Deltaville! 2400 miles!

We enjoyed Elizabeth City, although we need to remember to get there some day besides Sunday…everything except one restaurant is closed on Sunday. We did get to that one restaurant and had a nice dinner with friends from Canada, Maria and Maurice.

They keep their boat in Deltaville during the summer, so we saw them for dinner tonight before they leave for Canada. Here is their boat going through the Elizabeth City bridge.
It was a perfect day for the trip up the Pasquatank River, a very curvy, undeveloped river which leads to the Great Dismal Swamp – clean and completely calm. Just look at the reflections in the still waters.
We also saw lots of bird life, a cottonmouth snake in the water (he aggressively turned towards the boat rather than retreating), and a small beaver paddling steadily across the narrow waters.

We made a brief stop at the NC Visitors Center and walked some of the trails at the North Carolina Great Dismal Swamp State Park, across the canal.

After our break, we continued up the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, in the still of the evening.

We went as far as the Deep Creek Bridge, the northern bridge/lock combination of the Dismal Swamp Canal. We had to wait for an opening at 8:30AM the next morning.

Next stop, Norfolk, to visit our sister-in-law Judy. It was a great visit, including a wonderful home cooked dinner! Of course, Norfolk has the usual huge navy ships! Always amazing to see.

We hoped to make Deltaville on Wednesday, but the winds picked up to over 30 knots, so we ducked into the Mobjack Bay and spent the afternoon and night in the shelter of the North River.

Next day - those icons of the Chesapeake - Crab boats!! We are definitely back in the Chesapeake Bay!

And another Chesapeake icon, Wolftrap Lighthouse.
We arrived in Deltaville around noon, got a few things off the boat, and had her pulled and put "on the hard" for the next few weeks. Here she is, being carefully moved from the water to her place on land. See that brown "moustache"? That's from the acid in the waters from the cyprus trees in the Dismal Swamp. I'm TOLD that it'll easily remove with vinegar. We shall see...

So….2500 miles round trip. To put it in perspective, At 6 knots, that's over 400 hours. Driving a car at 60 mph, that would be a 24,000 mile trip. What a wonderful trip it was! It was a marvelous experience that exceeded our expectations. We saw beautiful places and met great friends. As we returned to the Chesapeake, we marveled at far we'd gone, how much we'd seen, done, learned and experienced since we'd left. We look forward to doing it again next fall. Our plans are still to head for Maine in the early summer, an 1800 mile circle last year. We’re looking forward to it already, but our main focus now is seeing all of our family and friends that we've missed so much. See you all soon!!!!

Ocracoke

We spent a couple of great days in Ocracoke, NC. If you don’t know, Ocracoke is the south most outer island in NC, accessible only by boat, either private or state run ferry.
After we left Morehead City, we sailed down the Neuse River, across Pamlico Sound, onward towards Ocracoke. We knew we were back in NC when we saw the shrimp boats.
The National Park Service as an office there and offers discounted dockage, complete with water and electricity. We and another sailboat were the only 2 cruising sailboats there and we both tied up at the dock. That’s the lighthouse behind us, on the far side of the inlet.
Ocracoke has a lot of history, including #1, being where Blackbeard was killed. There is a LOT of pirate related stuff there. Also, during the 1940’s a English patrol boat was sunk by a German submarine not far off the shore. Four bodies washed up and were buried at Ocracoke. To this day, every Mother’s Day, the British send a troop of guys over to have a proper ceremony. During the war, the English commissioned private trawlers to the service, giving them a few men, a 4” cannon, a machine gun and some depth charges to defend themselves and our coast. During 1942, apparently one allied ship per day was lost to German U Boats.
Besides the beach and inner harbor (only 1/3 mile wide)
there are quiet shady streets in Ocracoke. This is Howard Street, one of the oldest, cool on a warm spring day. Houses are reportedly built with wood salvaged from the many shipwrecks on this coast.
And wisteria …. Haven’t seen it for a while.
We walked to the lighthouse, but it’s not open for visitors. It’s the second oldest functioning lighthouse in the US. Remember those Fresnell lenses? This one has a 4th order lense.

