Charleston, the Fall Installment

Back in Charleston.  Back in the fountain.  In November.  Silly boys.

Matt mentioned several times that our trip from Beaufort, North Carolina, to Charleston should be windless, smooth and flat. So of course it was like a washing machine (Matt's reading over my shoulder and saying it wasn't that bad, but he's wrong), and we all felt sick for the first half of Day 1. He has a knack for saying, "If this wind holds, we'll be in __________ by _______" and then having the wind promptly die. But the seas calmed down and the rest of our motor-sail (mostly motor) was pleasant.

We saw a lot of dolphin and since we didn't try to take any pictures (they usually vanish when we get the camera), they stayed around for a long time. They were probably hunting all the little tunny running about. We caught five good-sized ones in less than an hour and then gave up fishing. We weren't sure whether or not the little tunny were good to eat but we kept one because it had gotten a hook through the eye and was done for anyway. We learned later that most people won't eat them but some people say that if you soak them in milk for a gazillion hours, and you don't eat anything else while they are soaking, you'll probably be hungry enough where they might be palatable. I was the only one to eat the one that Matt teriyaki-d, but it didn't go to waste.  The fishy smell from cooking it hung around for the next 2 days to further reinforce our decision not to keep them anymore.

Overnight, the moon was bright enough to read by and we enjoyed the balmy weather. I never look forward to the overnight passages but then end up really enjoying the peace. Matt and I both watched Pitch Perfect again, which has become our passage movie. Just try watching that movie and not getting one of the songs stuck in your head, even if the music is not your cup of tea.

It's fun seeing Charleston in a different season. School's back in session so there were a lot more college students walking around and fewer tourists. The boys had the fountain all to themselves and got a bath, of sorts, to boot. Now we're off to Cumberland Island in Florida.

Hope floats, but we don't (at least for a few more days)

Huddled around a space heater lent to
us by another boat in the yard

A year after buying our boat, we have come full circle as we sit out of the water in a boatyard. When we purchased Perry, she was hauled out in the Bahamas.  As we approach the end of week 2 of our estimated 1-week haul-out, we can reflect on the past year of boat ownership: we have been to the Bahamas and back twice (4 times for Matt), sailed the eastern seaboard to Cape Cod and done approximately 14,703 repairs.

The boatyard, despite being full of friendly people, is a dust bowl in the middle of nowhere. We have to walk a quarter mile to use the bathroom and every other day reveals more reasons to open our wallet. There is ice on the boat and last night our whole boat was shaking from the wind.

So are we ready to throw in the towel and crawl back to Chicago with our tails between our legs? As happy as it would make our parents, no way. First of all, Chicago is 20 degrees and snowy today. Second, we have had a great year and feel that the best is yet to come. Don't get me wrong, we're not happy about the time and money we're spending here but we see it as another step in our journey.

We have been able to spend more time together as a family than ever before. Although sometimes having the kids 24x7 can feel like a burden, it is the main luxury of our current path (along with sleeping in as long as the sun and kids allow us). Even though we have only been to the Bahamas and along the Eastern seaboard of the U.S., neither of which sounds particularly exotic or exciting, we have had memorable experiences that we will never forget. We have met many wonderful people and made fast friendships that we hope will last. The friends that we met in Beaufort last July helped make this trip more tolerable by welcoming us for Halloween, having dinner with us, and lending us a truck. Also, we have been lucky to have had visits from family so we haven't felt as homesick.

If all goes well, we should be out of here this week and we can plan our escape down south. I really hate to write those words because if the past is any indication, "if all goes well" seems to be a rare event in the world of boat repair. Fortunately, we are working with a competent and helpful team at Jarrett Bay.

For those of you that are interested in the minutia of boat repairs, here is the saga (so far) of our recent haul-out. I myself have almost nodded off just writing about it.

