10/28/2008 Brrr. Cold!! Elizabeth City, NC to Morehead City, NC

10/26/2008 We left Elizabeth City with light breezes at 7:00AM as we usually seem to leave. It is right around sunrise. We started out the day motoring, but we were sailing. I set the spinnaker and off we took. I notice that most cruisers seem to do a lot more motoring than sailing. We sailed down to the end of the Pasquotank River into the Albemarle Sound then into the Alligator River.

As we sailed down the Pasquotank River, we passed a dirigible hanger that was built during WW II. This is still a working hanger and as we passed, they were bringing out a dirigible that did eventually take off.

We needed to drop the sails for a draw bridge and then the sails went up again. This time we had the wind directly behind us. I worked out a way to sail wing-on-wing. That is having the main sail on one side of the boat and the jib on the other. I set up a temporary barber-haul using the dock lines. A barber-haul is a sailing device used on multihull boats to pull the sails more out towards the edge of the boat. This made for good sailing all of the way down the Alligator River to our anchor point for the night. By the way, there are suppose to be alligators in or on the Alligator River, but we did not see any. We had a great anchor for the night right before the entrance to the Alligator River – Pungo River Canal.

10/27/2008 With our normal early start at 7:00AM we were off and running again. We were the first to leave any of the anchorages and motor into the canal. We were passed by a couple of power cruisers in the canal, but did not see much traffic until later in the day. As you will see the early morning fog we passed through on the canal.

After leaving the canal, we were able to set the sails and have a nice couple hours of sailing in the Pungo River until we had to turn south. That is where the wind was coming from today. We went from the Pungo River, across the Pamlico River into Goose Creek. This brought us into another canal the Bay River. I originally expected to stay where this canal came out, but we decided to push on based on the night before when we stopped at 4:30 and decided it would have been nice to push on to 5:30 at least. The sun sets here around 6:00PM at night.

We made it down the Bay River into the Neuse River. Then all the weather started to break out. We had a cold front run through and we still had 5 miles to go to the next area we could anchor. Along with the high winds, there was rain. We were running along the edge of a shoal to our right and a large fishing fleet to our left and bouncing over the waves. We finally made it into Broad Creek and found a nice cove to anchor in about 5 feet of water. Pictured here is the cloud bank on the edge of the front. It looked beautiful, until the clouds turned dark above us.

We set the anchor just as the sun was setting and the winds picked up even more. We registered 31.5 knot winds. The boat was dancing on the anchor even using the bridle.

This evening we finished our jigsaw puzzle. Don’t you hate it when there is a missing piece. Oh well. It was a fun activity we did as we sailed along and something to do in the evenings while we ate dinner. We will need to look for another one.

10/28/2008 Brrr. Cold!!! We woke up this morning to 38 degrees. Brrr. Cold!!! Last night I broke out my sleeping bag for the first time on the trip. I can’t wait to be able to put it away again. We took off from the cove again at….7:00AM. Today we decided to leave the canvas down on the salon so as to keep some warmth in the cabins. This worked out well as when we made our way back into the Neuse River, the winds were screaming. The little cove really protected us well. This picture is as we left the cove.

I set the sails with a single reef in the main and using the full jib and off we took. I was beating into the wind getting 8-9.5 knots out of the boat and the winds were 15 gusting to 20+. I was back with the fishing fleet again and needed to tack several times to keep clear of the fleet and the shore line. We had water coming over the bows, and the cabin roof. What a ride!!. I will take that any day over motoring.

We worked our way to Adams Creek that took us into the Adams Creek canal. After we left canal we made our way into Beaufort, NC. We stopped at a marina for fuel, water and a pump-out. We also were able to use their showers, even though we were not spending the night. It was a luxury to take a “real” hot shower. The water heater I have on the boat is exactly that, a water heater. It does not have a tank that brings the water up to a set temperature. It is a tank-less system that raises the water temperature. It will raise the temperature up about 25-30 degrees. If you water starts at 50 degrees, the “hot” water will be around 75-80 degrees. Not real hot, but is ok. It will not be so noticeable when I get to the tropics.

As we left the marina and started to the draw bridge, we were greeted by a couple of porpoises. I still always believe they are the bearers of good fortune.

