ALL HANDS 6/4
Sunday, 4am and I'm writing by 110V shore electric. PABLO CREEK Marina. Very yachty. 95% power boats of course. I seem to have tickled them with my old man's ploy.8 JunI've been here a week, tied up to a concrete bulkhead. With every boat on the waterway making a lot of wake and each one battering Apogee against the concrete! Not all that bad. I have a bower anchor out to port with two lines, as well as bng springs and dock lines. Not hard to set up, but has to be tended, especially when tide flow reverses. The yard is Big, big enough so that by working my nice old man ploy I'm able to avoid all the big costs. Do as much of my own work as I want. Use their facilities as if I was paying for a slip. Showers, ships store, telephone (2 Sprint lines), bar, water hose. I'll get charged full rate for mechanic time. Ok, it will be plenty, but they are leaning over backwards to be helpful and inexpensive. Disasters that have showed up--raw water pump on the Volvo threw water all over the engine compartment, blew itself and the alternator. Both are ready to pick up-were yesterday but I had no transport and today nobody works. Moe, the hands-on mechanic, will pick up Monday. Peg arrives today, leaves an uncomfortable overlap. Last minute cancelation? I hope not, but I'll call Peg this am to let her decide. I've had time to get the water systems overhauled, both fresh and salt, grey and black! Rebuild the head, and refasten it, install a bypass pump for sink salt water, open the thru hull valves for saltwater, clean out the vacuum relief valves so the head no longer floods. Repair the baks in the head, bun they are doubtful. I really need to get a new main body for the two-way pump. Maybe a new head! Did cleanout all over again under the double bed and refit and refasten the 20 gal plastic water day tank. Mended the sail covers, but they'll need more. The cotton thread they were sewed with is rotten. Busy, busy, busy for 5-6 days. And little enough done. Before that-Caicos to FLA was disappointing, little wind, made very poor progress. And the last hundred miles was mostly power. A BORE. Engine over-heating the last few miles, losing fresh water. Had to replace water twice in the hour it took me to get from Inlet to the Marina. Coast Guard Radio was most helpful about directions and markers, even suggested this marina, called them up to see if they could handle my needs!
Florida is Flatida. I get the feeling that maybe the whole thing is floating! A lot of high straight conifers in groups. Hammocks is the local name. Elevation of a coupla three feet, and 80' trees! Vast areas of grass and water. I've seen very little so far. Maybe there's very little to see!
Really the 2nd leg of this voyage. At Jos the CG directed me to a marina they thought could take care of my apparently minor trouble. Yup they could.16 JunWere very kind and helpful. Did not feel they had to charge me for space as long as I lived on the bulkhead that faces the Intra-Coastal Waterway. Ok, it's a bit "wakey" now and again, but not bad for one who is used to the ocean. I got an anchor off with two lines, long springs and good fenders and live there pretty comfortably. Close to churches & schools. Well, water and beer anyway. High bridge o'head, made the nights rather noisy while I wore my hearing aid, easily cured! Foul up over the name of the pump. They got the wrong one. Two more days to get the right one. And of course Peg came down just in time to wait for two days of her four, off duty at the marina, under the bridge. Ok, she did get one day of boating up the Waterway after the pump and electrics were fixed. And I sent her off in a bus again from Fernandia. She's written that up and it will be part of this maybe. Anyway, that was this am. Cloudy, cool. Rather nice after the much concentrated sun we've had for a week. She took off about 9:30. I chased charts; and called Mr. SatNav, who has finally solved my difficulty; but this cure is up to me, and that will happen on top of the mast. Not almost but all the tippy top way. He wants the antenna out of ANY "shadow". So stick it up above ALL. Next calm stop, which I expect to be Wilmington. I started in that direction soon after noon. Fernandia and its smelly paper mill is out of sight. And I'm charging along on an empty sea 10-20 miles offshore to enter again at Cape Fear, a couple of Hundred miles N+E. 30-odd miles on the Waterway was enough. Sit and hold the tiller, burn diesel, listen to the engine purr, growl, or cough, as it may. YUK. Let alone breath the fumes in a following wind! And watch watch watch! Markers too close or too far, mud everywhere, grassy shores, clumps of trees in "Hammocks" here and there, but FLAT FLAT FLAT. A factory, paper mill, or shipworks shows up miles and miles away. Birds, even porpoises in waterway. Hawks, Buzzards, Egrets and Herons by the many. And of course stinkpots. Many very courteous, many not. Grass usually as far as the eye can see, an inch to a foot above water. Nothing higher except the "Hammocks" which have big trees, hardwoods and conifers, and rise up a foot or maybe 3 above the grass. Empty land. Lots.
