Waiting on Weather

Presently we are anchored in a very protected little bay of the ICW, waiting on weather to pass. There is a sizable storm moving up the coast, fast moving, but is going to make today crappy. Initially we were going to go to Southport today and pick up our packages we had delivered to Zimmerman Marine, but due to the weather, no one is leaving so there are no slips available. I called the folks at Zimmerman and they will leave our stuff at the marina and we can pick them up tomorrow, Saturday, because Zimmerman will be closed. We anchored at Swansboro, and left there yesterday morning, and dealt with the North Carolina bridges. Their timing is not always the greatest, so we end up waiting for them to open, usually on the hour or half hour. Swansboro got pounded by Hurricane Florence. When we went north last spring, we ate at the Ice House. It no longer exists. We watched the huge backhoe razing the remnants. The shrimp docks are also gone, and Casper's Marina has no planking on their docks. En route yesterday we ran into a boat named Adirondack, owned by Jeff Janacek. He is the guy whom we chartered from 15 years ago in Bayfield and the Apostle Islands. He told me he now has 50,000 miles on his boat since he got it. We talked on the radio for 20  minutes. I just spoke with the dockmaster at Southport ann they will hold a slip for us for tomorrow so we can get our packages and take a day off the boat, get a bike ride in and Cindy a run, then maybe eat out tomorrow night. There is a pretty good seafood spot there. All in all, things are working out pretty well with this weather glitch.
Engine Hours
Genset Hours

Lots of homes with tarps on the roof after the hurricane

The remains of the shrimp docks in Swansboro

Caspers Marina with no boards on the docks.
They said it would be several months before they are up and running

The red roofed building is what is left of the Ice House restaurant

More Maintenance

We continue to experience maintenance issues. It seems like something new every day. The other day I had to replace the main engine water pump. This morning I turned on the generator which we needed for heat, it was cold again. It ran great for 5 minutes then overheated. I knew the impeller was overdue for changing and suspected that was the issue, so opened things up and replaced it. It was toasted with missing pieces, and that is an issue. They flow downstream and plug the heat exchanger. We moved on after a night at a gorgeous anchorage at the south end of the Alligator - Pungo Canal and the house batteries charged up off the main engine. We moved 50 miles or so and are now just shy of Oriental, NC, 20 miles or so north of Beaufort, at another pretty anchorage. We pulled over enroute at R.E. Mayo Seafood and picked up shrimp off the boat there. Grilled them tonight and then tackeled the generator issue. I managed to get the hoses off and plucked all the little chunks of broken impeller out of the heat exchanger and the generator is charging things up as I post this. All is working as it should. Tomorrow will move past Beaufort if things go well and get to Southport Thursday or Friday to pick up the new "spare" water pump and a small Amazon order.
Engine Hours 5204.9
Genset Hours 5645.7

Sunrise this morning

Supper tonight, salad with fresh alfalfa sprouts Cindy grew

Shrimp on the barbee

Sorting fish at RE Mayo

Straightening Nets

Sailboat anchored behind us - I thought the picture was cool

At the seafood dock, he is straightening his nets. I felt at home!

look at the size of the shrimp!

Anchored near Elizabeth City

We are currently anchored near Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River, behind Goose Island. it's remote and pretty much alone. A sailboat is anchored a quarter mile away. we left Wormley Creek on Friday. I make an engine room inspection every hour or so, and on the second check, motoring across the south end of the Chesapeake Bay, I noted the raw water pump was dripping and spitting raw water (sea water) from the housing. That's not supposed to happen. As long as it was pumping, the engine stays cool, but with time, the leaking saltwater will corrode the bearings whick allow water into the engine oil, which will trash the engine. I wrapped a "Depends" under the leak to keep things from getting messy and we pulled over a couple of hours later as we enter the intercoastal waterway at Portsmouth. There is a free dock there near a boatyard if I needed them. I had a spare pump, so switched them out and the leak was solved, but by this time it was 3:00 so we stayed the night there, found a brewpub with a good IPA, then watched the Wild beat Dallas. Yesterday we went through the Dismal Swamp. This is an alternate ICW route that is a dredged channel 30 miles long connecting Portsmouth with Elizabeth City on Albemarle Sound. It was dug by hand about 1805, so it's been here a while. Transitting the canal involves going through 2 locks, one up on the north end and one down on the south end. The canal itself goes through wilderness area for the  most part. It is pretty but shallow and we needed to dodge some logs in places. Two other trawlers came through with us, the locks only operate four times a day so the boats end up together. The canal had large patches of duckweed, which plugs up the raw water strainer, overheating the engine, so when we anchored last night, I had to clean the strainer. We had wanted to cross Albemarle Sound today but it is bowing 25-35 mph out of the NW and it would be a pretty rough trip. We will wait until tomorrow when it is supposed to be flat. We may move down 4-5 miles to a free dock at Elizabeth City this afternoon to get a hike or a bike ride in.
Engine Hours 5187.8
Genset Hours 5640.0

