July 1, 2000
We left Beaufort yesterday morning 7:30am with big smiles from finally getting underway. Our autopilot is a complete bust. The new brain worked but the pump and motor don't. The whole gizmo sounded like it was going to fly out of the storage area and catapult into the next state. We finally gave up and convinced Fernando, the hard-working electronics guy, to do the same. A couple hundred dollars later, to no avail, we are altering our summer plans and going up the Intracoastal Waterway to the Chesapeake. Annapolis, to be exact. Here, we will have a new autopilot installed, probably haul the boat out for bottom maintenance and do a bunch of other chores to the boat that have been needing attention. Annapolis is one of our favorite places but hopefully, there will still be time to sail to Maine for a month or so before returning to Annapolis for the boat show in early October.
So, we made 55 miles up the ICW yesterday. At least 4 hours was spent in a pretty strong current and winds and waves coming right at us. It wasn't rough but our speed dropped way down to between 2 ˝ and 3 ˝ knots. That put a little damper on our days total miles but we dropped the hook about 7:30pm (tired after 12 hours) in the most beautiful spot. We anchored in an undesignated spot, just outside of the channel, in an area that was pretty open, surrounded by tons of trees, almost no houses and a beautiful sunset. I had made dinner underway and we immediately had our dinner in the open cockpit with a perfect breeze.
The thing about the ICW is that you try to get where you are going relatively quickly because you really can't sail. We can motorsail but the motor is on all day and it's a little wearing on the nerves. The ICW is a narrow waterway, for the most part, with some very open areas but it is shallow outside of the channel and you must constantly check your chart and the markers to make sure you don't go aground. Today, we were traveling up the Pungo and Alligator Rivers. This was a very narrow area with a real back bayou effect. There were dead trees and tree stumps all along the banks, probably from hurricanes gone by, with very plush trees as far as the eye could see in the background. We decided that there were alligators (even though we passed an area of a small beach with people swimming), snakes, bears, monkeys and coyote. As you can see, these days get long and so does the imagination. One area,
lasting for a couple of miles, the trees were all bare as if a huge fire wiped them out. The water is a red-brown with visibility a tad different than the Bahamas. For instance, in the Bahamas you have visibility of about 50 feet. In the ICW, you have visibility of about an inch. Yuk! The total effect of this waterway, though, is quite beautiful. You can imagine yourself motoring down the river all by yourself. When it got dark, the wild creatures would eat you and the story ends there. I picture all of you that don't like to be on the high seas but enjoy the slow movement of a trip up a lazy river. You would have enjoyed the day.
We just came up to a fixed bridge under construction with a swing bridge behind it. Bob radioed to the bridge tender and found they open on the ˝ hour and hour so we had a 15-minute wait. I told Bob that I would like to traverse these bridges and I think he thought I would chicken out but I didn't. He was like a father-to-be. If the boat were any bigger, I'm sure he would have been pacing. A big powerboat passed us and then got in front of us and slowed down. That's always nice. No problem, I just idled behind him, sometimes in neutral and sometimes putting it into gear to stay away from the shore. We made it through the bridge perfectly in the middle and everything was fine. The nervous father delivered a beautiful, bouncing, baby Hans Christian. So, the idea is to get where you are going and don't dilly-dally. At least it is for us. We will be taking the ICW all of the way to the Chesapeake, where it dead-ends. Then up the Bay to Annapolis.
Today is day #2, the weather is perfect, the scenery very pretty and all in all, not so bad. I would rather be rounding Cape Hatteras but as the old saying goes, "I would rather be in here wishing I was out there than out there wishing I was in here."
July 2, 2000
Another gorgeous day up the ICW. The day began at 6:00am, with Bob having much difficulty awakening me. It was one of those mornings where it's a little chilly; just enough to pile on that blanket and the eyes are sort of glued together. We were up and lifting the anchor by 6:30am. Down the Alligator River, through the Bridge and out into the Albermale Sound. The weather was perfect, about 85 degrees, sunny and just enough breeze to keep the staysail full. We made a fuel and water stop at Coinjock Marina, in the Coinjock River, of course, where we motored in and watched a snake slither through the water. He was pretty creepy looking with black and gold diamonds. Not real long but he had some girth to him. I asked the dockmaster about it and he told me they are water moccasins. Poisonous, of course. We passed lots of people swimming, water skiing and riding on ski doos. They are much braver than yours truly.
