Still in New Bern. Parts, parts,parts...a delay in travel. Oct 20-28

OK, another change in plans.  We will be here a while.....Need an air intake hose for genset.  1.25" ID, very flexible to curve through the sound shield and into a cooler compartment, heat rated to about 225 degrees.  Onan part is listed on many websites but none in stock anywhere.  Hose available at many industrial supply houses in 25 or 50 foot lengths....pricey and 2-3 weeks out.  And we only need 36".  Also went to many businesses in New Bern, auto supply, marine, home improvement, hardware, farm supply, etc. and no one has a hose rated above about 160 degrees in that size.  Thank you Dick aboard Dream Catcher for the hours of running around town trying to find this!  So continuing to work with local Onan house on an order from Singapore. Ordered on Friday the 21st and still no firm ship date from Singapore.  Supposedly, Monday 10/31, we'll see.  Driving me crazy....never had such a problem with what seems to be a standard part!  Oh well, New Bern is nice and the monthly slip rate is reasonable. Something down the line in our "rigid plan" will have to "give" now...we will not have time to explore the St John River before we fly to Michigan for Thanksgiving... and if we do it after Thanksgiving, our time across the state in Sarasota, etc will have to be cut short.  We will not cut into our Bahamas time in late Jan to early April!!  So , decisions, decisions....
On Sunday October 23, we had more family visitors.  Julie's brother Craig and sister in law Erin drove over from the Raleigh Duram area where they were visiting their son, daughter in law and grandson.  We had a great visit with them, toured the city a bit, hit a local restaurant and enjoyed the sunset from the fly bridge.  Monday morning they were kind enough to shuttle us to the grocery store and back before they headed back to Michigan.  Thanks so much for coming over to visit Erin and Craig!!

We continued to tour the area on daily walks.  Here are a few photos of the cool old homes.

 Courthouse built in 1883.

The once local Catholic church...now Mass on Friday only and church is miles away from downtown. And it is the oldest Catholic Church in North Carolina.

 Well kept old homes.

Note the metal roofs.  In December 1922, a large lumber yard caught fire and it spread to hundreds of homes with shingled roofs while the steel roofed structures survived.  Over 1/3 of the town, 40 blocks of it, were destroyed and consequently, to this day many homes in New Bern have metal roofs. 





Here is a real old one....very nice

 

 Cedar Grove (cica 1800) cemetery entrance.

On Saturday night we were again guests at Ralph and Linda's home for a lasagna dinner cooked by Pat from Dream Catcher.  It was a great evening...thanks so much Pat and Dick for the ride and cooking and to Linda and Ralph for the hospitality.
Wednesday we walked 2 miles each way over to Walgreens and got our annual flu shots.  A nice walk and another mission accomplished.  We also met Dick and Pat (Dream Catcher) and Ralph (Mazel Tug) for a burger at the Beer Army in town.  Good burgers and a great beer selection.  And it is always nice to enjoy a meal with friends.
Thursday, we did some varnishing and other odds and ends maintenance.  We are finding that a maintenance coat of clear varnish is needed every 3 months or so in this constant sunshine.  I guess that is a small price to pay for endless summer!  Our mission is to keep up on it as we certainly don't want to get into the position of having to strip it like we did the first storage season we owned her.  Way too much work!  Much easier to spend a day or two every three months sanding and varnishing.  And it does look nice with a fresh coat of varnish!

Early voting has started and here is the "drive through" voting line in New Bern. 

And note all the political signs and activity within 25 yards of so of the poll...different rules here I guess.  And yes, our Florida vote by mail is done...