At anchor on the Pasquotank last night, Goose Island

Duckweed

Low end of the lock

The boat behind us, showing the 6 foot or so rise in water level

Now up and ready to exit

Narrow Dismal Swamp canal

The Deep Creek Bridge, just south of the first lock

Tangier Island, Mill Creek, Wormley Creek

We are currently at a marina, Wormly Creek in Yorktown. Over the pst 3-4 days we visited Tangier Island, moved on to an overnight anchorage in Mill Creek and then yesterday moved toward the bottom of the by to Yorktown. Tangier Island was fascinating. It is really only a few feet above the water level. It is inhabited by four main families since the 1700's, one of whom has the last name Park or Parks. We stayed at the marina there, Park Marina, pretty rustic but run by an 87 yo man named Milton Park. Milton lost his wife but as he put it, still has an eye for women, and he spent a lot of time talking to Cindy. When we docked there, the place was deserted. It was mid day and shortly he road up on his scooter in his Sunday suit, coming from church. He helped us and we talked for a half an hour. He said the spelling of our name was the original, and he felt we probably were related, although I know my sister Anne disputes that. Anyway, quite a charaacter. We biked the island, the yards at high tide are pretty wet due to the water levels. The island is full of graves, many of which are in the yards of the families living there. Ate crab and clams at Lorraine's restaurant, Tangier Island's equivalent of Britton's. We moved on to Mill Creek across the bay on the west shore. It was rough to start and had some engine readings that I didn't like. We have been concerned about temps climbing and now the oil pressure readings were fluctuting. Checking engine temps with the infrared pyrometer, they looked fine. When we arrived at Mill Creek, I talked to Alex at Zimmerman Marine, and he felt the issue was likely a loose or corroded connection at some place in the wiring. I had already changed the impeller and flushed the heat exchanger, so knew those were good. I cleaned the terminals, changed the temp sending unit and found that the wiring harness under the engine was a little loose, so cinched that up with a couple of zip ties. Yesterday coming down the bay all readings were perfect. Today, will rent a car from Enterprise and go to the historic sites in Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg. A bit wet this morning, but by the time we get the car, it is supposed to clear up. The Wild won last night and my first social security check was deposited this morning, so all is good.

the loose wiring harness

Milton Park in his Sunday best

The scooter Milton rode up on, he is 87

Milton's boat that he crabbed on since the 1950's

Folks here are pretty conservative

tide coming in flooding the street by Lorraine's restaurant

Cambridge Maryland

We've been at the town wall in Cambridge for an eventful couple of days. The weather was predicted to deteriorate with the passage of the residuals of Hurricane Michael, and indeed it did. We ducked in here to  free dock, tied to a concrete wall along with a couple of sailboats. Ate out last night and had fried oysters with bacon cheese and jalopenos, outstanding! Walked back to the boat 2 blocks in a downpour, which continued most of the night. Lots of wind as well, big blow with the switchover to the northwest as the front passed. Yesterday was in the 80's, today in the 60's (nice). Anyway, we got up this morning and all seemed well, except the back rest of one of the seat cushions Cindy had made for the flybridge was missing. It blew away. We both walked, ran, biked the harbor perimeter looking for it with no luck and Cindy was pretty down. This afternoon, she went back to the thrift shop where she picked up so many treasures yesterday and found some more. I went to the hardware store and found some treasures as well, then found a boatyard and got some spare parts I wanted. While riding my bike across the bridge back to the boat, I saw Cindy talking to a couple and by the time I arrived, I saw her carrying the missing seat cushion, a bit dirty but intact, with a smile on her face. The couple had seen it in a spot she had looked at not 10 minutes earlier. Not only that, but the Wild won last night!! We will pull out of here in the morning and start heading south. Looking at Tangier Island this weekend sometime, then a marina near the York River early next week to tour Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg.