And I'm ashore at Carolina Yacht Yard, in Middle Sound NC 28405. The Yard is small, very exclusive, largely power boats, maybe 20% sail (which is high % for a yard on the waterway). Beautifully done up, landscaped, naturalized, built up to the max. Rental boats, dwellings, parking even. But with Al's ref I've been taken in with open arms. A hero from the OPEN SEA. Given a 2nd class berth, which is plenty good enough, allowed to use many if not all the facilities. Several nights at Al's house with Sue's cookery. I'll be able to use his car for final shopping too.17 JunAs of now (0350 hrs) I have FINALLY fixed the SatNav--it's making fixes by the many--by poking the antenna well above all possible electronic shadows. Most of a whole day undoing the old set up (only a few weeks old, too) and setting up the new. All very hard on feet and legs working mostly at top of the mast. Much admiration from yard personnel and visitors. Easy to swallow! Also much running up and down the ratlines for another tool, longer screw, or just to untangle a line that has whipped its end around a stay into a triple clove hitch with turks head. That's hard on the knee still ok but right on the edge, edge of cramps too. NO wonder, I'm doing 10 hr days of vigorous work. Only eight if I sleep over at Al + Sue's because I have to travel with him. Phone troubles, they seem to be built into this last hearing aid. Three others are in hock at the repair shop who are adamant about money in hand before repairs. I have finally sent some, but two way mail is unlikely here. List of work done will be incomplete. I've forgotten half already! New gearshift control is one of the horrors. Head down in a locker with my weight on one tit while I try to fit the wrong wrench on a deeply rusted nut. Nope, saw it off in an even worse position, and then only with a hack saw blade, no room for a frame! T'other end just as bad. Head down in the bilges, frozen cotter key at the end of my reach and so nearly inaccessible as to be ridiculous! I'm kicking out wires at the other end of the engine as I flail about with my legs trying to get a bite on the other side of the whichet, that's behind the whosis. Somehow it's all getting done. And as it goes back together, it is being simplified a little, will be easier next time if only by the knowledge that I did it once before! Daylight a-comin and I need to get humping. The luxury of 110 volts is spoiling me for work! 4th day in the yard!
Same day, 9:40pm and a busy day. Got in a shopping trip with the yard driver while he picked up for the company. Bananas beer and fresh stuff. Unable to get Tom on the phone--to ANY of you-- MH-Tom-Anne-Stan-Not my machine's fault either. I had a very cute young mother from a boat nearby doing the initial dialing and listening! DA DA DA
And it's a threatening sky. Heavy high overcast. The sun came through under it briefly, an eerie white light in a grey world. Would have been spectacular at sea. Trees, grass, boats, they are interruptions, carryover from a fair day like dirt on yesterday's dishes! Spit of rain too and pushy little puffs of wind rattling my shading tarpaulin and blowing out the fire under my first coffee.19 JuneMy boat is a mess. Decks piled with the contents of lockers, beds covered with stuff to sort, sew, or throw out, and today is "Head Day". The epoxy patch has not stopped the leak. What I have to do now is to glue the epoxy patch onto the body of the head. So out comes the chart rack, then disassemble the head, rearrange the ties that held the epoxy, stickum the whole shebang together and then reassemble, remount, and clean up the mess I just made! Get to it!