1. The purpose of the haul out was to fix the chunk that we took out of the keel in the Bahamas. That turned out to be the simplest task. Matt's temporary repair seems to have held just fine and the thick layer of barnacles that covered it also helped seal the spot up nicely.
2. The shift cable on the port engine that snapped while we were trying to dock was replaced. The other day, Matt brushed the starboard engine shift cable ever so slightly while working on something else, causing it to snap. That has now been fixed too. Much better that it break now than when we are in the middle of maneuvering the boat in a tight place.  Since the shift cables were snapping like twigs, we also decided to have the throttle cables replaced as well.
3. The starboard engine had been shimmying at high (for us) speed. The cutlass bearings needed to be replaced and we decided to replace the ones on the port side too. The parts had to be ordered from the U.K. because of our European boat's neediness for metric.
4. Although the bottom was painted just a year ago, enough of the paint had flaked off (and/or blasted off by the power wash we got when we were hauled) to make it worth re-doing while we were out of the water anyway.
5. While the bearings were being examined, the mechanic noticed that the propeller shaft was slightly off kilter so we removed that (which required the boat being lifted and the rudder being removed). A few days later, we were notified that there was a crack in the shaft so a new one needed to be obtained and machined (fortunately we didn't have to get it from Europe).
6. The propellers were a bit dinged so we had them reconditioned and balanced (since again the main expense of doing it would be the haul-out).
7. Our starboard rudder was weeping water and so we drilled holes to drain it and are having the problem areas repaired with new fiberglass.
8. We have noticed that there has been grease under the roller furling over the last six weeks or so. According to ProFurl, when that happens, your bearings' days are numbered. We didn't want to have to replace the bearings while in the Caribbean so we tackled that job here. It took Matt and two mechanics a lot of effort to try to remove the roller furling unit and Matt finally ended up having to drill out a screw, which it turns out did not need to be drilled out (duh!). Suffice it to say that it was incredibly difficult to remove it and we started to wonder whether it was a good idea to start the project after all. The ProFurl America rep was very helpful and got us the new bearing kit quickly and we were able to get the new bearings in and the roller furling reinstalled, which was also very difficult.
9. Matt rewired all the charging systems and removed the old diode based battery isolator with new (and reportedly more efficient) ACRs.
10. Our batteries have been showing a voltage drop recently. After much internet research and discussions with various experts, Matt discovered that the charger for our battery bank was not set up correctly and so our batteries have not been fully charging, pretty much ever. Batteries don't like not being fully charged and they have started to go bad. Matt worked with an electrician here to determine which batteries were good and we are replacing two that are bad. Hopefully with the new settings on the charger, the battery bank will be happier. On a side note, even after the batteries were switched off, our system continues to get power back fed from some unknown source. It is unclear whether this is a serious issue and reportedly it can be very difficult to isolate the source of this kind of thing.
11. An example of how relatively simple things can take an inordinate amount of time is one of our diesel fuel fills on the port side. When we last got diesel, Matt could not get the cap off that fill. While here, Matt spent several hours on various days trying to remove the cap, including applying cold, heat, leverage, and percussive maintenance (hitting it really hard). He bent several tools. The cap would not budge (the fill itself did come loose). If it had been anywhere else on the boat, we could have easily removed the hose clamp and replaced the whole fill. However, the hose for this fill is behind our refrigerator, which weighs 300 pounds and required Matt and another big guy to finagle it into place. Matt finally decided to cut a hole above the fridge and put in a "vent" (cause now its a vent, and not just a big hole in the wall, see?). Now that he had access to the deck fill, he was able to see that it was not all hose going to the fuel tank, but sections of schedule 80 PVC in certain sections to accommodate some tight bends.  The PVC was fine, but the glue had deteriorated over the years so several sections of pipe had to be re-glued together (all while trying to access everything through a small 4"x6" hole).  Hours and a fine layer of fiberglass dust later, everything was back together.  As it turns out, the hole - I mean "vent"- is probably a good idea anyway, since moisture tends to build up in there. Plus it's got a nice cover on it and looks good.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. We'll be baking today to keep warm.

Death by a thousand cuts

After a much too exciting arrival, we have settled into boat fixes and life at the boatyard. It can be depressing to spend time at what is essentially a big boat hospital. However, we are well aware that things could have been much worse.

As we pulled alongside the fuel dock at Jarrett Bay (in Beaufort, NC) to pick up our project manager and mechanic to help diagnose a vibration, we thought we were fighting a current that was pushing us off the dock. Missing the first attempt, Matt brought us in on our second attempt in reverse, and the boat started swinging in a weird circle and was headed for the dock piling. Trying to slow the speed in reverse and pivot the boat, he gunned the port engine forward--only to find it rocketed the boat backwards even quicker.  It took a second before Matt realized that the port engine was stuck in reverse.  With only one engine operating properly and the other trying to swing us in circles, he managed to motor the boat back out into the river in a wide arc and we put the anchor down to regroup. 

