they had the space and refrigeration to stock fresh food, they did not. All they had was an array of sodas and beer, as well as canned and prepared foods. They did have a stack of eggs in the grill display case, but they would not sell any of them to me.

Note to convenience store owners: you might want to visit a 7-11, or other national chain. I'm sure those guys have done extensive market research to decide what to stock in their stores to maximize profit. You can piggyback on this research for free by just looking at what they stock, and copying it in your store.

So anyway, I'm out of eggs, sandwich meat, cheese, etc. This morning I made a "One Pot Scott" special. Open a couple cans of vegetables. Heat the contents of the cans, including broth to boiling. Turn off heat. Add vegetable oil and dried milk. Stir in instant potatoes until desired consistency is obtained. Add seasoning to taste.

You can measure the ingredients if you want. I'm too lazy.

Lord of the Flies

I've been asked if I feel like I have escaped the ravages of Winter yet. Some signs that I may already have: I wore shorts, shirt and tevas while doing laundry at the marina. There were dandilion flowers in the lawn. My boat suffered an infestation of flies yesterday until I opened the hatches and shoed them away. And I had to close the hatches last night because I started getting bitten by mosquitoes.

I had a delightful motor-sail up the river yesterday with the jib up. According to the gps, the jib added about a mile an hour to my speed. I throttled back the engine, and would have liked to have put up the main and turned off the engine, but I think the engine provides a lot of my steering now that I have only one working rudder. I did have some engine problems at the beginning of the day. It wouldn't start. I took the cowl off, and while cranking the engine, I noticed fuel dripping from the plastic fuel bowl. I disassembled it and found that the gasket was hard and cracked. I searched around the boat for something out of which I could fashion a replacement. I found a gasket kit for the Raritan toilet. It included a gasket with the same outer diameter as the fuel bowl gasket. So now my fuel bowl has a toilet bowl gasket.

I disassembled and cleaned the carb for good measure. What the heck, at this point I could do that with my eyes closed. I also thought the carb could had gotten clogged again and caused excess pressure to build up in the fuel bowl. Reassembled, the engine started right up. I think the ignition wiring may also have been wet. We had steady rain yesterday and some dense fog. Having the cowl off in the sun and wind may have dried it out.

I saw a dolphin tracking the boat about 30 yards off the port bow yesterday. I was pretty surprised, seeing how far I was from the ocean. No alligators though. I don't think I mentioned that I'm pretty damn sure that I saw an eagle while I was passsing through the Coinjock strait. That's pretty cool. I don't think I've ever seen an eagle in the wild before. Also spent the afternoon watching fighter jet excercises over the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge. Every twenty minutes or so, a pair of jets would pass low over the boat and execute some twists and turns over the refuge and then fly back by over the river. Quite a racket as they passed over. I hope they weren't practicing bombing runs on my boat as part of their excercises.

I'm Learning

The plan today was to head down the Alligator River to the canal. However, with head winds from the south of 15-20 knots, and winds up to 25 knots predicted tonight, I decided a better plan would be to spend the night at the Alligator River Marina. I haven't been at a marina since Norfolk. Me, my clothes and the boat are getting pretty dirty and stinky. Time for a shower, laundry and power wash. The marina is very basic, just how Peter described it in the comments. It's nothing more than a gas station (for cars and boats), with a laundry and showers.

Unfortunately, the restaurant is closed. But they do have a little grill. The cheeseburger was one of the best I remember having in a long time. The burger didn't look like it was a prefab patty, and I had it with all the toppings they had, and extra mayo. It was a greasy mess. mmmmmm. The fries were actually potato wedges. They came out of the fryer piping hot. I burnt my tongue on the first one before I let them cool down.

I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep in the marina, while the wind howls out on the river. Tomorrow the winds are supposed to be at my back 10-15 knots and diminishing in the evening. Don't tell anyone, but I might put up a sail, if the wind is right. I have about 50 miles to go until the next services. The last stretch of that is in a long skinny canal, with lots of traffic. I have about 30 gallons of gas on board, which should be plenty. But I'm extra careful after the bad fuel experience. It'd be a great blog post if I ran out of gas in the canal, but I'm hoping to forgo that.

