Some photos

It’s been a long time since we last added stuff to the Log, but WiFi has been scarce as has been time. We are very busy running the boat and have had little time to set pen to paper or rather fingers to keys. Let me tell you of a typical day. The day starts out pre-dawn when the urge to stay in bed is outweighed by the urge to visit the loo, so Neal gets up satisfies the latter and starts coffee water. With coffee in hand I begin to prepare the boat for departure and watch to sun rise, while Terri, thoroughly awake from my banging around rolls out of bed. Up comes the anchor and off we go. Terri, after enjoying her tea starts breakfast, very health full stuff like yogurt with granola and fruit, which we eat in the cockpit as we wander down the ICW taking in the sights (eagles, porposes, pelicans, kingfishers etc) it never gets boring because there is something new around each bend.

Around 11:00 AM we have second breakfast of a piece of fruit and by 1:00PM lunch is served (Terri again). We continue on at this pace until about 4:00 PM and we set down the anchor for the night. It’s now time for a sundowner as we watch to sun set. Terri, and sometimes Neal, start dinner (called supper down in this neck of the woods) and we have a grand feast. Terri has become the master of the two burner alcohol stove, sans oven and has put together some fantastic feeds. We clean up and try to read for a while but by 9:00 PM we are ready for bed mainly because we cannot keep our eyes open to read. There are minor rhythms to this daily routine, start a little later-stop a little earlier. Breaks in this routine occur when we hit a town, then it is chore time and explore time. Sound Boring?? Let me tell you it is not at all.

Now let me tell you where we’ve been. When LAST we left you we were in Spooners Creek. From there we went to Sloop Point (N34 24.4509 W077 35.7259) a site recommended by the Guru of the ICW, Skipper Bob. We joined a fellow cruiser there whom we had met in New Bern and they invited us over for dinner on their 32 Catamaran. They were on their way to the Bahamas for the fourth or fifth (?) time. The first third or fourth time they did it in a 26 foot Macgregor, a boat with no standing head room, even for a vertically challenged person. Moreover it is an extremely light weight boat so it rides rough. It would be comparable to riding Cross County on a moped. These people are tough as well as being delightful.

Next morning we were off, well maybe not that rapidly. It seems we crossed over a narrow sandbar coming into this7-8 foot deep hole. This was at high tide, so the next morning when we tried to get out there was the bar hiding under 3 feet of water (we draw 4). There was no apparent hole through which we could wiggly out so we pressed the keel against the bar and waited for the tide to lift us over. High tide was around noon. We got some friendly advice from passing fisherman who state the obvious “you can’t go in there it’s too shallow” We know we’re aground, say we. “You’ll have to wait for high tide” We know, say we. After being there for about three hours a towBoatUS returning from another job sees us and since he saw us on the way out in the same place realizes that we must be stuck, so over he comes. Need a tow? Sure we say since we bought the unlimited towing insurance from BoatUS. Sign on the dotted line says he. While we are doing the paperwork he asks if we came in here on Skipper Bobs recommendation, yes we add, he-I sure get a bit of business from this recommendation. We learn a lesson, Skipper Bob is NOT infallible. One yank and we are off, had we waited another 15-30 minute we probably would have gotten off by ourselves. On we got to Wrightsville Beach, about 3 hours away.

Wrightsville beach (N34 12.4470 W077 47.8949) is a very crowded harbor and we are expecting a cold front with winds 20-25 kts, but we manage to find a little space for us. We are right behind another T34 called “Ginny Song” but they appear not to be onboard (no dinghy apparent). On the way in we pass Dreamer a Catalina 34 from New York single handed by Lenny who we met back in Elizabeth City. He invites us over for bean and Cheese Burritos, so we have a second party in as many days. During the night the wind picks up and by daylight is is howling down the anchorage, blowing as predicted and then some. We register some 33 kts gusts on the windspeed, so we sit out most of the day onboard reading until late in the afternoon when cabin fever strike and it seems that the winds have settled a bit and Terri needs to shop for some dinner. In the dinghy and off to shore. The wind gods do not approve of this and the wind picks up, crashing into the wave Terri gets a face full of salt water as does her phone. Terri survives but the jury is still out on her phone. We wait another night at Wrightsville for the winds to moderate, which NOAA promises will happen.

Only on incident transpires in this crowded anchorage when a French Canadian 50 foot steel motor sailor drags anchor downwind from us. They work for 3 hours trying to reset and finally give up and head for a marina.