Done--SatNav, gear shift.
All set to go but ran aground immediately after casting off lines. Feels foolish but no harm done. Tide coming presently, sat in the shallows fixing gouty rope ends, mending electric light over stove, playing with SatNav, eating lunch, putting away lines and fenders. 1930 And I'm off to Sea in the real ocean. Sails up and off, light SW so I'm self steering about 120 to get offshore. Daylight will be gone soon--no strain, there's plenty of room off to the east. Now for supper. Fresh stuff too!Jun 22We seem to have to east up for at least 100 miles to clear the shoals off C. Hatteras. Then NE will away us up to where we decide to go inside or out of Cape Cod. The only advantage of inside would be to stop on Eustices. Laundry and a chance to loosen my tongue. The decision can wait till the last moment too. It makes little difference to this part of the trip. I'll avoid NY this time too, keep out of Long Is. Sd. No matter what happens it must be faster than the Waterway--hard aground once, and lightly twice, and tired sick of it, even the little I've seen. Overcast and very light but we have decent way. Maybe 3-112 kn and good sleeping soon. No ship channels.
2130 Great supper--yellow squash, mash potato and hamburg--Health food! Sweat out the first sea fix-takes much longer when one waits on it. 21:12 34ƒ11.46 7P39.58. On the small scale overall chart that doesn't appear off the shore line.
And a hundred miles offshore from Virginia Beach more or less. There's No Wind. Air moves, but it seems to go back and forth instead of sw which The Book promised. It's 9:30am and my ship is in order, I've caught up with all my boat tending: Nav, dishwashing, rope fixing, and sailtending. Chance to tell all. So last night I put her to bed at sea in virtual calm. Little enough wind so it was difficult to hold course. It still is. Most of our fwd motion is made from the impulse of the fanning of the sails, in turn caused by the waves that rock the boat. Don't knock it-we move, albeit slow, but move steadily at a knot. Now and again a puff will speed us up into a breakneck two knots (three, according to my lying speedometer) and I am in the Gulf Stream which gives me another knot or 1-1/2. Actually made 21 miles on course wlth the sails to bed last night. Little storms plague me-the Stream rain squalls. The sea is not violent but in constant motion. Waves from astern help our progress, but are irregular enough to be hard to foresee and therefore difficult to balance one's self for. Whales and porpoises-gottem! Good company, but not patient enough to go slow with me, gone north after blowing me a pleasant greeting. First really stupendous colossal sunset was last night. Sun rises not too marvelous so far this trip, but last night made up even if it only promised dark. A pink one, but BIG. Lots of high stratus, even in the East, picked it up and glowed with a very luminous pink, a happy statement that their day's work was done. And a coupla three big black rain clouds contrasting between me and the show, threatening the pink promise of peace. One of them came on strong with 7 or 8 kn of wind. Had to get sail up again just after dropping it all. No good. Spit of rain was all we got out of it. Good show all the same. Battleship on the horizon this am. Been more than I usualiy see of all kinds of Navy vessels. One inspected me a while back, but oniy by radio! I don't think they dare board me for fear I'll beg fresh food or tobacco!Jun 23 0610Leaving shore at the Inlet near Al's Yard was easy. Much to-do about shifting channels and markers, but nothing to it. A few miles out I came to the shoal that extends south from Cape Lookout. That was a bit Hairy. A visible sand bar, a mile or more long, showed up right in front of me. And hours of shoal water, 10' to 12' deep, 7' in one short bit. More than 3 hrs of shoal water, quite rough too, readable though. Glad I didn't try it at night! SatNav fixes coming through very well.