Too Cute

Woke up this morning and headed over to a public boat ramp in Kitty Hawk Bay. There are no services on the water here. The depths are bad and there are no boats besides skiffs here. I was running low on all sorts of things, the most important being gas. My plan was to walk about a mile or so to a gas station I saw the other day while stocking up for a Thanksgiving meal. I took two gas tanks off the boat. I was going to put a few gallons in each one and bring them back to the boat. They are too heavy to carry full that distance. I knew I might have to do the trip a couple times to get enough gas.

Anyway, I walk out of the parking lot of the boat ramp and get about 20 feet before a car passes, stops and backs up. The driver asks me if I need a ride. I was in heaven. I got a ride to the gas station and back. A task that I figured might take me a couple hours, was completed in twenty minutes.

This mirrors my experience on Thanksgiving day. I did walk all the way to the grocery store, but as I left the parking lot with my bags, I stuck out my thumb and the first guy to pass me, picked me up. Nice folks in Kitty Hawk.

What you might not know about me, is that when I was in college, I did quite a lot of hitch-hiking. I've hitch-hiked the entire length of the eastern seaboard, from the northern tip of Nova Scotia to Key West. Also hitch-hiked from DC to school in Michigan, and back a few times. That was at the tail end of when you could hitch-hike. I think I was only able to do it because I looked young, clean-cut and had a backpack with me.

I'm doing a similar adventure now, only instead of riding in strangers' cars, I'm mostly riding in my boat.

The motor to Alligator River was uneventful except... I tried to take a shortcut. I got too cute. I saw an inlet on the charts and on Google maps where it looked like I might be able to cut into a creek and take a few miles off the day's trip. If you go to nautig, I've uploaded the days track, and you can see where I tried to enter. It was at high tide, and I thought I could do it. I was wrong. I ran hard aground. I decided to get in my kayak and explore the inlet to see if there was a channel anywhere in there. There was not. I could have put my rubber boots on and walked across the inlet to the other side, but there was no way I was bringing the boat with me. The bottom was sand. Unlike the Chesapeake where it's mostly mud, there was no way I could force the boat across. Anyway, I fired up the motor and backed off the sand and out the inlet.

Before I started this trip, I was talking to an old coot about it. He wanted to know all about the boat. When I told him the engine I had, his response was that it was too powerful. Too Powerful!?! That's like saying someone is too good looking, has too much smarts, or money. Is there such a thing? I thank my too powerful engine for easily getting me off the sandbar this morning.

Of course, the guy also had tons of advice he wanted to give. The advice came with a large dose of descriptions of what an accomplished sailor he is... How he'd go out sailing when the weather was getting rough and everyone else was coming in. And how he didn't even need a motor. He could sail his boat into the slip without one.

I don't want to pollute my blog with such rubbish. Yah, I could go on and on about what a great sailor I am, and I could leave out the trials and tribulations I've faced while sailing. But how interesting would that be? I think it's a lot more interesting, informative, and funny to hear about how I've lost three anchors in the space of a month. If you get tired of that, I can always lie. You're not on the boat. How would you know?

You Rock!

Thank you for hooking me up with tunes for the road. It makes all the difference when I'm spending hour after hour motoring. I might have to put a sidebar with "Currently Playing".

The Repairs Continue

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the swim ladder had partially torn away from the hull. On the left of the picture are the nuts, bolts and washers which held one of the two swim ladder brackets to the hull. Even I, as a layman, can see that this is pretty pathetic hardware. I think the only reason this didn't break years ago, is simply that this boat rarely, if ever left the dock.

On the right is the mending strap with which I reinforced the hardware on the inside of the hull. I have a whole box of these things which I thought I might use to repair the rudder. Instead, I think I'm going to be using them throughout the boat. When I was in the hull doing the repair, I noticed lots more of these bolts coming through the hull. Apparently, just about everything connected to the boat is connected with similar sized bolts. INCLUDING THE MAST STAYS! The rudder breaking was about as much excitement as I can take. How exciting would it be if I were dismasted in a storm. I don't know what the folks at PCI were smoking in the 80s when this boat was built, but it must have been the stickiest of the icky wicky.

