Oh no, not again!

You will find this hard to believe, but pictures don't lie. Yes, we had to get towed again (good thing we have unlimited towing from Boat US!). Yes, we hit something again. Yes, we bent the rudder again (no, not the same rudder, the replacement rudder). This time we also did some damage to our feathering prop. The boat is in a yard in Virginia (the copycat Virginia), in Chesapeake City, at about mile 17 on the ICW. We are home in Holly Springs. We have decided that we have had enough of boating vacations for this year, and are taking a vacation from the boat. Not that we actually had much choice--the yard won't even haul the boat until next week, and we do not have a third rudder waiting.

We were cruising up the ICW, trying to make the bridge opening at Centerville before everything closes down for rush hour. And THUNK. Thunk. THUNK THUNK. We hit a submerged log, we think, which then rolled back to do it's thing on the propeller, we think, then the rudder, we think. Anyway, we ended up on the side of the ICW at 4pm in the heat. We could hardly see the rudder in the brown colored water, but it wasn't right. And there was no prop response to either forward or reverse. I tried to raise Tow Boat on Ch16, but there was no reply. So I called the 1-800 number (we had great cell service, although we hadn't seen any development in hours). The woman who answered wanted to know what city we were in. I repeated that we were at MM17 on the ICW. She asked for our gps coordinates, but when I read them, she said are you on land? NO. Are you in South Mills? I DON'T KNOW--ALL I SEE ARE TREES AND WATER. Abby and Leah played mancala and Uno while we waited.

Tow Boat arrived at 6pm, and towed us to the Atlantic Yacht Basin where we spent the night. All of the people we encountered there, and at Tow Boat, were very nice and helpful. Our TowBoat captain even managed to parallel dock our 39' boat in a 45' spot without any help from our boat. Pretty good driving.

Today we rented a car, drove to Oriental to pick up our van, and headed home. Tomorrow we will do NOTHING, and then worry about the rest of our vacation after that.

The REAL Virginia

After a day in Ocracoke, we sailed on to Manteo, on Roanoke Island. As I had never seen the outdoor drama "The Lost Colony" we decided to see it last night. It was somewhat disappointing, but I was cheered to learn that when the colonists settled at Fort Raleigh in the 1500's, they called this land Virginia! So if we decide to NOT go any further, then we will, in some sense, have made it to Virginia. Success as last!



We are staying at the Manteo waterfront, which is a cool place to be. There is a replica of an old screwpile lighthouse here that was common on the sounds and bays of both the original Virginia (now called North Carolina) and the copycat Virginia (now called...Virginia) between about 1850 and 1950.




While here we came across a new boat that we are considering buying. It is larger than Aquila, so might stand up better to a whale. On the other hand, it is all wood and requires a crew of about 10. What do you think of her? She is the Elizabeth II. Any volunteers for our next adventure?


We have uploaded some pictures and added them to earlier posts. It is very hot here and Bob is not feeling well. We may check out the aquarium, or the Wright Memorial or the beach. Vacation is soooo hard.

Love,
Bob, Karen, Abby and Leah

Back where we came from

We spent last night behind Shackleford Banks, grateful that we could continue some sort of vacation with our boat. The new (bent)
rudder was removed, and old (rusty) rudder was installed, and the bow roller for the anchor was un-bent where it had been damaged
in the tow. The folks at Town Creek Marina were polite and professional and we are grateful for their help.

Today we wandered across the Banks and saw lots of Banks ponies up (too) close. Oddly, they weren't afraid of us, though if anyone
approached within 5 feet they would amble away. The beach was too steep for swimming, but as we had the whole 3 miles of beach to
ourselves, we were pretty happy to watch the water, do a little shelling and build a couple lousy sand castles.

After lunch, we headed back up the ICW, past Oriental, and began sailing again for the first time since Monday. It was a lovely
day for sailing and we sailed right up our anchorage. We are in the South River, just across the Neuse River from our homeport
at the Boonedocks. We had seen a cemetery here on previous visits, and thought we could explore the cemetery using our inflatable
kayak. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes and yellow flies also decided to honor the dead today. And as the dead are not available for
bug food, they decided to eat US. We hotpaddled it back to the boat, put up the mosquito nets and now settled in watching Happy Feet
(again).

