Drift Away

Isle of Hope to Savannah in a Powerboat

2012-02-23T01:21:00.002-08:00

One nice part of cruising is the people you meet, especially if you stay in one place for a bit. We met Gene, who is living aboard his Chris Craft powerboat, and Bill and Patti, who are cruising on their Pearson 40 sailboat, shortly after arriving at Isle of Hope Marina.

Gene is fairly new to boating, having done so for only a few years and that being on Lake Michigan. He's living aboard here to be close to his son (who is a ranger in the army) and daughter-in-law and grandkids. He got the bug to cast off his dock lines yesterday and asked Bill and Patti and Pam and I if we'd accompany him on a short cruise to Savannah for lunch. Since we're going nuts here waiting for an electrician to look at our windlass, we eagarly took him up on his offer.

Drift Away is a trawler, a type of boat called a displacement hull. We move through the water displacing it as we pass through it. Our top speed is about ten miles per hour. Gene's boat, Light 'n Up, is a planing hull, meaning that his boat has the hull form and enough power to actually skip on top of the water and plane right over it. His boat can do thirty miles per hour. Fun!

I had mentioned before about being fascinated by the wide variety of boats there are. Looking back at yesterday's photos really drove this point home. Here is our trip, in pictures.

First off, Gene's boat can plane. It has enough power to get up out of the water, push it aside, and scoot over its surface. To this old sailor, this is impressive.

Gene took a short detour into Thunderbolt Marina where we saw this passenger ferry...

a big yacht...

more big yachts...

and a really really big yacht that I couldn't fit in all in the photo (it's comforting to know that the fabulously wealthy are getting through the recession OK. I was worried about them)...

And then we saw some fishing trawlers...

a tug and barge...

a freighter...

and this is Gene's boat...

All those boats were in the short hop from Isle of Hope to Savannah, a two hour trip.

We tied up at the River Street Marketplace dock and walked down River Street towards an Irish pub that Gene wanted to eat at. Along the way, Gene received a text that said to go to the Bayou Cafe. He didn't know who it was from. Since we were all cruisers and therefore adventurous, we did exactly that. We weren't disappointed either. It was excellent, and a good time was had by all.

Don't you hate it when you're reading a blog and the writer posts a pic of people and doesn't tell you who is who?

So we left the Bayou Cafe... what? Oh. That's me (Dave) on the left, with my honey Pam holding up a bottle of homemade Bayou Cafe hot sauce that we purchased, then Bill (c'mon Bill, smile!), his lovely wife Patti, and captain Gene.

We left Savannah to head back to Isle of Hope Marina where an electrician would be arriving to work on Bill and Patti's hot water heater, which wasn't making hot water, and our windlass, which wasn't windlassing. Gene was doing a great job as designated driver...

On the ride back, passing Thunderbolt Marina, we saw Big Yacht Number One hauled out of the water.

Can you imagine what it must take to lift a behemouth like that?

Along the way, we were entertained by dolphins...

Really, these things are getting annoying. Look at me, look at me, I'm a dolphin! Yeah, whatever.

We arrived back at the marina and the electrician working on Bill and Patti's boat and Drift Away took our lines. We had locked the dogs in the main saloon with the A/C on so he could get on the boat without being attacked by our vicious pit bulls. Mike the Electrician waved our windlass's reset button at us, saying it was toast and he had to order a new one. He also had a verdict for Bill and Patti's hot water heater, but I didn't pay attention to that one.

This is the life of a liveaboard cruiser. While you poor saps were slaving away in your cubicles, we were all outside playing.

Sorry. Come join us!

Side note. It's now 4:15 AM and I'm writing this at the table in the main saloon. I was about to hit the "publish post" button and Ruby, who is sleeping on the sofa, began to howl like a wolf. I don't know what she was dreaming about, but it's kind of freaky.

Killing Time In Isle of Hope, GA

2012-02-22T00:51:00.002-08:00

We're still waiting for the electrical guy to show up to take a look at Drift Away's windlass. We'd like to anchor out as we travel south in Georgia now that the weather is getting really nice here and having a working windlass would be great. Pam is hardly strong enough to pull up our 80 pound anchor by hand.

If you read yesterday's blog, you might be thinking that I'm getting a little batty. You might be right. Some of you might be thinking "a LITTLE batty??" We've been here a little too long, over a week now. Let me be clear, though, that we love Isle of Hope and the marina staff here have been terrific. It's just our wanderlust kicking in and the desire to see new and different things.

Speaking about different, this went by early in the morning.

Now, I'm not saying this is bad, only different. I don't really care what other people's boats look like. I only care about mine. Well, if you saw Drift Away up close, you'd wonder if I cared, but I do, and I have plans to paint the whole thing. Eventually. So, people who live in glass houses etc.

I mentioned before that I'm amazed at the wide variety of watercraft there are. I'm also amazed at the variety within each category. Sailboats come in cruisers, racers, monohulls, catamarans, trimarans, pilot houses, motorsailers, sloops, ketches, yawls, cutters, schooners, and on and on. The variety is endless. I guess yacht architects will just keep doing it until someone gets it right.

We kill time everyday by taking the dogs for a walk, and Isle of Hope is a great place to do it. Yesterday, we did our dog walk, choosing the pretty lane that runs along the shore.

No McMansions here. And really, no big mansions to speak of, just beautiful homes. The big porches make them look bigger than they really are. The pic below is his view across the lane.

I could live here. Well, I could if I could afford a million dollar house, which I can't. We're not even living on a fixed income at this point. We're living on no income. And if I could afford a million dollar house, that means I could afford a million dollar boat!

Chevy is doing great, thanks for asking, and his paw must be healing up quickly. He hardly limps at all and insists on going for his walks each day. After the walk, back at the marina, Ruby wanted to play in the pavillion. I left her leash on and just let her go. She was prancing and dancing with her leash in her mouth, hopping all about and just being a silly dog. Chevy insisted on playing too, so Pam let him off leash. Ruby's leash became a pull toy.

Pit Bulls love to wrestle, and Ruby is good at it, growing up wrestling at Taylor Farms off leash dog park in Norwalk, Connecticut with Italian Corsos (hi Gary!) and boxers (hi Hubert!). Ruby can kick Chevy's butt at will, even though she's smaller. Ruby went easy on him. Must be she knows he's hurt.

And at the end of the day, this big trawler pulled into the marina.

Since the marina was closed and the dock hands weren't around, a couple of us liveaboards took their dock lines.

So that's our typical liveaboard I-don't-have-anything-to-do-day. When I'm not playing on Al Gore's internets, I've been reading a Louis L'Amore book, "Haunted Mesa". I've been in a western mood lately, and between that book and watching old Lone Ranger TV shows that came out of the Walmarts $5 bargain bin, I think I'm overdosing on westerns as well. I'm developing a drawl, a strange hybrid of Western and Southern.

So that's it for today. Ya'all come back now, pardner. By crackie.

A Day With Too Much Time On My Hands

2012-02-21T02:30:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a down day. We had intended to leave Isle Of Hope and wander south but we're waiting for an electrician to show up to look at our windlass. For some bizarre reason (I'm guessing Neptune is looking out for us now) I checked it before we left and it's deader than a door nail.

I wonder where that phrase comes from, "deader than a door nail"? I'll have to research that.

Speaking of reseach, Kent, head of research and development of the Navi-Nut (patent pending) has expanded our line. This was good to see, seeing as how I'm dumping tons of dough into R&D and wasn't seeing much in the way of results. Kent always had valid reasons for delays, of course. He had to travel to Las Vegas for many, many business meetings, would shut himself up in his research lab in Westport, Connecticut which he disguised as a bar called "the Black Duck Cafe", things like that. But I have to say that, although I was getting antsy for a time, I'm pleased with the final results. Check this out!

As Kent explained it, he felt it was time to expand beyond the marine market. The Navi-Nut (patent pending) on the far left is for use in hard hat areas of very large construction projects. The next two he referred to as Navi-Wingnuts and will target airlines, both large and small.

The next four are designed for the US government for use by the military (the big one) and the CIA (the small, easily concealed one, which also has a hidden camera). Although these look like ordinary Navi-Nuts, they are made with a secret material that Kent referred to as "316 stainless steel". I had to wire a lot of dough to Kent when he was in Las Vegas negotiating the purchase of this rare, highly valuable ore, but he claims that the feds will pay anything we ask for this technology. Looking at the results, and even considering the considerable investment, I have to say that I agree.

I'm still dealing with the US Patent Office over our Navi-Nut patent. It seems that there is a similar device to our Navi-Nut, but used for some other totally unrelated function. I've hired a team of lawyers who specialize in this type of thing, Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe. Serendipity is an amazing thing. They were filling up their corporate yacht at the fuel dock and I got talking to Mr. Howe about our patent problem and he said his firm was expert in dealing with the US Patent Office. Incredible! When I asked how much of a retainer they'd need, it just so happened to be exactly the amount of their fuel bill! Their considerable fuel bill. What are the chances of that?

So yesterday, our down day turned out to be a wonderful, beautiful day. The dogs couldn't go for a walk because of Chevy's injury, but Pam and I went for a stroll in gorgeous Isle of Hope.

We love the Live Oaks and Spanish Moss. A Live Oak grows 50 feet tall, but its branches spread out 100 feet. It makes for an impressive roadway.

We came across this. I love it.

A tree adorned with bits of colorful glass hanging from monofilament. For some reason, this didn't seem strange to me at all.

And the sign below really cracked me up.

Southerners have a pretty strange sense of humor.

The Best Laid Plans...

2012-02-20T01:27:00.002-08:00

There is a truism in boating. You never cruise on a schedule. That will certainly hold true today (Monday) in that our planned departure from Isle of Hope is on hold for two reasons.

First, the electric windlass is dead. It's used to lift 200 feet of 3/8" chain attached to an 80 pound anchor. It normally operates by flipping a switch in the helm station. In the event of a failure, there is a short metal stick that I can insert into the drum to lift it by hand, but that ain't happening unless I absolutely positively have no other option. I have an option. Stay at the marina and get it fixed.

I grabbed my multimeter and went into the vee-berth where the anchor locker is. I checked the battery dedicated to operating the windlass and it checked out fine. I replaced all of the batteries on Drift Away just before we left Stamford, so no surprise there. Next I inspected the electrical stuff between the battery and the windlass. Rain water can enter the hawse pipe (for my landlubber friends, the hole in the deck that the anchor chain passes through) and soak everything electrical, which it had done. All the electrial connections were corroded. See?

I'm pretty sure that corroded connections is the problem, but my aching back and advanced years prevented me from fixing it in the tight confines of the chain locker, and I called the marina for younger help. Their electrician will be here today to sort this out.

Defeated, I packed in my multimeter and decided to take the dogs up to the fenced in boat storage area for a romp. They ran and played as they usually do. It was sunny and very warm, up into the upper 70s. Before I knew it, both dogs disappeared over the bank. I walked over to check on them and Ruby was swimming. No surpise there. Ruby loves the water and swims like an otter. Chevy decided that it looked like fun and joined her. I'm usually OK with swimming dogs, but there are alligators down here, and I nervously looked for tell tale signs. Being a yankee, I'm not sure what those signs are. Floating logs with eyes... a ticking clock.... not really sure. So I called for the dogs to get out of the water, which they eventually did.

Chevy came out limping. He sat down and started licking his right front paw. I checked on him and saw blood. A lot of it. He cut his paw on something, probably an oyster shell. PAMELA! I got both dogs on their leashes and dragged them back to Drift Away and hollered for Pam. The dogs were covered in river mud, and as I hosed them off, she came with gauze and tape and antiseptic.

Poor Chevy. He was a hurting dog. Pam stuck his paw in antiseptic, which must have really stung because poor Chevy whimpered, something pit bulls rarely do. But he's a good dog, and Chevy let Pam clean his cut and inspect it closely. He was bleeding profusely. Pam declared that he's going to need stitches. Great. It's Sunday. The vets offices are all closed, except for the emergency clinics which charge a bazillion dollars an hour. He's not that injured. He can wait until Monday. So Pam cleaned it really good and wrapped it in gauze and tape. We'll take him to the vet this morning.

He tolerated it quite well. Being a rescue, he trusts us, and knew we were helping him. He's a good boy.

He was lame though, and couldn't get up the steps to the boat, so Pam helped him.

Chevy is a paw licker. He licks his paws all the time, even when they don't need licking. Put gauze pads on his paws and he's going to lick them for sure. He was still bleeding quite a bit, and add licking on to that and you've got a mess. His gauze pads were bleeding through. Pam fixed it by putting a zip lock baggie over it.

Chevy didn't like it. Not one bit.

Today's plan of leaving Isle of Hope Marina and anchoring at Sepalo Island has been put on hold. The electrician is coming for the windlass, and Chevy is headed to the vet's for stitches.

Such is the cruising life. You don't make plans. You just have general ideas.

10:30 AM Update- Pam took Chevy to see Dr. Christopher Gall at the Chatham Animal Hospital in Savannah. The doc said that Pam did a great job cleaning up the cut and it looked really good, especially for an oyster shell cut that often gets quickly infected. Chevy's cut took five staples to close, and he was sent home with some serious pain meds that knocked him on his butt, but he will heal up just fine. Pam will take the staples out in ten days and then he'll be back to his old self.

Kudos to Dr. Gall, and to Isle of Hope Marina for making an exception to their no-dogs-in-the-loaner-car policy so Chevy could get to the vet.

The Pretzel Can

2012-02-19T01:41:00.000-08:00

In yesterday's blog, I left out one important facet of yesterday's project of installing the new console in the Whaler. This was something that I think deserved its own post.

When attaching the Teleflex steering box to the new mounting bracket, I found that the three bolts previously used were much too long, by three or four inches. Crap. This would delay finishing the project (and the associated victory beer) by several hours, perhaps a whole day. These were no ordinary bolts. They were three long bolts, about eight inches long, 1/4-20, that threaded through the mounting bracket and into the Teleflex steering box. Finding replacements would require a trip to a very well stocked hardware store.

The previous owner of Drift Away, Mr. Van Breems (a person I've never known but have come to admire) was meticulous in sorting out and storing parts. I searched through his stash of nuts and bolts but didn't find anything close. And then I saw it. The pretzel can.

This pretzel can is very old, about the same age as me, sixty-one. My dad tossed left over nuts and bolts in it from his projects for as long as I can remember. When I was just a little kid helping my dad work on his projects, one of my jobs was to find a nut to fit a bolt, or a bolt to fit a nut, and I'd be sent to sort through the pretzel can. When my dad passed away in 2010 and my sister and I were going through his things, I found the pretzel can under his work bench. I had to have it.

I poured the contents of the pretzel can out in my "workshop" (the old vee berth, now the place where I stash all my stuff) and began looking through the pile of nuts and bolts. I knew this would be hopeless, but I heard my dad's voice telling me to keep looking. First I found one bolt the right size and length. Amazing. And then the second. Incredible. When I found the third, I could feel my dad smiling down on me, telling me "job well done", dispite my whining. The pretzel can never fails.

