Pat: Another View

Well the weather didn't cooperate and we are spending one more night at the marina in Belhaven. Fog, rain and a cold wind in the 40's made the decision easy. Since I have the time, thought I would upload a few pictures to give a sense of our days on the water.


A buoy is the start of the Intercoastal Waterway...Another milestone met


Bridges open with a simple call on the VHF...Big power for a little boat


Leaving on cold morning...Notice who is driving


Sailing across the Albemarle Sound...Beautiful, but 46 degrees


Reading on the deck at anchor...Doesn't this look fun!

You may ask what have we learned so far on this adventure? Patience, specifically that Mother Nature rules and we will go on her schedule, not ours.

Enjoy.

Jim: Norfolk to Belhaven, NC

I would like to start with a few definitions.
Gale: A wind of 32–63 mph
Storm: A heavy fall of rain, snow, or hail with high wind greater than a gale.
Northeaster: A strong Northeast wind, a storm with Northeast winds.

We untied the lines and left Norfolk in our wake on Friday the 17th. After surviving 2 gale-force storms at Norfolk we wanted to get south in a hurry. Brad came down to the pier to see us off. Thanks Brad for letting us use your house and car for the week. Your berth on board for New Years is in the book.


Saying goodbye to Brad.

We made it across Norfolk harbor and into the Inter-coastal waterway (ICW). Mile marker zero is right off of downtown Norfolk. Norfolk is the home of the USS Wisconsin. Battleships tend to make you feel a little small.


USS Wisconsin

Twelve miles down the ICW is Great Bridge. After requesting a number of bridge openings, around bends, under more bridges and through the locks we pulled into the Atlantic Yacht Basin for the night. We had a nice dinner at the Locks View restaurant and went to bed early.


The Lock closes at Great Bridge.

Up the next day and more traveling. We went through the Virginia Cut for 10 hours to land at the Coinjock Marina. The place was deserted until around dusk. Then no less than 10 big fishing boats pull in and tied up. It was an interesting crowd. They have a little restaurant there but we opted for Apple sausages in red sauce over rice. Early to bed as usual. We find it strange that now we get up with the sun and tend to go to sleep when it gets dark. We have turned into our grandparents.

After taking on fuel and water, we crossed the Albemarle Sound to the Alligator river. I didn't see a single alligator, but I'm sure they call it that for a good reason. Through the Alligator river bridge and down to the bottom we dropped the anchor off of Tuckahoe Point in about 9 feet of water. Since we draw 6 feet, we were pretty safe. Dinner was grilled chicken with Sweet pepper sauce over rice with green beans. Nothing like dinner on the hook while the sun sets.


Chicken on the grill.

We upped anchor on a chilly morning and blazed through the North Carolina cut to the Pungo river. Just up the river is a nice little place called the Dowry Creek Marina. Ted and his wife Mary run the place. Ted was out doubling up lines because, wait...wait for it, there is another gale expected tonight. And for those of you that are keeping score, that makes 3 gales in a two week period. It figures that we would head south on the year that has record cold and rain. This gale was going to be the worst yet. It could even turn into a storm. So, we tied everything down and put over many lines and waited. At 0600 on the 22nd, the wind hit 40 knots with gusts to 50. Two sailboats just down from us lost their forward sails and a lot of awnings were torn too. We didn't get any damage due to the fact that I was on deck from 0600 to 0900 in my foul weather gear. That was fun. It was the "old man and the sea" show.

The forecast is for good weather tomorrow, so we will head out at dawn to continue our trek south. Thanksgiving will be a nice meal on the anchor. Maybe some turkey salad on chips. Our new goal is Southport, NC by Tuesday. Cross your fingers that the weather holds.

Jim: Down the Chesapeake to Norfolk

We have arrived at our first major destination. We reached Norfolk Naval Marina at 1330 on Saturday the 11th. On our way down the Chesapeake we had little wind for sailing. The good part of this is we also had little waves for motoring. It was a great passage of approximately 170nm.


It is weird being the biggest boat in the marina.

Now for a look at our voyage. We had just rounded our home channel marker and headed out on day one when we passed the sailing ship "Pride of Baltimore II". It was ghosting along at about 2 knots and looking beautiful. I was a little worried about the cannons aimed at us, but we made it by without incident.


Pride of Baltimore II

The scenery in the Chesapeake is incredible. Every morning we would wake to a beautiful sunrise and a hot cup of coffee. Not too shabby.