Luke’s been on the boat too long…..
Unfortunately, the economic situation has hit even small Ocracoke. This is a sad sign.
We left at dawn on Saturday, April 25, and are in transit towards Elizabeth City. We spent the night at an anchorage along the ICW tonight and are in Elizabeth City today, Sunday. It's hot --- 94 ---must be summer in the south.

Outside to Morehead City

We had an almost uneventful sail from Wrightsville Beach to Morehead City. We left bright and early with absolutely no wind. By the time we got to the inlet to Morehead City, 10 hours later, the winds had picked up to over 25 knots. Not much fun for getting in the sails and creating a rolly ride the last few hours. I thought I'd give you an idea of what it's like to be sailing 9 miles off shore.

Here's the view to the north---

Here's the view to the east---

Here's the view to the south---

Here's the view to the west---

Not much change, huh, LOL. It gets a little monotonous. But we are here now, tied up again to our favorite Sanitary Restaurant, the place where we stayed for 2 weeks last December while Luke had his knee surgery. We'll meet our friend Michael, Luke's anesthesiologist, and his fiancee Connie! here for the afternoon and dinner, then probably on our way to Ocracoke for a couple of days. It depends on the winds and weather. But it looks promising right now.

Savannah to Wrightsville Beach NC

We had a great time in Savannah, meeting up with old friends, staying at our sister-in-law's HOUSE (which doesn't rock, has unlimited hot water, has a yard to walk in, etc...). But the journey calls, and we are ready to continue on to Roanoke.

We watch about 3 or 4 different weather sites on the internet, as well as listening to Bahamas and southeast coast weather on the SSB radio. All that said that we were to have a good weather window for an offshore passage (moderate winds and seas from the right direction) starting Saturday morning through Sunday evening.

After taking Friday to do chores and prepare for an overnight voyage of 230 miles, we left our guest dock at 7:30 AM on Saturday, April 18th. Luke and I take turns sleeping, 2 hour shifts, during our overnighters; Wickie waits patiently in the bed for the whoever has the next turn. It's not a perfect solution, but works well enough. We also plan a meal together around 2AM, something like soup. Shifts are usually boring, with the only duties to keep a log of our longitude and latitude (in case something goes wrong and we have to call for help), monitor our position and direction, watch for other ships (almost ever see any), and generally just keep an eye on the surroundings. oh, and a few midnight snacks. Winds and waves were indeed moderate as predicted, requiring that we motor sail to keep our speed up (average about 6.9 kts), but also making it smooth enough that we could sleep, below. We were treated to a starry night and the crescent moon creeping over the horizon of the Atlantic about 3:45 AM on Sunday.

Luke had the dawn shift and got this great picture of the sun emerging from the Atlantic. We're always glad for daybreak.

Our long and uneventful motor sail averaged about 5 miles offshore until around 1PM on Sunday, when we arrived at the Cape Fear River Inlet in NC. As we entered the Cape Fear, we passed Bald Head Island, with it's lighthouse, now an exclusive development, accessible only by ferry from Southport.

We considered several anchorages for the night, but decided to keep pushing up the ICW until 5:30pm to Wrighsville Beach. The weather forecast for the next few days is very windy with showers, so we opted for a known good anchorage plus the opportunity to go "to town" and explore Wrightsville Beach during our non-moving days. The forecast has lived up to the prediction - winds have picked up from the 5 - 10 knots we saw on our crossing to at least 20 to 25 knots. The forecast is for up to 30 kts later this evening/night, plus showers. We are looking for a good day to make the next outside move, the 75 miles to Morehead City. That will put us in the ICW for the remainder of our trip home and include locations like Oriental, Elizabeth City, and the Great Dismal Swamp canal.

Savannah

We made it to Savannah, making a relatively painless overnight voyage on the outside (not the ICW). We left St Augustine around 2pm on Friday, arriving at the Ossabaw Sound at 7:30am, and to our friend's dock at bout 9:30am. It was a beautiful, full moon night, but could have been a little calmer. At least we could sleep during our off-shifts.