I finished assembling the steering console, thanks to an old dented pretzel can's magic. Thanks dad. I miss you.

I put the finishing touches on the Boston Whaler on the flybridge roof yesterday. I charged the battery, filled the tank with gas, and put a 1/4"-5/16 NPT fitting on the gas filter. I tossed all the project debris in the Whaler out and shop vacced it clean. All we need to do now is anchor out and launch it to see if it will start. Time for a victory beer!

Thinking of anchoring, we'll need to use the electric hoist on the roof to launch the Whaler and the windlass to retrieve the anchor. I hied myself up to the marina and bought a couple of bottles of gear lube and topped off both the windlass and the hoist. The hoist took practically nothing, while the windlass took a pint and a half.

While I was playing boat, Pam decided to wash blinds. We have seven sets of blinds in the saloon (for my landlubber friends, that's what the boat's living room is called. No, I don't know why. It's maritime tradition). It was a major chore to remove them, scrub them on the dock, and put them back. Pamela actually called for a victory beer before she was finished with this project. I know, a serious violation of the victory beer rules (section 3, paragraph 12, premature celebration), but I endulged her anyway. She's my honey.

Just for kicks I thought I'd try the windlass. Nothing. Not even a peep. ~sigh~. And this was something that worked since we bought the boat. So today (Sunday) is our last planned day at Isle of Hope Marina and I'll have to see if I can track down the problem. It must be something electrical. I hope it's something electrical. This is a $10,000 windlass. Maybe I'll threaten it with the pretzel can.

Instructions? I Don't Need No Stinkin' Instructions.

2012-02-18T01:24:00.002-08:00

I finally tackled the Boston-Whaler-on-the-roof project yesterday. We need it running so that we can get the dogs off the boat when we anchor out. This is the very last boat system to get working, and after this, everything else on Drift Away is cosmetic.

Like Drift Away, the Whaler sat out in the weather for 20 years, neglected and unused. The wooden console had rotted away, but I found a replacement online for only $179. I ordered it, had it shipped to the town marina in Beaufort SC, and when it arrived put it up on the flybridge for Whaler Project Day. Yesterday was Whaler Project Day.

I started by putting the steering cable back inside the Teleflex mechanical helm. This was a very difficult job, and required Pam to help, but after an hour or so, it was reassembled. The mechanical helm is in my right hand.

All the parts that I disassembled were scattered all around the Whaler. Wow. I hope I can remember where they all go.

Pam made a run to West Marine to get supplies, including varnish that I'd need to seal the holes I'd be cutting in the new console. While I awaited her return, I addressed the 40 HP Evinrude. I pulled the engine cover off and squirted some 2 cycle oil into the two sparkplug holes, and then inserted two new spark plugs.

Back to the console, I carefully measured and drilled and screwed it into place.

Please notice that there is no hole in the console top to accomodate the steering box. I'll need to drill that. It would be nice if the new bezel and bracket I bought came with instructions and a template. It was completely different from the old one, but no biggie, I'll figure it out.

Finding the center is easy.

While I was test fitting the bracket, I did what every boater has done... dropped a part, which, according to maritime law, must make a bee line for the bottom of the sea. I watched the self-locking nylon nut hit the deck, bounce a couple of times, and then soar over the edge of the flybridge, where it hit the concrete dock and bounced once really high, hitting the canvas of the boat next to us, slid down, hit his swim platform, and miraculously stopped. For my landlubber friends, and as my boater friends will tell you, this NEVER happens. Ever. I didn't know what to do, other than to take photos of this momentus occasion to record it for all mankind.

I was dumbfounded. See it right there?

I think our homage to King Neptune when we performed our name changing ceremony has definitely changed our luck for the better.

After doing a happy dance and retrieving the nut, I bolted the new mounting bracket to the bottom of the console....

and then needed to wait for Pam and the varnish. While I was waiting, I decided to install the new ignition switch. There was nothing wrong with the old ignition switch except that we didn't have a key for it. There were five wires of various colors running to the switch, so I decided to photograph them in case I lost track of what wire went where. Hey, when you hit your sixties, it's hard to remember where your reading glasses are let alone five different colored wires.

I managed to swap out the switches without incident, or the need to view the pics I took. Meanwhile, Pam returned with varnish and I swabbed up the holes and assembled the console and mechanical helm. This project is running perfectly!

I put the new bezel over the helm and... there wasn't enough shaft sticking out to mount the wheel. Really? Ya know, this job would be a whole lot easier if the bezel came with mounting instructions. Who ever heard of something like this coming without instructions? Now I have to disassemble everything and figure out what to do.

So it seemed to me that I'd need to mount the bracket on top of the console to get the steering shaft high enough to mount the wheel. This meant disassembling every-friggin'-thing.

There is the hole I drilled for the steering shaft. Next to it is the mounting bracket.

So I laid the bracket on top of the console and traced it with a sharpie, and then cut it out with my sabre saw. This looks promising, but this whole job would have been a lot better if the bezel and bracket came with instructions I'd have been done a couple of hours ago.

Done! And it actually works! Am I getting a little thin on top?

One thing I dislike doing is picking up all the tools I use doing projects. I packed up the two tool boxes, the drill, the sabre saw, the instructions, the left over nuts and bolts.... instructions?? Where were the instructions? They were obviously under something, but yep, there they were, diagrams, templates and all.

Well, all's well that ends well. The Whaler is 95% back together. I only need to finish hooking up the fuel lines, charge the battery, and put gas in the tank before launching it and cranking it up to see if it works. Time for a victory beer!

Now where did I put my reading glasses?

What Does $450 Worth of Groceries Look Like?

2012-02-17T01:51:00.000-08:00

Like this.

Not too impressive, eh? Well, to be honest, that's not all food.

We're still in Isle of Hope Marina here in Savannah, Georgia. One of my jobs is to put the Boston Whaler on the roof back together so we can anchor out and be able to get the dogs ashore. Being anchored out, we won't have easy access to things like groceries, so we borrowed the marina's loaner car and hied ourselves to the Super Walmarts to stock up. Have you ever been to a Super Walmarts?   No, me neither until yesterday. It's impressive, to say the least.

Not being familiar with the layout, we walked up and down every aisle, picking up everything on our list, and also grabbing things impulsively.

"Creamed corn! I love creamed corn!"

A Super Walmarts is a Walmart with a grocery store attached, and we needed an airtight container for dog food, so off we went with our over flowing grocery cart right into the regular Walmarts.   We passed the movie aisle and I dilly-dallied.   Pam said "Do you want to look at movies while I get the container?".   Well, that's a dumb question to ask a guy, so off Pam went while I looked at movies.

Just a point of clarification here, Pam and I don't watch a lot of movies, but sometimes when the weather is nasty and there's no indoor boat projects to do (point of honesty- there are always indoor boat projects to do, I just don't always feel like doing them), watching movies or old TV shows is a lot of fun. We have Hulu and Netflix accounts, so if we have free marina internet access, we're good to go. Our Verizon 3G hotspot account also gives us internet access when we're not at a marina, but that's limited to 10 GBs a month, and watching movies sucks that up real quick, so we don't watch too much streaming video with it.

By the time Pam came back with the container, I was already deep into the bargain movie bin. Soon, we were both up to our elbows, digging throught the $5 DVDs.   We finally came up with these....

OK, I can see that you're questioning our selections here. When I watch movies and TV, I want to be entertained. I'm not into anything with deep social redeeming value. And just look at the $5 bargains here! "Cowboy Legends", a DVD set of 28 movies! "Heroes of the Old West" with 20 full TV episodes and 10 feature films! "Gun Justice" featuring the Lone Ranger!

What? You think I should have "Sophie's Choice" in there? Not a chance.

OK, so $35 of our $450 worth of groceries was crappy movies. And $150 was a stop at the package store for a month's supply of a few fine boxes of wine, several bottles of scotch and vodka in plastic bottles, and a couple of 12 packs of victory beers. But still, that pic up top of those two carts isn't all that impressive, I don't think. When I was a kid and I accompanied my mom to the grocery store, her $20 worth of a week's groceries was bigger than that, and she had plenty of creamed corn.

Being A Tourist in Savannah, GA

2012-02-16T06:21:00.001-08:00

I've never liked the term "tourist". The name congers up images of an old man wearing bermuda shorts, a colorful Hawaiian shirt, black knee socks, sandals, a floppy wide brimmed hat, and a camera slung around his neck. OK, that would be me, except Pamela would never let me off the boat dressed like that. I did, however, have a camera slung around my neck, which still waves the tourist flag to all the locals.

We walked from Isle of Hope Marina to the Walmarts, a distance of a couple of miles, where we caught bus #31 to downtown Savannah. I haven't ridden a bus since 1966. For those of you who have also foresaken riding a bus, not much has changed. But for $3 each for an all day pass compared to $50 for a cab ride, we took the bus.

After many turns and detours into myriad places such as the old folks' home, we were deposited on Broughton Street. That was fine, but where in the heck is Broughton Street compared to, well, anything? We started wandering around, and before too long found River Street, a quaint cobble stone street lined with ancient buildings housing modern souvenir shops, bars, and restaurants.

Even cobblestone streets need fixin', I guess. I heard the old guy tell the young'uns "Not too close together. They don't need to be too close together".

Steep grade.

We found the monument below which is a tribute to 500 black soldiers from Saint Domingue (now Haiti) who fought in the American Revolution.

We've found that the best way to tour a place in a short amount of time is to take the carriage tour. Buses move too fast, and walking is too slow. A carriage tour is just right.

These folks in the pic above took their dog. He was very well behaved. If we took Ruby and Chevy, they'd be whining and crying about every squirrel they'd see along the way and completely ignore the historical narrative of the tour guide. They don't seem to care a whit about history.

We really like the south's Live Oaks and Spanish Moss. They form a green tunnel over the quaint red brick streets. Those old bricks are original, by the way. The guy who made the bricks (I don't recall his name) took the closely guarded recipe for them to his grave.

The day was grinding to an end, and we had dogs back on the boat that we needed to get back to. Or did we?

We took the bus back to the Walmarts and walked the coupla miles back to the boat, arriving just at dusk, where the dogs greeted us enthusiastically. We got them off and walked them in the fenced part of the marina where boats are stored. The dogs did their business, ran and played and chased squirrels, and then mosied back to the boat. I picked up my cell phone, which I never carry and which no one ever calls, and there was a 12:36 voice mail from the marina. Our dogs had gotten off the boat and the marina staff had them. They wanted to know what we'd like to do with them. We never called them back, of course. They decided to just put them back on the boat.

This is very strange. The dogs never get off the boat when we're gone... hmmmmm....

Stealing a Car in Savannah, Georgia

2012-02-15T00:31:00.002-08:00

One nice thing about Isle of Hope Marina in Savannah is that they have a couple of free loaner cars. Tuesday being Valentine's Day, I reserved one of the cars to take Pam out for a nice Valentine's Day dinner at Pearl's Saltwater Grille.

Our loaner was a Honda Odyssey Needless to say, these cars aren't always in top shape. The driver's side sliding door had a tag on it saying not to use it. No problem, we didn't need to use it since there was only the two of us. I walked Pam to the passenger door to do the gentlemanly thing and open it for her. It was unlocked. Wow, you'd never do that in Stamford! You can tell that we're really in the deep south now, where people probably don't lock their houses up either.

We drove the 1.4 miles to Pearl's Saltwater Grille. As we left the Odyssey, I locked it anyway, even though we're in the deep south. Force of habit from living in the northeast, I guess. Pearl's was busy and the parking lot was packed. It's a large place though, which was a good thing that night. Everyone was taking their honey out.

We had a very nice, romantic dinner at Pearl's and afterwards walked out into the parking lot in the warm Georgia night. I love the south. We got to the Odyssey and I walked Pam to the passenger door. It was very dark, so I opened my cell phone to shine it on the lock. There wasn't one. How can there not be a lock on the passenger door? Weird. So I walked around to the driver's door, shined the cell phone on it and... the key didn't fit in the lock. What? If a beater loaner car has a problem with a broken lock, the marina should put a sign on the dashboard or something so people know. Now what are we going to do? We're a mile and a half from the marina, so I guess we could walk, but really, the marina should have let us know that the lock was broken.

Meanwhile, Pam tried the passenger door, which was locked too. She then tired the passenger side sliding door and it opened. YES! She then unlocked the passenger door, hopped in, and unlocked the driver's door. I got in and when I tried to insert the key into the ignition switch, it wouldn't go in either. We drove it here, so it fit then, why doesn't it fit now? Huh.. there's a baby seat in the back. That's a nice touch by the marina, but I don't think too many cruisers have infants. I don't remember seeing that when we got in... and where did this water bottle come fr....THIS ISN'T OUR CAR! OUT QUICK! So then we got in OUR Honda Odyssey which was right next to that one and got out of there fast.

For the record, Pam laughed so hard that she pee'd her pants.

Beaufort SC to Isle of Hope GA, the day in pics and videos

2012-02-14T08:02:00.002-08:00

I love being on the water. It's hard for me to describe it. I'm not a good enough writer to convey it effectively so I compensate with photos and, lately, videos. One nice thing about Al Gore's internets and today's technology is multimedia and the speed to use it well.

We had stayed in Beaufort for a little over a week. While we love Beaufort and enjoyed our stay there (it's on our list of places to live one day), it was time to move on and discover new things. We were starting to nap a little too much.

So we cast off at 8:30 AM on Monday, heading for Hilton Head.

We know we've reached the south when we start seeing boats headed north.

For a long time on this trip, we never saw any boats at all, and the few we did see were southbound stragglers like us. Yay!

Monday was cool, but clear and calm. It was a good day to be on the water...

or walking on the beach with your dog...

or walking the beach with your friends...

or for two groups of birds to meet to discuss and work out their differences.

We passed Cheeseburger in Paradise...

and many McMansions lining the shore.

There were always dolphins. Dozens and dozens of dolphins...

and redneck barges...

and ferries...

and crab boats being chased by pelicans.

Small crabs have to be tossed back overboard. The pelicans know this. Thanks!!

We passed a few lighthouses...

and before we knew it, we hit the Savannah River and Georgia!

As usual, the Navi-Nut (patent pending) was performing flawlessly.

We crossed the Savannah River to Elba Island Cut... and were confused. There were red buoys ahead of us, and up to this point we left them to starboard (to our right), but this can sometimes change. Red buoys are left to your starboard when heading up a channel (red-right-returning), but our chart plotter said to leave them to port. Our two sets of paper charts were no help whatsoever. I could see cormorants to the right of the red markers and they were standing on rocks. That's never good. Pam was at the helm and was going to pass close by the red markers leaving them to port when a boat approaching from the other direction hailed us on the VHF and told us we were on the wrong side of the markers. Thanks buddy!! We made an abrupt course change.