With 3 other large boats tied up in the basin, we narrowly missed needing to make an insurance claim. After confirming that the transmission cable was DOA, we decided to skip the employee pick-up and go straight to the scheduled haul-out. Even without any current in the haul out area, it's still difficult to operate a large cat at slow speeds with just one engine.  Too slow and all the boat wants to do is turn. Too fast...well, that's not a great idea in a confined space.  Worse, when you try to reverse to slow the momentum with just one engine, the boat will pivot radically.  Suffice it to say Matt was happy to get tied up with just a bit off a "kiss" to the forward starboard bow.

We hauled out to fix the chunk of keel that we knocked loose in the Bahamas and to check out a shimmy in the port shaft. But now that were are hauled out, the list of tasks (and dollars flying out of our pockets) is growing: fixing that port transmission cable, putting on another coat of bottom paint, replacing the bearings in the furler, and on and on.  The problem is that almost every close examination reveals something that could be bettered or fixed.  As an example, the port side vibration seemed to be due to a bad cutlass bearing. The starboard shaft isn't vibrating yet but the bearings could use replacing too. Just sourcing the bearing, which the boat manufacturer says is "standard" in any marine store, is proving to be troublesome as they cannot be found anywhere except Europe and other equally remote areas.  Before pulling the bearings, the mechanic "dialed" the shaft which revealed a slight bend.  This in turn required that the boat be lifted up to take out the whole rudder (and we had to wait for the 200-ton lift to be repaired because it died right behind our boat while trying to move a fishing trawler the size of a small house). And while we're at it, the propeller looks a little battle weary and could use some gussying up. We may or may not go that far, but you get the picture. We may be here longer than the week we thought it would take. It is soul-sucking but necessary. It's times like these that we wonder if it would have made sense to pay more upfront for a newer boat.

On the plus side, we got to spend Halloween with the friends we met back in July. Conrad and Mark had been very anxious about what we were going to do for Halloween because that is their favorite holiday now. We know because they have said it about 50,000 times. Brian, Cheryl, and Peyton came and got us from the middle of nowhere and saved us from being Halloween orphans. And we had one of the best Halloweens yet. The boys came away with quite a haul and they have big plans for it all involving building a candy model of an electronic game called Battle Dragon. We actually had to talk them into eating some of it--what?

We also discovered the cause of the leaks in our dinghy that appeared when we were in Cape Lookout. We had thought she was just showing her age and that the epic dinghy ride for sushi was the last straw, but while Matt was repairing one of the holes he found a tooth from one of the fish that was having a feeding frenzy around our boat one night (so much so that we kept hearing heavy thuds against the hull and found the bait fish on our transom the next morning). He identified it as an Atlantic Cutlassfish. We used to raise the dinghy every night but have gotten a bit lazy some nights. I guess we'll go back to playing keep-away from the crazy sea life.

She's a brick house . . . boat

Our boat is literally filled with concrete in the keels and overbuilt in general. So she is heavy and sturdy but not necessarily speedy. However, it's one thing to know that your boat is not built for speed. It is another to be constantly reminded of it over two days.

That's what we got when we went from Hampton, Virginia to Cape Lookout, around the dreaded Cape Hatteras. Our friends on Pendragon and Good Trade both have faster light air boats and before long left us in the dust, especially with the middling winds we experienced on day one of the passage. The winds were so flaky that we had to motor-sail most of the first day to ensure that we didn't dawdle and get caught rounding Hatteras with unfavorable winds. However, the seas were relatively calm and the lighter-than-forecasted winds were better than the alternative of too-heavy winds.

As we approached the Cape, which is notorious for making its own bad weather due to the mix of warm water and cool air,  we heard the Coast Guard broadcasting over the VHF radio about the rescue efforts of a boat that was taking on water at the Hatteras inlet. We were curious about whether or not their troubles were weather-related. "Hey Coast Guard, could you take a break from your rescue efforts to broadcast the conditions at Hatteras for the listening audience?" Yeah, I didn't think so.

As it turned out, the Cape was a non-event and the seas stayed mostly calm.  Day two was more exciting and the wind and waves picked up considerably. Matt put in another reef as the winds repeatedly topped 30 knots. The boat saw a top speed of 15.5 knots down some of the waves and everyone felt a bit queasy.