I'm leaving the beach this morning to head down the Alligator river. Verizon's coverage looks spotty and slow in this area. If you don't hear much from me the next few days, don't worry, I'm fine. No, I have not been eaten by an alligator. While I motor across the remaining part of Albemarle sound in what, according to the NWS, are to be five knot winds, I'll be thanking God that I'm not nearly as much of an asshat as this clown

Boyfriend Tracker 1.1 Released

This post was written yesterday, but delayed until BFT 1.1 was ready. Please let me know of additional bugs that need to be fixed. Beautiful moon last night.

I told Amy before I left that she would be able to track my trip progress on NautiG. It'd be like she had a lowjack on me! Unfortunately, with all the adventures I've been having, I haven't had time to work out the bugs in BFT 1.0. While at anchor here, I've had some time, and I've worked out most of the major bugs. If you go to NautiG, and press the "Track" menu button, my day's course will be displayed on the map. Use the forward and back buttons to progress through the trip. There is some missing data. Sorry. If you see a straight line, that is a period when my gps was off for some reason. Probably my vista laptop had crashed.

At the risk of worrying some, and confirming to others their suspicions that I am indeed a moron, I'm going to tell you anyway... I've lost two anchors to the sea gods in a span of less than twelve hours. Fortunately, I had three anchors aboard, but I'm down to a pathetic little thing that grandpa had in his garage. It seems to be holding, and the winds are supposed to calm over the course of the day. And before you get your panties all up in a bunch, there is a plan B,C and D etc... I'm in an inlet, not out at sea.

I don't know why these things keeps happening. I never lost an anchor when I had the Pearson. Now, for those of you keeping score at home, I've lost three anchors in the course of about a month.

Last night there were gale warnings. I moved the boat just behind a grove of trees on shore that was blocking the wind. At about 11 pm I was awoken by the wind. It's direction had flipped 180 degrees, and was howling. It didn't stop all night. Needless to say, I did not sleep well.

When I weighed anchor this morning, the secondary anchor was missing. The line and anchor "poof" disappeared. I only tossed it out as a safety, in case the primary failed. It had plenty of slack line, and little if any tension should have been put on it over the night. It was connected to a cleat with a standard hitch.

I motored over to a quieter anchorage this morning. After a few minutes at anchor here, I noticed that I was drifting. I weighed anchor, but there was no anchor to weigh.

I can't say that I wasn't warned about the anchors. I think it was Maryanne who told me that I should have two connections to each anchor. I guess I'm just a slow learner. Off to the anchor store tomorrow, once the weather calms down. I'll make sure to have two connections to each new anchor, and check them every time I use them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wish you were here.

The Illustrious Dad, Dr. Dick

I asked my dad to occasionally guest blog, and add his perspective of my journey to the blog. I think you'll love him. I certainly do.

(I hope you notice the symmetry of this introduction to that of an earlier introduction. Happy Thanksgiving!)


BACK TO THE BEGINNINGS

How does one get to be a sailing nut? Well, Scott comes by it honestly. It started with his dad taking sailing lessons on a mountain lake near State College, PA when Scott was just a tyke. His dad was hooked on sailing after a sail in Boston harbor with an Army buddy in a Snipe, the weekend of his buddy’s wedding.



You can see Scott here with his first sailboat (a wooden Sailfish) with his parents. Unfortunately he did not get a lot of sailing time in this in Florida, where we had moved. It leaked and became sluggish in the water. He later got a fiberglass Sailfish and sailed it on the Potomac, but Dad burned that one up (another story, best forgot).

Contributing to necessary skills for a sailor, his dad made sure he knew how to swim after a scary incident. At about eighteen months old he was walking along the edge of a Florida water-filled sinkhole behind his parents. This was a spot where scuba divers like to do underwater cave exploring. When his parents looked behind they did not see Scott. Running back about fifty feet, we found him under about a foot of water, on his back looking up, holding his breath with puffed cheeks. That started a regimen of getting him to jump into the pool and paddling out increasing distances to me. This paid off later as a teenager in the Washington suburbs, when he was on neighborhood and high school swim teams and piled up an impressive stack of trophies. This will be a fall back capability if his boat sinks!