You can see our quick turn at the bottom of the pic above.

We were getting close to Isle of Hope, and along the way passed the R/V (research vessel) Savannah.

I'm constantly amazed by the wide variety of boats there are, from R/V Savannah to this beautiful yacht at the Savannah Yacht Club...

to this live aboard Catalina 22 ex-sailboat.

So we're here in Isle of Hope, which is a suburb of Savannah.

The dogs were cooped up in the boat all day, and being pit bulls, needed to blow off some steam.

Today will probably be a lazy day, since the forecast is a bit rainy. I may work on putting the Whaler back together. Or maybe not.

While watching TV last night, Pam and I heard a loud engine noise. It was a tug and barge.

Our marina is on a sharp hairpin turn in the river, and I wondered how a tug and barge would make the turn. We found out. There is a large tug pushing the barge in the pic above, and a smaller tug that pushes the barge from the middle, turning it. Here's a video clip that shows how it's done.

2011 condensed down to 15 minutes

2012-02-13T03:58:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around with Microsoft's Movie Maker a little yesterday and today. I like it. Since we stayed in Beaufort SC an extra couple of days, I had time to put together a video and send it off to YouTube.

Looking back on 2011, it was a year of major changes for Pam and I. We got married, quit our jobs, and took off cruising on Drift Away. As I scanned through the blog for photos, I was also reminded of how many projects were done on this good old boat, and how far it has come, figuratively and literally. The boat has come from something ready for the boat bone yard and a chain saw to a boat that works, and that Pam and I love. All it needs now is cosmetics, and we've traveled 1,200 miles on her.

If you have 15 minutes to spare, check it out.

My next video project will probably involve dolphins and whining dogs.

Today we're off to Hilton Head.

Idle Hands Are The Devil's Workshop

2012-02-12T03:12:00.000-08:00

We were going to leave Beaufort for Hilton Head on Saturday, but the forecast was for very blustery winds.

NW WINDS INCREASING TO 25 TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS TO 40
KT...DIMINISHING TO 20 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS TO 35 KT LATE.

Seeing as how we are not on any kind of schedule and strong winds really mess up my hair, we decided to stay put for a few days. I started on our income taxes. I use Turbo Tax, which I like a lot since it takes information from last year's return and fills in a bunch of stuff on this year's. I had sold a lot of stock a few years ago but didn't sell a handful of Comcast and AT&T stock because, well, I have so few shares that I forgot about them. I got these when Ma Bell broke up a couple of decades ago. I get dividend checks from each for $1.48 every quarter, which I soon misplace and never deposit.

While filling out the tax forms, Turbo Tax asked for the 1099-DIVs for both.  I went through my pile of tax papers and they were missing, so I couldn't finish our tax returns. I'd just delete them since the amount is so small but I'm sure the IRS's tax dodger alarm would go off and I'd get hauled into the audit water board room, so I set the taxes aside until I can figure out where the 1099s are.

I then killed some time learning how Microsoft's Windows Live Movie Maker works. Our friends Pat and Lorrie on Godspeed have done a few movie and photo montauges of their cruises and they're really well done. I think I might put one together of our first few months of cruising. It will be a serious maritime video, worthy of the likes of Jacques Cousteau.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ~SNERK~!!!    Sorry. Yeah right.

Here is my first attempt, a documentary of how a swing bridge operates, for our landlubber friends.

On another note, I am not sure exactly how it works, but this is amazingly accurate. Read the full description before looking at the picture. The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it. I took this pic on the ICW between Charleston and Beaufort.

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins. The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing.

I showed this to Pam during happy hour yesterday, and neither she nor I could see any differences whatsoever, so I think our cruise on Drift Away must be working. If you see two or three differences, you need to take the day off from work as a "mental health day". If you see more than that, you need to buy a trawler and come join us.

Now This Just Doesn't Go With Our Boat

2012-02-11T04:26:00.000-08:00

Our boat is a 100 footer. From 100 feet away, it looks OK. But if you get up close, not so much. As our long time followers know, we bought a boat that sat on the hard, uncovered, for 20 years. This is never good for a boat. At some point someone thought it was a good idea to tape plastic over the outside of the windows and over the teak decks, but this soon deteriorated and crumbled, leaving behind sticky Gorilla Tape residue. When we got the boat, we had the decks fiberglassed over, and epoxy got spread all over everything, the gunwales, the walls, cleats, and even the windlass.

Rather than cosmetics, I focused on the boat's systems, replacing plumbing, wiring, electronics, the refrigerator, bilge pumps, one head, hooked the heads back up to the holding tank, got the engines and generators running, and installed two Filter Bosses and a fuel polishing system. It worked, because here were are now in Beaufort, South Carolina. We just didn't look pretty getting here.

As you may recall, the last thing that needs fixing is the Boston Whaler. It too sat uncovered, on the roof of Drift Away. The fuel filter had rusted away, the battery was missing (not that it would be any good anyway), as was the fuel tank. I ordered replacements for all of that. While working on the steering, the wooden console crumbled from rot. I thought of buying some wood and making a new one, but found a mahogany one online at specialtymarine.com. It came today. I don't think I can put this on our boat. It's just too pretty.

It would be like putting new shoelaces on dirty old sneakers.

Marine Service in Beaufort SC. Shocking!!

2012-02-10T05:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure exactly how to put this, so I'm just going to say it. Butler Marine is awesome. There.

Those of you who follow this blog know that we bought an old boat and spent considerable time and money getting it up and running to make this trip we're on. We did it, and have been cruising down the ICW since last fall having the time of our lives. Everything is working perfectly now that we have our fuel issues sorted out, but we've been staying in marinas every night because of the dogs. They need to get off the boat a couple of times a day. No matter how hard I tried, I can't get them to hang off the poop deck.

Drift Away came with a 13' Boston Whaler which sits in chocks up on the flybridge.

Like Drift Away, the Whaler sat unused and uncovered for 20 years. I had fixed the electric hoist used to get it on and off the flybridge a long time ago, but then focused on the big boat's systems and did nothing with the Whaler. Before we left, though, I bought a new gas tank, battery, and fuel filter in anticipation of working on the Whaler. We didn't have an ignition key for it so I bought a new ignition switch.

Since we're here in Beaufort for a bit of time, I decided to tackle the Whaler. The first thing to do was to install the new ignition switch. I disassembled the control, not too bad of a job.

I then spent the better part of a day trying to find the new switch. Like many things on this boat, it simply disappeared. So next I decided to work on the steering, which seemed loose. I tried to unbolt the old mechanical helm and, in no time flat, snapped off a rusty bolt. In the process, the old wooden console broke apart, the victim of decay and wood rot. I was left with a train wreck.

I got on the laptop and, amazingly, found a place in California that sells a mahogany replacement console for only $179, so I ordered one, which I am now awaiting delivery of.

Back up to the Whaler to disassemble the steering controls. There was no point in being gentle or methodical, so I just started taking things apart. The mechanical helm was a little tough.

I finally got it unbolted from the console. Now to take it apart.

Part of owning a boat is figuring out how things work. As I analyzed at the steering mechanism, I realized that there was no reason to take this apart. It was working fine. What I snapped the bolt off of was this....

a simple bezel that connects the steering wheel to the mechanical helm.

Now here is the amazing part. When I first tackled this job, I had thought that the steering mechanism was the problem. After considerable googling, I found that the unit was made by Teleflex. I looked on their dealer list and found that Butler Marine here in Beaufort was on it. I emailed them inquiring about a replacement. I soon received a call from Billy in parts. By the time Billy called, I had learned that I only needed a new bezel. Within the hour, Billy was at the marina with a couple of possible replacements.

How's that again? While all my cruising friends are sitting here reading this with their jaws hanging open, let me explain for my landlubber friends. Customer service in the marine business is practically non-existent. Yes, that's right. Generally speaking, service in the marine biz stinks. Nothing is ever done within estimate of cost or time, and customers are generally viewed as the enemy. Yet here was Billy in the parking lot of the Beaufort town docks with parts in hand trying to help me out with my small project.

Not only did I buy the replacement bezel from Billy, but I ordered everything I could think of from Billy, which wasn't much but included a couple of bottles of two cycle oil, two spark plugs, and an ignition switch.

Pam and I walked the dogs over to Lady's Island yesterday, and on the way we came upon Butler's Marine. We stopped in and I picked up the ignition switch. Billy had it sitting on the parts counter with my name on it, intending to deliver it on his way home from work. One of the ladies who works there saw the dogs and had to go outside to see them, and then even invited them into the store.

What a great place. Nice folks at Butler Marine. So here is a shameless plug that I make no apologies for. If you're anywhere remotely close to Beaufort, South Carolina and need any kind of parts or service, you call Butler Marine, 70 Sea Island Parkway, Beaufort South Carolina. 843-522-9461. Email Billy at parts at butlermarineinc.com. They're fine folks, and the owner should be proud of the employees he has. They represent him well.

Good old fashioned customer service. Imagine that. What is this world coming to?

Being A Tourist in Beaufort, SC

2012-02-09T01:07:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was forecast to be sunny and warm, so we decided to totally bag anything remotely resembling work and be tourists. We'd walked most of historic Beaufort but didn't know what we were looking at, other than beautiful homes, stately Live Oaks covered in Spanish Moss, and pretty gardens. So we decided to take a horse drawn carriage tour.

The downtown marina is adjacent to the town's waterfront park, which is also where the carriage tours start.

We bought our tickets and while waiting for the tour to begin saw a film crew drive slowly past. Maybe Drift Away will be on TV.

Our carriage passed by and stopped, and Pam introduced herself to Merlin, a Percheron.

Pam and I and a dozen other people piled into the carriage. Merlin had a full load, but these horses were bred to pull stuff. They love it. Bud, our tour guide, was very good, and was soon telling us stories of historic Beaufort. One thing that Pam and I like about Beaufort is that it's very small with a population of only 12,000. We're both from small towns and feel comfortable here.

This Baptist Church was built by black members of the the Beaufort Baptist Church after all the white members left town during the federal occupation of the Civil War.

Likewise, this arsenal was built in anticipation of an attack by federal troops. It was never attacked. Since everyone left town except for the town drunk, federal troops just sashayed in and took it over.

The homes in the "Old Point" section of Beaufort are beautiful. And expensive. The shacks sell for $350,000 and up, and the nice places sell in the millions.

We really love the Live Oaks draped in Spanish Moss. Massive trees like this one are 250 to 350 years old. These are nothing like the oak trees we have in upstate New York. These have their leaves all year long, and drop one set and replace them with another twice a year. Their acorns are long and skinny. The Spanish Moss is neither Spanish nor moss, but rather an air plant that lives on humidity.

It's my understanding that there's plenty of humidity here, especially in the summer time, which officially runs from February 23rd to December 18th. Fall is December 19th to January 17th, winter is January 18th, and spring is January 19th to February 22nd.

While Merlin walked his route, Bud narrated our tour. Note the low clearance sign nailed to an overhanging branch of a Live Oak that we're about to pass under.

Merlin stopped at stop signs and took a right or a left all on his own while Bud regaled us with stories of Beaufort. The mansion below was a Union hospital during the war.

Our tour lasted about an hour, and then it was back to the boat to soak in some South Carolina sunshine. Gertie was on the hunt and wanted to soak in some South Carolina Cormorant.

This was hysterical. She was creeping up to the piling, inch by inch, like a lion stalking a gazelle. I don't know how she thought she'd climb the concrete piling, nor what she'd do if she could. Did she really think she could pounce on that cormorant? It would fly away, with Gertie clinging to its back. Thankfully, the cormorant grew tired of the little cat and flew away.

Pam and I enjoyed cocktails on the aft deck, enjoying each other's company and that of a loon. Now you see him...

now you don't.

We were rewarded for our good behavior with a gorgeous sunset (hey Godspeed, that's you on the right)...

followed by a gorgeous moon rise.

I don't mean to gloat... no, I take that back, yes I do... I love this cruising life. I don't care that our old trawler needs paint and that the dogs and cat take up 93% the living space, or that I really need to get after fixing up the interior of this water damaged old boat... this is the way to live.

"Following" Blogs

2012-02-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

As of this writing, I am following 46 blogs, all but one about cruising. Pam and I have 47 people who follow our blog. Our blog gets 200 to 300 page views every day. So what does all this mean?

Well, I follow blogs because I enjoy reading about real people having real adventures. Sure, a few of them are bland, but most of them give a real sense of the what it's like to travel and live on a boat. I enjoy people who blog often because these are the people who seem the most enthusiastic about their chosen lifestyle, and to coin an old phrase, are probably high on life too.

Who are the people who follow our blog? Many are friends and family, of course, but most are people who just stumbled on to it, either from Google or TrawlerBlogs.com. Most are Americans, but the rest come from all parts of the world. Here are the blog's page view stats for the past week by country.

United States -

1,531

Canada -

102

Mauritius -

Germany -

United Kingdom -

Russia -

Netherlands -

France -

Spain -

Italy -

Why do people bother to "follow" a blog? From the comments and emails we get, people follow us because they enjoyed what they read and by following it know it encourages us to write more. Our blog also gets added to their blog list and so they can easily find us to return again.

Having regular blogs that we follow, and having regular followers, has created a new network of friends for us. Some blogs we follow are experienced cruisers who offer valuable advice on places to go and things to see (hi Sweetpea!). Others who follow our blog are in the dreaming or planning stages and get useful information from the stuff we write. These folks particularly liked "How Much Does It Cost To Buy a Boat and Cruise", our fifth most popular blog post of all time. A few like the boat projects, some enjoy the photos and videos, and our friend followers razzed us about almost sinking the boat at Liberty Landing Marina.

No matter how you found our blog, if you're not a follower and if you enjoyed what you've read, please consider clicking the "Join this site" button up at the top right of this page. As Radar, Melonie, and Bob (Istaboa's Waypoints) so succinctly put it, followers and comments on blog posts are like fertilizer to us. It encourages us to tote a camera everywhere so we can take photos like the one below to share with you.

Or to relate how difficult it was to get the dogs to jump up into an unsteady swing for a photo...

and as soon as it moved how Ruby freaked and ran like her butt was on fire.

Join our blog. The best is yet to come. I'm fixing the Whaler and soon we'll be anchoring out and there will be plenty of comical stuff there. And then there's painting the boat and renovating the interior. I'm sure we'll have plenty to write about, and you regular readers know I don't omit the mistakes and the funny stuff.

For the record, as of this writing I have all ten of my fingers.

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.

2012-02-07T06:44:00.000-08:00

Motoring down the Intracoastal Waterway is peaceful. The engines hum along, the critters are usually asleep, and I spend most of the time watching the world pass by. While I seldom ponder the problems of the world anymore, my brain is still thinking sometimes. One thing it thinks of is "what were they thinking?".