We left Beaufort for Morehead City to check out a couple of restaurant docks. They are listed in my travel guides as they have a low or no charge for nightly docking if you eat at their restaurant for dinner. When we arrived, all of the spaces were occupied so we pushed on down the ICW. We are now in Peletler Creek about 5 miles west of Morehead City. I expect to sit here through tomorrow night. Thursday the weather bureau is calling for high winds, maybe as high as 40 mph and they will be on our nose. We expect a better wind pattern on Thursday that will push us along down the ICW. We will see.

10/25/2008 Norfolk to Elizabeth City, NC

10/22/2008 We left out of Hampton late morning after doing some laundry and seeing Ed off to the airport. We tried to get a rental car from a local place at the docks, but none were available until after 2:00Pm. Ed was able to catch a cab for $29.00. That worked out well. I decided to try out hauling gasoline for the first time from a land based gas station. It was only four blocks and I need to come up with a different solution. It was two five gallon cans of gas. I motorists stopped and picked me up about half way back. He said he had to stop as he saw me setting the cans down about every 200’ and taking a rest. I was very appreciative.

We set sail under jib alone across the bay to the Elizabeth River, which leads into the ICW. We noticed the port wasn’t too busy with ships or cargo being moved ashore or onto boats. The main industry appears to be the Navy. As you see here all of the ships at the base and many others being worked on going up the river.

I started using the VHF to contact the bridges as we traveled. We passed under or through five bridges on the river. Two of them were train bridges that were in the open stage unless a train was coming, two were highway bridges that we needed to wait for after traffic cleared and the fifth was the I-64 bridge that was 65’ above the water and we could clear. My mast is 53’ above the water. If you needed the I-64 bridge to open, it is required to be scheduled 24 hours in advance.

Just as we passed the I-64 bridge, we hooked a right and headed into the Dismal Swamp Canal. It was a beautiful trip with a few birds including a white heron and an osprey. There are two locks on the canal. We were the last to make it to the lock and through for the day. We went in with six other boats and sat for the seven foot rise. As we left the lock, there is a 200’ pier at the lock park and we tied up there with about nine other boats. Some needed to raft up. It was a fun place to hang out for the night.

10/24/2008 Today we made our way through the Dismal Swamp. It was a pleasant day even though we had to motor the whole day. The canal is about 60 feet wide and there would be no room for sailing and we also had to keep our speed down between 4-6 knots. That is no really a problem when motoring on this boat as we only get 6 knots when running one engine.

During this the time in this slack water. It gave me a chance to calibrate some of my instruments. I have GPS on the boat and that tells you where and how fast you are going based on the earth, but it does not take into consideration tides and currents. I was able to calibrate my digital compass as the canal is straight as an arrow. It is like driving across Kansas on I-70. I was also able to calibrate my knot meter as there was basically no current. Now I will be able to tell how the boat is responding to currents on these tidal waters and what the current speeds are.

At the end of the Dismal Swamp is another lock that let us down to the tidal level again. We arrived about 20 minutes before the bridge was raised we needed to pass through to get to the locks at South Mills. The lock master operates both the bridge and the lock, as did the lock master at Deep Creek. By the way, we are now in North Carolina.

I talked with the owners of the boat behind us about different places to stop for the night. There are basically 2-3 that we could reach today. The first is Goat Island. It has good anchoring and protection from the weather. The second is tying up to the city piers in Elizabeth City. This has the convenience of being new a town, but it is not too protected from any winds out of the east and the third is an anchorage before town, but there is no access to town. There is weather coming in and the conditions are from the east. We still decided to tie up in Elizabeth City. We will probably be here for two days as there will be strong winds from the east on Friday and Saturday is suppose to rain all day. The good news is Sunday is to be beautiful with NW winds that will blow us down the bay on a comfortable ride and the temperatures will warm up a bit.

It has been in the 50s during the day and dropping into the 40s at night since dad and Ed joined on. I do hope it warms up soon for both of us. I did buy a small propane heater for the boat when we stopped in Solomon’s Island. It has been great at night time so we can sit around the table comfortably until we crawl under our blankets or into sleeping bags.