Well where were we. Last we wrote we were in Oriental (N35 01.3729 W076 41.8809) and after a trip to New Bern we are back in Oriental, but I’m getting ahead of my self. While we were in Elizabeth City we heard about the Southbound Cruisers Rendezvous that was to be held in New Bern, so we decided to go. Turns out there were somewhere in the vicinity of 90 boats and more people coming by car. It was a great networking opportunity with seminars on various cruising topics. We ended up spending 3 nights there (N35 06.0289 W077 02.6629). Found a wonderful old time hardware store that had about anything you wanted of a hardware store nature. We also ate one night at the local Episcopal Church’s chili supper and went to a coffeehouse right out of the 60s, where we were treated to a concert by Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen, folkies right out of the sixties.

The trip to New Bern was a great sail for the Tartan cuzz she loves a beam reach (wind coming perpendicular to the side of the boat for you non-sailors) and we flew, 7+ knts, for most of the trip up the Neuse River.

We are now back in Oriental to pick up a package, got here Saturday and did our first marina stop. We’re in the marina to affect repairs on the stinking head (toilet to you non-boaters). The idea is to get it so that it doesn’t leak, rebuilt the workings and reposition it so that a 6’1” person (me) can, if you’ll pardon the expression, sit and contemplate. Well those of you who work on old houses and old boats probably know the term “mushroom factor.” This is where you decide just before a dinner party to change a bulb and the project mushrooms into rewiring the whole house. Well we didn’t have to re-plumb the whole boat, but damn near. First to new pump mechanism did not fit the old base so I needed a new base, lucky for me there was a great marine chandlery. Of course there were the frozen nuts to deal with (hacksaw) and the stripped heads of course, but the

head got re-assembled. Now it was time to put it back in place. Now some of you probably do not know how big the head is on Aeolus, but try to imagine installing a toilet in a phone booth, while you’re standing in said phone booth. Can you picture it? You have to get real intimate with the old crapper. When I got it in place I came to the realization that in order to install it in the location that was most comfortable, see above, I needed to relocate the 1.5 inch hose, which entailed drilling a 2 inch hole in the side of the sink cabinet. Hmmmm all my tools are back in Takoma Park. Well, it’s George to the rescue.

Who’s George? Well I’ll have to digress for a moment. While I was sitting in the cockpit at the dock up to my elbows in head parts, cursing and fuming, I hear this soft southern drawl saying he should have recognized our Tartan. It was George Duffie of Oriental, a fellow Tartan 34 owner. We chatted for a while I cleaned up my language vis-a-vis the head. The next morning George came by and invited us to brunch with he and his wife Mary at a delightful little country café followed by a car tour of Oriental, a very lovely town I might add. We could see why lots of people are settling there, especially boaters because the sailing is great and the town very boater friendly.

Back to the hole saw. I realized from talking to George that he was very handy with his hands and would likely have the appropriate tools, so I gave him a call and sure enough he came by with a hole saw and a drill powerful enough, so it took me about 10 seconds to drill the hole. Well now the head was all installed and working properly, except there was a minor leak in the Y valve, yuck the contents of the loo leaking. Thanks to the power of chemistry (epoxy) we made a temporary fix to hold until a replacement part connects with us.

So after 3 days in Oriental we are off again southbound. Spent the night in Spooner’s Creek (N34 43.7830 W076 48.4269), just south of Moorehead City, NC. Here, I got the fright of my life. You see the entrance to Spooners is a narrow (30 feet wide at the most) with a current flowing across it. So when I turned in I slowed down and asked Terri to read off the depth. She started with 5.5, 5, 4.5, 4, 3.5, down and down. Now the Tartan only draws 4 feet, so I’m beginning to panic. I am watching the markers and realizing that I cannot turn a 34 foot boat around in 30 feet of channel so I’m rehearsing what I’m going to say to the towBoatUS guy when Terri announces sorry I was reading the knot meter (speedometer for you non-sailors). Needless to say I needed a beer when I got into the anchorage, incident free. Spooner’s Creek is a small gunk hole with very expensive houses cheek by jowl along the banks, but an accommodating dinghy dock at the head of the creek. It was shore leave for the crew. Terri hit a Wal-Mart to add more “stuff” to the boat such as a 12 volt vacuum, Neal for a WiFi antenna to increase our range. All in all this has been a wonderful trip.