We had trouble leaving St. Augustine, though --- our anchor chain was wrapped around an old derelict anchor that was on the bottom of the anchorage. This picture can't do it justice.

Luke and I couldn't unwrap it ourselves, so we put out a VHF call to the general anchorage, asking for help. Two guys came over in dinghies to offer assistance. Luke climbed into one of the dinghies, the owner held them up to the bow of our boat, and with some fancy maneuvering of the extra ropes and raising/lowering of our anchor, we were finally able to free ourselves after about an hour. What a pain!

We had Easter at Beth's church, a potluck afterwards, and then a few days visiting friends.

Wickie is still with us, maintaining his usual cat ways. Thanks for those of you who have asked about the little old man. This is the boat in transit, with the lamp secured so it doesn't fall or roll around if we have waves, etc. Wickie is good at finding those snug places.

Vero Beach

It's nice to be back. Back in the world of real grocery stores with lots of stock and reasonable prices, back to relatively inexpensive diesel, and free water for the boat.
We had a nice sail up the Intracoastal Waterway from Ft. Pierce to Vero Beach, staying a few days to see our friends Ange & Ray and Marina and Dave. Luke took advantage of the time to go up the mast to replace a light bulb and generally check on things on the mast top. That's him, the small dot at the top of the mast.


That's me, the small dot on the deck.

Folks -- that's awful damn high! 59 feet above the water! -- Luke.

The mooring field is so full this time of the year, with the Snowbird Cruisers heading back north, that we had to raft up with another boat on a mooring. That worked well, as our raft mate had a rock climbing belt that he lent to Luke for his mast climbing adventure. Now, you don't really climb a mast, but you put on a harness or climbing belt, use the existing ropes as pulleys, and get the person staying below to pull you up the mast. That's when I was really glad for an electric winch.

Next day we went on a windy sail up the ICW to Cocoa, FL, one of the few towns in FL with an average age between 20 and 44. The town is much more geared towards families, with a nice park and revitalized downtown area.

Next, we push towards Savannah, hoping to make it for Easter. The wind is howling so we aren't sure we'll make it. We tried to make progress today, stuck the bow out into the winds, turned around, and anchored again in the same location as last night. That may seem pretty conservative for the ICW, but winds ranging from 15 to 25 and then gusting from 25 to 35 (our wind meter tells us the highest wind speed since we last reset it) is a mite much. It heels and turns the boat even without sails up, makes it difficult to see and stay in the relatively narrow channel -- just not much fun. The forecast said 15 to 20 -- hmmmm. We'll just keep checking the weather forecasts.

The Abacos and back to the USA!!!!

We spent a few more days in Spanish Wells, doing chores such as oil changes, etc. fun, fun, fun. Thursday morning we left for the 7 mile trip back to Royal Harbor, to await a chance to cross the Northeast Providence Channel to the Abacos. It was a good choice – we met back with our friends Marion & Greg and Joanne & Paul. It’s always good to find sailing friends again.
We were delighted to find out that friends Bonnie & Roger were going to Royal Harbor for the night. We had met them carying groceries, looking like cruisers, on the street in Cape May NJ back in June of last year. They’ve been great mentors via e-mail, giving us advice on the SSB radio, charts, passages, etc. Unfortunate, our paths hadn’t crossed since then until we both ended up in Royal Harbor. It was great to catch up with them again.

We crossed the Northeast Providence Passage in company with about 10 other boats, all leaving from Royal Harbor. The seas were rough, so it was nice to have a group, all checking on each other, feeding information back from the lead boats. The wind was not bad, about 15-20 kts SSE, but the seas were high, with 8 to 10 foot tall swells, with an 11 to 13 second perion. While 10 ft is high, when they are widely spaced, like 12 seconds, it's just a gentle up and down motion. This is what this ship looks like from the top of the swell…