After his parents took sailing lessons at the Annapolis Sailing School, they bought a Rainbow, a 24 foot boat that the midshipmen at the Naval Academy learned on. During his formative years we spent many a day on the Chesapeake near the Rhode River sailing, swimming, and crabbing. Because it had a 4 foot keel, we also spent lots of time getting off being grounded. With a keel boat, they say that if you haven’t grounded in the Chesapeake, you haven’t sailed the Chesapeake. Maybe that is why he enjoys his catamaran so much and brags about not being grounded.



Later when he was on his own, he bought a sailboat with some friends in the Baltimore area. On a few sailing trips that he invited us on near Baltimore, we brought one of our dogs along. On the first sail, just a few hundred yards from the dock, Sho-me the dog, decided he would like to investigate something off the beam, but didn’t realize the footing wasn’t so great. So dad leaped in to save him.(ed. note: Another great story, to be told on the blog, later...) Here he is with Scott, later in the sail when we were anchored off an island, ready to climb back on board after exploring the island. Sho-Me still looks a little uncertain about it all. I think he enjoys visiting the Wharf Rat Brew Pub near Scott’s house a lot more than sailing.

Scott tells me he is retired now. I’m still working, nearing 70. My friends tell me something is wrong with this picture, but I’m thinking it’s me, not Scott. I really envy him his trip. Good sailing!!!

It's 70 and Sunny

I've decided to spend Thanksgiving at the beach. The Outer Banks are just off the ICW. As a happy byproduct of this decision, I'll avoid most of the dreaded Albemarle sound crossing. Although, the weather is supposed to be beautiful today, so I don't think the crossing would have been too bad.

I'll probably spend a few days at the beach. I'm in North Carolina now. I feel like I've actually accomplished something by getting here. I'm starting to believe that I might make it to Florida by January.

There's a long stream of boats traveling South here. I'm very impressed with the etiquette of the power boaters. They zoom up behind you and then power down while passing. Then they zoom up to the next sailboat down the line. The wake still bounces you up and down, but it's not as bad as it could have been. I wish the power boaters in Baltimore were as considerate.

I might do some surfing this weekend, if I can find a reasonably priced wet suit.

If you are traveling this weekend, please be safe. There's bumper to bumper traffic on the icw, and the waves can get wicked crossing the Albemarle sound.

I Helped Someone!

That's right. Unlike most of my other posts, this one is not about how something broke on the boat, or some bone-headed thing I did, and how some complete stranger helped me fix the problem I created. This post is about how I helped Leon and Kim get their boat free from being hard aground. Leon fashioned a harness which he connected to his mast halyard and with the harness attached to my boat, I heeled them over and they pulled themselves off with their anchor winch.

Although as Amy pointed out in an email:

Me:

I think it's my fault (they're aground). I was ahead of them. We had talked about where to anchor. I pulled in and saw that the depths were not good. I should have called them, and would have, but they arrived more quickly than expected. I tried to tow them off, but they are hard aground. I've already forgotten what a pain in the ass that is in a monohull.

Amy:

oh that stinks. Now that you're not in a boat that goes aground, you're making other people do it!


Their boat is beautiful. They bought it three years ago, and immediately hauled it out of the water to work on it. Supposedly, most everything on the boat had been in fairly decent condition, but they ended up replacing most of it anyway. It's incredible inside. At dinner last night, I felt like I was at a tiny bed and breakfast. Leon did the woodwork in the boat himself, and it's really nice. Kim did the upholstery. They have a little stove that puts off a lot of heat, and looks like a miniature wood stove with flames dancing inside, but I forget what it actually runs on. There's nothing more you might wish for on their boat, except maybe a shoal draft.

Their boat puts my boat to shame. But there is an old saw that a captain goes asea in the boat he has, not the boat he wishes for. I'm on this trip almost on a lark. Yah, I had been dreaming about it for years. And I was a hair away from doing it a couple years ago, but if you asked me in June what my plans for the Winter were, I would not have responded that I was going to the Bahamas in a sailboat.

I've been looking at Gemini catamarans for a few years now. I forget when or how they first caught my eye. I saw this boat online about a year ago. It caught my eye because of the price. It was priced at the low end for Geminis, but reasonably for a classic Gem. As the months passed, the boat remained for sale, and the price dropped. Finally this Summer, the price dropped to an unheard of level for a Gemini. I knew that it had to sell now, regardless of the boat condition. I had a heart to heart talk with myself. Was I serious about this dream of the Bahamas, or was I just a poser? I called the number listed for the boat and set up an appointment to see it.