We are still going at it at 5:45pm, just entering Virginia with only another hour and a half or so to go. Bob is at the helm as I write after a delicious much-needed shower and then I must go prepare the nights' feast of chicken in the pressure cooker, scalloped potatoes and a fresh garden salad. For dessert, we will probably have our bunk, as we did last night. Just too tired to munch any cookies. These days are long but the weather is so beautiful. We have our evening meal, listen to the SSB radio and talk to our buds for a few minutes and hit the hay. Tomorrow will be a trying day of bridges and locks. Some bridges open on demand, some on the hour and half hour, some just on the hour and some have particular hours. There is virtually no way to plan this part of the adventure so we'll probably be spending lots of time waiting around. After the bridges and locks, we get dumped into the Chesapeake where we are thinking of just making a straight, overnight shot to Annapolis. It's about 130 miles or 26 hours. We ought to be pretty dead by then. I may have to sleep for a couple of days straight. Can't wait!
July 3, 2000
What an interesting anchorage. I had selected an anchorage out of our "Skipper Bob" book, which is a book for anchorages, restaurants, marinas, etc. for the Intracoastal. It was just under a bridge in 8-10 feet of water. When we got there, there were 2 problems: 1. It was only 6:00pm and 2. There were too many boats cutting through that area to make it safe. So, Captain Bob had to make a tough call. He had picked out an area a little further away but it wasn't on the "Skipper Bob" list. That meant that it might have many reasons why anchoring there was not a good plan. The chart showed 7-9 feet of water but that didn't mean that getting to that spot would be deep enough. And, Bob, already forewarned, would have the consequences of my upsetedness to deal with if we couldn't anchor there and couldn't find a spot before dark. After that spot, there was virtually no where else to anchor and then we would start getting into the area of bridges.
So, we get to the spot and see tree stumps and branches and crab pots coming up from the area. But, the captain is determined and turns into this little side creek, anyhow. 8 feet, 7 ˝ feet, 6 ˝ feet (we draw 6 ˝ feet) and bam, Bob runs up to the anchor, leaves me at the helm and says, "right here." We are in 6 ˝ feet of water with tree stumps in front of us and a crab pot right off our stern. Splash, the anchor goes down and we are set for the night. I give that man lots of credit. He is gutsy! We had our wonderful, homemade hot meal in the cockpit. We watched the sun set and immediately after, we put in the screens and ran for cover. The noise that went on was unbelievable. Bull frogs and birds and swarms of bug noises. Mosquitoes and dragon flies and butterflies. Yes, as you can imagine, I am a mass of red bumps. I have found rubbing alcohol on them helps take the itch out. It was so beautiful because we were down below with all of our screens in place in our snug little home. We relaxed a bit and hit the hay VERY early.
Today is a day of locks and bridges. We're just coming up to the first one now.
I started to open a new day when I realized this is still the 3rd. I guess it's been a long one. We went through about 15 bridges starting at 7:00am and we got to the last one about 11:30am. We sailed past Norfolk, with all of the naval ships and corresponding activity out into the Chesapeake. We've been out in open waters for about 5 hours and I'm tired already. The weather is still beautiful although hot and muggy. The wind is 11-16 knots out of the southwest, which puts it right behind us. It's giving us a nice push but making it a little rolly. A couple of hours ago I prepared the spaghetti sauce, while we were still in the channel and it was calm. In an hour or so, I'll make the spaghetti and a salad. We'll have to take turns eating tonight because it's too rolly to eat while steering. This hand steering is really for the birds. It's very tiring on the mind, body and spirit. The new autopilot will be a great anniversary gift that we buy ourselves. More after we reach Annapolis.
July 4, 2000
Happy Anniversary to one year on our new home, "Mutual Fun." We left home on July 4, 1999 and moved aboard a few days later.
