Cape Fear River: actually a bit scary

Here's what things looked like before we left.

Having gotten our recent boat issues resolved, we left the City Docks in Wilmington (thanks for all your help R.T.) and headed down the Cape Fear River. We just threw the fenders on the trampoline and left the dock lines on deck to dry because we were just going down the river. We even considered leaving some of the hatches open.

 

Holy smokes, did we get that wrong.

The wind started picking up and hit 40 knots at one point (they were forecasted to be 10 knots on the river). Matt's clipped-on hat blew off and we practiced our man overboard maneuvers while retrieving it. The outgoing current and opposing strong winds churned up choppy waves that were at least 4 feet high and very numerous.

The fenders were bouncing all over the trampoline so we decided we need to bring them back to the cockpit before they fell overboard and fouled our propellers. In the process, we both got soaked from the waves splashing over the bow. At some point during all this, we lost one of the horse collar life preservers that was mounted at side of the boat (and clipped in).

The anchorage was filled with white caps until the current settled down. Then the whole thing was repeated in the middle of the night. On the plus side, our anchor held tight, the thunderstorm that was forecasted mostly missed us, and there were no mosquitos. And there is internet!

We were going to leave to start up the coast today but there is a small craft advisory out until Sunday (or Tuesday depending on how small your craft is). So we will be here until it's safe to go back in the ocean.

Wilmington, NC

As we were walking around Wilmington the other night, the Coast Guard vessel Diligence that had been at sea for three months came up the river. Their families were waiting for them at the dock. It was fun to see the kids so happy to see their dads (we only happened to see the dads).

As the Coast Guard cutter approached downtown, a man turned to his little girl and said (insert southern drawl here), "Look honey, they're gonna open that bridge just for that one boat." Matt told him that they opened it for us earlier in the day and it made us feel a little guilty to stop all that traffic (a four-lane US highway). The man said, "No way. I wouldn't feel bad at all. That would be so cool!" Yeah, I guess it was (sorry Wilmington commuters).

Cape Fear Memorial Bridge with a temporarily
 interrupted Andrew Jackson Highway.

We like Wilmington a lot. It is historical like Charleston but with a more relaxed, alternative vibe and more affordable. There are a lot of restaurants here for the size of the town--really good ones too. We need to get out of here before we blow our whole budget.

Being at the City docks is sort of like living in a fish bowl. Just about everyone that walks past along the River Walk takes a look and many stop to look at the boat. The people are very friendly but Matt is having trouble getting any work done because so many people want to chat. Someone even took a flash picture that got Conrad's attention as he tried to sleep. It's a far cry from the privacy and solitude of anchoring. 

Due to the high tides and the big rainfalls lately, there are a lot of big logs floating down the river. It's hard to tell but the thing in the photo above is a good sized tree that was hitting the back of our boat (Matt heard the banging and Conrad saw the steering wheel moving) until Matt knocked it loose and it floated underneath. Earlier in the day, a worker from one of the barges down the river came running over and asked to come aboard so he could retrieve the gaff (now floating merrily down the river) he had been using to push logs away from the barge.

We got our new freezer controller and it seems to be working well, probably because Matt bought another huge bag of dry ice. We took the day to visit the battleship that is across the river from our dock. We will make our way back down the river tomorrow and then start back up the coast.

To hell and back (or just from Charleston to Wilmington)

A local Charleston fishermen gave us
some blue crabs as thanks for watching his pots
 to see if we could spot whoever is poaching his traps.

We picked up our friends (Pete and his teens Emma and Liam) in Charleston. Pete had wanted to help sail the boat back from Freeport when we first bought it, but got shut out when we couldn't get things fixed quickly enough.  This time he signed up to help us sail the boat up to Wilmington, North Carolina. After delaying a day to see if the winds would improve, we left Charleston with continued light winds.  If it had been just us, we might have stayed put, but we had to get to Wilmington in time for their flight home.

Emma and Liam are great kids and it was really fun spending time with friends. However, they were pretty obviously miserable at times during the trip.

It took two long days of sailing and one short one to get to Wilmington. This was a scaled back plan from our original destination of Beaufort (another 2 days of sailing).  Clearly, it was still too much, too soon for kids whose only other experience at sea was on a cruise in the Bahamas. This seems to be a bit of a recurring issue with us. Matt has a history of overestimating what other people are willing and/or able to put up with (other notable incidents of dragging friends in over their heads include a trip to the Boundary Waters and a climb up Mt. Shasta--sorry Dave, Charlotte and Tisch!).