Sunrise at Mill Creek off the Great Wicomico



Sunrise at Chissem Creek off the Poquoson River

As we passed through the Norfolk shipping channel, Pat got her first taste of sitting next to a bazillion ton ship going 30 knots.


Big boys play here.

After the container ships passed, another type of Big Boy came around the corner. The USS Wasp was coming up the channel to complete a 10 month cruise. The boys were all in their dress blues manning the rails for the docking. I remember doing that about a million times. We always hated it, but it does look pretty cool for the shore crowd.


See the little figures on the rails?


She is just a small carrier, imagine the big ones.

No major equipment issues so far. We did realize that we had seriously underestimated our need for Internet usage. Without Internet access, the ship's Chief Meteorologist (Pat) didn't have the tools to give us a proper weather update. On Sunday the 12th, a surprise storm overtook Norfolk. Lucky for us we were tied to the dock with all lines doubled up. The wind blew at 25 to 30 knots constant with gust to 50 knots. I was down on the boat for about 2 hours when the storm was at its worst. Even in the marina, it was a heck of a blow. I don't want to scare you but I did manage to take this picture of a ship that I saw out in the storm.


I sure hope those folks are OK. It was called the "TI" something, I couldn't make out the name.

We hunkered down at my buddy Brad's house and he lent us a car for our errands. The first thing we bought was a Verizon WiFi card to follow the weather more closely. That's our excuse. And what good is a new card without a new laptop. The on-board weather station now consists of a Toshiba with WiFi card and all-you-can-eat Internet access. This should also make it easier to update the blog. So now we have more computing ability then the Apollo space program.

We plan to leave the area on Friday and head into the Inter-coastal Waterway (ICW). The reason for the long stay is that another big storm is projected to hit us on Wednesday night and continue until Friday morning. Being the ships Chief Coward, I convinced the rest of the crew that sitting next to a dock in big winds is a lot better then sitting in some cove with two anchors out and lines tied to trees. "I learned that in Rehab" :-) The fact that Brad has a hot tub had nothing to do with our decision. Honest!

Cheers to all,

J & P

Pat: From Dawn to Dusk

Great weather so we used all the daylight we could and made ~50 miles. Spent the night at N 37 11.00 W76 25.00 on the Poquoson River. Should be in Norfolk tomorrow and have WiFi for a longer post with pictures. Enjoy.

Pat: Moving Again

We had a great day on the water and are anchored at N 37 47.55 W76 19.50 Mill Creek on the Great Wicomico. Good weather is forecast, so another adventure tomorrow. Enjoy.

Pat: Fog and Rain

We decided to stay put and wait out the weather. Will move on in the morning. Tune in tomorrow to find were we make it to. Enjoy.

Pat: We can update our position from the phone

This is a test update of the blog from our phone. We are headed to Patuxent Naval Base. For those mapping geeks (you know who you are): N 38 17.6 W 76 26.9.

Jim: Sitting on the launch pad with our helmets fastened

Sunday is done and another stray WiFi signal has found us. We made our road trip to North Carolina and "Old Blue" is safe in his locked compound. If was an emotional time for us, leaving our land yacht behind. After a fifteen hour drive down and back we stayed the night at Larry's house. Thanks a million Larry for taking a little road trip with us.


Giving Blue a final hug.

After the night at Larry's, Kevin loaned us his Volvo to continue with the outfitting of the boat. We had the car from Sunday until Saturday and put over 400 miles on her. She was a great ride and we have an "evil clockwork plan" to steal it upon our return. Don't tell Kevin. :-) Kevin, Lisa, Larry and his daughter came down on Saturday to buy us a farewell meal and retrieve the car. As they pulled out of the marina lot, we realized that another milestone had been reached. We have no land vehicles. No house, no storage, nothing holding us back. Yikes, we are out of excuses. This is getting scary.

The final projects are getting completed. The new boat davits are installed. The new refrigerator is installed and working. The forward cabin is ready for any guest that comes our way. The aft cabin is all set up with cushions, memory foam, and a heating blanket that Pat has fallen madly in love with. I have named the blanket Roberto, due to it's country of origin and I am keeping an eye on it. We don't want this to turn into one of those great Mexican soap operas where Selma Hayek was discovered. Pat runs off with the blanket as soon as we reach Key West. Lucky for me it can't cook and it damn sure can't navigate :-).