A college professor friend of mine once said that the world is run by C students. That's a pretty profound statement, but consider it. It's true. Sure, the President of the US is almost always an A student as are the CEOs of major corporations, but what about architects? From what I've seen along the ICW, there are many architects that barely made it out of architecture college and probably had buddies help with their final design projects.

Here are a few samples...

How can we make this house even better? Let's paint it pink!

Billy, go stand in the corner!

This house needs a bride and a groom on the roof and it would be perfect.

I don't know what to say about the one above other than I hope it's nice on the inside.

What about the people who buy these houses?   Well, about 35 years ago I was a new car and truck manager at a Dodge dealership. One of my duties was to order cars and trucks for the new model year.   I'd spend two or three days locked in the Saratoga Springs Holiday Inn with the factory rep filling out order form after order form.   I don't know how I did it, but I ordered a top of the line two tone green truck with a red interior. I couldn't believe my eyes when it came in.   The factory isn't even supposed to build something like that, but they did.

It was sold within hours. The fella that bought it owned a diner in Fort Edward, a small town in the foothills of the Adirondacks. While he was taking delivery of it, he said to me "I'll bet you're wondering why I bought that truck, aren't you?"

"Well, to be honest, yes."

"I'm thought of as the village idiot.   I'm going to park that truck right in front of my diner and let everyone see it to remove all doubt."

We had a saying in the car biz.   There's an ass for every seat. I guess that's true for houses as well. Probably old trawlers too.

Hemingway's in Beaufort, SC

2012-02-06T02:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday started out with a pretty sunrise.

I enjoy sunrises immensely. Maybe it's the quiet, or the promise of a new day, but sunrises are always a pleasure. After snapping the pic above, the singing of birds caught my attention. It's springtime in Beaufort and the birds are letting everyone know it. See the bird on the piling in the pic above? Here's a close-up.

These birds have a large repertoire of songs, like a Mockingbird. I don't know what they are. I asked the dockhand and he said the locals call them crows, which they are not. Pam checked our bird book and declared them to be Grackles. I remember Grackles in upstate New York when I was a kid and I don't remember them having anything more than a squawk. Anyone?

Our friends Rod and Patti, the Catalina Kids, didn't quite make it here from Charleston on Saturday. They got to just above the bridge and ran out of daylight and decided to drop the hook. They arrived Sunday morning.

We and the Kids have common internet friends here in Beaufort, who I called to set up a get together for lunch. We've met Don in person before at the Annapolis Boat Show, but Andina we had not. We've known her for many years via the internet. She's not only knowledgeable about all things sailing, but also an electronics wizard. She sells her inventions, which include battery combiners, galvanic isolators, and other items at Yandina.com (shameless plug).

Rod and Patti docked right next to us and we "knocked them up" for lunch. As we waited, I noticed barnacles covering the dock pilings, a common thing, but the lighting and the pattern were particularly interesting Sunday morning. Either that, or I was having a flashback. Dooood, check out the barnacles. Awesome.

Here's an awesome close-up.

Fascinating. Each one of those little things is an individual marine crustacean. An animal. Living a totally dull and boring life.

Anyway, off we went for a great lunch. Andina and Lee also own Hemingway's, a pub along the waterfront. Afterwards, at their invite, which took no arm twisting whatsoever, we next went to Hemingway's for a drink.

It was sunny and in the low 80s, a perfect day. The conversation was enjoyable and we basked in the warmth of the South Carolina sunshine. One pint turned into two, and then three. I went to the boat and got the dogs. Hemingway's is dog friendly, especially on Sunday when they don't serve food.

The dogs worked the crowd, both inside and out, and were rewarded with cookies.

Finally, well lubricated, it was time for the Super Bowl and we made our way back to the boats. Being trawler trash, we have a 42" TV so Rod and Patti came over for the game.

It was a great game, wasn't it? A nail biter right to the end. I'm a Packers fan and Rod cheers for the 49ers, so we didn't care who won and enjoyed a great game by both teams.

Rod and Patti are leaving today for Florida, and then on to the Panama Canal. Pam and I have decided to spend some time here in Beaufort. I didn't take anywhere near enough photos of Hemingway's so I need to go back there. It's important to have proper lighting when photographing a subject, so I'll need to visit frequently during different times of the day. This project will no doubt require several days, maybe the entire week, who knows? What's important is to get it right. As my Irish grandma used to say, "Be the job big or small, do it well or not at all."

Charleston to Beaufort, SC... the Day in Pictures

2012-02-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

There are no transient marinas between Charleston and Beaufort. They're 72 statute miles apart, a long trawler day. We left at 8 AM after walking the dogs.

It wasn't long before we got to our first bridge. We could fit under it so we didn't have to wait for it to be raised.

Just past the bridge we encountered the most current we've experienced on our travels. I had the engines cranked up to 2000 RPM, which should give us about 8.5 knots. The number in the top left corner of the chart plotter is our speed over ground. 3.8 knots.

So that means that we had 4.7 knots of current running against us. If you look again at the chart plotter, you can see why. The entire river (the big blue thing at the top of the plotter) was trying to drain through that narrow cut we're passing through.

We're still seeing remnants of Hurricane Irene.

That boat shouldn't have had it's jib on. I'm guessing that Irene unfurled it for the owner.

We love Spanish Moss.

This section of the ICW meanders all over, from creek to river to man made cuts. Luckily, the Navi-Nut (patent pending) helped us keep track of where we were.

Here is a video of the dolphins.

And here is why we need to put Chevy on a leash when he watches them.

Yes, all that whining and crying is Chevy, the blond Pit Bull. The dolphins heard Chevy and performed for him, all three simultaneously jumping out of the wake. What happened when Pam shut Chevy in the helm station?

Pathetic. Chevy can hear the dolphins calling to each other. I know this because I played a video of the dolphins on my laptop and Chevy began whining and ran outside the boat, looking for them.

The Beaufort swing bridge. We're here!

It was a perfect day. We think we might stay here for a week. We get a better rate if we do, and we can order boat parts, have our mail shipped, and do our income taxes. Yuck.

Walking Charleston

2012-02-04T03:54:00.000-08:00

Charleston, South Carolina is the kind of place that makes you want to walk. The historic district is wonderful. The people that can afford to buy these old homes must have plenty of dough because not only are they expensive to buy, but maintaining them must cost more than outfitting an old trawler.

Pam and I took the dogs on a three hour tour yesterday, in an attempt to tire them out for a long travel day to Beaufort on Saturday. Here are the pics.

The first thing I noticed was just off the Mega Dock where Drift Away is berthed. Note the mast sticking up out of the water.

Just to the right of it is a sailboat without a mast. A match made in heaven?

And then, at the head of the docks was this Egret playing with his lunch. The poor fish was flopping around in the Egret's beak. Just eat it already.

Next was another kind of Egret. I really should get the bird book and sort them all out.

On to Charleston.

It's too bad it costs so much to dock here. On to Beaufort, SC today.

Being A Tourist in Charleston

2012-02-03T02:37:00.000-08:00

Face it. The ugly truth is that part of cruising is being a tourist. That means going to touristy places and taking photos of touristy things. Pam and I pursuaded Rod and Patti, our friends who have been here for the past month on their Mason 43, to join us.

I joked with Pam about wearing black knee high socks and sandals, Bermuda shorts, and a gaudy shirt with a camera slung around my neck. She didn't think that was a good idea at all. Although it was shorts and tee shirt weather here in Charleston, she nixed the socks and sandals completely.

We decided to visit the aquarium. Pam and I love aquariums, and the one in Charleston included not only critters from the sea, but those from fresh water as well. It was a good hike there from the marina, but we all enjoy walking and so we did. You can see more at 3 or 4 miles per hour than you can from a cab or marina van, like this house with the awesome stairways.

We soon arrived at the aquarium, and I started snapping pics of all the cute animals, like this guy who seemed to be mugging it up for us.

This blurry apparition below is an otter. You try focusing on an otter. It ain't easy.

"Allibaster" is an alibino alligator. Sorry about the blurry head, but you try taking a pic.... aw, never mind.

A funny bird is the pelican... it's beak holds more than its belly can.

The birds in the aquarium are injured in some way and couldn't survive on their own.

These kids were having a ball, and so was the volunteer showing them the rays and horseshoe crabs.

The batteries in our little point and shoot camera died just as we got to the really cool part of the aquarium... the huge salt water tank with all the awesome fish, like sharks and barracudas and bare breasted mermaids. Sorry about that. After we left the aquarium, we stopped at a True Value hardware store and bought new batteries. Here is a photo of the US Customs House to make up for the missing photos of awesome fish and bare breasted mermaids. You're welcome.

This is probably the funniest sign I've ever seen. It's on a telephone pole in downtown Charleston.

On the way back, we strolled through the open air markets. I was impressed by these woven baskets. I thought they might make good presents until I picked one up and saw the price. $165. Nope, not a good present. Pam thought they were nice too, and bought a small one for $20.

I loved this old house with the flower boxes. Flowers, in February!

We got back to the boat and took the dogs on a much needed walk.

Ruby loves sticks and picks them up where ever we are. In Charleston, she had the good fortune to find a palm branch, which she ripped to pieces in short order.

The sunset was beautiful, a perfect ending to a perfect day.

I'm writing this at 5:30 AM on Friday morning. I'm not sure what we're doing today. I think Pam said something about laundry and going to the grocery store. There's a shuttle to the local West Marine and I need to buy some parts for the Whaler, so maybe I'll do that. We have to settle on a big decision, though. We have really good TV reception here, but the city marina is really expensive at $100 a day, but the Super Bowl is Sunday. Do we risk leaving for Beaufort tomorrow? What if we're out of TV range? Rod and Patti are here, so if we stay and if they don't leave, we could make a nice little Super Bowl party on Drift Away. Then again, there's this nice Irish pub downtown that's advertising a Super Bowl party....

The decisions that cruisers must make are difficult, indeed.

Georgetown to Charleston SC, the Day in A Lot of Pictures

2012-02-02T01:04:00.000-08:00

From the feedback I've gotten from comments and emails about our blog, people seem to enjoy our posts that contain a lot of photos. I guess it's true that one photo is worth a thousand words. If that's the case, here's 32,000 words for you about our trip from Georgetown to Charleston, South Carolina. Just to set the scene, we left at 7:30 AM, very early for us. We had 57 nautical miles (66 statute miles) to get to Charleston, and that's a long day on Drift Away. I didn't know if our dog's bladders could do it.

The daymarker in the pic below marks the entrance to the Estherville Minim Creek Canal portion of the ICW where we would hang a right. For my landlubber friends, the day mark is a channel mark that is on a pole stuck in the mud. That means it's pretty shallow so we'd give the mark a wide berth. We could see what we thought was fog in the entrance. I turned on the radar, just in case visibility was poor.

That's smoke in the pic above and below, not fog. It seems there are a lot of grass and forest fires here.

I love this pic below and the way the clouds mirror the land.

Dolphins!

We never tire of dolphins. They swim in our bow wave or our wake simply for the fun of it, hamming it up and rolling on their sides to get a better look at us, and the dogs.

Much of the trip was spent going at a low wake speed because of all the docks lining the ICW, as shown in the pic below. The trip north in the Spring may be even slower because these docks will have boats on them and we'll travel at a no wake speed.

More dolphins!

The dolphins roll over on their side to get a better look at us, as in the pic below.

This is Isle of Palms, just north of Charleston. On the other side of the ICW is Goat Island, which didn't fare too well during Hurricane Irene,

Many wrecked homes and boats on Goat Island. Ironically, a sign just to the right of this stranded houseboat is www.goatislandparadise.com.

The sign nailed to the palm tree below reads "no trespassing, no hunting, security cameras". Translation- "Stay out. I'm growing weed."

The photo below is Fort Sumter. Charleston is just across the bay.

We arrived at 3:49 PM, a run of 8 hours. The dogs were happy to finally be here and were frantic to get off the boat.

Sadly for them, though, we were near the end of the "mega dock". You can see how long this dock is by the vanishing point off in the distance. While I secured the boat, Pam took the dogs for a looooong walk to grass. Just go down the dock to the end of infinity, take a right, hike another loooong trek and you're there. Pack a lunch.

The "Catalina Kids", Rod and Patti, are still here. We visited them a few days ago with Al and Yolanda They thought about leaving today (Thursday) for points south on their Mason 43 "Second Chance" but decided to play tourist with us here in Charleston. Bwaa Ha Haaa.... pretty soon, I'll convince them to sell their sailboat and buy a trawler.

Cruising Down the Waccamaw River, the Day in Pictures

2012-02-01T00:28:00.000-08:00

We got a late start on Tuesday. We needed to pump out and take on 200 gallons of fuel. We said goodbye to Jim and Sharon and headed out the narrow marina channel at 11 AM.

We didn't have far to go to Georgetown, so leaving late was no big deal.

The Waccamaw is said to be one of the most beautiful stretches of the ICW. I have to say that out of all the cruising I have done, it is second only to the Hudson River on the pretty-meter.

We never tire of Spanish Moss.

Either an Osprey or an Eagle's nest.

Hurricane Irene?

We're officially in the boondocks.

We've seen very little boat traffic on this section of the ICW. Here comes a barge...

followed by a very ugly sailboat. Really. What were they thinking? The hull actually has beautiful lines.

We could see this smoke from a long way off. It must be a very large grass or forest fire.

It was a short day. We had left Osprey Marina at 11 AM after taking on 200 gallons of diesel, and we arrived at Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown SC a little after 3 PM.

The tulip trees are in bloom here.

A "reel bar".

A perfect ending of a perfect day.

Wednesday will be a long day. It's 63 miles from Georgetown to Charleston. We'll need to get an early start.

Springtime in South Carolina

2012-01-31T06:35:00.000-08:00

In upstate New York, it never feels like Spring until the end of April. We're in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and it's definitely Springtime here.

It's been unseasonably warm all along the east coast, including SC. The mornings have been crisp though, down into the 30s, and we've gotten hard frosts. You have to be careful on the slippery docks.

But then it warms right up, into the 60s and 70s. The trees have started to bud.

I'm not sure if this is budding Spanish Moss, or buds.

In any event, it's green.

It was so warm that I decided to tackle the 13' Boston Whaler on the roof. We need to get it running so that we can get the dogs to shore when we anchor out. Like Drift Away, it's been sitting uncovered for 20 years. I was told that it was running great back then.

I installed a new fuel filter, battery, gas tank, and fuel lines. I then needed to tackle the steering. The wooden console was rotten in spots and the steering wheel wobbles. I tried to remove the steering wheel, but the nut that held it underneath was rusted solid. I put a wrench on it and snapped it off. The wooden console also collapsed. No fixing that.

So now I'll have to hunt around for a new steering system, and I'll have to get some lumber to make a new console. That put an end to this boat project for the day. Time to sit in the sunshine and drown my sorrows with a defeated beer. A defeated beer is similar to a victory beer except it's comfort food.

Pam joined me on the flybridge where we basked in the warm South Carolina sunshine and enjoyed the view of... goats in the parking lot.