View from the town wall tonight. A wooden mast on that boat.

the cushion

Sorting through thrift shop treasures

Wedding dresses, a mink cape and other stuff

St.Michaels, Oxford, Cambridge

We left our pleasant anchorage on Monday morning and moved 3 hours or so to St. Michaels, Maryland. It is up the shore on the Choptank River, Santo Domingo Creek. This allowed us access to St. Michaels from the south side. There is a dinghy dock there and the hike to town is only 3 blocks. Enroute we had some engine temperature issues with normal running temps 185, we were 10 degrees above that. I stopped and changed the impeller for the second time in 10 days, although it looked ok. The temps stayed the same and weren't dangerous for the engine, but weren't right either. Once we anchored, I took the main engine zincs out and inspected them, and indeed they had change a lot in a week since we started. The zinc on the upstream side of the raw water heat exchanger was plugged with zinc pieces and debris, so I plucked the crap out of there and flushed it with a hose, solving the problem. We explored and hiked St. Michaels for a couple of days, at out where I got a whole soft blue crab on a bun, and went to the Maritime Museum, which was pretty interesting. Watched them working on a boat building project from the felled trees on up. Cindy got a great picture of a praying mantis. I'll add it when she gets it to me. Our anchorage there was a little busier, with a bunch of sail boats and a Krogen 42 that had been at the rendezvoux with us. Wednesday morning after a 4 mile hike, we pulled out and moved to Goldsborough Creek just past Oxford Maryland. Nice quiet anchorage all to ourselves and a crab fisherman. We managed to piss him off when unbeknownst to us, he had set a crab trot line before we set the anchor and got tangled up with it. He couldn't get his line up so  we had to pull the anchor to free it and re-set. The biggest issue became the weather with the remains of Hurricane Michael now bearing down on us. We know the weather is going to change, supposed to get 3 inches of rain and winds out of the NNW at 30+MPH, so despite a pretty nice anchorage, we pulled out this morning and moved 15 miles SE to Cambridge MD where there is a free town wall we have tied up to.  2 other sailboats are here as well, hiding from the weather. It is extremely protected and we are tied up, so no worries. We have already hiked the town and know where we want to eat tonight. Cindy found a thrift store, bought a mink cape and two wedding dresses along with some other vintage clothes for her store. Then tonight Wild vs Blackhawks at 8 our time -- GO WILD!!
Engine hours 5152.5
Genset hours 5626.8

At anchor on the Little Choptank

Sunrise on the Little Choptank, a really neat spot

Waterman boat hauling crab trotlines

At anchor near St. Michaels. The nearest boat is a Krogen 42 "Water Dog"

Waterfront homes St Michaels

Waterfront homes St Michaels

Boats at anchor, St Michaels

Oystering near our St. Michaels anchorage, just off our boat

Spider on a St. Michaels hike

Another beautiful church

eautiful church

Tied to the town wall in Cambridge waiting for the rain and wind to start

Episcopal Church in Cambridge

Krogen Rendezvoux

I haven't posted in a week or so. We were at the Krogen Rendezvoux in Solomons, MD. It is an annual gathering at the Calvert Marina there. There were around 50 different Krogens for the get together and also folks looking at Krogens as potential buyers. There were associated seminars/educational sessionsevery day and most of the meals were part of the program. We met a ton of nice people, a few of whom we had run into in our travels. We arrived on Monday, a week ago and departed yesterday, Sunday morning. On Monday we took the opportunity to re supply, biked to the grocery store and the beer store. I literally ran into an issue with my bike, launching off a curve onto the busy street, avoided being hit by traffic, but manage to bang myself up pretty good. I rode back and had to sew up my foot and dress some road rash. The rest of the week was a bit more mundane, but Cindy had concerns about the food that was catered all along. There seemed to be a lack of refrigeration at times. Well, that caught up to both of us by Saturday, which was spent on the boat close to the head. We are both much better now, but it was a long day. Yesterday we pulled out of the marina mid morning and traveled up to  secluded bay on the east shore where we are all alone. Much more our style. I think today we are going to head up to St. Michaels on the east shore of the Chesapeake. We feel well enough to eat some seafood this afternoon and there are supposed to be some good restaurants there.
Engine Hours: 5143.5
Genset Hours: 5615.3

A long lineup of Krogens

Our boat is 3rd from the right

Cindy taking the sunshades off before leaving yesterday

Our anchorage this morning

All alone this morning, much more our style