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.