The goats were loose again. The dogs take great interest in goats. We need to watch them, while they watch the goats. Pit Bulls were bred to take down livestock. I don't know if they still have that genetic trait and I don't want to find out.

Today we'll sadly be leaving Osprey Marina for Georgetown. This is a very short trip of 30 statute miles. It's now 9:30 AM on Tuesday morning. It's warmed up into the 50s already. Time to go!

This Place Is A Zoo

2012-01-30T05:11:00.000-08:00

No, really. This place is a zoo. OK, I'm gonna go out on a limb here. If you're cruising on the ICW, you have to stop at Osprey Marina for a couple of reasons. First, it's a great place. It's a really nice marina, and priced right. Second, the Waccatee Zoo is a short bike ride (or a long walk) away,

This place made me smile. It reminded me of simpler times, back when I was six or seven and my mom and dad would make a day out of going to Fox's Zoo in West Sand Lake, NY. Even though I'm now supposedly a grownup, I giggled like a little boy the whole time we were there. Pam laughed and laughed. No, it's not the Bronx Zoo and no, there's no giraffes or elephants there, but trust me, you will love it. Here's why.

Seriously. Plan on stopping at Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach. Bike or walk to the zoo. Check your adulthood at the desk and be a kid again, just for a couple of hours. Buy a cup or a bag of animal feed and have a blast. All you cruisers now down south and making plans for the trek north, add Osprey Marina and the Waccatee Zoo to your stops. Waccatee Zoo is a time machine. For just a couple of hours, I was six again.

Now I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes, missing my mom and dad...

Internet Friends

2012-01-29T05:56:00.000-08:00

We all have friends. We have childhood friends, work friends, dog park friends, and neighborhood friends. A product of Al Gore's internets are internet friends.

I mentioned Jim and Sharon in our last blog, folks from upstate New York wintering over here at Osprey Marina. They're not internet friends. We met them the old fashioned way, backing into a dock with only one engine. Yesterday, though, was a day of internet friends.

Do you remember the early days of the internet? Don't become too friendly with anyone! He could be a serial killer! There are plenty of weirdos out there! That's all true, of course, but I haven't had the misfortune of encountering one yet. Everyone I've had the pleasure of meeting has been great.

I met Al through a sailing message board. Yes, I was a sailor for 40 years before buying Drift Away. Anyway, I let Al know that we were in his stomping grounds of Myrtle Beach. He called and invited Pam and I to go on a road trip to Charleston SC to hook up with mutual internet friends Rod and Patti. You bet! They picked us up Saturday morning. Although we had never met in person, it wouldn't be hard to recognize each other. Osprey Marina is a sleepy little place. We'd be the people standing in the parking lot, and they'd be the people in the car.

So off we went for a two hour car ride, chatting all along the way, talking about mutual internet friends and the latest hot topics on the message boards, things of interest along the way, and things I've posted on our blog. The dolphins came up, of course, and how awesome they are.

Arriving in Charleston, we met up with Rod and Patti, the "Catalina Kids". We've met Rod and Patti several times over the years and followed their cruise from California to American Samoa, but we'd not seen their new-to-them boat, a gorgeous Mason 43. They're on their way south, eventually through the Panama Canal and then back to their home base in California, but stopped in Charleston to make a few repairs.

This is the crew.

Pam is on the left, with Rod, Patti, Al, and Yolanda next. See? They don't look so evil. Of course, I'm not in the pic. I'm holding the camera.

Historic Charleston is a nice little town, with many very old buildings. The new buildings have been designed to blend in with the old. As a fan of historic architecture, and as someone who has served on a historic review board, this is something I really admire and appreciate.

Since we'll be in Charleston ourselves soon, I'm just going to post a few photos to give you a flavor of what Charleston is like, and what a beautiful day it was.

We love Spanish Moss.

And gardens.

We had a great lunch in a downtown restaurant, made even better because someone picked up the tab (thanks Al!), and then dropped Rod and Patti off at their boat. Al and Yolanda drove us back to Osprey Marina. We persuaded them to join us on the boat to enjoy the warm South Carolina evening. I had them wait on the dock while I got Ruby and Chevy off the boat to do their business. The dogs are wild when we first get to the boat after leaving them alone for a few hours, and this was no different. They were both barking and whining with excitement, tails and butts wagging furiously. Once their paws hit the docks, they went shooting up it at full speed, barking and hopping about as pit bulls do, stopping to bark and sniff hello to Al and Yolanda before dashing up to the lawn.

Al and Yolanda got onto the boat while I picked up dog poop. Back on the boat, the dogs were all over us and Al and Yolanda, wagging their tails and licking everyone. Eventually, they calmed down, but it took awhile. Does anyone know where I can buy a tranquilizer gun, the kind that shoots those darts with the feathers on the back?

We sat on the aft deck, enjoying the warm South Carolina evening and chirping tree frogs. After Al and Yolanda left, Pam and I moved inside. It was getting a bit chilly so we closed the doors. And then we saw them. Mosquitoes. Hundreds of them. I've been told that mosquitoes are the South Carolina state bird. Pam sprayed Off at them. They laughed. Pam then smooshed them with a fly swatter. They didn't think that was so funny.

We're staying here until Monday or Tuesday. We'll do a few boat chores if we can get up the motivation, but we'll pretty much just relax and enjoy the day. I've heard there's a zoo of some kind down the road. Maybe we'll go check that out. Maybe not.

The World Through the Eyes of a Dog

2012-01-28T03:18:00.000-08:00

In a previous blog, I mentioned a Christmas card I received from a mentally disabled person. It said "Blessed are those who see the world through the eyes of a child". That was about 40 years ago, but I never forgot it. It came back to me today as we walked the dogs. What does a dog think when encountering new things, like dolphins, or goats?

We're taking a few days off from cruising. We're now at Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, far enough south that I can say we're officially in the south. We didn't turn the heat on last night, and pulled some of the plastic off the windows.

Osprey Marina is a nice, secluded stop, far removed from, well, everything. The dogs can run off leash here. There's plenty of room and not too many people around. The marina has goats though, and sometimes they get out of their fenced in pasture, so we walk them off the boat on leash until we do a goat check, and then the leashes come off and the playing begins.

The dogs noticed something strange... what are they?

Ruby sat herself down to try to figure it out. She sits funny because of knee problems. We had her right ACL fixed over Thanksgiving, and her left one will be done sometime this year.

The goats noticed the dogs and all wandered over.

We put their leashes back on. The fence wasn't really all that high.

The goats came over, but not too close. The male was the closest, no doubt to protect the female and the kids.

Once everyone settled down, we took their leashes back off.

Ruby was visibly annoyed at something. She kept spinning around and licking her paws and her butt. Fire ants!

There was a huge ant hill nearby, and fire ants were attacking the dogs. Everyone go for a swim!

After being debugged, we took the dogs for a walk down to the end of the marina road. Across the road was Enterprise Stables and horses. Like the goats, the dogs were intrigued by them as well. Look at the size of them!

It seeems that animals are interested in checking out other animals. One horse took a special interest in us and the dogs and came over to the fence to say hey.

He was particularly interested in the dogs, not us.

We walked back to the marina. From the hill above, we had a nice overview of the marina below. This is a nice place.

That's Drift Away on the right. No, I do not know how I'm going to turn the boat around to get out of there.

Friends Jim and Sharon, who are here on SharonB, took us to the Myrtle Beach boardwalk in the afternoon. I rate this boardwalk higher than the fabled Atlantic City boardwalk.

Pam wanted to dip her toes in the ocean... not too close!

Thanks Jim and Sharon, for a wonderful afternoon!

Like us, Jim and Sharon have been cruising since September. And like us, I noticed that they've lost track of what day it is. Riding back to the marina, it went something like this.

"What's today? Saturday?"

"No, I think it's Friday."

"Are you sure?"

"No."

We all know what time it is because we have watches. Cruisers need to know when it's lunch time, dinner time, happy hour, etc., but we lose track of the day. On Drift Away, we have a day clock.

For all you cruisers reading this blog, today is Saturday. Time to relax.

Body Surfing Dolphins

2012-01-26T23:55:00.000-08:00

We left Holden Beach, North Carolina early yesterday. There was no fog, but it was overcast and gloomy.

I decided to back out from the dock. The dockmaster said we'd have deep enough water for our five foot draft if we wanted to go forward, but there was a pretty strong current running and I didn't want it to push us into the bridge pilings on the left, or into shallow water on the right. I can't see much when I back up, so we use walkie talkies and Pam guides me. I came a little close to the bridge pilings, but a miss is as good as a mile.

Just past the bridge, we saw this sad sight.

It wasn't too long until we had dolphins! Four of them, playing in our bow wave.

And then Pam and Chevy did something strange. They both looked aft.

The four dolphins left the bow and were now body surfing on our wake.

A photo doesn't do it justice. Check out the video.

Dolphins are awesome animals. Like people, they love having fun.

A bit further down the line, we left North Carolina. Thanks to my Navi-Nut (patent pending) I knew exactly when we crossed the border from North to South Carolina.

Navi-Nut 1.0 (patent pending) has performed flawlessly. No breakdowns, no glitches.

Many of my sailor friends like to run down the outside of the east coast of the US to get to Florida as fast as humanly possible. I don't see the attraction to that. I like to take in the scenery. Such as...

A large pair of "Aqua Sinos", floating casinos that probably go outside the US's three mile limit to gamble.

Houses built on top of houses line the ICW.

Followed by miles of desolation.

Followed by a UFO. What is that thing?

This bridge has 31 feet of clearance. I measured Drift Away at 22 feet. I think. We can clear this bridge, right? It wasn't 32 was it? No, that would be silly. Umm...

We made it. We soon passed Maggie Moo's Ice Cream and Treatery.

And gondolas that, I believe, ferry golfers from one side of the ICW to the other. If you look closely, I'm pretty sure those are golf bags on the stern of the gondola on the right.

We passed more wildlife...

which didn't interest Gertie in the least. She looks like she got into that box of wine to help pass the time.

We arrived at Osprey Marina at 2 PM for a total run time of 5 hours and 59 minutes, averaging 7.2 knots and traveling 43.2 nautical miles (which is about 50 statute miles for my landlubber friends). That's a good speed, considering that much of the time was spent at a no wake or low wake speed in congested areas. We had a good push by a favorable tide most of the day. So far we've traveled 1,052 nautical miles since leaving Stamford in September.

Gertie took the opportunity to look for a new boat.

The weather is pretty rotten today (Friday) so we're staying put. We think we'll stay here to recharge until sometime next week when we'll cast off for Charleston. It's now 3 AM and 68 degrees here, warm even by South Carolina standards.

Wrightsville To Holden Beach

2012-01-26T01:44:00.000-08:00

Holden Beach, North Carolina... I think that's where we are. Anyway, the name of the marina is Holden Beach Marina.

Yesterday was a fairly short day. Skipper Bob showed no marinas between here and mile marker 345, a distance of 23 miles. That's three or possibly four hours for us. We had a lot of current against us already, plus we had to go at a low wake speed past floating docks, so we decided to not try to make the 23 mile hop to South Carolina. What's another day?

The day started out fine. We left Wrightsville at 8:50 AM in a fairly strong current. Pam and I are getting pretty good at our boat and line handling, if I do say so myself. I handle the helm and Pam does the dock lines. I haven't had to go back to get her yet. Within a short time, we had dolphins on the bow.

The dogs now know where to look for dolphins. Chevy even checks for them as part of his guard dog perimeter check. Pam decided to shoot another video, this one a bit longer than yesterday's.

Remember the ICW school bus I posted about a couple of days ago that turned out to be a crane? Here is the real deal.

Nope, no idea. I just took the picture.

It was another gorgeous day, even by North Carolina standards. Pam and the dogs decided to soak it all in.

We soon arrived at Carolina Beach. It looked like one of those congested kind of places where condos are built on top of condos.

I got looking at all the gaudiness and the hundreds of boats docked everywhere. Some boats were nice, some were just awful. And look at how everything is piled one on top of the other! ... and then the ICW dead ended. Huh???? I zoomed out on the chart plotter and saw that the ICW took a right, and I did not. I was too busy sight seeing. I didn't even notice that the channel markers lacked the ICW symbols on them. I did a 180 and backtracked for a mile, as the chart plotter below shows.

Hey, it's not my fault! Look closely at the chart plotter and you'll see that the dashed lines lead right in there. And why isn't there a big sign at the turn labeled "ICW" with a big ol' finger pointed to the right? This has probably happened thousands of times to others, a vile plot by the Carolina Beaches Chamber of Commerce to drum up business.

We went through the cut and came out on the other side to the most confusing cluster of buoys I've ever seen. It was the Cape Fear River, with channels and buoys leading all over the place. Luckily, Pam realized that she needed to help and took the helm while I sorted everything out on our big paper chart. We did, of course.

We flew down the Cape Fear River. We had a strong current that pushed us to over 10 knots. We might make Myrtle Beach yet!

It didn't last, of course. As soon as we took the right into the Southport channel, which you can see in the pic above, we were slowed to 5.5 knots. Knowing that we couldn't make it to Myrtle Beach, we called Holden Beach Marine and made a reservation for the night.

It was sunny and the temp was in the 70s. Pam was driving, so I decided to bask in the sunshine on the foredeck. I even had to put a hat on so I didn't burn my bald noggin.

Meanwhile, the crew were in their usual positions.

It was so nice, I moved up to the fly bridge.

You can see a lot more things the higher up you are.

Sometimes the view aft is very nice too.

There's the Boston Whaler that I need to get running so we can anchor out. Maybe at Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach.

We were flying again, pushed with a strong current. When we passed Lockwood's Folly Inlet though, the current was again against us. With the tide ebbing, all the water in this part of the ICW was rushing out the inlet. It scooted us along as we approached it, knocked us around as we passed it, and then slowed us when we were against it. No matter though, because Holden Beach was right in front of us.

We've never been at Holden Beach Marine before, of course. Pam had called on the cell phone to make the reservation. We were told to tie up at the fuel dock. The chart book said the marinawas at the bridge. I looked through the binoculars. The fuel dock was right under the bridge outside the channel. It's really close to shore. Is there enough water in there? I stopped the boat. Pam called on the radio and got no answer, so she called on the cell phone again. We were told yes, there was enough water, so in we went. I thought we'd be docking alone and so I knew I had to nail the landing, but the dockmaster came down to take our lines. I nailed it anyway, perhaps my best docking ever.

So here we are.

The row of pilings behind Drift Away is the channel to the bridge. You can see how tight it is in there. But it was cheap at $1.25 a foot for the night, so what the heck. Of course, that's offset by the fact that there's no electricity on the dock, and so we've been running the generator since 3 PM yesterday.

We took the dogs for a walk, and on the way back decided to let them off leash to play in the water by the bridge. Pit bulls LOVE to play...

and play...