10/25/2008 We are still sitting in Elizabeth City, but not sitting still. Elizabeth City is a nice community and very welcoming to cruisers on the water. They have some city docks for free use for 48 hours. We will be stretching it a little with this weather. Yesterday we were greeted by Ms. Brown the local deputy. She came by and introduced herself and took our names for Homeland Security. We later saw her in town and she was waving to every pedestrian and driver in a car. They also have a get together if the weather is conducive called the Rose Buddies. This was started years ago by two gentlemen that would have roses from their gardens for the cruisers and offer a wine and cheese sampling on the dock. They have both since passed, but the visitors center keeps their memories alive. My dad has been getting into the act also. He always has a plastic bag in his pocket with hard candy. He offers candy to almost everyone he meets and it brings a smile to their face. It really doesn’t take much to make acquaintances.

Today we rented a car and made a quick trip down to the Outer Banks. One of the places I have wanted to visit since I was a mere lad was Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brother National Memorial. We left early this morning as we needed to have the rental car back by 12:45 as the office closed at 1:00. We were able to make it down there in time for a great oration of the history of the Wright brothers and what it took for them to make the first powered and controlled flight of an aircraft. There is also a new auditorium center and a memorial on top of a sand dune on the grounds. We did not have time to view everything as we needed to get back in town, but I did make a stop at the beach and was able to get a few pictures. Something also that the ranger emphasized was that the Wright brothers did not allow failure to stop them. It took them three years of coming to Kitty Hawk before they succeeded and they kept learning each time. I need to keep this in mind when I come upon issues on this trip.

The thought I had on the way back to town is, “the more I see, the more there is to be seen”. I would love to spend time there sometime to take in more of the sites like the light houses and sitting on the beach or playing in the water.

We purchased a jig saw puzzle to work on while we are sitting here or when cruising along. I have a large enough table that we can leave it set up and the boat will handle well with minimal healing that the puzzle should not slide off. The rainy weather is suppose to break clear this evening and we should have winds that will push us down the sound tomorrow. We expect to be leaving by 7:00Am. We can only hope the weather is with us.

10/22/2008 Solomon’s Island to Norfolk

10/19/2008 What a ride. We had another day of 15-20 and gusting to 30 knot winds out of the north east. We didn’t move too quickly Sunday morning. We took our time cooking up a good breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast, cleaning up and finding a place for our trash. We worked on leaving the dock at 10:00. The winds were pushing from the beam and pinning us against the dock. After some careful planning and muscle power, we were able to slip away from the dock and off we took.


I put a single reef in the main sail as it is recommended to reef the sail at different wind strengths. The first reef should be put in at 20 knots, the second around 25 and the third at 30. At the boat show, I was told that that she would sail great without a reef in 30 knots. I am sure she will, but I still have new boat owner jitters (NBOJs). To get out of the Pautuxent River we needed to put in two tacks as it was a tight reach and heavy winds. After we cleared the main channel mark, we turned off the wind and took off like a rocket.

The seas started off at about 3-4 feet and as the day went on grew to 5-6 feet. These were no rollers, but steep faced waves do to the shallow water of the Bay. We were racing down the waves and surfing on them and hitting speed of 12, 13 and finally 14.5 knots. This was under a single reef main and jib. We had water flying off of the bows and rushing past the stern of the boat. I would naturally move to the back of the boat as far as possible. This is from my days on the trimaran when we wanted as much weight as possible on the back of the boat to keep the bows from digging in. I don’t think my weight makes a whole lot of difference on this boat. I am trying an option on the blog of video clips. I hope this shows well. This is showing the rooster tail off of the back of the starboard stern and the speed we were traveling as we surfed.

After this wild ride we worked our way up the Great Wicimico River to Reedsville, VA. We have left Maryland and now in Virginia. We were looking for a place to anchor when I looked off to my right and saw three sailboats sitting nice a peacefully on a completely protected cove. We went in, dropped the anchor and if you were not on the bay earlier today, you would never believe there was any wind at all. We had a great sunset, had a couple of cocktails, grilled up some Italian sausage and had a wonderful evening.

10/20/2008 We left Reedsville at 7:00AM and were the first boat out. We had about 3-4 boats follow us down the river as we took off. Today was a shorter sailing day, and a lot lighter air. We still have the air out of the north so we did not have to tack at all, but we weren’t surfing at all.

