Wish List

While we love our boat, we do have a few items on our wish list to make life more convenient. If we find a great deal or budget allows (or Santa wants to be REALLY nice to us), we may snag them! 

Lewmar 42” Folding Wheel. When we are cruising we live in the cockpit and come/go via the stern. Having this folding wheel would vastly improve traffic flow. We were on another 393 this season that had it and we really liked it!

Scepter 5-Gallon Military-Style Diesel Can. We have four diesel cans now and they work, but they are a “squat” style that takes up more room on deck than this military-style can, and I’ve drug my feet on making Sunbrella covers for them as they are such an awkward shape. I’m not-so-secretly hoping to upgrade to the Scepter tanks as they are easy to make covers for! This is likely a pipe dream as our tanks are nearly new, but a gal can wish!

Magma Rail-Mounted SUP Rack. Our inflatable SUPs are stored rolled in their bags for transit, but I’d love to have them “at the ready” and yet clear of the deck when we are in the islands. This rack can likely hold two boards and folds out of the way when not in use—perfect!

Nothing too crazy, but they all fall after “maintenance of critical boat systems” in the budget, so we will wait!

(P.S. Mom & Dad and siblings—these items and bottles of rum make great gifts! 😂)

Decisions, decisions...Time for a big project?

As we’ve been heading north we noticed that we were losing speed through the water. It’s time for a haul out! We were going to shoot for a short haul where they leave you in the slings for a good power washing and zinc change. But...maybe we want to do more? The hull seriously needs to be waxed which would be easier if we were out of the water. We also would like to touch up the bottom paint where it got gouged by the anchor chain and a few mooring balls. 

The good news? Lots of options for yards on the Chesapeake. We debated Deltaville for a quick haul, but having decided a week on the hard would do us some good, we started looking between Solomon’s Island and Annapolis. Our friends, family, and car are all up there which would make the work easier. And as we are intimately familiar with the services at Herrington Harbour, we made the call. Unfortunately, the earliest they can haul us is the week of June 15th. Not horrible, but not ideal. We could stay at the Navy base in Pax River to wait for our haul and still be close to friends. But alas, Herrington Harbour South is able to give us a competitively-priced slip for two weeks while we wait! YES! We will be “home!” They can put us only one dock away from where we used to live starting on June 1st!!!

This will work. We have plenty of projects that we can do while in the water that will be aided by the access to power and water. And we will have our car. And we will be near our friends and family! This means we will be spending at least three weeks, probably closer to four, in Herring Bay. Not a bad place to be “stuck.”

For now, I will celebrate the new plan with a cocktail with our stowaway friend! 🐸 

Free docks! EC to Great Bridge

We left Elizabeth City and opted for some quiet nights at anchor during the holiday weekend. We tied up at Coinjock on Memorial Day to top up our water and batteries before trying out a new-to-us experience—the free docks at Great Bridge, VA! We tied up on the side of the bridge. While the dock doesn’t have water or power, this is a fantastic stop with historical in the battlefield park and a nice system of trails to walk. It was also a nice spot for visitors! Mom came for dinner and an old Navy pal stopped by to see us and deliver a treat—it was awesome!

The location makes for an easy pass through the Great Bridge bridge and locks, too. We got an early start, have passed the Navy base, and are on our way to Deltaville for the night. We hit a bit of fog entering the bay, but our loud speaker horn worked great!

Northbound visit to EC

Elizabeth City, the “Harbor of Hospitality,” continues to hold a special place in my heart. Though COVID-19 currently has the free slips at Mariners Wharf roped off, both Jennette Bothers and Mid Atlantic Christian University docks are allowing transients and the price is right—free for 48 hours! There are also plenty of places to anchor nearby. Many restaurants are offering takeout—try Island Time’s family meals to feed a hungry crew for a great price, Montero’s for a big vegetarian menu, Muddy’s for great coffee, and Ghost Harbor Brewing for tasty brew to-go. The quaint downtown makes for a great place to stretch your legs!

Downtown EC

At the MACU free dock

We spent about a week in Elizabeth City on this stop so that we could help mom straighten out a few things at her house and see a few friends. It ended up being a cool, rainy week for the most part, but we all worked hard at the house and even got a few boat projects done. As usual, the kids also tried to steal our friends’ pets while we were there. 

Kids doing land chores!

Freshened the paint on the chain and cleaned the teak!

A dog! A cat!

It was a lovely visit, but it’s time to move on. We will inch north over the holiday weekend and try to avoid the busy areas. We are on our way to the Chesapeake!

Remodeling time!

So we sort of decided to do a galley remodel this summer! Nothing too crazy, but after a season of cruising my love/hate list is clearer than it has ever been!