Afterwards, the five of us (Pam, me, Ruby, Chevy, and Gertie) sat on the foredeck and basked in the warmth of a gorgeous North Carolina day. Just to top it off, the sunset was beautiful.

So today will be a 50 mile run to South Carolina. I figure on an average of 7 knots when planning a trip, which is 8 miles per hour, or about six and a half hours. The days are getting longer now, and it's light until 6 PM. Still, there could be delays at bridges or more adverse currents, so we'll get underway by 9 AM. It's 4:30 now. I'd better go back to bed to see if I can grab a few more winks.

Swansboro to Wrightsville NC in pictures

2012-01-25T02:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think I post too many photos. I asked Pam about it, and she said no, keep the photos in. So I will.

Yesterday was the best day EVER on the boat. We had planned on leaving at 8 AM, 9 at the latest. I got up early, as I often do, and it was looking good. And then the fog rolled in. Pea soup fog, just like Beaufort the day before.

I prepped the boat: checked the oil, coolant, and transmission fluid levels; turned on the fuel polishing system; measured the diesel level and recorded it in my book; and turned on all the instruments. On the AIS I could see a tug and barge approaching. How could he see past the end of his barge? He couldn't. Any small craft out there had better get out of his way.

The fog gradually lifted and we were underway at 9 AM, visibility about 1/4 of a mile. There's not much to report for a time mainly because we couldn't see much. But soon, Camp LeJune came into view.

See the guard tower there?

And then dolphins!

We never tire of dolphins. They swim just in front of the bow of the boat. Are they using the boat as camouflage, or a cover, like hunters use a duck blind? Or are they just playing, entertaining humans on the bow?

The lights weren't flashing, so we kept on a goin'.

The dolphins stayed with us. Pam was on the bow enjoying the show. She came back to the helm and I convinced her to put Chevy on his leash and show him the dolphins. She did. She took Chevy to the bow and pointed to the dolphins.

"Look Chevy! See the big fish?!"

Chevy is a dog and doesn't know the difference between a fish and a mammal, so there was no point in saying "See the big swimming mammal".

Pit bulls are amazing dogs, but they're directionally challenged. I learned this in the Norwalk dog park. Point in any direction and they will look the opposite way. This was no different. I had the camera ready because I knew this would happen.

Eventually, Chevy did see the dolphins. He went berserk, as he always does whenever he sees something like that. This is a dog that actually chased a deer into Long Island Sound and jumped in the water after it.

Next was Ruby's turn.

"Look Ruby! See the dolphin?!"

Same reaction.

Here's a short video of what the dogs eventually saw.

The dolphins left and we came to our first low bridge, a bascule bridge. This kind of bridge doesn't swing up like a draw bridge, but rather pivots.

A boat that had passed us was waiting. The bridge opens on the hour and half hour, and not a minute sooner.

The fog was burning off and it was turning into a beautiful day. Pam and the dogs sat on the foredeck and basked in the sunshine. I played boat, navigating and punching in waypoints for the autopilot to steer to. I enjoyed the scenery from inside, with the helm doors wide open.

I really like pelicans. For such an ungainly looking bird, they're very graceful in flight.

North Carolina, like every place else with a coast line, has houses on every building lot possible, crammed in one on top of the other. Some houses are nice, most are gaudy, and some are goofy stupid way too big. I got a kick out of this, though.

We saw many of these here. It's a deck! It's a dock! It's a deck-dock!

Little pink houses for you and me.
And then we had to wait for another bridge.

Remember Innisfail, the ex-presidential yacht we saw at Atlantic Yacht Basin and Beaufort? It caught up to us while we were waiting for the opening. As we left the bridge, he hailed me on the radio and asked our cruising speed. I told him 7.5 knots. He asked to pass, and I gave him the go ahead. I kept Drift Away at a low speed so he could go by at a "slow pass", so as not to wake us.

With all the bridges and the lack of marinas to Wrightsville, I was concerned about not making it before dark. I was very pleased to see our SOG (speed over ground) kick up a few notches because of a favorable current.

That's our speed in the upper left corner. We even hit 10 knots at one point. The next number, 245, is our magnetic compass heading, followed by our lat/long and the time of day. The little itty bitty black pointy thing in the middle towards the bottom is Drift Away. The black line behind it is the course we traveled. The blue is water, the green is land. The red is our radar return.

It was getting really warm. How warm? I'm glad you asked.

77 degrees warm. Yeah baby! We're getting south!

We saw many houses for sale along the ICW. In an effort to attract attention to his, this owner put a giraffe next to his sign.

We came to our last bridge, the Wrightsville Beach Bridge. It opens on the hour. Only. It was 3:30. We had a lot of time to kill, so I ran the last few miles at idle speed. The bridge has 20 feet clearance, and we need 22. We had to wait. Finally, it opened, and our marina was the Bridge Tender Marina just past it on the right.

Across the channel from us was Innisfail.

They were on the yachty side. We were on the trawler side.

It was a great day. We ran for 6 hours and 20 minutes, and made 45.7 nautical miles. So far, Drift Away has traveled 972 nautical miles, which is 1,118 statute miles.   She's running like a champ.

Pam and I sat on the foredeck, enjoying a victory beer and enjoying the warm sunshine while listening to country music piped all through the boat. Life is good. Then we saw them.   Two dolphins slowly swimming up the channel towards us, breaching every 50 yards or so. A beautiful ending to a perfect day. And then the dogs saw them.

CHEVY! RUBY! STAY ON THE BOAT! DO ~NOT~ JUMP OFF THE BOAT!

The dogs were ecstatic.   They ran from the bow to the stern as the dolphins passed and were both hopping up and down and whining and crying. Pam was much faster than I and dashed aft and grabbed them both by the collar.    This could be a problem. I've heard of dogs jumping off of boats to play with dolphins. Maybe not Ruby, but certainly Chevy would do this. He has a record.

Beaufort to Swansboro in Pictures.

2012-01-24T03:05:00.000-08:00

As you know from yesterday's blog, which I updated a couple of times, we left Beaufort NC in fog. This is the channel leading from the town dock to the bottom of Radio Island.

We could see about a quarter of a mile. I wasn't worried until we hit the main shipping channel. Just as we did, there was a securite' on the radio from the tug Pamlico saying he was leaving the Radio Island terminal and would need all of the channel to manuver. We didn't know where the Radio Island terminal was, but Radio Island isn't that big so we knew it must be close. We looked to see if we could make visual contact.

Nope. Our electronics are awesome, though. Our radar and AIS overlay our chart on the plotter. The radar was too cluttered with hits from ships, tugs, buildings, buoys, and the bridge so we couldn't find him that way, but his AIS signal showed him just in front of us, heading north under the bridge at four knots, so we were safe.

We took a left and headed south down the ICW. The fog started to lift. We saw Capt. Stacy IV approaching from behind us. We slowed so he could pass at a no wake speed. He did not slow, the bastard.

We took the wake on our beam so our stabilizers could deal with it, which they did quite well.

This is a very confusing section of the ICW. There's a channel that comes in from the right, and one that branches off to the left. There are buoys everywhere. We made the mistake of following Captain Stacy, who we thought was continuing down the ICW. He was not. Oops.

You can see the U-turn on our track on the chart plotter.

Next came a bridge, which was guarded by these oddly colored pelicans.

A little farther down the line we saw this.

Pam was driving. "What is that?", she asked.

I looked through the binoculars. "It's the ICW school bus.", I replied. "If it's flashing red lights, don't pass it. You have to stop."

Pam looked at me with one of those looks. You guys know the look I'm talking about.

This is what it actually was. a small yellow crane on a small barge pushed by a dinky push boat..

Next, we were passed by a couple of very small fishing boats. I always marvel at the variety of water craft there is.

We were getting close to Swansboro and Casper's Marine. It rained a little. Time to turn on the windshield wiper.

We passed row after row of McMansions, most of which I thought were pretty ugly, but this one caught our attention. Interesting.

We reached buoy 46B and I hailed Casper's Marine, as instructed, and got docking instructions from the dock master. Casper's Marine is only rated as a three star (out of five) marina on ActiveCaptain.com. I didn't expect much, but was pleasantly surprised. It's really very nice. It's not a fancy dancy yachty type of place, certainly, but utilitarian. Fine by me.

The office and store is in the left part of the building, and the right side is a huge warehouse for the dry storage of boats. The docks are nice, and the young guy who helped us tie up was efficient and professional. For anyone leaving Beaufort for points south who has a slow boat like Drift Away and can't make Wrightsville in one hop, this is a good stop.

The dogs love when we stop and can't wait to get off the boat to explore. Chevy, the Shar-Pei/Pit Bull mix, also goes on immediate guard duty protecting us from criminals, ne'r-do-wells, communists, Tea Party candidates, and Jehovah's witnesses.

We took them on a short walk into town to explore a bit. Swansboro's historic district is very nice and their downtown small, but inviting. We intend to stop here on our way north and spend a day or two. I need to ask the locals what this thing is. It seems to be the offspring of a goose that mated with a turkey.

Friends Ed and Wendy came for a visit in the evening. They brought an amazing chili, the kind that makes the top of your head sweat. It was awesome!

Today we head for Wrightsville. There's a low bridge there that we may not be able to get through before rush hour so we may stop north of it. Naturally, if we can get through, we'll stop south of it. I've read that Wrightsville is a beautiful town, but we're beating feet south and will probably wait until our trip north to explore it. It's a brisk 61 degrees here at 6 AM.

Trip Planning and Schedules

2012-01-23T05:03:00.000-08:00

A very good rule to follow when cruising is not to do it on a schedule.  You've got to be flexible. If not, if you take chances with weather in an effort to make miles, you could run into trouble.

For example, we're at the Beaufort North Carolina town dock at ICW mile marker 204.2. We arrived here from Belhaven North Carolina at mile marker 135.7 after a very long day, 8 AM to 4:30 PM. That's 8 1/2 hours and 68.5 statute miles with no delays and in absolutely perfect weather.   That would be our maximum range for one day's travel. The dogs were hopping up and down with their legs crossed by the time we docked.

We stay in marinas every night. Our dogs need to get off the boat, and I haven't had the chance to work on our Boston Whaler to get it running so we could anchor out and use the Whaler to get the dogs to shore.

We use Skipper Bob's "Marinas Along the Intracoastal Waterway" and ActiveCaptain.com to look for marinas in our range. In planning, I also have to look at ICW restrictions, such as low bridges and the upcoming Camp LeJune firing range which can close the ICW if it's "hot". I need to look at current, which can change with the tides.    High tide at Beaufort is 7:49 AM today, and slack current about two hours after that.   So we should get underway around 9:30 or 10. But this is the view outside this morning.

Today is supposed to warm up into the 60s, but it's forecast to be cloudy. This may not burn off for awhile, and so we may be here another day.   If we can leave, we'll have about six hours of travel time, or about 45 statute miles of range. How many marinas are within here and mile marker 250? Four.

Dudley's and Casper's marinas are around mile marker 229, only a 24 mile run.   That would be a short day.   Next are two marinas at mile 247, Swan Point and New River.    Now it's time for ActiveCaptain.com.   This is a great site that permits users to rate marinas. Dudley's and Casper's are three star (out of five) marinas. Average, an OK place to stay.   I would have pushed on to the other two, but ActiveCaptain.com reports that New River is a fuel dock only, no water, no pump out, and no electricity.   Swan Point marina is reported as closed at the end of the 2011 season.

So there you have it, it's Casper's or Dudley's for us today. Since we have to wait for fog anyway, that will be the plan.

After that? Well, add 60 miles to to 229 and we're up around mile 290. There's Beach House Marina at mile 260 and then four more around 285.   Beach House Marina only has two transient docks and is pricey at $2 a foot, so it looks like we should plan on an early departure and a long day to make one of the other four.

There's a saying cruisers have about guests planning on joining them- you can pick the time, or you can pick the place, but not both.   We often don't know where we're going to wind up.

9 AM update- The fog seems to be getting worse. Beaufort has considerable current and if we can't get out of here by 11, we may be stuck for another day (if you can call spending another day here being stuck). Visibility is now only 1/16th of a mile.

My boat is on the right. The yacht on the left is the ex-presidential yacht Innisfail. We last saw her at the Atlantic Yacht Basin at Great Bridge, NC.

12 PM update- we left at 10 AM with about a quarter mile visibility. I wanted to get underway before the current started kicking up, which it would by 11. We used our radar and AIS overlays on our chart plotter to pick our way along. As we rounded Radio Island, I heard a VHF securite' from the tug Pamlico. He was pulling out of his terminal and would need pretty much the whole channel to do it. I zoomed out with the chartplotter and saw him with the AIS. I never would have seen him with just the radar because of all the clutter- boats, ships, a bridge, and buoys. He was northbound, like us, but we took a left at the ICW and he went up Adams Creek.

I love fancy electronics.

Spending a Lazy Day in Bow-fort, NC

2012-01-22T03:32:00.000-08:00

It's not pronounced "Bee-yew--fort". That would be Beaufort, South Carolina. It's "Bow-fort", North Carolina..

Beaufort is a nice little town, population about 4,300. I like small towns. After living in Stamford, Connecticut for a few years and dealing with the hustle and bustle of a city, this is a welcome pace. Beaufort is now on our list of "We could live here" places, along with Annapolis and Belhaven.

Part of the reason of our cruise down the eastern seaboard is to find a place to settle down. Upstate New York has its attractions, such as affordable health insurance and a beautiful summer, spring, and fall... but then it has winter. As I write this at 6 AM on Sunday, it's -9 degrees in Gloversville. It's 42 here in Beaufort. Beaufort wins.

It's much warmer here than, say, Annapolis, which is not too far north. It's 32 there. Much better than Gloversville, but not as good as Beaufort. Beaufort wins again. Part of the reason for Beaufort being warm is latitude, of course, but it's also because the gulf stream is close here. Look at the color of the water in this pic of a loon below.

See the light blueish-green color? No? Look again.

You can click on the photo to make it larger, by the way. We have lots of loons here. They swim and dive all around us.

We took a short walk around town on Saturday. Beaufort is a small town and it doesn't take long to see most of it. We found that many of the homes date from the 1700s and 1800s.

I love the gingerbread on the house above. The house below is in the museum.

Many homes here are not in the museum, but have plaques on the front like the one above does. It also seems that people in Beaufort take pride in their homes... check out the sculpted bears in the pic below.

There is a very old cemetary here, a very picturesque one.

I guess it's not a cemetary. It's an old burying ground. I'm not sure what the difference is.

The gates were locked, so no one could get in. Or out.

We had to look in through the fence.

Beaufort is a nice place. We haven't visited the maritime museum yet, and today isn't forecast to be the best of days, and there's football play offs today as well, so we may just stay put. One of the nice things about cruising is not being on a schedule, and since I've declared that we're officially in the south, I think we might stay put today. Why take chances? What if we went down the line and got out of TV reception range and missed the play offs? That would be foolhardy.