Taken by Joe (Pendragon)

We finally reached Cape Lookout in the early afternoon. We noticed that the path we had taken previously into the anchorage and shown to be a clear water path was now covered with a wide sand bar. It's a good thing we didn't come in at night, which was one of the options we had discussed. After getting safely anchored, we were all happy to be done with this leg of our voyage south.

The highlight of the overnight passage for me was seeing bioluminescence in the toilet as I flushed with seawater in the dark. It was even better than chomping Wint-o-Green lifesavers in the dark because it's "natural." Yes, I'm actually an adult.

Following the passage, we spent a few lovely days at Cape Lookout just hanging out with our friends on Pendragon and Good Trade. It was much less crowded than the July 4 weekend and the fishing was much better. Clams and grey trout headlined the menu on one night.  The next day, after discussing how much everyone liked sushi, Matt and Ross from Good Trade got the harebrained idea to set off in the dinghy for the "local" fish market--11 miles away past Moorehead City and across 6 miles of the ocean.  Boondoggle though it was, they did dutifully return a few hours later with some beautiful fish that was turned into a sushi feast. The next day we had a fun pumpkin-carving party.

Joe working on shell boats of his own design with the boys.

Who knew he was so creative?

We said good-bye to our friends as they continued to make their way south, while we headed over to Beaufort for our haul-out, scheduled for Wednesday. We hope to keep it down to a week but the to do list keeps growing.

Hampton, VA - Mad boater friendly

Our anchorage in Hampton. Our swing radius brings us
within ten feet of some of the boats docked nearby.



Look familiar? If we had been here earlier, maybe
we would have been on the cover of the visitor's guide.

Hampton goes out of its way to welcome boaters. In addition to the free internet that some progressive cities provide, the city marina offers $1 hot showers (including complimentary hair dryers and flat irons), the use of free bicycles, and fresh herbs for the taking.  This year they even organized a "Snowbird Rendezvous" which attracted a large number of boats. We heard about it too late so didn't get to participate in the free meals and booze they were dispensing, but Matt attended a few of the seminars while I stayed with the kids. Not quite sure how they financed it, but we did see one officer writing 4 speeding tickets in the course of 1 hour. So watch it if you arrive by car instead of boat.

 

One of the seminars focused on weather planning for the journey south.  The expert basically said that it is crazy to attempt to go south around Hatteras and you should NEVER DO IT. Multiple slides devoted to "meteorological bombs" and other weather horrors had the audience ready to sign on for a quiet tour of Afghanistan rather than get within 100 miles of Hatteras.  That was a little disappointing to hear, since that is our plan (and only option) as soon as the weather and wind is with us. Of course, the expert's audience was smaller boats that have the option of using the ICW. And all our research indicates that as long as winds are from the northwest, or pretty  much any direction other than north east, we should be okay. But having every other well-meaning cruiser make it sound like we would be approaching the seventh circle of hell can start to make a person have doubts. Despite all this, we will probably be leaving Wednesday or Thursday with a couple of other boats. In addition to the worrying about the weather, we will need to leave red-eye early as we want to time our departure so that we don't have to fight the considerable tides that can flood the inlet to the Chesapeake.

In the meantime, we have been enjoying the attractions in Hampton. The Virginia Air & Space Center, the official visitor center for NASA Langley Research Center, is fantastic and the perfect field trip for kids living on a boat. With three stories, a Mars rover that you can control, lots of interactive exhibits and an IMAX theater, the boys never wanted to leave.

We also joined in on a tour of the nearby Fort Monroe offered by the Snowbird Rendezvous.  The tour was led by Greg, a local sailor who spent part of his Army career stationed at Fort Monroe. Among other interesting facts we learned that Jefferson Davis (bonus points if you remember him from high school history) was imprisoned for two years at the fort and that Edgar Allen Poe was amazingly whiny while he was in the Army at Fort Monroe, judging by his letters to his dad. 

Annapolis to Solomons Island

Tilted chairs at the closed up bar are a sure sign the summer season is over.

We had our visit to (and departure from) Annapolis all planned out because we are such awesome planners (I'm pretty sure we can use the word awesome even though we have probably less than a 1-in-3 success rate). Although pretty much nothing worked out the way we thought it would, we are much better off because of it. This is in spite of nearly a week of solid rain and chilly weather in a roll-y anchorage.