There is so much I love about the little galley I’ve prepared meals in for the past decade. I love the magnetic spice and knife racks, I love that my grandmother’s cutting board fits perfectly over our stove, I love the trivets from past travels displayed on the bulkhead, and I even sort of love the challenge of cooking a full holiday meal on two burners and in a tiny oven.

The galley “before,” ready to cook a holiday feast!

But then there’s the list of things I would improve upon:

- The fridge. Oh, how I would love a drawer fridge/freezer so that my prep space could be left alone when I need something from the fridge!

- The countertop. It’s not horrible, but it’s a boring, stained laminate, and I put a bunch of dings in it years ago when I was pounding chunks off a 5-pound chocolate bar.

- Pantry space/access. I need more stuff “at hand” to feed feed a family of four that includes teenagers! And I need a better way to store pantry staples in general.

- The sink. This has been a big sore spot for me. We have a double sink, and the way it is now I wash in the little half and have a drying rack in the larger side. Both sides are pretty small, but I make a huge mess splashing water around trying to wash pans and even some plates with the current set-up. We use a Pur water filter on the water spout as well, and sometimes that further crowds things.

- The oven. I used all sorts of spice, oil, and honey bottles this season to wedge the gas knob on the oven so it would stay lit. 

- The microwave. I have wanted to ditch this thing for years! We hardly ever use it—I stored bread in it for a while! 

So, what’s the plan? A mini-update! Some things were easy, like fixing the oven thermocouple. Some things just aren’t in the budget, like the new refrigerator and the new counter that would have to go with it. But here’s the loose plan:

- Tear out microwave (DONE!). Wow, that left a BIG space for me to play with! This will be some sort of pantry, but for now I’m just sort of playing with different set-ups.

- Pantry overhaul. With the new space we gained from the microwave and a bunch of air-tight storage containers, I hope to have better access to items we use the most. We may also add fruit baskets to the bulkhead to help store the loads of produce we pick up every few weeks while cruising.

- Countertop refinishing. My SIL is an interior designer and recommended Daich countertop refinishing products for a counter facelift. I’m nervous, but going for it! This project will allow us to repair the fridge door, and will also push us to remove our Keurig (we don’t use it any more, but it’s glued into place!). 

- Sink. This is a big one! I want to flip the sink around. I’ve measured it a few times to see if the drain can clear the drawer and the faucet can reach, and I’m going to measure about 50 more times, but I plan to drop the sink when we do the counter anyway, so if I can flip it to have a “big” wash basin, I will. This will compress our dish drying space, of course, but I’ve done a few test runs and with a new dish drain I think it will work. Oh, and I may use this opportunity to get a new faucet with a pull-out head! Adulting is so exciting! Just need to figure out the water filtration...

So that’s the big plan! Not sure exactly when each part will get done, but I’ll post updates!

Goodbye, microwave!

SHRIMP and quiet times

On our way out of Beaufort we needed to get diesel so we hit up the Homer T. Smith Dock. Diesel was cheap, service was awesome, and THE SHRIMP BOAT WAS IN!!! Oh my goodness, they were offloading at the dock and we got these huge, fresh, succulent shrimp for a steal! It was a bring-your-own-container operation and apparently if you stay at the marina as a transient you get an even better price, but we were happy! 

We set out on our lazy trek to northern NC with our daughter at the helm. We had some good sailing, peaceful anchorages, a great F-18 air show on the Alligator River, and delicious shrimp dinner! Tomorrow we will make our way across the Albemarle Sound.

Katreina takes us up the ICW

Fantastic sailing on the Alligator River

Shrimp!

Trent learns the important art of cleaning shrimp.

Offshore to NC

When we originally planned this cruising season, we wanted to slowly make our way up the coast, exploring new places along the way. COVID-19 and a chain of weather fronts have adjusted that plan slightly, but we are still heading to Elizabeth City, NC. We dread certain parts of the ICW and having to constantly motor so where weather allows, we make outside runs.

Our first jump was overnight from Charleston to Wrightsville Beach via the Cape Fear Inlet. Both are commercial shipping inlets so they are wide and deep! This leg started out peaceful enough, motor sailing and enjoying Mother’s Day with company on watch. Overnight, the winds picked up as forecast and then some! Trouble gybing during my watch had the Captain up with way too little sleep, then the forecast 20kt gusts came in as 30kt gusts. We rounded up, then got hammered with beams seas and those big gusts for the length of the inlet. It was brutal, but at least there wasn’t other traffic to deal with. Once we were on the Cape Fear River, a brush fire on shore ended up reducing visibility and clogging the air with smoke. Follow that with a notoriously tricky spot, Snow’s Cut, and we were more than ready to drop the hook in Wrightsville Beach for a nap! We didn’t go ashore and only stayed a night, though I would like to check it out in the future. And one weird thing we noticed on the ICW south of Wrightsville—seemed like power boats loved to do a starboard-to-starboard pass. We are not used to that! So many times it looked like they were coming straight at our bow! 