See the color of the water? Life is good. Very good.

Happiness is a Warm Dolphin

2012-01-21T01:47:00.000-08:00

We left Belhaven, North Carolina, at 8 AM Friday morning. The weather forecast wasn't the best. Wind out of the west at 15 to 20 MPH. We'd have to travel up the Neuse River, which is a large body of water and runs east-west, which would mean rough water. We decided to go anyway and tuck in at Oriental. Red sky in morning, sailor take warning...

I'm a data junkie. I want to know the wind speed, the barometric pressure, and the dew point. I need to know the temperature where we are, where we've been, and in upstate New York, where we lived. I want to know my lat/long. I love to navigate. Steering bores me, but moving a Navi-Nut (patent pending) along a chart is a rush. I use two paper charts for the ICW, the Maptech paper charts plus an ICW specific flip chart.

Why two charts? Isn't that like wearing a belt and suspenders? Well, the big chart gives me an overall view of where we are and where we're going, while the flip chart condenses everything down into a concise view. In addition to paper charts that cover the entire eastern seaboard, we have $12,000 in electronics that tell us exactly where we are and what's around us. I especially like the Simrad 12" touch screen display that overlays radar and AIS data onto the chart. It is totally awesome. Yesterday, while traveling down Adams Creek, I could see a large commercial tug and barge coming around a bend before I could actually see it.

I love cruising on rivers and canals. There's always something to look at, even if it's only fishing boats.

We came across a sad reminder of the power of nature and how quickly one's dreams can come to an end. Hurricane Irene.

The wind was blowing five to ten MPH, lighter than forecast. When we got to the Neuse River, it went completely calm.

Nary a ripple. And we were making great time as well. We passed by Oriental at 12:30. It seemed silly to stop, so we decided to push on to Beaufort, another 30 miles away, calculating that we'd arrive around 4 PM. That would be a long day for the dogs' bladders, but they were behaving well.

We left the Neuse River to follow the ICW down Adams Creek. The current was with us and pushed us from our normal 7.5 knots to 9. We were flying! We were flying until we got around five miles from Beaufort, when the incoming tide slowed us to 6 knots. Ugh. It was then, though, when we saw something break the surface not too far ahead of us. Fins...... ray? No, dolphins!

There was one, then two, and then four! One group would peel off and another take their place. I don't know why dolphins love to swim right in front of boats, but it's very cool that they do.

I ran up to the bow with the camera and took a couple of pics, and then ran back to take the helm so Pam could see. Pam was totally enamoured with the dolphins. While she watched them, they watched her. She whistled to one, and as if on command he did barrel rolls for her. She could see the dolphins looking at her.

"Look", said one dolphin to the other, "I told you I could make a human come look at us."

"Do you think they're intelligent?"

"Hard to say. Don't think so. They're too easily entertained. Let's do a barrel roll and watch her clap her flippers, and then let's go catch some fish."

The dolphins followed us all the way past the Beaufort bridge. They were very entertaining.

Yesterday, Belhaven. Today, Oriental.

2012-01-20T04:27:00.000-08:00

Thursday was a picture perfect day to hang out in Belhaven. JW, the mechanic, had to order a size pencil zinc that I didn't have, so we were "forced" to remain here.

The morning quickly warmed up from 28 degrees to 60. It was nice enough to have morning coffee on the foredeck.

Thursday afternoon it was 27 degrees back home in Gloversville, NY. It was 37 in Annapolis. And 60 here! For some reason, Pam doesn't understand my weather compulsion. When I imparted the aforementioned temperature comparisons to her, she threatened to box my ears.

It seems that we see interesting things where ever we go. I noticed this barge below moving incredibly slow.

If you look closely, there are two small powerboats propelling that massive, heavy barge filled with scrap metal and a crane. One powerboat is in the back and one on the starboard side. There may be another on the port side, I dunno. Can't see over there.

We pretty much relaxed all day. We walked the dogs around town and enjoyed the fine houses. This was the beautiful sunset that closed the day.

Almost closed the day. We decided to eat at the Fish Hooks Cafe downtown. This is the sunset that closed the day.

Fish Hooks Cafe was very good. Pam ordered "the Trawler" which was a plate of fish, scallops, oysters, shrimp, and a crab cake. We took home a biiiiiiiig doggie bag. Oh, and we had another first. We ordered fried green tomatoes, the first time we'd ever seen them on a menu. The fried pickles were $6 and the fried green tomatoes were $5.99. I wonder why the penny difference? Anyway, they were very good.

The weather forecast changed. It was supposed to be 10 to 15 out of the west today, and now it's 15 to 20. We're leaving anyway. We only have a short hop in open water, and it's not really that open, and then we're in a canal. By the time we get to an exposed section of Pamlico Sound, the wind is supposed to die down to 10 to 15. It's forecast to be out of the west so we're protected anyway on our run to River Dunes. It's 7:30, leaving in about a half hour.

Spending the Day in Mayberry. I mean Belhaven.

2012-01-19T02:49:00.000-08:00

I mean that in the best possible way. I love Belhaven. The homes are beautiful, the people are friendly, and the view of the Pungo River is awesome. Sadly, Belhaven has taken a couple of hits recently. A major employer closed, costing 55 jobs in this small town of 2,000. And at the end of last August, Hurricane Irene roared through, flooding the entire low lying town.

We were getting some needed engine maintenance done on Wednesday (oil and filter, zincs, and a port engine overheating problem), so it was a good day to stroll around this fine southern town.

First we took the dogs to the public park and beach near the marina. It was empty so we let them off leash. Ruby's knee was operated on at the end of November and she's pretty much been kept on leash so it could heal. It was time to run and play, at least a little. Ruby needs to exercise her knee.

Pit Bulls love to run and wrestle. If you didn't know better, you'd think they were ripping each other apart. They ran and ran.

They'd run one way, turn and come back, run one way, turn and come back, run one way.... and they didn't come back. They were in a neighbor's back yard.

"RUBY! CHEVY! YOU GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW! I MEAN IT! LEASH!! LEASH!! NO!!!!! NO POOPING!!!!!!!!"

Pam picked it up. How embarassing.

Even though the temps were in the high 40s yesterday, Chevy and Ruby went swimming, which also includes water wrestling.

That was enough dog play. Time to walk the streets of Belhaven.

One thing we noticed right away was that many of the homes were, or are in the process of being, raised up four to six feet higher. Belhaven has been hit by six hurricanes in four years, flooding the town. FEMA would be called in to help. FEMA had enough, and the town received funding to raise all the houses up above flood level.

Belhaven is a fine little town, a place where people waved to us as they drove by, a place where it's OK with the police to drive a golf cart on the town's streets, a place where the neighbors know each other. It's high on my list of favorite places. If you're traveling nearby by car or boat, make it a stop. It's life at a slower pace. A better pace, in my view.

A Day Of Firsts.

2012-01-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

Monday, Pam and I tucked Drift Away in the Alligator River Marina at the northern end of the Alligator River in North Carolina, which is at the bottom of Ablemarle Sound. It was a short day, but continuing on to Belhaven, the next place with marinas, was too far for our dogs' bladders.

Alligator River Marina is OK, but doesn't offer much. The docks are in great shape and the shore power works. The marina was closed for the season. We could dock there, and the marina owner came by to collect her fees, but that was it. The wifi was down and the convenience store was closed. It's out in the middle of nowhere, so we couldn't hike to another store for needed eggs and bread. And to top things off, the Verizon hot spot we often use to access the internet was running the speed of dial-up.

Tuesday morning, we awoke to a dicey forecast. 15 gusting to 25 out of the south. South was the direction we needed to go, so we'd have waves on the bow. At 7 AM, it was blowing 15 MPH, our upper limit. We had to run about 14 nautical miles, or about two hours, before we'd find the shelter of the lee of the bottom of the river where it makes a ninety degree right hand turn. The small craft advisories went into effect at 10 AM. To top it off, the weather was forecast to be nasty until Thursday or Friday. Common sense told me we needed to stay put. So we decided to leave.

We got underway around 8 AM. We motored out to the Alligator River swing bridge and asked for an opening.

Sheeran Ann also called right after we did, from the marina. So we had to sit and wait for 20 minutes for them to arrive. But arrive they did, and we both proceeded through the bridge and down the sound. We could motor at about a knot faster than them and soon left them behind.

The ride down the river was surprisingly smooth. I expected Drift Away to hobby horse like it did on the Chesapeake when we had strong wind and waves on the nose, but not so. I think this was due to a number of factors. First, Drift Away is now loaded down with fuel and water making her much heavier. And second, the two and three foot waves were very steep, but also very close together. Instead of the boat going up a wave and then down the back side, we had a dozen or more waves passing under us at any point in time. It was pretty smooth going, sort of like driving on a cobblestone street.

Soon, we caught up with Cajun, a tug pushing a barge.

The river was getting narrow, and soon it would pass into the 90 foot wide Pungo River-Alligator River Canal. The AIS showed he was traveling between 5 and 6 knots, and we were doing 7. We needed to get by him. About a mile before the entrance to the canal, I kicked up the diesels from 1800 to 2100 RPM. We got close. I hailed Cajun on the radio, arranged to pass him to port, and glided by him at a slow walk. We beat him into the canal, though, so that was good.

This is the entrance to the canal. Only 18 miles or so to go to come out the other side. Although the wind now piped up into the 20s, we were well protected in here and the waves were about six inches.

We passed this guy going the other way.

I thought it was bad enough that we're the last boat to head south this winter. This maniac wants to be the first person north!

Speaking of firsts, here is a first for us.

Our first palm trees. Sure, I know they're planted, but it's the middle of January and they're still healthy.

I find these an interesting feature of the ICW. Mile markers every five miles.

It seems to me that if you're that bad of a navigator that you need interstate-like mile markers to tell you where you are (especially on a canal), then maybe you should find a new hobby.

The animals like cruising on canals and rivers much more than open water. The view is better.

They seem to have taken over the bench seat behind the helm station when underway. Here, they pile on top of each other and snooze, ocassionally awakening to take in the sights.

We eventually left the canal and were out in the Pungo River, which runs east and west. The 25 knots of wind was out of the west, naturally. What could be worse, I thought? And then it started to rain.

Although this is a large body of water, it is very shallow and you have to stay in the channel, which is marked with day marks (red and green signs on poles stuck into the bottom, for my landlubber friends). One smart thing that I decided on when outfitting Drift Away was installing top shelf electronics. Between the chart plotter, radar, and AIS, I knew exactly where I was and what was around me, all integrated into one display. Best money I ever spent. I could be in pea soup fog in the blackest of nights and be able to navigate accurately and safely.

The rain soon stopped and it was time to turn on the windshield wiper.

The entry into Belhaven was easy. There is a really nice breakwater that protects the town. We hung a right just inside the breakwater and were soon tied up to a dock at River Forest Marina.

In the photo above, you can see the marina's own stone breakwater on the left side of the pic, and the town's long wooden breakwater beyond.

And we had another first.

Our first pelican.

And although I don't have any photos, there was another first. The marina's courtesy car isn't a car. It's a golf cart. Pam and I hopped in and rode all around Belhaven in a golf cart, mixed in with the locals in their cars and trucks. Great fun!

This was certainly a day of firsts.

Coinjock to the Alligator River. Yawn.

2012-01-17T02:29:00.000-08:00

We made another short hop today. Coinjock to Belhaven is over 80 miles away, a ten hour day for us. Too far. Our dogs can't hold it that long. We elected to stop at the Alligator River Marina which was only 32 miles and make Belhaven the next day. We left early for us, around 8:45. The three sailboats around us at Coinjock had already left. The morning was cool but clear and windless. Perfect trawler weather.

This is Coinjock Marina, home of the best prime rib I've ever had. Write that down.

The ride was interesting at first, meandering through low woods and marsh. Even though it seemed pretty much lifeless here in January, at least it's scenery.

Pam said "Look at all the ducks around that duck blind! That's funny. Take a picture."

And so I did. Look closely at the photo. Click on it and make it larger. I didn't notice either, not until I downloaded the photos onto the computer.

We soon came to Ablemarle Sound, a large shallow body of water. Like Currituck Sound, it can be treacherous if the wind is strong. It was not.

You can barely see the three sailboats who left Coinjock ahead of us in the pic below. See, we're NOT the last boat to head south. Well... they're ahead of us, so I guess, technically, we actually still are the last boat.

It was a dull ride. I put Drift Away on autopilot and let it steer us to the Alligator River. Yawn. Even the dogs were bored.

Although I though it was fairly warm in the helm station, Ruby was shivering, so I covered her up with a blanket. Gertie thought this was great.

She could see just a little better from the top of Ruby's head.

We finally caught up to everyone at the Alligator River Bridge. Two sailboats called for a bridge opening and went on, while Sherry Ann and Drift Away took a right just before the bridge to the Alligator River Marina.

Sherry Ann had been here before and so we followed them in. I tried calling the marina on the cell phone and VHF radio but go no answer. The Alligator River Bridge operator said they were closed for the winter, but we had no choice but to go in. There are no other marinas between here and Belhaven. We were approaching the south wall dead slow. This was a good thing, as we went aground. I was able to back off and move farther out into the narrow channel for another go at a steeper angle, which worked.

There is a gas station here which is part of the marina. It too was closed. But the owner lives next door and she came over to collect her dock money.

There is nothing here of interest. The marina is next to a busy highway, the gas station/convenience store is closed for the winter, and there's nothing to see or do. The weather forecast for today isn't good with winds 20 to 25 late in the morning. We have about a one hour run to the end of the Alligator River, which is exposed, to make it to the protection of the canal. If the wind holds off, we're out of here. Otherwise, we're stuck here for a few days.

The ICW Train

2012-01-16T05:10:00.000-08:00

We traveled from Atlantic Yacht Basin in Great Bridge, Virginia to Coinjock, North Carolina yesterday.

The first part was like traveling down a narrow river. We like river and canal travel. There's something to see besides water. Like trees.

We had to wait about 20 minutes for one bridge, which was no big deal. We also had this guy coming towards us. The ICW seems really narrow when you're confronted with something like this big barge approaching.

We scooted over as far as we could to starboard to give the barge room, but we had stumps to contend with, and less than ten feet of water.

All ended well though. We didn't hit the stumps, and the barge didn't hit us. He wouldn't want to hit us. Too much paperwork.

A bit farther down the line, Pam was driving, and she looked out the helm windows and looked confused.

"What is that? Is that a train?", she asked.

I couldn't tell either. Everything was at water level. Us, the reeds and bushes and trees, and it. I looked ahead with the binoculars. It wasn't a train coming towards us, but another barge.

Seriously though, I was also taken aback. This part of the ICW is very low and twisty, and I didn't know what I was looking at either. It was a large manmade object of some type, but exactly what, I couldn't tell. Through the binocs, though, I could see it was a tug and barge. Of course, I didn't let Pam know this right away and I teased her endlessly about the ICW train.