1400 Becalmed still. I fought it for a while. This little puff, that little puff, Jibe all for a shadow coming towards me, drop the jib to see if we are hanging true. NO PROGRESS. So straighten out the Nav and find that the Gulf Stream is carrying us as fast as my average ocean speed anyway. Right on course now but after another day it will be taking us out to sea again. Deal with that when it happens. Clean up and get some sleep ahead!
1627 Becalmed only more so! Flatter than I ever saw it, and not disturbed by anything as far as the eye can see. Had a two hr nap and it didn't bring wind either. Replaced rusted hinges on port rode locker. Cleaned out under sink. A constant disaster area. This time French Dressing--cap loosened up. NARSTY.
New fix shows 1 mile of easteriy drift in half an hour. 2 kn-50 miles a day, and no wear and tear on anything but my patience. Be there in August!
Meantime the calm broke up with a couple kn of S. Didn't last long though. Quiet again. Not quite so glassy though. Things show up. Jellyfish, Portuguese men of war, two little 5" fish just swimming along together. Add this to whales this morning and porpoises yesterday. Plus 1 North Carolina pot buoy with warp that I caught!
Quiet sunrise, yellow and behind scattered cumulus, with a small direct peep under them on the way up. And wind. Not much, and poor direction for me. So I'm sailing again but slowly and in a direction that is the best I can do but not what I'd like. Bfst in, tanker on thee horizon southbound and very empty. Head leaks and cabin floor wet. SatNav working furiously. In other words all is normal. I certainly write more when the wind is light. Boredom partly but also fewer immediate demands on me and maybe even a little more energy to spare.[missing page?]enough fixes (but nowhere near all). Can't find stuff I dare eat! Oatmeal, toast, hippy tea with lots of sugar. I'm sure to live through it but it's a nuisance.6/26Fairhaven Harbor (Same as New Bedford) Here by 6ish, Anchored to save docking fee. Blew up dinghy and rowed ashore.6/27Started very early this morning, 3 or so. Probably 4 before I actually got under way. Breeze just starting and that's about all it did most of the day. Started, fresh for a few minutes, just enough for me to decide this was IT. Then fade off into nothing, not even cursable at! Slat and bang, boom bashing back and forth, jigger boom trying to keep up bang, yank, bank, yank. Sheeit, I'd rather power. Sometimes an hour of power restores me. Not today. Sails up and down all day but power was pretty steady. Only shut down a couple three times and one of those was for checking oil. Wind, if you can call it that, was never so fickle. Strength, direction, and duration. All hopping around crazily, just to upset and annoy me! Avoided a sail disaster when I noticed that the main sheet was stranding right next to the sliding block. I cut it and respliced under way. Which would have been out of the question with even 10% of a normal wind.
Otherwise a long dull day. Telephone, maybe groceries and rope tomorrow.Now is 3 Julyand where the past few days have gone is going to be hard to reconstruct. Fairhaven. Telephone. Pass the word of my arrival. Nobody ever seems at home! Marine hardware store, and Gus K's open account. That relieved a year-long hardware drought. Ice cream. Water and shower. And off by noon without getting to see Sabino, but did call and talk. Up Buzzard's Bay in a light sw with a little moisture in the air so that vis was a mile or two. Not threatening, but a stern master of attention to nav and steering. All the familiar buoys seem to have moved. My coupla three-year-old charts are right on land mass, depth and breakwaters, but out of sync on man-made scenery. Houses everywhere, condos, roads where there was nothing but scrub oak, and all built up already too. Buoys leading in to Scraggy Neck and Hospital Cove unchanged, in at low tide without a scrape and found a place with enough depth to anchor. Closer to the channel than I'd like, but there's little open water left. The permanent moorings nearly fill it up. Eustis House, a new one, very elegant but not yet landscaped. In fact only barely moved into. Drawers aren't full yet. Everything works and MATCHES!JulyI gave their telephone a severe workout, mostly unsuccessful. Bath, real solid hot water bath with jacusi yet! And arrangements. I'm suddenly depressed by how dependent I am on the civilization that engulfs me as soon as I drop my anchor. So many good things. So hard to arrange them on my itinerary! So many delays. Three whole days at Cataumet, or was it four? A trifle too long to be a house guest, and I wasn't allowed to turn my hand either.