On Saturday we walked to the farmer's market and got some wonderful fresh produce...and a cinnamon roll and coffee for me! 
We also called Courtney to wish him a Happy Birthday....had to call a couple times to catch him on his between phone calls, his baking of a pineapple upside down cake and visitors.  Happy 89th Birthday Courtney!!
In the afternoon we were cooling down on the aft cockpit after a walk and were watching a stunt plane practice over the Neuse river.  We did not see it, but later he spiraled out of control, ejected via parachute (he is OK) and the plane crashed into the river near here.  The neighbors on the next boat said he practiced often here.  Just thankful no one was hurt, he was not even admitted to the hospital.
http://www.wcti12.com/news/plane-crashes-into-neuse-river-in-new-bern/135501381
We will post another update once we are on our way.  While all bridges are now open on the ICW, given the reports of shallows in the ICW after the impacts from Matthew at a number of places south of here, we are hoping for good weather and will go "outside" if the waves will allow a reasonably comfortable ride.  This will also allow us to travel at a bit faster pace (as many areas are now no wake due to the high water) and perhaps drop a couple travel days out of our commute south.  More later...
Have a Happy Halloween!

On to New Bern NC October 15-20

Once back on board, we had some nice sunsets at AYB as the weather cleared after Matthew.  Our view from the wall at Atlantic Yacht Basin.

We also did some maintenance while we were awaiting all the yard work on the boat to be finished. 
Varnishing is so much fun!  And Julie oiled the teak chairs too!

Water is still high.  Tug LeeLoo is on the right at the free dock across the canal from AYB.  We had a nice dinner with Nancy and Carey on Thursday night as they were pushing on Friday morning...

But the traffic is starting to migrate south now that the bridge is back open.  Big boats coming through.

 



So, the repairs were finally finished and we were on our way on Saturday the 15th. A little fog at first light.

 



The reports for the ICW were all OK for the areas we need to traverse to get to New Bern.  Carey and Nancy aboard Tug Lee Loo left on Friday and we hoped to catch up with them again.  We left at first light in order to make the 8:30 opening at the North Landing Bridge and travelled slowly with one other sailboat to make the bridge at the planned opening....this is when the ETA function on the chart plotter is really nice.  It was a long day, 92 miles, (remember we travel at 9-10 MPH) to our anchorage at the end of the Alligator River near the canal portion of the ICW heading toward Oriental.  It was a wonderful remote anchorage and a full moon to boot!  A little grilling at sunset.

 

 The full moon rising....one other boat 300 yards away....

We got underway before 8 AM on Sunday to travel to Broad Creek near River Dunes Marina where
we stayed on our way north.

 

It was almost dead calm, a really nice day for travelling. 



Given a one night stay, we anchored out near the entrance channel to the marina and Carey and Nancy had already anchored nearby.  We launched the dinghy, picked them up and toured the area and the marina.  We visited with Parker and Martha aboard Otter, Al and Jane aboard Inspeyered 2 while touring the marina.  They were all in River Dunes Marina for the hurricane.  They lost power there for a couple days but all weathered the storm fine.

 

The marina entrance is just to the right in this photo.

 

 Another nice sunset.

 And a full moon rising.

Monday was another beautiful day of travel.  We arrived at New Bern Grand Marina (after waiting for the drawbridge to be repaired so it could open!!) and got settled in, washed the boat, etc. 

That evening Dick and Pat aboard Dream Catcher gave us a ride over to Ralph and Linda's (Mazel Tug) home for a bit of a reunion.  Chris from Davali and Nancey and Carey from Tug LeeLo were also there. We met Mazel Tug, Davali and Dream Catcher on the free wall in Joliet IL aver 13 months ago only a couple days into our Loop.  Another small world story...
Thanks so much Ralph and Linda (especially Linda who is recovering from very recent hip surgery) for a wonderful evening!  It was so nice reminiscing with everyone!
A little history on the Union occupation of New Bern during the Civil War.  Lots of history here.

Tuesday my brother Larry and sister in law Eileen and her twin sister Darlene stopped by for the day. They were visiting Darlene in NC and took a little road trip to visit us....thanks for driving over! We had a great time at lunch at Morgan's Tavern, taking a trolley tour of the city and then dinner at MJ's Raw Bar.  It was so great to see everyone.  It is always so nice to have visitors from "home" especially family!  With one of the local bears....