The person not on the helm is responsible for looking astern for overtaking boats, and as Pam was steering and I was checking astern for traffic, I referred to it as "looking for trains".

There's really not much else to report, other than the wind was blowing like stink. It was out of the north though, and so on our stern, and the trip down Currituck Sound was a piece of cake. Currituck Sound is very shallow, maybe five or six feet of depth outside the channel, so like the sailboat in front of us and the two speedy powerboats that passed us, we stayed in the channel.

A landlubber sayng I like is; when driving, anyone going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster is a maniac...

This guy was a maniac. He was also a total asshole, passing our port side by only 20 feet or so. Luckily, I saw him coming and so warned Pam.

It was cold yesterday, only getting into the low 40s, but we were warm and toasty inside Drift Away's helm station. I'm actually getting to think that I enjoy motoring along when the temps are in the 40s. Anything warmer than that and we'd start to overheat.

A shameless plug. I googled marinas in Coinjock and found there are two. One linked to a rave review for the restaurant at Coinjock Marina. We decided to eat there last night. It was outstanding. It was definitely the best prime rib I've ever had in my life. Write that down, Coinjack Marina prime rib. The best.

So it's off down the Ablemarle Sound today. Sometime during the day I'll start looking for a marina stop for the night. No sense in over planning these things.

4 Hours. 9.5 Miles. How Far Is Key West?

2012-01-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

We stayed put in Norfolk yesterday. The wind was blowing in the 20s and gusting in the 30s. The Elizabeth River even had a nasty chop.

Drift Away can certainly handle those little waves, but I was more concerned about the wind. We have several bridges to wait for openings, and those openings are restricted. I might have to maintain station while waiting.

This silly steamboat themed ferry had to run regardless.

I really dislike phoniness. A paddlewheel? A smoke stack? Really? That's a lot of needless windage.

We left Saturday morning around 10 AM. There was no rush. We wouldn't try for Coinjock, about 45 miles away. Bridge delays would have made it a very long day, much too long for the dogs, so our target was Atlantic Yacht Basin in Great Bridge, VA. Distance? Mile 12 of the ICW. That would be 12 statute miles from us.

We passed all kinds of cool maritime type stuff. Navy ships, cargo ships, tugs, barges, cranes... and this. I think it's Jimmy Buffet's house.

I live on a big round ball, I never do dream I may fall, and even one day if I do, well I'll jump up and smile back at you.

The dogs are adapting to cruising quite nicely. They enjoy sitting on the bench seat behind the helm and watching the world pass by. There are things to look at on the ICW.

We quickly caught up with this tug and barge just before the Steel Bridge.

Hannah Lee was doing about five knots. I knew there was no point in passing him. The bridges open on the hour or half hour, and if we got by him, we'd only have to wait at the next bridge. As it turned out, there was a looooong freight train passing on the bridge just next to the Steel Bridge, and we both had to stop and wait for about 20 minutes for the opening.

We passed by the Dismal Swamp Canal, which branched off to our right. I would have really liked to have taken that route, but it's closed for maintenance. Hopefully, it will be open on our way back north.

So it was the Abemarle & Chesapeake Canal for us.

The rest of the bridges were uneventful, and Hannah Lee hung a lewey and left the ICW just above the Great Bridge Lock. I called the lockmaster on the radio and asked to lock through. I'm not sure exactly what he said due to his thick southern drawl and my difficulty in understanding accents, but it was clear that we were going to have to wait for about an hour. This is when I was really glad that we didn't leave the day before when the wind was really howling. The channel isn't that wide and I would have had trouble maintaining position.

Soon, a sailboat named Destiny caught up with us (we're NOT the last boat to head south!) and we both locked through. He tied up on the town dock above the last obstacle we had to overcome, the Great Bridge Bridge. No, that's not a typo, and no, I did not stutter. This opens only on the hour and we had a 20 minute wait here. Finally, it opened.

See all the stopped cars? They're waiting for ME. Bwa ha haaaa. What a rush.

The Atlantic Yacht Basin is just past the Great Bridge Bridge. We pulled up to the fuel dock and took on 150 gallons and topped off our water tanks as well. The last time we took on water was December 1st in Annapolis. I'm really glad that we carry 400 gallons of water.

AYB is a very nice working marina. We had no problem getting a dock either. The dockmaster said things are a little slow in January.

I checked our plotter's trip log. We traveled 9.55 nautical miles in a little under 4 hours. I could have walked faster.

We went down towards the end of the marina so it would be easty to get the dogs off to play. Which they did. Ruby's knee is pretty much healed and we decided to let them run off leash. They ran like they've never run before, with pit bull lips flapping in the breeze and big smiles on their faces. They even went swimming, even though it was only 41 degrees air temp.

I swear, pit bulls feel nothing.

We like to explore marinas and the handsome boats one often finds. Check this out.

I thought it looked familiar. It is "Innisfail", the presidential yacht used by Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. It was put into private hands in 1965. I don't know who owns it now, but they take excellent care of it. It is a wooden boat, and in absolutely immaculate condition.

So tomorrow we'll leave for Coinjock. It's only 37 statute miles from here, and there are only two bridges to wait for. It should be an easy day. We will be in North Carolina, so I expect to see people in shorts and tee shirts. Can't wait.

Happy Birthday To Our Blog!

2012-01-13T06:58:00.000-08:00

We started our blog exactly one year ago today. Pam and I had purchased this old trawler some months before as a liveaboard. We had some pretty interesting things happen to us, and as winter was upon us and I was looking for something to keep me occupied, the idea of a blog came about. We wanted to write about what it's really like to live on a boat. Sure, there are plenty of people writing about it, mostly magazine articles and books, but a blog is a bit different.

Magazine articles are short and usually deal with a very narrow view of living on a boat. You really can't impart much useful information in a thousand words or less, and so restrict the article to one or two facets of life aboard. Plus, you can't imbed videos.

Books have to have a beginning and an end, with some sort of path in the middle connecting the two. It has to hold the reader's interest. It has to be publisher worthy and commercially viable. Authors of books have to write keeping those idea in mind.

Not so a blog. Since there's no money involved (unless you "monetize" it) a blog can be anything the blogger wants it to be. I'd written several magazine articles in the past, but I had never blogged about anything before.  I could look at it with a fresh perspective. Just like I did with my computer business, I could approach it any way I wanted to. Well.... what would people like to read about?

People like to be entertained. They want to be intrigued, interested, fascinated, educated, or to laugh. Living on a boat, especially an old boat that needs a lot of work, is blog fodder in and of itself. Combine that with a klutz (me), a perpetually happy person who looks at the best in everything (Pam), and then toss in a couple of pit bulls and a few cats and you have the perfect recipe for the "what were they thinking?" category. Then mix in wintering over in Stamford, and then make the whole thing move up and down the coast, and you've got some really good material.

So I hope that's what it's been. Entertaining, fascinating, educational, and certainly funny at times. We've described our life aboard as accurately as we could. I included our many boat projects, which has resulted in numerous comments and emails of support and encouragement, so that anyone else choosing to buy an old boat might see what they're in for. I've included our travels so that those bitten with the wanderlust bug can see what that's like. I've included our pets, which keep us constantly amused and who have defined our lives (as in the need for two or three potty walks a day), and who also have enriched our lives immensely. And since September, it's included our travels, from Stamford Connecticut to Albany New York, and from there to (so far) Norwalk Virginia.

I know that our blog has many regular readers, and to them, I'd like to say that I hope we meet up someday. Pam and I have met many wonderful people through the power of Al Gore's internets. Just last night, we had dinner with a couple that we've known for years, but only met in person a few times (thanks for dinner, John and Bev!!). If we're in your neck of the woods, let us know, come and visit, meet Chevy and Ruby in person. To all of you who check in from time to time to see if we've sunk yet... no. Close. But no.   And to those of you who just googled something and found our blog, well, I don't know what to say, other than howdy. Ya'all come back now.

Almost 30,000 hits in one year is astounding to me.   41 followers is awesome. And as another person whose blog I follow wrote so incisively, comments are like fertilizer to us. "Follow" us, comment to us, and we're encouraged to write more.

So on our first anniversary of our blog, I hope you've found it interesting, funny, helpful, a way to spend your lunch hour, educational, or whatever. I encourage you to click the "follow" button. But I especiallly encourage you to follow your dream, whatever it is. I don't care if it's to sail around the world, or to be in the audience of Judge Judy. Just do it. Life is short.

And for those of you who read our blog for the funny stuff, here are a couple of videos.

Chevy is upset because a strange dog is on the boat.

And the best of all...

KERSPLASH!

2012-01-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

We take the dogs off the boat first thing in the morning to go potty. We're now at Waterside Marina in Norfolk. This marina has floating docks, which is great, but they're of the tapering not-long-enough variety. I know the marina saves money when they build docks like this, but they're an incredibly lousy platform for getting on and off the boat, especially for dogs.

This is what they look like.

See how low the dock is compared to the deck of the boat? Luckily, we have steps. See how narrow the dock is compared to the steps? Now, picture this. We opened the helm station door to take the dogs off the boat. As usual, Chevy (the big dumb male) scrambles out of the door, pushing us and Ruby aside in his haste to get off the boat as quickly as possible (you can see this coming, can't you?).

"Chevy wait. CHEVY WAIT!   WAIT!!!"

Chevy hopped over the gunwale, onto the top step, down to the middle step, down to the bottom step.... oh, he tried to make the left hand turn onto the dock, but 80 pounds of pit bull has a lot of momentum... SPLASH!!

I bounded down the steps just as Chevy swam under the dock. Thankfully, he popped up on the other side. See how narrow the gap is between the dock and the boat? I was able to push the boat away from the dock, grab Chevy by his choke chain and turn him towards the dock (he was trying to climb up the hull of the boat) and get his front paws up on the dock and then hoist his backside up.

We decided to turn the steps 90 degrees so once the dogs get on the top step, they'd have time to turn and go down to the dock. Not that we needed to. Neither dog will hop off the boat and onto the steps now. They have to be lifted off and set on the docks. And neither dog will let me do it.   They know I'm a moron.   They will only allow Pam to lift them off.

Besides the dog dunking, Pam and I had a very nice day doing touristy things in Norfolk yesterday. We ate at a nice little greasy spoon downtown and then went to Nauticus and the naval museum, which is right next to the marina. The museum is home to the battleship USS Wisconsin.   Here's the pics.

Where else but in Norfolk are you faced with a battleship while walking down the street?

Look at how skinny a battleship is. It has a top speed of 33 knots.

These big guns can toss a 2,700 pound shell 23 miles.

Look at the size of these two anchor windlasses!

And the anchor chain!

The Wisconsin served in Operation Desert Storm.

This luxurious stateroom is an officer's quarters. The regular seamen didn't have it anywhere near this nice.

We couldn't go into the really cool parts of the ship, such as the bridge. The ship is sealed off and climate controlled to preserve it and prevent rust as it may be reactivated at some point in the future.

Probably the coolest part of the tour was meeting a 90 year old man who served on the Wisconsin as a corpsman in 1947. He was a pleasure to meet and gave us an insight to what life was like aboard.

We also toured the naval museum which has ship models and artifacts of our navy from the American Revolution to modern times. A guide asked us if we'd like a private tour since it was very quiet and he had no one else to talk to. He was a fascinating guy and really knows his history, and his ships.

Another thing of interest in downtown Norfolk is their mermaids. You've all probably seen similar exhibits in other cities, as have I. Businesses and community minded folks sponsor fiberglass models that are decorated by local artists and put on display. Norfolk did mermaids. Here are a few.

The last one is used to scare little children and to get them to eat their vegetables.

Deltaville to Norfolk VA in pictures

2012-01-11T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a looooong day. It's not that far from Deltaville to Norfolk. About 45 miles. But like Delaware Bay or the Jersey shore, there's just not much to see. Add to that a strong adverse current that had us going as slow as 4.6 knots SOG (speed over ground, for my landlubber friends) and it was a dull day. I'm glad we waited and left on Tuesday instead of Monday though. Tuesday was cool, overcast, and rainy. At least we had sunshine to warm up the boat.

The above pic is leaving Broad Creek in Deltaville. Wander outside of those day markers and you'd be in a foot or two of water, hard aground. It's well marked though, and I'd encourage anyone stopping in the Deltaville area to consider Broad Creek.

This is the Stingray Point weather buoy. It gathers and broadcasts weather data. There are weather buoys all over the world.

If you go to the NOAA weather buoy data center and look for station 44058 off Stingray Point, you can see what the weather is doing before leaving Broad Creek. Yesterday at 9 AM the wind was 1 MPH gusting to 2 MPH, from 140 degrees.

Since there's nothing much to look at, it's exciting to see even a barge.

It was in the 40s outside, but the helm station was warm and toasty because we were headed south and the helm windows gave us a nice greenhouse effect. It was in the low 60s in the main saloon, and soon we were joined by Gertie (the cat) and Chevy (the dog) who seeked warmth.

Ruby stayed on the sofa, covered by a blanket. Yes, she is under there, and spent the whole day there.

At one point, I looked in on her and she was sound asleep with her foot in her ear. By the time Pam got the camera she woke up, but she kept her foot in her ear.

Little to see, so passing a lighthouse was a big deal.

We have all the latest electronic gizmos on the boat, including a state of the art chart plotter. But I still like the big overall picture that paper charts provide.

Here a Navi-Nut (patent pending) marks our position. I'd move the Navi-Nut (patent pending) every five or ten minutes using the GPS coordinates from the chart plotter.

Pam had enough of Gertie hogging the chair and scooped her up. Gertie loves to cuddle up in the crook of your elbow.

Finally, the Thimble Shoal lighthouse outside Norwalk! We're here!

The channel into Norfolk is fairly wide, but I was a little concerned about a cargo ship approaching from behind us. We took a left into the Elizabeth River and I figured the ship would continue on. Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and saw it passing us to starboard.

I really need to pay more attention. I was busy looking at all the Navy ships on my port and never looked behind us or to starboard.

Looks like a transformer, eh?

I figured we'd arrrive in Norfolk around 3 PM, which we did. What I didn't realize, nor did I check on, was how far it was from the entrance to Norfolk and Waterside Marina. A mile or two maybe? No. About ten miles, and we had the current against us, slowing us to 6 knots. They closed at 5 and we had to beat feet to get there. We finally arrived at 4:20 PM. After tying up, we walked the dogs and then headed to Outbacks for dinner.

It's very nice here, right in the middle of a park and many places to visit.

It's also very colorful. I love being on the water at a glitzy place like this. The reflections in the water double the effect.

I'm writing about Tuesday's events today, on Wednesday morning. Already, I've taken photos of interesting things traveling on the Elizabeth River, and a dog has gone for an inadvertant swim. Updates tomorrow.

We plan on staying here a couple of days, doing some sightseeing and waiting for sunshine. It's 10:15 AM and 48 degrees, pretty nice weather for upstate NY folks.