USCG Training Exercise Initiated (Rescue Aborted)

With the HUGE wx window hanging over the Carolinas we took off from Charleston at 0700 Saturday 29 Nov. Bright and sunny, 32*, flat seas, little to no wind.  We started motoring (driving the condo) to St. Augustine, FL on 212* heading.  Sara and Ken on s/v Tintean got underway with us but made their heading 189* for Cape Canaveral.

S/V Tintean departing Charleston.

Ft. Sumter

We completed the usual off-shore preparations: topped off fuel and water, jacklines rigged, underway meals prepared, PFDs and tethers out, ditch-bag at the helm, lifeslings and other throwables ready, hatches dogged, unnecessary through hulls closed, float plan filed, paper charts on the chart table, fully charged handheld VHF added to ditch-bag. Shove off!

 

Yesterday, CK’s girlfriend, a USCG rescue pilot was on duty and did a low pass fly while we were in the marina. Waaaay kewl! When she got off duty, Kelly drove up to Charleston and joined us onboard. Her OP area extends as far south as Daytona so there was much joking about another fly-by when we were off FL and she was on duty on Sunday.

At 1345 Saturday we were hailed by USCG Charleston. Mark and I thought it was Kelly contacting us. No such luck.   

The USCG wanted to know if we were in distress as our EPIRB had gone off!

We switched to 22a and the discussion began. We checked our EPIRB at the helm and it was sitting there minding its own business. I explained we also had a PLB in our ditch-bag. Gave them the id#s for each and it WAS the PLB going off!!!

Opened the ditch-bag and pulled out the PLB – in its own case – and checked the onoff tab. Taped down in the off position. So strange.

EPIRB in white case attached to helm seat. Ditchbag - ready to go.

The evil PLB- in its case, in the ditchbag...

Instead of voiding the warranty and removing the battery, we agreed that the USCG would wait for the next satellite pass and contact us again if it was still pinging. 1500 nothing. 1600 nothing. All through the night no call from the USCG. That’s the good news.

The bad news is we don’t know what set it off. Do we need to contact the manufacturer? We still don’t know how the tab could have been flipped up while in its case and in the ditch-bag.  One thing is for sure, as soon as we get a phone signal we need to call USCG Charleston on the non-emergency line to apologize and thank them for their professional response.

Whew!

Charleston 24-29 Nov 2014

RAIN! The storm that brought all that snow to the NE was rain here. Not the best wx for sightseeing but we did get out for some meals and grocery shopping.

Lunch with Russ Roberts. Fellow Lightning sailor from SSA.

 Our Annapolis neighbors, Sara and Ken Aiken on s/v Tintean, are here at CMC. We have been hanging together and having movie nights. 

 Next to Tintean is a Farr whose in-mast furling system got stuck and the riggers are tearing the main down. The day before there was less wind, less rain, and less cold. Don't know why they waited until today to do this nasty job.

Thanksgiving in Charleston. We decided to have Shrimp and Grits at the Irish bar - Tommy Condons. Delish.  CK drove down from NC and joined us.  Then back to Daruma for football. Of course. CK had to change into his full Twelfth Man rig for the Seahawks game. They won.

GO HAWKS!!!

One of the mule stables downtown.

Friday - sunny and 50s.  CK's girlfriend Kelly is a USCG pilot and CK arranged a fly by! AWESOME! The third pass was much LOWER! How exciting. She will join us later today once she is off duty.

Here comes Kelly!

 Our plan is to head offshore tomorrow morning for a 30hr run to St. Augustine, FL. S/V Tintean will travel with us and we have been downloading wx maps and doing our chart work. Should be a good wx window. Our other chores are to check the liferaft, tighten up the lacing on the new trampoline, and install new radar reflectors so we can be seen.

 Charging up the SPOT now so you can SPOT-stalk us off-shore. On to FL.

Belhaven to Charleston

Arrrruuuuugh! The laptop just doesn't want to do wireless internet and it's such  pita to blog on the tiny ipad keyboard.
Good signal here in Charleston but
iPhones = yes. iPad = yes. Laptop = no.
Mark finally found a fix by connecting the laptop to the bullet booster with the ethernet cable (not wireless) and it works! yea!

So... what have we been up to since Belhaven? After our little wx delay we moved on to Morehead City, NC on 19 Nov. Stayed at Portside Marina and caught up on laundry. Rocky night on the floating dock with wicked wind. The next morning we had breakfast muffins delivered by Katie Contento. YUM! Her brother was at the Academy with CK and Robbie. She is still working for the NARF at Cherry Point.

a visit from Katie Contento

Another 9hr motor to Hampstead, NC - Harbor Village Marina - and a visit with our 2010 mid, CK. He is a Marine and Cobra pilot at MCAS New River.