The next day we opted for a long day sail from Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort. Seas were rough to start the day (and it was cold!), but finally smoothed out so we could make better time. We dropped the hook by the Highrise Bridge just before sunset!

After a few long days, we are ready for a change of pace. We will be on the ICW for a bit now, making our way slowly through the peaceful marshes of NC.

Charleston, via boat!

We are a Citadel family, so we are no strangers to the charms of Charleston, SC. The Captain went to college there, we were married there, and we've been visiting at least every 5 years since. But this is the first time we've visited via boat! We had a pretty uneventful overnight run from Fernandina Beach, FL and decided to drop the hook at Battery Overlook. There is another anchorage closer to the Safe Harbor Marina and a dinghy dock, but with numerous reports of fouled anchors we opted for the anchorage between the USCG station and Battery Point for a few days. Boat wakes were plentiful during the day, especially on the weekend, but we always had pretty peaceful nights.

We spent the first few days making plans to see friends, beginning a galley remodel by ripping out the microwave, tightening up the bolts on our arch, and generally eating all of our fresh food in anticipation of a grocery delivery. The "seeing friends" bit is of course a little tough right now, but we made some limited contact. I chatted on the phone with one of my friends while they were ashore with a view of the boat, and we managed to have a picnic dinner near the marina with another family.

The big excitement of this stop? A DOCK!!! That's right! For the first time in over four months we tied up to a dock for the night. Before that, we'd only had a brief stop at a dock in St. Augustine to get fuel. We tied up at Safe Harbor Charleston after swinging in to the mega dock for fuel. The dockhand was awesome and got us snugged up easily despite the strong current and breeze. From there, we headed to the T-head of H dock, which was easy to get to, in a no-wake zone, and only a short walk to the bathhouse. This allowed us to walk on solid ground, chat with a few other cruisers, give the boat a thorough de-salting, dump trash, fill water, do laundry, get a big grocery delivery, fill the liquor locker, and shower ashore--all the essential cruiser chores. Is it the cheapest facility? No. Is it nice, clean, convenient, and professional? Yes! We ended up staying three nights before casting off the lines to head north.

Docked!

How did we get a pic of our friends’ dog, but not of our friends???

Visiting our wedding reception location.

A graduation celebration!

When we chose this way of life, I knew we were going to have to decide how to handle birthdays, holidays, and milestones. How do we make them special and meaningful, even when we are away from family and friends? Now, let’s throw some pandemic physical distancing into the mix. As always, a little help from our friends goes a long way!

This week, Katreina finished up her 8th grade curriculum from Oak Meadow Homeschool. In our country, completion of this grade usually warrants a ceremony and big party as students leave middle school behind and move on to high school. Well, that’s not happening for any graduates right now, but we still wanted to mark this milestone. Enter our friends, The Mooney’s, owners of the Carolina Deli in Columbia, SC! They make these AMAZING, huge cookies and brownies and as they were coming to Charleston, we ordered a special brownie for our chocolate-loving graduate!

“Lehe Paine Middle School 2020”

She was pretty surprised by this delicious, personalized treat, and I love that we were able to properly celebrate her hard work. Congrats to all of the 2020 graduates—the celebrations may be different, but that doesn’t diminish your accomplishments!

Fernandina Beach, FL

We slipped out of the St. Augustine Inlet after catching the 0700 bridge three days ago and headed offshore for a day-sail up to St. Mary’s Inlet and Fernandina Beach, FL. Our autopilot was making a clanking noise, but it was a beautiful day for some hand-steering! The inlet is wide and well-marked, and we decided to pick up a mooring at the Fernandina Harbor Marina which is just on its way back after Hurricane Matthew 4 years ago. While COVID-19 provisions kept us from fully utilizing the services, taking a mooring allowed us to check out the anchoring situation well ahead of our next visit.

High winds kept us on the boat for a few days, but that gave us a chance to fix the autopilot and replace our cracked hatch. The autopilot issue turned out to be a loose nut (love an easy fix) and the hatch lens install went fairly smoothly.

Into the lazarette for the autopilot repair!

Obviously our exploration of town was impacted by COVID-19, but we can tell this is a place worth returning to. With an easy approach from the ICW or offshore, quaint streets, historic significance, and great local food and beer, I can see this becoming a regular stop on future north/south runs.

With a decent weather window, our sights are set on South Carolina. Sorry, Georgia—the skinny water in your stretch of the ICW along with the draconian anchoring laws have us giving you a pass for now.