THIS is the same ship, but with a 10 ft swell between us and the freighter.
Here is a shot of the Warwick and Wendy's boat, next to us, with a large swell blocking most of her.
The swells are great if they catch you and give you a little roller coaster ride down the back side. Not so much fun if they catch you sideways and make the boat roll.
It was a long trip, 9 hours. Our intention was to go into Little Harbor (Abacos) but the cut was experiencing a “rage” – a common occurrence in cuts when the wind and the seas are opposing, especially when one or the other is especially high. The group opted to sail another 6 miles up to the North Bar for our entrance. We rode a 15 ft swell through the cut, hitting about 9 knots on the down side of it. A couple of the other boats hit larger swells, or ones that were breaking, and one boat actually hit 21kts riding down the swell into the harbor. That’s scary. Luke did a good job of timing our entrance as much as possible. This is a swell breaking on the rocks from the inside of the cut.
Next, to Marsh Harbour for the night – replenishing of groceries, cheap rum (yes, it really is cheap here), trash disposal, and fill ups of diesel and water.
We also took the ferry to Hope Town, across the Bay of Abaco, along with friends Wendy and Warwick. The weather was windy (catch Luke’s hat and my hair…) Plus, the town harbor is too shallow for us to go into except near high tide. That was about noon, which would have meant staying until noon the next day before we could leave again. Hope Town is another cute Loyalist settlement, starting with the classic lighthouse.

Look at the detail on the doorknob at the top of the lighthouse --- not the main entrance, but the lighthouse keeper's entrance to out walk around the outside at the top.

The light house still uses a huge, multi-glass segment, Fersnel lense, one of the few in the world not in museums. I think it is a first or second order lense (if Luke has the nomenclature right, for those conniseurs of Fernel Lenses). The light source is still a kerosene light, with kerosene sitting in big jugs around the base of the lighthouse. They actually shade the lense with cloths to keep the sun from possibly igniting the kerosene in the burner. If it worked 100 years ago, why not now ----

Then the usual exploring with Wendy and Warwick..

And the gardens and pink houses.

We left early on March 30 and had the most wonderful gentle sail for about 9 hours to Spanish Cay. It was perfect sailing - enough wind, no waves on the Sea of Abaco. Dinner with Wendy and Warwick (she makes bread!!!) and an early start to the sail to Great Sail Cay for the night. We caught another small Almaco Jack en route! Dinner! We also caught a really ugly fish, a toothy fellow - I was told it's a torpedo fish. Not good for eating.

En route to Great Sail we came across a fellow boater who was headed through the night, straight for Ft. Pierce, FL, our intended US landfall. We double checked the weather and decided to adopt the same plan and go as buddy boats. There is always safety in numbers and you can’t dismiss an opportunity. A big mutton snapper hit the line around lunch time (SEVERAL more meals!). I've learned a great trick to kill the fish instantly --- cheeaaappp vodka down the gills. Drops 'em like flies. It has been suggested that you take a mouthful of the stuff and spew it in the gills, but I'll stick to an old catsup bottle and a squirt from afar. Besides, $6 vodka isn't quite what I like.

We also managed to snag a 3 ft barracuda, one that fortunately managed to throw the hook as we got him by the stern of the boat. I've caught all of these fish with the same lure, so I'm investing in a few more! I'm still working on making the fishing tackle pay for itself. It'll take a few more fish...
Then, the BEST thing --- as evening approached, 6 huge dolphin greeted the boat and swam with, under, and around us for at least 15 minutes. They were wonderful, darting back and forth under the bow of the boat, riding in our bow wake, blowing a gentle "poof" as they came up to breathe. These pictures don’t begin to do justice to actually seeing them play in the water.

The trip was about 140 miles and long night. We actually had to go slower than wind and wave would have allowed us to do, so we could to hit the Ft Pierce inlet with ingoing tide at 10:30 this morning. We had winds for sailing most of the route, which was great. It was a bit "lumpy" so our usual shifts didn't really let us get much sleep. So, we are BACK IN THE USA, Y’ALL! The Bahamas were great, interesting, beautiful, different --- but it’s wonderful to be back home. The plan is to stay in Vero Beach for a few days to see some friends, do some maintenance, and then work our way northward.