Wednesday we helped Carey and Nancy get their boat over to a local boatyard for some maintenance while they are away visiting family.  We'll miss travelling with you Nancy and Carey!
Thursday was a bit of a work day.  Did some waxing, spot touch up varnishing, cleaned the grimy grill, we each got haircuts and I took apart the air intake hose on the genset so I can get a new one (it has deteriorated from age and is falling apart).  I am hoping this is why it decides to stall occasionally...We'll try it a few days as we travel to see.
The weather has been in the mid to high 80's since we have been here...nice Fall weather!
The bridge at the Socastee River south of Myrtle Beach is still closed as of this writing but we are hoping it opens for our travels next week.

Thanks for following our blog.

Flooding in Chesapeake/ Great Bridge, VA. Our Second Flood Evacuation in 3 Years! Oct 8-10

We do remember our evacuation from the 100 year flood in Grand Rapids!  So....
Our sanitation hose technicians were aboard working on Saturday and Julie mentioned 8-12" of rain.  They said if that happens these docks will be underwater and it will be a couple days.  They left us their tall rubber boots, but asked us to drop them off with the dock master should we decide to leave the boat.
So after we decided to leave the boat, this is what we saw almost immediately on the TV upon checking in to our hotel room.

Those technicians had called it correctly and we are glad we left the boat.  Here is a view of the marina on a normal day from their website.  We are on the wall of the canal near the upper right of this photo, just before the entrance to the basin and covered slips on the basin on the lower part of the photo.

Here is what it looks like today.  This morning when I came here to check on the boat the cars at the right of the photos were about half underwater.  I could not take the same route to the marina we had used yesterday as some roads were underwater.  There were also a number of traffic lights out on the way. This is the marina parking lot on the right and our boat is near the far end of the face dock.  At least we can see she is still floating! 

This shot is from across the river.  The water is already starting to recede some from what I saw this morning, but the trail is still flooded.  We could not get close enough to get a shot of our boat on the far end of the marina.

When we woke up this morning we found a posting on the Marine Trawler Owners Association (MTOA) site from another member who was on board at the marina so we immediately knew the marina docks were underwater.  I was also able to contact a Trawler Forum member I met earlier in the week who was still aboard.  A couple good examples of modern technology as both individuals were able to give us information throughout the day.  They were giving us information from "inside" and we were able to update them from our view from the "outside".  Late in the day it was reported the docks were now above water and walkable but here is the road to the marina.  The docks may be dry but a good 4WD would be needed to get in and out...not our rental car.  Note the stalled car being passed by the 4WD.  We didn't want to be another stalled car so we turned around.

And yet another online resource, the Salty Southeast Cruisers Net, reports Notices to Mariners.  Here is one that reports the lock just north of us and the bridge just south of us are closed.   Sort of trapped huh?

 







And a special thanks to Howard on M/V Magic from Trawler Forum for the late afternoon pictures showing Sum Escape all well.  Thanks for riding out the storm on the dock and giving the play by play Howard!
Currently the flood warning expires at 8:15 AM and the gale warning is until 10:00 AM.  We are thankful that our evacuation was only two nights, not three weeks like it was in 2013!
On Monday morning we were able to get back to the marina by the regular route instead of the "high road" we had to take the last two days.  We saw 8 cars still abandoned near flooded areas. Once we arrived, we saw one flooded out car being towed from the marina and there are others awaiting a tow.  The only damage we could find to our boat was a broken in half fender board.  I guess the 2x4's I used should have been 2x6!! And someone had reset our fenders to protect the side of the boat after the fender board broke.  So the marina did have personnel monitoring things....thank you Atlantic Yacht Basin.  We are so glad we left for the hotel on Saturday.
So now we will monitor all available sources to assess just when we will leave.  Of course this is after we will get the repairs finished.  We will review reports and not leave until we get some confidence in transiting the ICW after all the storm damage, figure out which marinas and anchorages are still viable, and then after the bridge opens, resume our migration south. We hope to spend a little time in New Bern, NC, cruise the St John and be in the Jacksonville area by the weekend before Thanksgiving so we can fly to Michigan to spend some time with family for Thanksgiving.
This is of course a "rigid plan subject to infinite revision"...we will go with the flow and work things out as we go.   Thanks for following our blog.