Tomorrow we will sail to Ocracoke, then probably Manteo, Norfolk, then...who knows? We are enjoying the wonderful weather and hope it
is nice wherever you are too.

Love,
Abby, Bob, Karen and Leah

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Back in Beaufort Again

Perhaps I should have called this trip Beaufort-to-Beaufort, as that is what we did. We arrived safely back in Beaufort yesterday in the rain. We were unable to steer enough to get through the channel, so we called TowBoat US, and they towed us to a marina with a travel lift. Bob has gone to Raleigh to pick up the rudder, and we hope to haul the boat tomorrow, drop the bent rudder and put in the new one. AND, we hope to find that there is no further damage so we can then sail away.

The trip back was tedious, as the helm required constant attention and we were beating into the wind for 36 hours with winds over 15 knots and seas at about 6 feet. Needless to say, it was bumpy, rolly, and wet wet wet. EVERYTHING was wet.

When we arrived in Beaufort we could only find a room without a water view. Leah said we should be willing to pay MORE for a room without a water view. After all, we had been looking at nothing BUT water for 4 days!

We haven't decided for sure, but our likely replacement vacation will be to exotic Virginia. Yes, Virginia! Not exactly Bermuda, but for a coastal destination, we are pretty excited about seeing the 400 year celebration in Jamestown and some of the other well known Virginia vacation spots, like Mobjack Bay.

The lucky sailors,
Karen, Leah, Abby and Bob

Whale watching anyone?

The first night of a passage is always difficult, and so we were all looking forward to the second night, and maybe getting some sleep, maybe not encountering lots of big ships. We had a good day, saw flying fish, sailing jellyfish (Man of War), and a wonderful dolphin show.

It always happens on my watch. At 0030, we were sailing quietly at about 6 knots while I struggled to stay awake. I heard the unmistakable blowing sound of a whale RIGHT BY MY HEAD, then I was showered by whale snot. A split second of awe, followed by a crashing sound, and then true panic set in.

How bad was the damage? Were there more of them? Could we expect to be jolted right out of the water??? Then a long beeping, and I knew the autopilot had locked up. Which meant that we had steering problems. After a hectic hour checking to be sure there was no other damage and trying to get the boat back on course, any course, we concluded that while we could turn to the right just fine, we couldn't turn to the left at all. Looking over the transom, in the ultra clear water of the sargasso sea, we could see that the rudder was bent. So, OK, we just wouldn't go left.

We decided that we would turn to Beaufort, which was only 200 m, and was surrounded by lots of other potential ports, both north and south. Bermuda was 415 miles away and very, very tiny, so it would be easy to miss as we turned donuts across the Atlantic. We settled in for the night heading south as the wind was coming from the west (the direction we wanted to go) and we couldn't hold the boat any closer to the wind with a one-way rudder. This morning, we checked out the propeller and shaft, and all appeared fine, so we started the engine, which improved our pointing ability dramatically. Through a combination of sail trim (using the main only to produce weather helm while on port tack and genoa only to produce lee helm while on starboard tack) and subtle moves of the wheel we have been able to wiggle our way back into the gulf stream. Somehow in the mayhem last night we broke one of the deck hatches and have been attempting to control that leak and all the wind, waves and spray of the gulf stream aren't helping. But we have plenty of fuel, water and food!

Actually, we expect to be approaching Beaufort by about 1600 Wednesday, where we will need to call for a tow. Maneuvering around big ships in a narrow channel with only starboard rudder sounds foolish. We consider ourselves pretty lucky, and blessed to have made it through this close encounter with a whale with only minimal damage. We will get towed to a boatyard, and once again, have the boat hauled to check the hull for damage and to replace the rudder. And yes, we just happen to have a spare (the old rudder that we have been using a yard ornament for over a year--our neighbors love us!). While we aren't willing to go offshore with this rudder,
we're not too worried about using it on the ICW or around the sounds. What, you ask, will you do with the rest of your vacation? We've been discussing this. Abby wants to fly to Bermuda. Leah wants to go to Cuba. Bob wants to go to Ocracoke, And I want to go to Maine or Key
West and charter a boat for a week. Am I crazy or what???

