Home, sweet home

I am now high and dry, 70 miles from any salt water. Last night and this morning I drove from Southport, NC, to Gainesville. 

I brought Don 50' of nylon 3-strand line and some dacron line from Newport as a birthday present. You just can't get this stuff inland.

I have just a few loads of laundry and some unpacking to do and then I'll be settled in again. We are expecting a houseful for Thanksgiving, so I'd better get baking those pies. Son Jesse is flying up from the Virgin Islands, where he captains a boat. Green and family will no doubt have a quiet, lovely Thanksgiving as they cruise through the Carolinas. 

Happy Thanksgiving, ALL. I am certainly grateful to have had this adventure and to be with my family. Cheers!

Fun with engine and transmission on a cold night with almost no sleep.

I did 7 loads of laundry and helped Green fold and put away sails. We also were highly entertained watching boats attempting to dock. Some people have NO clue. One guy came in under sail with the wind behind him, so there was no way to stop. He had run out of fuel. Happily, Green helped the dockmaster get the boat stopped and tied up. Otherwise they would have run right into our boat....

Getting normal

Tuesday, November 20?

This marina in Southport, NC is so nice. Virtually everyone else going south has already passed through, so the marina is empty and they are giving us first class care. I am on the 7th load of laundry and have taken many hot showers so far. 

Upon arriving, we sent William off to join family for Thanksgiving. We cleared out the galley (kitchen) and the main salon in order to, yes, remove the 450-pound engine, disconnect the transmission, and haul the tranny quietly to the rental car. This was on 3-hours' sleep and in the cold after dark, since the heater isn't working. So the sink, the plumbing, the table, etc, were all shoved out of the way to make way to lift the engine out of the floor. Green built a wooden structure and used 2 block and tackles to hoist (grunting) the engine inch by inch out of the space below the floor. Everything had to be disconnected: blowers, gear shifts, hoses, engine mount bolts. We had to do this after the marina employees left because we didn't want them to know we had dismantled the guts of the boat at their fancy marina. We kept the exterior looking all prissy and nice. Little did they know!!!!!

Yesterday, Wednesday, we drove to Wilmington to drop off the transmission at a place that could fix it. We ran errands and got a few supplies and felt it to be a successful day. In the afternoon a distant relative saw Green's post on facebook and came over to visit. Turns out they live 5 minutes away. It was a brief visit, as 4 giant sailbags were all over the floor, a hose running into a watertank, and the cockpit was soaked from a fresh water rinse off. I was in the middle of making a sweet potato pie. They were good-natured and generous, offering food, laundry facilities and transportation. 

Here's a photo Green took of one of the various sunrises on the trip, perhaps at dawn off the NY/New Jersey coast. We also saw a MOONBOW after the lumpy passage from Cape Hatteras to Beaufort. A small reward for enduring Neptune's wrath of nasty squalls off the Gulf Stream.

Thawing out and cleaning up

Baufort impressions:

This bike clearly spent a good deal of time underwater. I doubt the brakes work well. And the barnacles on the seat might not be too comfortable.

It's definitely past tourist season now. We dined out in a virtually empty restaurant. There was no traffic, so I did my favorite thing and lay down on Main Street.

Beaufort was a nice break. The guys went surfing the one time.  But instead of going again on Monday morning, we set sail and headed SW for the next destination. We left on Monday, hoping to get favorable, although freezing winds, for an 80+ mile sail down to Cape Fear/Wilmington area by the next morning. The weather was sunny and pretty nice as we left Beaufort. As we sailed (too close) by Camp LeJeune, the marine bootcamp, we were buzzed by various military planes. Turns out we were sailing within their restricted space. No doubt they knew all about us well before that!

We kept waiting and waiting for the next cold front to push us on a favorable tack towards Cape Fear. It came pretty late, causing us to have to tack all over the place to get away from shore. But by my watch at 10 PM it kicked in and we had a wooly sail off the wind, dancing along in 30+ knots of wind. (For you non-sailors, a knot is slightly more than a mile an hour and 30 knots is a handful of weather. Fair weather sailing is 10-20 knots. )

This is actually a photo of a nice, mellow day on the water. Picture a 5' chop splashing spray into our faces for 4 hours and you will get the idea of the fun we had in Cape Fear River.

By morning we had to turn into the wind, which was now blowing freezing air at about 40 knots. We had to BASH into the channel, which took hours. As we entered the inlet to the Cape Fear River, we breathed a sigh of relief, hoping the winds would mellow out. Wrong. It was nasty and windy, with a very steep chop that soaked us with spray and nearly stopped the boat dead on each wave as we slogged up towards Wilmington, 23 or so miles up the river. When the current switched against us, we realized that with a limping transmission and straight into the wind, we had no chance of getting up the river. UGH.