Combine seasickness, too much "quality" time with young children, and deprivation from the internet, and you have a recipe for mild torture. Although our visitors spent a good amount of the time at sea napping, even that was challenging because the closed hatches made the interior unbearably hot. That meant seven people crammed into the cockpit much of the time. Having two little kids yelling and stepping on your head while you are trying to nap does not help the situation. Topping it off was only 2 chargers for about 4 electronic devices..it was musical iPods as everyone jockeyed to keep the devices charged.

Stopping for the night was equally uncivilized for cruising newbies. They were introduced to transom showers with unheated water. No air conditioning, with only certain windows that could be opened because they had bug screens. And of course, while anchored the first night, we had the worst mosquito and deer fly invasion of our short cruising career.

Then to give our visitors even more of a taste of the pitfalls of the cruising life, as we approached the anchorage in the Cape Fear river after the second long day of sailing, the windlass failed while we tried to anchor. We spent several tense moments trying to fix it while motoring against an extremely strong current. If we hadn't needed to be at the airport on Wednesday, we would have put the anchor chain down manually. However, since we couldn't guarantee that we would be able to raise it again the next day, we found a marina that was still open and parked there for the night.  A huge thanks to Bill who stayed open late to accommodate us (note to other cruisers--all the other Southport marinas shut down their operations around 6 p.m. No one answers the radio or phone calls after that).

We finally made it to Wilmington the next day, to everyone's relief.  A dinner of several large pizzas followed by ice cream helped restore spirits (fun fact: Wilmington has one of the highest number of restaurants per capita in the US).

Hopefully, our friends will visit us again when we are not doing a passage and are at a place where we can actually swim and relax. And, while it wasn't rainbows and unicorns the whole time, we did have quite a bit of fun.  Did I mention that Pete brought spices and frozen monster Iowa pork chops in his carry-on to make a fabulous dinner for us? And that he kept sneaking away and paying the restaurant tab?

Our visitors have returned home. We are here for a few days awaiting a part for our broken freezer. The windlass started working on its own again. Matt thinks it could be the switch connections flaking out in wet conditions so he sealed it and will see how it behaves. He bought some new wire in case he needs to rewire it. In other words, back to our normal life.

Fishing, forts, and family

Lots of luggage for the night on the boat.



When we arrived to pick up the kids after two days and one night of grandparents, TV, e-games and pool-time, we were greeted by whiny wails of, "Why do we have to leave?!" complete with the whole exorcism-worthy writhing body on the couch.

 

Hmmm, good question.

 

Oh yeah, mainly because Grandma and Grandpa are not insane and won't keep you forever.

While Conrad and Mark enjoyed their time back in civilization, Matt and I spent the day running errands. The combination of having a car and someone to watch the kids allowed us to get everything done in one day.

 

Conrad and Grandpa caught a lot of whitefish for dinner one night (and baby sand sharks, which went back). Conrad won't touch the bait or the fish but he is great at reeling them in and shouting, "I have a fish!" so that someone can come take it off the line.

 

We took the boat to Fort Sumter, which is only accessible by boat. So we had the place to ourselves in between tour boats.

 

 

The carriages are charming but the sheer number
 in such a small space makes things a
little poopy on hot and humid days.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Grandparents rock

When my (Jen's) parents found out we were going to be in Charleston, they decided with less than two week's notice to drive from Chicago to meet us here and bring us various supplies that we had shipped to them (and that they bought for us as well).

Although the boys keep saying they love living on the boat, they have clearly missed their grandparents and have been very excited to spend time with them.

It has been incredibly helpful to have a place to ship needed items, have them delivered to us and even to have a car available. So even though my parents are still less than thrilled to have us take their grandkids away to goodness-knows-where, they have been incredibly supportive. Yes we would have managed without their help, but we are very grateful that we don't have to.

 

 

 

Charleston

Charleston is a very nice and tourist-friendly city. A free trolley gets you all around downtown and there is free city-provided Wi-Fi in certain locations.

Yesterday it reached over 90 (way hotter than we experienced in the Bahamas) so our first stop was the Waterfront Park fountain where the boys played for a couple hours.

We also went crazy on fruit and vegetables at the grocery store. The abundance of food and plentiful (and free) garbage cans felt quite luxurious. Mark said he was glad to be back in America. When we asked him why he said, "Because there are a lot of cars. And I like cars."

Last night there was a no-see-um invasion so we had to close up all the hatches (the no-see-um netting is on order as I write). We reluctantly decided that we should turn on the generator and air-conditioning for an hour or so to avoid heat stroke. Unfortunately, the generator wouldn't start so it was a hot night. There are fans in each bunk so we didn't actually die. The next day Matt got the gen up and running again (a starter wire had a bad connection).

Grandma and grandpa get here today and we can't wait. And hopefully we're prepared this time in case we need air conditioning for their stay on the boat. They are only staying on the boat the first night and will then escape to a hotel.