Day Two

We're out here, It's hot, the water is blue, and we're all alone.  Last
night, however, we weren't quite alone, and had the opportunity to use
our new radar TWICE to pick up targets (in this case, container ships)
who were crossing our path.  The second one passed only 1/2 mile ahead
of us, which would have been way to close in the dark if we hadn't had
the radar.  It's been sort of rolly, with a SE swell capped off by a SW
wind.  We're in the gulf stream now, and hope to catch a cold eddy
tomorrow to pick up an east moving current.  Yesterday everyone was a
little seasick, but we all feel better today.

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SLOW progress for a slow boat

We're getting closer to departure, but we're probably going to delay until Sunday.  Leah arrived on the red-eye this morning and Bob and I are frantically finishing up work, cleaning, provisioning.  Tomorrow we will head to Oriental, then finish every chore we have on the boat by noon (am I dreaming or what?) then probably head to Beaufort on Saturday afternoon or Sunday am.  And no, the pets are not going with us.  We had a long talk, and Tracy hates the slippery deck and Tiger hates everyone and both the cat and the dog hate the water.

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Countdown...

After getting packages of spare parts, Father's Day Gifts and other supplies, I think our dog, Tracey, likes the FedEx man better than us! He always brings her treats. But getting all this stuff means we are getting closer to departure. The radar pole and radar are here, literally here in the living room. And before you ask, no, this won't do us any good on board, but we do plan to install the radar this week. We will have to learn as we go, but we made the trip last year without a radar, so if we don't figure it out we'll be just fine. We will, however, hope that we don't encounter any fog.

Last year, our first morning at sea found us in dense fog, with "Securite" warnings from USN Warship Six-Zero regarding live fire exercises. They wanted us to stay clear 5 miles from their position. We could hear their fog horn, they could hear our VHF replies to their queries for "the unidentified vessel at (lat,long) traveling east to identify and state your intentions", but we never did see them. We did, however, state our intention, which was to try to stay out of their way. We are hoping the radar will at least allow us to see Warships, even if we don't see all the other sailboats on the water.

More 2007 Crew...

As always, Abby is the youngest member of our crew. She is 8 (almost 9) and puts up with a lot from her parents. I hope she will make some posts on this site while we travel. Abby really likes cats, even our nasty-cat Tiger; is currently listening to Pink on her mp3 player; and is really pretty excited about going to Bermuda again. We promised her last year that if we went back again, we would rent scooters. So...I guess we're renting scooters, and trying to drive on the wrong side of those dangerously narrow and winding streets. Those roundabouts are hard enough to negotiate on foot when everything's reversed, so maybe I'll just push the scooter through the roundabouts. Of course, the Bermudians don't think they drive on the wrong side of the street, but we know better.

The 2007 Crew

Bob, Abby and I are going again, but our 'to Bermuda' crewmember from last year, Ed, decided he needed to spend time with HIS family instead of ours. So this year we're sticking our family, and my niece Leah is going with us. She just graduated from high school, and doesn't head to college in Illinois (yep, Illinois) until August so she signed on to go BOTH WAYS. I reminded her that showers consist of a few sprays from the garden sprayer, and she pointed that her mother only lets her use the garden hose now, so no big deal. I reminded her that there are 10-14 days of nothing but blue water, with only a couple of old people and one 9 year old for company, and she said she had lots of reading to catch up on (note that she didn't say she thought the company would be fun, just that she could escape from it if needed--smart girl, that Leah). I reminded her that she would be standing watch for 3-4 hours each night, and she said "I'm a teenager, I LIVE for the nighttime". She just might be the perfect crewmember!

I't's just a scratch!

In and out of the boatyard in 1/2 hour, it must be a record.  Thankfully, there was no damage from the log collision except some marring of the bottom paint.  The boat is now back at the Boonedocks. Now we're just waiting for that radar pole...