Dealing with Hurricane Matthew... Oct 6-8

We are so thankful that the storm turned away from the mainland and spared our area of the worst of the storm.  But our thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted in the Bahamas, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.  We can hardly imagine the hardships being undertaken by millions.  Unbelievable.
Wednesday we "toured" the area shopping and some of the residential areas on a long walk.  The Walgreen's and Farm Fresh grocery stores are within a half mile.  The Farm Fresh is a very nice store with a great selection of fresh wholesome foods.  It is right up there with the Harris Teeter stores we have shopped.  There are a number of stores and restaurants within walking distance here. Here is a view from across the canal of Sum Escape and her neighbors...we are near the left side of the picture.

Some photos of our walk around the Great Bridge Parks commemorating the big battle here.

 

Plans existed in 1775 for the Abermarle and Chesapeake Canal!

Atlantic Yacht Basin is making good progress with our list of repairs and maintenance.  Thursday we had a technician from CAT adjust the throttle sensor, another tech get the genset running, parts ordered for the windlass (new clutch plate will be installed on Monday) and adjust the PSS dripless shaft seals to stop a small spray of water (tightened tension on bellows). 

Friday new sanitation hose and duckbill valves in the vacuflush systems installation began.  This should forever solve any odor issues we have been fighting for a while now.  A diver cleaned and inspected things below the water line.  He was 68 years of, ex Navy diver and dove with a helmet type mask that had a microphone.  so he gave a "play by play" as he inspected and cleaned.  Interesting.  All is well.

An air conditioning tech is scheduled Monday to acid flush the system to clean out barnacles, etc from the salt water environment.  So we should be on our way by the middle of next week. 
A few words on sanitation hose installation.  If you are not interested in gory repair details, skip this paragraph.  Wow, what a job. 

The old hoses had hardened with age and the manufacturing process of the boat apparently had all these lines installed prior to putting the deck structure on the boat.  A number of the hoses were severely crushed where they went through structural walls and such.  In short, hoses were cut and removed in pieces with the aid of heat guns, soapy lubricant, lots of grunting and elbow grease.  Also had old lines that were not used and capped off (presumably when the vessel was readied for Great Lakes compliance of the overboard discharge system) removed.  Yes they still had fluid and material in them...probably the main source of odor we were having from lying there and permeating the hoses. 
We picked up a car on Friday as the weekend is forecasted for nothing but rain and lots of wind.  So hopefully we can at least do some laundry, go to a movie, do some shopping, etc.
We have made reservations in New Bern, NC for a slip starting 10-15 or so. After that things will get a little more up in the air.  We don't know the damage to the waterways and facilities south of there and only the running of time will start to clear this up. The ICW has never fully recovered from Sandy and we can envision a very similar situation with shoaling, debris destroyed marinas, anchorages no longer useable, etc.  So we will take our time and sort things out.
So after we wrote this, we find that the North Landing draw bridge will be closed to ICW traffic from Tuesday through Friday this week for previously scheduled repairs.  So this means with boat repairs not completed, we will be here a few more days here.  So New Bern will have to wait. a few days it appears.
Just hunkering down with double lines, fender boards deployed and everything tied down or stowed below.  Here we are watching the large ferry type boat in front of us get some extra lines on this morning.

Forecasts have us seeing 40 mph winds and gusts to 55 mph.  Rain forecast is any where from 8"to 12".  But we float and the pilings are pretty high here so we think this is a good spot for the boat.  But after we talked to the technicians about the flood warning they said the docks would be underwater.  So we bailed and got a hotel room 8 or so miles away. 

The water was already up about two feet from this morning so we think we made the right decision.  Bouncing around in the wind and then being confined to the boat with underwater docks was not too appealing.  We'll call the dock master in the morning after it stops raining and see what the status is before we return.

That's all for now....thanks for following our blog and all the concern we received via text and email.