Stormy storm

Last days in the Bahamas

We made it to Charleston after two and a half days and two nights at sea. There was no barfing, contrary to Mark's predictions, despite some rough seas. We spent the last night trying to skirt around pretty intense thunderstorms that had so much lightning you could almost read by it. We were mostly successful but it was exhausting.

Even though it was challenging, we were rewarded by some great experiences:

• Two fighter jets doing low flyovers off the back of the boat. It was like our own personal air show and made up for the absence of the thunderbirds from the Florida air show.
• Dozens of dolphins playing in the bow wakes. As soon as Matt walked up with the Go Pro on a stick, they disappeared. Maybe they thought it was a harpoon.
• Several whale flukes--we think they were pilot whales.
• Flying fish jumping onto the boat overnight, one almost hitting Matt in the head and another landing in a bucket.
• Getting a weather report from a U.S. Navy warship. Strangely, the captain had a British-y accent.

Now we are safely anchored in Charleston, with an intense lightning storm surrounding us. There's no escaping this one.

Goodbye Bahamas

We met a family that has been out cruising for a year. It was heartening to meet a real live family of liveaboards that have not killed each other over the course of a year and seem to have relished the experience, lumps and all.

This guy caused Matt all kinds of grief. Somehow after he was impaled, he struggled free from the spear and swam into a hole, bracing himself into it. The kids and I waited in the dinghy while we saw Matt dive down again and again. Even from 100 yards away, through the snorkel we could hear him yelling at the fish (the kids thought he said 'sucker'--yup, kids, that's what he said...). He kept trying to pull the fish out and mangled it a bit in the process. Although he felt bad about it, he also didn't want it to go to waste. He finally retrieved it, mostly intact.

We leave for Charleston tomorrow. When Mark found out we would be out for 3 days he said matter- of-factly, "There's gonna be a lot of throwing up."

It's funny how things work out (sort of)

The band at Snappa's in Marsh Harbour

It's funny how things work out sometimes.

On Wednesday morning, we went to pick up our anchor so we could fuel up at Marsh Harbour Marina. The winds were strong but the seas were reasonable enough to make our way through Whale Cay cut, which can be challenging.

In the middle of raising the chain, the windlass buttons stopped moving the anchor chain up or down. After resetting the circuit breaker, checking the slow blow fuse and trying a number of other things, the buttons still did nothing.

After some troubleshooting (which involved emptying out the considerable contents of the forward berth that serves as our workshop and all-purpose storage area), Matt narrowed the issue down to the windlass motor itself rather than the wiring or controller. Matt removed the motor after several hours of work, some deadly corrosion removal spray, and lots of banging with heavy tools.

He emailed the windlass company and a rep answered right away and was very responsive and helpful. The only issue would be the money for a new motor ($800 plus international FedEx shipping rates) and the time it would take to get it shipped to us.

Matt posted on Cruiser's Forum and someone mentioned that there was an electronics shop in Marsh Harbour. Even though it was past 5 p.m., Matt went over to where the shop was supposed to be. It has been a charter boat operation (not an electronics shop) for several years but a guy named Terrence was very friendly and helpful and referred us to a guy named Carl. Carl Swann works on alternators and other electric engines and generators. Terrence dropped the motor off at Carl's house that evening and Carl had it fixed the next afternoon by cleaning and resurfacing the brushes, for less than $130. It turns out that although the outside of the motor is very corroded, the inside is like new.

Although it was disappointing that something else broke and we couldn't leave as planned, it could have been much worse. The motor could have died in some remote location rather than Marsh Harbour or with the anchor dragging on the ground (making it difficult to move the boat but not safe to leave it in place). We jury-rigged a way to let out a little more anchor chain but it was a very kludgey process. There is no good way to raise and lower our gigantic 110-pound anchor manually with our current set-up.

The main thing we learned from all this is that Matt can indeed fit into the anchor locker. However, he did need to pull off some Cirque du Soleil contortions to get in and out of there so it's probably still all me if we need maintenance in there.

Addendum: I'm not superstitious but right after I wrote this, while Matt was installing the motor, he bent a screw that had been stripped while trying to tighten it. This resulted in the motor no longer working and another $169 to Carl. Then as we were attempting to raise our anchor, we forgot to remove the small line that we had used to take the load off the windlass, which wrapped itself around the winch. This required the slow blow fuse to be replaced and the motor to be reinstalled yet again (due to the shear key that was slipping).

We finally left Marsh Harbour and have worked our way up to Green Turtle Cay. We will explore the area for a few days as we wait for the wind to carry us up to Charleston.

A church on Man-O-War Cay, which is a dry island (no alcohol).