The final bill on the last minute steering repairs came to around 3.5 boat units. Thanks again to Richard at MTS for the fast fix. You are the man. We started to tie everything down and checked the engine and generator. The food is stored. The booze is stored. The clothes are stored. The aft head is leaking. WHAT!!! Just a small leak and it is not a show stopper. We wanted to leave on Monday the 6th, but Tuesday is going to be the day. Then we can have everything secure in its place. With any luck, we can make Mill Creek on Tuesday and Norfolk by Friday. We can visit Brad and hit the military supermarket. Gotta love cheap food.

This morning I used our new form of transportation to retrieve a paper, breakfast, and some chocolate. Folding bikes rule!!!


Have milk crate, will travel.

So that is where we stand. We have another day of stowage and last minute fixes. My lovely wife is currently watching a PBS special on our 13 inch TV while laying on the starboard settee with "Roberto" keeping her warm. Watch yourself Roberto. When we hit Key West and the sun is warm you will be cast aside like a program at a Neal Diamond concert. OK, I'm may be being a little dramatic. But a man has to watch out for his Boo.




Cheers to all,

James

Jim: Did someone speed up the clock?

Hello to All,

Have found a stray WiFi signal, so here is the latest.

We finally got out of our apartment on the 14th. To help the moving process along, we broke down and rented a 5 x 10 store-it space close to the boat. It gives us a chance to go through things one (or two) more times to decide what stays and what gets onto the boat.

After moving out, we found ourselves homeless. Lucky for us, our friend Dewey was having his 50th birthday bash for the whole weekend. His wife Jody found us a nice bed in the basement and we lived there for the next three days. The party was a great time, with a fire pit, fireworks and plenty of food and alcohol. There was a report of a drunk guy dancing around a field with a boat flare in each hand, but I don't remember seeing that. :-)
Thanks so much Jody and Dewey, we had a terrific time.

It was time to get serious about making the boat ready and so we moved into a room at the Marina Inn. That way we could work on the boat during the day and not have to get everything back into shape to live on her in the evening. I did the finishing touches to the water system and we filled the tanks. With the water system up, we hooked up the toilets and just like that the boat was once again habitable. Progress!!

We moved out of the room on Friday morning to get ready for, you guessed it, another party. But this time it was for us. After working anywhere between 12 to 16 hours a day for a week, we needed a little break. We were being thrown a Bon Voyage Party by our friend Laurie and along with the party came an invitation to stay the night.

Laurie went all out with a margarita machine, keg of beer, silly hats and more food then we could eat in a week. Our friends showed up in force to wish us well. It really was a blast to see everyone and tell them of our plans. My friend Brad from Norfolk came up to attend and ended up staying on Laurie's couch.


Thanks Laurie for everything, your vacation on the boat is ready whenever you can get there. And thanks to everyone for coming to the party. You are the best friends anyone could hope for.

On Sunday, after dropping Brad off at the airport it was back to the boat. We checked back into the Inn and got to work. We prepped the back deck for the new davits and I filled in old davit holes with epoxy and cut pieces of starboard for davits bases. Pat started the varnish project in the cockpit and we continued to pack the boat with our cloths, blankets, spare parts...

On Thursday, Richard from MTS came down to do our check ride and set up the new electronics. This is the first time Helios has been out of the slip since August. Half way through the trial, the engine died. I dropped the anchor and dived into the engine room to trouble shoot. After switching fuel tanks and fuel filters, I bleed the fuel line and the engine was running again in about 10 minutes. WHEW!!! That was fun. Then autopilot was having trouble turning the boat. Richard determined that we needed a bypass valve to keep the hydraulics happy. It looks like it will be about a 2 boat unit fix. (For those of you that don't know, a boat unit is $1000. It sounds so much better) Also during the check ride, the wind speed indicator stopped working. That is about a 1.1 boat unit fix. Good thing we have a secret stash of gold buried in the sand down by the boat. Now where did I hide that treasure map?

All in all it is going well. We have paired down about four times now and we still have a lot. As the song goes, "Times are tough and I got too much stuff".

This weekend we are taking the big blue truck down to North Carolina to store it in a lot by Pat's parents new house. Old Blue will have a nice winter nap while we are away.

Until next time, we will keep our eye out for Elvis and doing the finishing touches to the boat.

Pat: Prep, Prep and More Prep

The last two weeks have been busy with moving out of our land home and onto the boat, plus the continuing upgrades and fixes needed before we leave. James finished the water system this week and I worked on the teak in the cockpit and on the deck. This week we hope to get the new davits installed and start to provision. We still are planning on leaving November 1st, that is if we can get everything done!