A cold front was called for last night around midnight. At 12:14am she came and with her came winds peaking at 26 knots, black skies, lightning, thunder and heavy rains. Bob's watch started at about midnight and he got the brunt of it. I went below and hit the couch, hard, for a couple of hours. When I peeked out again at 2:00am, it had started raining again and Bob told me to go back to bed. I didn't argue. About half an hour later, I awoke again and again he told me to go back to bed but I know he must have been cold and tired. I got up and dressed in double waterproof clothes and took over. It rained a short while and then stopped for the rest of the night. I had forgotten how much traffic there is on the Chesapeake and I had a hard time making out some of the lights. Especially frightening are the tugs and huge, unlit barges they haul. Bob had a close call and I had to call him up once to help make a call but it went fine.
The wind completely died about 4 hours out of Annapolis leaving us extremely hot and bug-infested. We were a little cranky but made it in about 3:00pm. When we entered the anchorage, we couldn't believe the number of boats piled on top of each other. We found a spot and dropped the hook, cleaned up the boat, put the dinghy back to rights and took wonderful, much needed showers. We then went ashore and had a drink in our favorite restaurant and then on to a sushi dinner. It was wonderful and felt good to be back on land after 4 ˝ days on the boat. "Elysia", "Zaftra", "Vagabond Tiger" and "Shamal" are all here and we watched a spectacular display of fireworks from our boat. It's great to see everyone. We'll all pile into Chick and Ruth's for a huge $2.99 breakfast in the morning at 8:00am. Am I insane? I haven't slept 8 hours in days and maybe got 4 hours sleep last night. But they sure have a good breakfast. I'm pooped. Goodnight.
July 8, 2000
Well, we've just been hanging out getting a bunch of work done. The autopilot dilemma is still just that. There are too many choices and we don't feel qualified enough to make the decision so we will go to the library on Monday and dig through cyberspace until we find some answers. Don on "Zaftra" installed a new VFH radio for us that has a repeater microphone in the cockpit so we can hear anyone trying to hail us while the engine is running. We found not being able to hear while underway is not only an inconvenience when sailing with another boat but downright dangerous in the Chesapeake, with all of the freighters, tugs and barges. Plus, while steering, it was impossible to go below anyhow to answer a call. So, this way there is a mike right next to us with its own speaker and controls.
I have begun the first full go-around of the teak. Somehow, it all went to the nasty beyond at one time. Today I started the butterfly hatch and the turtle, the cover for the door that covers the stairway. By the time I sanded and got the first coat on, it was almost 6:00pm. In Beaufort I got the two boxes near the mast done. I sure picked a dumb day to do it though. Today starts the weekend and we are anchored right out in front of the Naval Academy. All of the weekend boats come in and fill up the harbour making it pretty rocky in here.
While Bob and Don were working on the radio and I was staining, I noticed the boat in front of us, which just happened to be another Hans Christian (we like to stick together), was dragging. We called over to him and he shouted that he might need help because he was alone. I dinghied over to him (anything to get out of sanding) and took the helm while he reanchored.
All of our buds are still here and we're having a great time. A couple of them have managed to snag a car and we were off yesterday making the rounds. Sam's Warehouse, West Marine, the hardware store, etc. We had a fun day. We even hit a garage sale where Eric and I both bought a rod and reel. He was shaking his fist at me because I negotiated $15 off and he only got $10 off. Guess all of those years of real estate help. I have the lures, rod and reel, gaff hook and even some frozen bait. All we need to do is be moving. I'm guessing that won't happen for awhile.
July 18, 2000
Well, we finally decided on a B&G autopilot, ordered it, received it and Eric began the installation today. Things went well other than he bumped his head and made kind of a deep hole on top. I administered top-notch care by squirting a wad of Polysporin on it and dabbed it around with a Q-tip. I was having a good time until he yelped. He got the ram or linear drive unit installed, mounted upside down so it is on the floor of the cockpit inside the lazarette (storage area). I only hovered once when he drilled 4 holes through the teak of the cockpit floor. I didn't hover for long
because I really trust Eric but I don't want him to know this. In fact, anything nice I have to say about him, I don't want him to know. It's just how our relationship goes. He claims me as his mean ˝ sister.