So we turned around and headed back down the river, undoing 2 hours of hideous slogging, and pulled into a very nice marina on the Inland Waterway in sheltered waters. Hot showers! Laundromat! Land! My sea legs really felt the motion of the ocean as I walked around on land.

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Sunday, November 17  Beaufort, NC

Today we had time to clean up the boat and laze around a little. We got in the dinghy and circumnavigated Carrot Island, seeing the wild horses and lots of water birds, sting rays and fish. 

In the afternoon I baked toffee bars and wrote on this blog while the guys went SURFING out by Cape Lookout, on the Outer Banks, about 9 miles from here. The water is in the upper 50's and I don't surf. No thanks to that.

This is a much needed day of rest(?!) before we sail off to Wrightsville Beach tomorrow afternoon when the NW winds come in. We'll sail along the coast, not far out, and it should be a good sail, even with a cold front. It's a SOUTHERN cold front.

The 3 of us get along really well. Green is so competent and his boat is so seaworthy and trustworthy. William is not super experienced but he is calm and mellow and can get in there and drag down the jib in pounding seas without complaint. He doesn't get intimidated by 50-mph winds and rotten seas and he even cooks and does dishes! He's a keeper.

Saturday, November 16  Beaufort, NC

It's sunny and about 65 here. We went ashore after anchoring and hanging out all our wet foul weather gear: jackets, harnesses, boots, gloves and also wet bedding. 
Beaufort is still cute and touristy and historical. We found a restaurant that had fresh scallops, shrimp and crabcakes and homemade eclairs. We had a drink and appetizer and then headed home. 

We grilled a steak for dinner and all fell asleep by 8:00, sleeping for 11 hours straight.

Why it's a bad idea to annoy the gods of the sea

Friday, November 15, 2013-Saturday16, November   Cape Hatteras to Beaufort, NC

Headed around the top part of Hatteras. On my dawn watch we noticed serious transmission problems. Green called his tranny guys, who said to pamper it and go no faster than 5 knots. We had virtually no wind, for once, when we needed it most. We hobbled slowly around the corner of the Cape and decided to sacrifice to the god of the sea. Green had a $3 bottle of cherry vodka and poured it into the water. We also dumped in a fake tuna we had caught and not eaten, as the meat was nasty. 
Immediately a pod of dolphins popped up and circled around us. Misa, I think their message was BAD IDEA, SUCKERS! 

I cooked a nice pork tagine, Moroccan style, and we had a lovely dinner by lantern in the cockpit. We were at the moment catching the tiniest of breezes and had up the full main, 2 jibs and the mizzen sail. The hatch was open and the hatchboards were down in the cabin. After dinner I stood my watch and things deteriorated rapidly. With 90 miles to the nearest safe port and NOWHERE to pull in, we experienced Neptune's vengeance for the fake cherry vodka. First a couple of fishing boats got in my way and seemed to then follow us just to be annoying. Just then, the first squall came up with some rain and high winds. Green had to reduce sail area and make sure the autohelm (steering unit) was working. The weather got worse and worse. By the time my watch was over we were sailing with a jib the size of a handkerchief and heeling and rolling in 30-50 knots of wind. Since the boat was heeling the other way my bunk wouldn't hold me in. I crawled to the foot of the bed where it about 3x3'x2' and and I couldn't fall out. I made a nest of pillows and blankets and curled up and slept through all kinds of weather. William just climbed into his bunk, (Juliana's) and lay on top of wet sails, duffel bags, boots  and wet foulies. At one point he woke up, feeling a persistent annoyance on his hip. It was one of Juliana's baby dolls that had fallen into the mess. Her head was under his hip half the night. 

The belt on the autohelm broke and we had to hand steer in all the wind and spray. Eventually the weather subsided and the sun came out. We sailed into Beaufort, NC and anchored.

Thursday, November 14, 2013    Cape Henry, VA to part way around Cape Hatteras

Today I am 64. Considering the bumps, bruises and aches from bashing along in Lyra, I am pretty happy. 

When the boat is heeled over to the rail and bashing around on each wave, the effort to do the slightest thing, such as untie a bootlace, takes about 35 times as much effort. You have to time the waves and PULL yourself upwards to a place where you won't fall backwards into a place where you could gonk your head or fall on your butt. At least it's getting warmer.

We're motorsailing close-hauled with the Yankee jib and a 2x reefed mainsail. That jib is a pulling sail. 