When I inspected the boat, I knew immediately why it hadn't sold. It hadn't even left the dock in at least five years. The steering was frozen, and who knew whether the engine would run. The owner wouldn't let me try to start it. The headliner inside was falling down, and the interior was decorated like your grandma's house. Nonetheless, it was a Gemini, and had good bones. I knew there wasn't anything on the boat that I am not capable of dealing with, or learning how to deal with. I made the owner an offer with a further reduction to the unheard of price. I told her that I would pay cash for the boat, "as is, where is", without a professional inspection or demand that anything be fixed. I think she had just reached a level of frustration with trying to sell the boat, and she immediately accepted the offer.

There's another old saw, that it's easy to buy a boat, but difficult to sell a boat. I think that's because of sellers' unreasonable expectations of price. The owner has usually loved the boat and put a lot of time and money into it. The owner expects to recoup a lot of that money at sale. Well, that's unlikely to happen. The number of people looking to buy a boat at any one time is small, and the number of boats for sale is much larger.

I have dreams of fixing up this boat, like I fixed up my house. I bought both of them very cheaply, from frustrated owners, and they both had good bones when I bought them. Unfortunately, I'm getting the feeling that the experience with the boat is going to be more like my experience with my old pickup. I've basically driven my pickup into the ground. It still runs, and is sitting in grampa's backyard during the trip. I'd get rid of it, if anything significant broke on it, like the clutch or engine. But everything that breaks seems to cost me about fifteen dollars for the part, and is something I can fix myself.

I think there may be a lesson in this post for people trying to sell their house in this crummy market. You might want to price your house reasonably. Otherwise, it probably won't sell for months, and it will be for a price a lot lower than you would have gotten had you priced reasonably to begin with. And it will sell to a douche bag like me. But I thank you for it.

OK, off to fix the swim ladder which tore away from the hull yesterday.

Great Bridge Lock

Entering the lock

In the lock

Sailboat follows in

Everyone in

Facing forward

Out of the lock, bridge just beyond

Let the tug pass first


The lock was fun, but I'm not sure of it's purpose. It only raised us a few inches, if anything. Maybe it does more under different weather conditions. There is a drought now. The Dismal Swamp route is closed. It's supposed to be a prettier route. I'm on the Virginia Cut.

The lock tenders call you Cap'n, which is fun. "Cap'n tie up here. Cap'n start your engine." You can tie up beyond the lock, before or after the bridge. The road over the bridge is lined with ugly strip malls. Lots of chain stores and restaurants within easy walking distance. I had lunch at Wendy's. The 99 cent cheeseburger deluxe is delicious. There were actually real, identifiable vegetables as toppings, unlike McDonald's. I don't know why I always go to McDonald's. The fries were underwhelming, though.

Spent the day starting and stopping while waiting for bridges which only open hourly. At the second to last bridge, there was a guy in a sailboat waving to me. I wasn't sure why he was waving, but it clicked in my head later that it might be Ron, a guy from my marina in Baltimore who is making the trip. I had heard a call on the radio earlier to a sailboat Gypsy. Gypsy is a boat owned by a young couple from Maryland, also making the trip. But I've already encountered a few boats named Gypsy.

Sure enough, at the last bridge, the couple pulled up (my boat is pretty fast under motor, and I got to the bridges more quickly than others). Everyone switched to another channel and we caught up on recent goings ons, and made dinner plans. Dinner was delicious. Indian curry and basmati rice. But the couple is hard aground about 50 yards off my stern. I think it's my fault. I got to the anchorage first and saw that the depths weren't great. I was going to call them, but they got here quicker than I expected. They draw six feet. I recommend to anyone doing this trip, to do so in a shoal draft boat.

I tried to pull them off last night. I've already forgotten what a pain in the ass it is to be aground in a monohull. My depth meter often goes to zero, or just registers nonsense, when I'm in an anchorage. At first, I thought the meter wasn't working correctly. But I've been in some clear water, and I can look down and see the bottom, and a thin line which my centerboards are carving through the mud. I could drive this boat in a puddle, and not get stuck. Anyway, we'll try again this morning. We'll tie a line to their mast, and see if I can't heel them over and pull them off.