Friday the 21st we drove to Southport and stayed at South Harbor Village Marina. It's a bit out of town but there are two on-site restaurants and Joseph's Italian Bistro was FANTASTIC. Mark especially liked the shrimp and polenta.

Still sunny and cold as we made our way past Myrtle Beach to Osprey Marina at ICW373. Just as we we docking, CK flew by in his cobra!!!! Awesome!

Myrtle Beach on the ICW

Can't say enough wonderful things about Osprey Marina. Only $1/ft, by Day 4 it drops to $.25/ft! Very well protected in a little cutout in the trees. Friendly, helpful staff, cheap fuel, clean bathrooms, laundry, and a HUGE Welcome Bag full of goodies.

entrance to Osprey Marina

Sunday's wx was projected to be the rainy nasty day so we made a short day of it and only went as far as Georgetown, SC - Hazzard Marina. What a cute little town. Shrimp cakes at the Wild Fish Grill and a big craft beer selection. Many shops and restaurants were closed on Sunday so we will definitely have to go back. About 1.25miles from the marina was a PigglyWiggly so we did some provisioning. And then it started to pour!!!

Brown's Ferry Vessel

Fog but no rain on the Monday leg to Charleston. The big push was to make the Ben Sawyer Bridge near Isle of Palms before it closed for rush-hour from 4-6pm.  The Waterway Guide reported shoaling between the 117a and the 119 just north of the bridge. Low tide, we found it! Soft grounding. Twice. It was slow going as Mark picked his way down the ditch. Made the bridge at 1520 with time to spare. Whew!

As we turned out of the ICW and up into Charleston Harbor we discovered the Bennis Reach Range light was actually in our marina! How easy. Just head for the lower red light. Sara and Ken, on s/v Tintean, were waiting for us at Charleston Maritime Center.

Art and Lou disembarked and beat the snowstorm to Boston for a Thanksgiving with Piper.

And then it started to rain. We decided to stay in Charleston thru Thankgiving waiting for a weather window to head off shore.

WX Delay in Belhaven, NC

Saturday we began our journey down the ICW from Portsmouth, VA (Mile Post 0) to Coinjock, NC (Mile 50).

ICW Mile 0

Hampton Roads. Sunrise over Ft. Monroe after an all-night sail down the Bay.

 Lots of bridge openings and one lock.  The WX was chilly but sunny and beautiful.

The Gilmerton lift bridge.

Our line-handlers, Art and Lou, in the Great Bridge Lock.

Great Bridge.

Centerville Turnpike Bridge.

Yesterday we got an early start and made it to Belhaven, NC.  Everyone here is so friendly, offering us rides to the grocery, etc. We are at the Town Dock with power and water but no wifi. My cel is getting no signal and Mark's is getting an occasional bar. Luckily there is wifi at the library.

Sunrise on the North River.

We are hunkered down at the library now as Belhaven is under a Tornado Warning! All the librarians are ready to usher us into the central hallway. Alerts are going off on phones. Kinda crazy.

Belhaven. Looking up Pamlico St. towards Main St. and City Hall. The Tavern is on the right.

The WX on the water - Pamlico Sound and Neuse Rv - is rainy and choppy so we decided to stay an extra night and see how it looks tomorrow.  If tomorrow does not improve we'll stay a third night.  I am remembering the last time I was here in 2005.  We were delivering a Navy 44 sailboat to JAX.  We overnighted in Belhaven and the WX was horrible on the way to Morehead City. Rain, almost 0 visibility, winds onshore at 70mph. Because we were on a delivery schedule we did not wait out the WX. Big mistake. At the top of Adams Cut we ran aground. TowBoat tried to free us for several hours and gave up when it became dark. We were hard aground all night with huge waves beating the boat in freezing temps. NOT FUN! Two TowBoats came out in the morning and were finally able to free us.  We sent the Navy the bill.

With this history, Mark thought it would be prudent to stay put! (Thank you, Honey!)

Once we leave town it will take a day to get to Morehead City and then another day to reach Topsail Beach.  Our 2010 mid, CK, lives nearby and we will stop in to see him.

Waiting for the WX to improve...

The Adventure Begins!

Yesterday, 12 Nov 2014, we pulled all the lines from our cozy slip in Annapolis and began our 6 month adventure to Florida and the Bahamas.

Leg One: Annapolis to Hampton, VA. Arrived this morning, 13 Nov, after a 20 hour sail down the Chesapeake Bay. Beautiful moon rise last night and saw the sun rise over Fort Monroe this morning.

This was the first trip with SPOT onboard and we seemed to have worked out the kinks.
FOLLOW our breadcrumbs!