Now we are switching to 3 hour watches because temperatures are in the 50's. Green could really use a good stretch of sleep, although he is slamming up and down in the v-berth (in the front of the boat) as we bash to windward.


Headed down towards Cape Hatteras. We tacked about 20 miles east of Norfolk, feeling like we were not making any progress compared to our 169 mile day to Maryland. We are choosing to round Cape Hatteras over taking the Inland Waterway. Here we go.....

Wednesday, November 13, 2013   New Jersey Coast to Maryland Coast

In the last 24 hours we sailed about 169 miles! Zooming! 

Still on 2 hours watches because of the cold. Passed Barnagate Light, Atlantic City, Deleware Bay and Ocean City. By afternoon it was MUCH warmer. We had hoped for hot showers but because of the boat's heeling onto the port side the boiler vent was still underwater. No hot water, no cabin heat.

I laughed out loud when I listed all the clothes I have been wearing while on watch.

1. Underwear

2. 2 prs heavy socks

3. Long underwear

4. Corduroy pants

5. Foul weather overalls

6. Turtleneck

7. Thin fleece

8. Fleece vest

9. Heavy sweater

10. Foul weather jacket with hood

11. 2 hats

12. Scarf

13. Winter double gloves

14. Safety harness 

15. And when it's really cold, my tiny daughter-in-law's hooded down jacket that is 2 sizes too small for me.

I could scarcely move and still froze to the core in 2 hours of watch.

 Get on those gloves!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

We actually got out of Newport today at 0730. In 1/2 hour the boat was transformed from a liveboard vessel with kids to a boat heading out for some ocean sailing. IT'S SNOWING. Winds are NW 20-30 knots. We are taking 2 hour watches because the cold is so brutal. We caught the tide and scooted nicely past Block Island and rounded Montauk Point, Long Island by 1100. We sailed the length of Long Island in the lee, about 4-5 miles off, to keep out of big swells. At night we saw a large vessel that appeared to be sailing away from us. However, its lights didn't conform to any American rules and it was actually coming at us. We had to alter course radically with this Russian(?) fishing trawler running its nets. Yikes.

By midnight it began to clear and was well below freezing and blowing over 30 knots. The cabin was also freezing because the boiler that makes heat had its vent under water while we were sailing on that tack. I would not have survived without my hot water bottle. We zoomed along on the tiny staysail alone and hit 8 knots very often. We made really good time. BRRRR!!!!!!

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HURRY UP AND WAIT

I'm in Newport, patiently waiting for the right weather to get safely out of New England. The weather will perhaps be right by 2 AM Tuesday, at which point we will boogie out of here, bashing into ugly waves for the first 8-12 hours, until the seas settle and the wind clocks around to a nice reach. If we are lucky, we will sail straight to Norfolk, Virginia. 

Meanwhile, we are preparing the boat, checking the first aid kit, preparing a ditch bag. ( A last choice in a boat disaster is to abandon a sinking vessel. If so, you grab the ditch bag full of essentials like a GPS, a VHF radio, first aid kit, food and water and climb out of the sinking boat into a life raft. Since we will not be all that far out to sea, it's not as big a deal as it would be crossing the Atlantic.) Tomorrow we will do some final provisioning and take care of more details.

Right now I am hanging out with the grandkids while Mom and Dad go out on a date without children. What wonderful girls! I took them swimming at the heated pool at their marina. Pretty nice spot, but it sure gets cold and dreary here in the winter!

Hardening myself up for November winds

Although this photo was taken a year ago in September, you get the idea.

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Getting ready for the sail

It's time for another sailing adventure. Elder son, Green, is bringing the family home, a 44' ketch (sailboat), down to Florida for the winter! Because it is already freezing and the weather is not fabulous for a family cruise south, Green and one or 2 other guys and I will get the boat down south as fast as is reasonably possible. Jen and the girls will drive south and join Green at some anchorage on the east coast of Florida.

Having ordered a second pair of long underwear and knitted myself a hat with earflaps, I think I am ready for the trip. I've got sea boots, foulies, gloves, hats, heavy socks, books, a knitting project, various medicines for potential emergencies, candied ginger, pet recipes, and lots more crammed into my duffel bag. Oh, and my hot water bottle for frozen feet.

Thursday, November 7, I will catch the 5 AM flight from Gainesville and be in Providence, RI, by 9:15. My sister, Murge, will meet me and deliver me to Newport. After final provisioning and stowing of gear, we hope to set sail on the tail end of a cold front, hopefully on November 9. We will wait for the weather.