Resupply of food stuff and finally off with Gus and his new lady who is great, and just what Gus needs. I love her for what she can do for Gus! She has 3 kids near enough to Gus's 2 so that it can work. I predict a sensational success. Anyway we had a lovely sail. Good wind, easy passage, all night to Hull. Anchored outside the fort at Allerton, slept for a coupla three hrs till the sun came strong and tide fair--Heave. Breakfast and leisure am. Power into Hull bay and make fast at Strawberry Hill state whf. They took me to lunch. Forcibly too, and warm goodbye about 1:30.
Busy about the boat putting away mostly. Found my wallet which I'd lost in the wrong bag after 1st shopping in Cataumet. Great relief. Stan showed at 7:30pm. Right on schedule but of course I'd been looking for him since five! Had a beer then and as I write this he's asleep on deck with his guest, an ex-army mp with an arm injury--couldn't clamber down into the boat at low tide. We had to start up and maneuver around to the float. A very wet evening with NO precipitation. And we've only moved our a coupla three hundred yds from the whf. So begins July 3rd.
And its been an exciting coupla days to go back over. I left on the 4th after watching a panoramic display of fireworks. Half way around the horizon. Up till midnight watching and off in a smokey morning at 6am, tired in spite of two nights at peaceful anchor in Hull. Fresh food too. Outside everything, Thatchers twin towers visible 3 or 4 miles west. More and more fog. Approach to Portland very thick. Missed the "P" buoy in it. Missed them all. The E & W shore of Cape Elizabeth showed at safe distance and I traced that 2 to 300 yds off, into Portland Harbor. Power of course, no wind all day. Tied up at Dick Ross's bulkhead to find he was off on vacation. Walked ashore to Chase Leavitt. Ice cream and flashlights. (Whoops, at sea the night of 5 July off Boon Is., way off too. Then, power to Portland.)Tomorrow hell!. Now its Sunday night 9 JulySo after Portland shopping I went out of the inner harbor to anchor in a cove of So Portland. Peaceful enough. Afternoon nap of 3 hrs, up to make supper about 7pm and back to bed! Thick of fog in the am, corltinued all day. Very few boats, no buoys until I got to Fuller Rk off Cape Small. Early pm, struck off for Seguin Is. to anchor in its cove and avoid Boothbay and the unmarked entrance of Muscongus Bay in the unhappy combination of fog, dark, and no moon. Secure to the Coast Guard Mooring buoy at 3pm. Tired-still. Up and down the ladder a million times. Doesn't seem it would be enough to tire me out. Maybe I'm still suffering from the poor nights before Cape Cod. This promised to be restful-better be. Nav coming across the 35 miles I did today has been full of minor troubles. The SatNav and Loran have agreed most of the time but not always. Neither seems to be infallible. I have some difficuities with Loran's coordiriates which have to be translated to Lat/Lon. Undoubtedly my own errors. Here at a known position Loran is on the nose, while SatNav is 4 miles out. I had assumed that SatNav was the last word in accuracy. None of us is perfect! Round Pond tomorrow!
and I've been here tied up to Joe's whf for 3 days. I did get here on that tomorrow but it seems a week ago! No car of course. I need to get mine registered and insured. Mrs. Meyer is taking me to Rockland for the paperwork tomorrow. Wilkie came here on Sat pm, did some errands for and with me, brought my auto papers, helped wash, paint. Between us we've gone around the insides with a brief scrub. Not necessarily clean, but a vast improvement. Hope to have my own wheels tomorrow night, but maybe not till Tuesday. So I'm home. The trip is done. My Story is told. Not all, but most of you notified. Apogee off and clear.