(Please show Peggie and Julia so they will stop worrying.)

Powercat

We are in Annapolis for the month of October working on the boat in preparation to head south for the winter. Also couldn't miss the Boat Show, Trawler Fest, and the Seven Seas Cruising Asso GAM.

Number one on the list - new standing rigging. We had several folks (surveyors, riggers) look at the boat. None found anything specifically wrong with the rigging but all said, "Well, it IS over 10 years old." We probably would have left it alone if we were only gonna cruise the Bay. Better safe than sorry since we plan to cross the Atlantic.

She's now a powercat.

We are also adding a SSB radio, made some repairs to the dink, tweaked our enclosure (based on how we used it over the summer), had Chuck restitch the main while it was off, installed an LED tricolor on top of the mast, replaced the trampoline, etc.

Joelle shopped the Boat Show for birthday gifts (for herself): a pair of stabilizing binoculars and a mini-heater to keep herself toasty as we head down the ICW in November.

Our MACRO plan is to "Head south for the winter."
Our MICRO plan needs some work.
Leave Annapolis 3 Nov (ish) for the ICW. Stop in Suffolk to visit the Atienzas.
                - Big Gap - (We will be somewhere in NC, SC, GA, or FL)
We have made reservations to be at the Navy Marina in Key West in January (Key West Race Week) and then we will sail for the Bahamas at the end of January.

If you would like to visit or sail with us, let us know. The good news about having no schedule is we may be flexible and accommodate your schedule.

Port Jefferson, Setauket, and NYC. 14-17 Sept 2014

We left Connecticut and crossed the Sound to the north shore of Long Island, NY. 

Just inside the entrance to Port Jefferson harbor is the village of Setauket. I became interested in seeing Setauket, after watching a new TV series titled “Turn”, about America’s first spies during the Revolutionary War.  While watching the series, I wondered how much of the tale was real - if at all. Well, our cruising guide confirmed that a Patriot spy ring did operate out of Setauket, and the messages were passed to other patriots by a local woman who strung a specific combination of red and black petticoats and white handkerchiefs on a clothes line.

There is very skinny water at the entrance to the Setauket harbor (the chart says 1’) but we only draw 4’ so we ventured in on a rising tide. It was so quiet and protected and surrounded by marshes with geese and swan families. 

Bike drill! Rode 1.5 miles into Port Jefferson to explore. The sky opened up so we ducked into a hotel lobby (with wifi) to wait it out for 2 hours. Delicious dinner at a Spanish restaurant. 

On Sunday, we got an early start to make it out of the harbor without running aground. West to NYC!

After reading all the reviews of marinas on both sides of the Hudson, we decided to stay in Flushing at the World's Fair Marina run by the City Parks. 

CitiField. Home of the Mets.

No wake!!! Huge, protected marina at the foot of CitiField, the National Tennis Center, and Corona Park. A 20min walk to the #7 line into the city or the LIRR. It was a bit run down but safe and included free laundry, ice, and a head/shower ashore. All this for only $2/ft. There is a fuel dock and pump-out but the pump-out was out of order. When I called on the radio to ask for other pump-out locations they seemed a bit surprised and thanked us for wanting to use a pump-out. (Don't go swimming.)

That evening we went to see the World Trade Center Museum and Memorial. The museum was free to military; $24 otherwise. Then met up with Josh Eckmann (son of Mark's cousin, Lisa) for dinner and a drink. He loves NYC and had tons of ideas and suggestions for our visit.

What color was the sky on that September day?

Memorial quilt with photos of the victims from PA, NYC, and Pentagon.

The Survivor Staircase

Monday we washed down the boat and went to the Woodside neighborhood of Queens for Filipino food. Sarap! We were the only non-pinoys in Renee's Restaurant for the lunch special.  When I went to pay, the manager asked how I liked it and if I knew this was Filipino food. I explained that I love Filipino food and that Jo had grown up in the PI!

On to Times Sq to snag discount tickets at the TKTS booth. Josh and Mary Kate met us for a visit.

Cousins: Josh and MaryKate

Got to see the Time Hotel where Josh is a Bellman. Had time to chat with MK before we headed to the NY Public Library in Bryant Park. Grand old bldg with an interesting WWI propaganda exhibit. Then back to 49th St for dinner and a show. Ave Q. So funny. It's been out for years but we had never seen it.

NY Public Library

Rainy Tuesday. Amtrak shut down from DC to Philly so Jay, our crew, was running late.  He finally arrived at 1800. Met him at the train station and we Uber-ed into Flushing for Chinese food, and Uber-ed home. There were NO cabs to hail so the Uber app was perfect.  

We will leave for NJ tomorrow and will check off another Bucket List item: Hell Gate!