Meanwhile, today was a sunny and hot one. I finished the last of 3 coats of stain on the butterfly hatch and turtle and am very glad to be done with that job. I wonder why I am so eager to get to these chores in the morning and so sick of them by the time I am finished. After that, I cleaned up my brush and the rest of my mess and put my cleaning supplies in the dinghy to wash the "salt-water smile" off the bottom of the boat. This fun little chore constitutes wearing long, rubber gloves and glasses and if I even had a lick of sense, a long-sleeve shirt. But, of course, it was hot and why miss an opportunity to get those farmer's lines blended? So, over I went into the dinghy with 2 different products, a bucket, a scrubber and a bikini. The bow is the hardest so I started there to get it out of the way. I tied the dinghy to a rail and immediately got product #1, which is acid, on my arm. I rinsed it off and with one arm holding onto any part of the boat I could grab and the other arm trying to scrub, all the while the dinghy either banging against the boat or pushed too far away to reach, I proceeded to scrub. Needless to say, I was not having fun. I yelled at Bob to come and tie the stern of the dinghy but that didn't help. Then I washed some more, got some more acid on my skin and then I just yelled at Bob. After a batch of hollering and cursing, I finally got one side done. But I was so angry and my arms hurt from trying to scrub and hold on, that I had to start that dinghy motor and take a nice, long ride to cool me off. Physically and figuratively. When I came back, I had a new attitude and started in on the second side. I did about 3 feet before I was hollering and cursing again. I finally decided to give up when I splashed acid on my face and let out a howl. We are anchored in this fishbowl with fancy condos and apartments around us and are here by the grace of the harbourmaster. I thought it wise to stop before we got kicked out. Meanwhile, Bob and Eric are working away in the cockpit trying to ignore me. I came aboard and washed the acid off my face and settled in a comfy seat on deck and read the new autopilot manual. The day got better after a nice, cool shower and everyone got together for wings and beer (well, OK, so I had tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. We all know I'm not a very manly eater.) Tomorrow, day 2 of installation but it's supposed to rain. I think we'll hold an umbrella over Eric for 6 or 7 hours.
July 29, 2000 7:00a.m - 12:39a.m.
What a day! Other than storms and gales, I think this day might have been one of our most exhausting and frustrating yet. Here's how it went:
As usual, Bob set out early for his morning coffee and newspaper in town, leaving me to wake up slowly and peacefully. I got up and was just making my tea when I see him come back to the boat in the dinghy, only 15 minutes after he left. He sheepishly asked me to get his wallet. Next, after our morning rituals, Bob is back aboard Mutual Fun and I ask him to finish cleaning the salt-water smile (the hull, at the water line, turns a rust color from the water) off the side of the boat that I hadn't completed. I handed him this apparatus that has 2 suction cups and a bar in between. I had borrowed it from "Zaftra" and had also purchased a new one, which was still in its package. I wanted Bob to try it out before I opened the package to make sure it worked. You stick it on the side of the boat and hold onto it while in the dinghy, cleaning the boat. It is supposed to be an armpit saver, which I was greatly looking forward to since I've already gone through a couple of sets, myself. After Bob had been working for awhile, I asked him how the suction cups were working. He said, "great, but they don't float." After another ˝ hour or so, I asked him again how he liked them. Again he said, "they work great but they don't float." After he finished with the dirty chore, I told him I was going to hop in the dinghy and take "Zaftra" back the electric sander I borrowed and the suction cups. Could I have them please? He said, "I told you, they don't float." So I went over to "Zaftra" with their sander and a brand new pair of suction cups that I didn't even get to open. Upon reading the directions, it says to tie a string around them to the boat. Oh well, we're $11.00 to the negative.
Now, neither one of these 2 things are a big deal. But, we should have read the omen that maybe it wasn't going to be a real good day. While over at "Zaftra", we hear Bob talking to Eric on the VHF, telling him that our windlass (the electrical motor to bring up our 65-LB anchor) isn't working. Now, Eric has recently installed a new alternator for us and we are hoping that with a flick of a switch, Eric will be able to fix it. Without the windlass, it will be pretty near impossible to bring that anchor up.