We had planned to visit our friends, pick up a few things and then leave Annapolis before the boat show to avoid the crowds and the unnecessary expenditure of money. Well, we got sidetracked waiting for parts and ended up staying for the boat show. In the meantime, Mark and Conrad spent many days playing with their friend Zach. They also met new friends on boats anchored nearby. We adults had our share of fun with great conversations and laughter with our friends and meeting a lot of wonderful new people.

We even went to the boat show (thanks for the tickets Derek!), which was a different experience after having owned our boat for almost a year. Refusing to step onto any of the new boats to ward off envy, Matt had fruitful conversations with many vendors and was able to solve some of the issues on our list. He was able to meet a surprising number of people he has dealt with solely on the phone or over email while troubleshooting many of the boat's systems over the past year.  We also met Greg and Deneen, from Mantus, the company that manufactured our anchor.  We already love the anchor, but really appreciated the customer service when they discovered we had an early model of their anchor hook.  They've since made it even better and they insisted we have a newer version of the hook--for free.

While on the topic of customer service, we also have to give a major thanks to Steve and his folks at Bacon's.  They went out of their way to deliver (on multiple occasions) a spinnaker pole and various parts to us at a local dingy dock since we didn't have a car.

Another benefit of sticking around was that we even got to see our good friends Nick, Kate and their daughter Francis, who happened to pop into Annapolis, took us to lunch and brought us the most delicious homemade brownies and Virginia peanuts.

 

Finally, over the strenuous objections of our kids, we left Annapolis this morning with our first partly sunny day in a week and arrived at Solomons Island. With the season mostly over, things are sleepy here. And our anchorage is perfectly still for a change--no water taxis or 2-mile fetches. We head south again tomorrow, towards Norfolk.

Here I come to save the day (sung like Mighty Mouse or Andy Kaufmann, your choice)

After getting questions from the kids on when we were heading back south (almost every other day- all summer long) we finally got back to Annapolis so that they could have their Lego battle with the Mighty, Mighty Zach. Once the battle ended ("We made peace," said Mark), we sailed with our friends Cindy and Doug and their two kids, Zach and Naia, on Majestic to visit some areas around Annapolis that we missed during our race up North to visit family.

After a quiet (and shallow) evening in the very secluded Granary Creek, we headed over to the more populated area of St Michaels.  As we took the dinghy to shore, we saw the boat pictured above heeled over a bit. That would be normal for a monohull except that this one was anchored. Apparently the owner had spotted her friends' boats and headed directly for them, realizing too late that there was a very shallow area in between. Her boat was aground enough that it wasn't going anywhere without assistance. Mistakes in boating can be hard to hide.

We headed over to see if they needed help, not really expecting to be able to do much with a modest dinghy crammed full with four adults and four kids. Doug and Matt grabbed a couple of halyards and used our dinghy to pull the sailboat sideways. This pulled the boat way over while the owner gunned the engine. After a couple of tries, the sailboat finally broke loose and the halyards sprang back to the sailboat. I was mildly surprised that everyone stayed in both boats and there was no major injury or damage. Matt did have a bit of rope burn but he injures himself regularly doing far more mundane things, so I consider it a win.

We had minor flashbacks to a previous episode of ill-conceived endeavors. But it was a happy ending and it was exciting for the kids, who wanted to save someone else immediately. Matt asked whether he could make a "women drivers" joke and I reminded him how he was driving when we hit our bottom. We will be hauling out in Beaufort to fix the damage from that little accident.

 

St. Michaels is a charming town with the best Maritime Museum we have visited so far. Cindy wrote about their visit a few months ago during an intense heat wave. Our weather was much more pleasant and we almost had the place to ourselves.  With warmth but no wind, we motored back to Annapolis where our nice spot in Back Creek had been taken.  Dozens of boat are arriving each day in anticipation of the upcoming boat show, so we've been forced to anchor out in the much more rolly main anchorage. 

The morning after we arrived back in Annapolis, the kids almost got to rescue someone else.   A sea plane was circling overhead and about to land.  A boat came by and said they were supposed to tow the sea plane to a  nearby dock but their dinghy was having engine trouble so  could we help them out? Sure!  Sounds like fun.  So we lowered our dinghy and headed over. Unfortunately, after landing, the plane decided "I don't need no stinkin' dinghy", zipped down the main fairway and docked itself.  Of well, it was still cool to see.