10:30a.m. I pick up Eric and Susan to come over and we are going to do our autopilot sea trial. Well first
Eric is going to do some magic and fix the windlass. This magic takes about an hour. Meanwhile, Bob on "Shamal" comes over for a visit and to see "his attorney" about a legal question. OK, the windlass is working and we're ready to raise both anchors, try to catch the 11:30 bridge opening and head out for the sea trial. I am at the helm as Bob begins pulling up the first anchor. After much stress, instead of our anchor coming to the surface, a 400 LB. locomotive gear comes up with our anchor chain wrapped all around it. Eric and Bob have to tie a line around the gear and winch it up from a winch on the mast while Bob tries to untangle the mess from the dinghy. Pretty soon, Bob's white T-shirt is completely caked in mud and so is the dinghy. He's making very little headway until Eric winches it up some more and Bob gets the chain off the gear. We're now a good 2 hours into lifting the first anchor. Now, the problem is, we need to drop the 400 LB gear back down but we still have 2 anchors down there and we don't want it to fall back onto one of them. After much work, Eric, Bob, Susan and I get the second, smaller anchor (port side) up and out of the way. Now, I have to position myself at the helm in case the first anchor is off the bottom. At this time, the gear is dropped back down to the bottom, hopefully out of the way. By now, we have drawn the attention of many Saturday afternoon entertainment seekers. There are small powerboats, sailboats, kayakers and people in dinghies offering suggestions, help and just general annoying comments. Eric is starting to lose his cool because Bob was in an inflatable dinghy with lines sometimes getting tangled and if this 400 lb. gear went down without complete control, our Bob could have gone straight to the bottom with it; it was quite tense.
Well, now with a crowd enjoying our bad luck, we once again start the windlass to bring up the big anchor. Only this time, it's really under stress. I am still back at the helm and I can just feel the bow (front) of the boat dip and the windlass motor feels like it's bringing up a train. They keep going until I think the whole bow of the boat is going to
tear off and up comes……not one, but 4 huge pilings. 4 huge telephone poles, all attached to the anchor chain and all connected to the windlass and all connected to the boat. I ran up and we all just stared at it. The chain was so wrapped around it that we knew we were out of our league. We needed professional equipment. I got on the radio and called Tow Boat U.S. They were out in about 20 minutes. Two boats with blinking red lights. Now we really had a crowd. These 2 tow boats took over 2 hours to bring up the pilings high enough to see that the chain was so entwined into the pilings that we were probably going to have to sacrifice the anchor. This is a $1,000 anchor we're talking about. I dinghied over to "Zaftra" to get some chain cutters and by the time I got back, Eric was aboard the towboat, doing something or other that freed our anchor. Up till now I still don't know what he did. We were so relieved. We hooted and cheered and the by-standers cheered with us. I circled around the anchorage after giving the tow boat people our credit card, he caught up to us and $210.00 later we have our anchor, all of our chain, plenty of mud on the lines, the dinghy, our boat and all over us and 4 tired smiles. It's now 4:11p.m. 19 more minutes to bridge opening. I'm at the helm. Bob's too tired to move, and we all decide to proceed with the sea trial. Out we go, through the bridge and into the Bay. The sea trial went very smooth, once we remembered to turn on the autopilot breaker and we were back and reanchored outside the academy at 7:15pm. Eric and Susan went back to their boat and we showered and all met with "Zafrta" and "Goody Two Shoes" for a wonderful Irish dinner of Shepherd's pie and huge slabs of home-made apple pie ALA mode. We were so tired we could barely move.
July 30, 2000
"Elysia" just pulled up their 2 anchors and reanchored near us. They had some difficulty with the mud but were not wrapped up in anything else. They are going to scrub their bottom and then go do their sea trial. They also bought and installed a new B&G autopilot.
So far, we all have all of our fingers and all of our toes. My body aches so much that I don't think I will do one chore today. How convenient that it's Sunday.
Probably one of the most asked questions of us is: "what do you do all day?" Need I say more?
About a month ago, our friends had renamed us "Mutual Front", due to our luck with weather. After last night, Eric renamed us: "Mutual Front and Other Assorted Disasters."
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