As we left the river, I was up on the front deck working on the spinnaker for today’s sail. All of the sudden I heard a release of air. Whoosh. I looked up and right off of my starboard bow was a porpoise. There was a small pod of four that had cruised up next to us to see what was going on. This really caught me by surprise as I was not aware that there would be this type of sea life in the Bay do to the low salt content in the brackish water. They hung with us for about a minute, but not long enough for any pictures. I always take porpoises as a good sign for the day.

We had light sailing all day and needed to motor the last hour and a half. We anchored on the Chissman Creek off of the York River. We were in a protected marsh for the evening.

10/21/2008 Today we left at 7:00AM again as headed towards Hampton, VA. We wanted to get a jump on the weather as they are calling for heavy weather to roll in about 10:00Am this morning. We only had 20 or so miles to go. We had winds out of the west today and we sailed all the way down on the coast without any tacking until we arrived at Hampton Roads. This is a very busy port with shipping of all sorts, a large naval base, the largest ship building complex in the world and the gateway to the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW).

We needed to tack multiple times to make it through the narrows of the Hampton Roads as we dodged naval exercises (being broadcasted on VHF) and barge and shipping traffic. We then hooked a right and headed up the channel to the town of Hampton. It has a very clean and revitalized waterfront. I met the dock master of the City Pier at the boat show and he was offering a free night on the docks. I took him up on the offer and it is a nice place to sail into. We had lunch and dinner out and picked up some small groceries.

I do recommend a stop here if you are sailing or cruising through. While we are here, Ed is going to get off and head back to Denver. I will get caught up on a little laundry and ready the boat for the trip down the ICW. We have decided, if the locks are working, we are going to head south through the Dismal Swamp. This is the old route for the head waters of the ICW. It has been in use since the 1800s. Most boats don’t travel down it because of it’s shallow depths or the slow speeds you must use.

10/18/2008 Back on the water

10/18/2008 Ah!!! Back on the water sailing again. It has been almost two weeks since I put up the sails and started moving onto other places. We have now started on the journey south, and not a moment too soon. We have a cold front blowing through and the temperatures have dropped into the forties at night and the winds have picked up.

The past two weeks have had allowed me to work on the boat and finish a few projects. The big ones were setting up the spinnaker for easier single handling and building a Cunningham for the main sail. For the spinnaker I added a chute scoop or sock. It is a device that keeps the spinnaker folded up until after I have it raised or I can use it to collapse the spinnaker before I bring it back on deck. The spinnaker is a sail on a sailboat that looks like a parachute off of the front of the boat and is usually different bright colors. I also moved the spinnaker halyard (line used to raise a sail up the mast) tie off point to the mast. All of the halyards are led to the cockpit of the boat through rope clutches. The problem I was concerned about was that the halyard could jam in a clutch and if I was on the front of the boat lowering the spinnaker and the line became jammed, I would not be able to control the spinnaker when I went to clear the jam and it would end up in the water. Now I can control the halyard and douse the spinnaker from the front deck. I also installed a cunningham. The cunningham is a control line that attaches to the foot (or base) of the main sail and can control the shape of the leading edge of the main sail. I was able to use the spinnaker halyard clutch for this new line.

Another reason I stayed in the Annapolis area was to take my second level test for my ham radio license. I passed that and I am now certified as a General Class Operator (License ID KD0FEA). I can now operate a Ham radio in the HF band which will allow me to transmit in the frequencies that will travel anywhere in the world and provide communications back home on my status. I will also use the radio for cruising information through cruiser nets (voice blog using radios) for daily updates of activities and travel information and most important, off shore weather information.

Last weekend in town was the annual Annapolis boat show. It is the largest sail only boat show in the US. I was able to hook up with a sailing friend of mine from Colorado, Dave Gillespi. I spent a day and a half walking around and checking out the boats. I still would not want a different boat for what I am doing. There are also many stands from all of the major hardware providers along with a lot of smaller niche products. It is a great time and I recommend for all sailors to try and visit is at least once.

On Thursday my crew showed up for part of the journey south. They are my dad, Lee and a co-worker and family friend for years and years Ed Chris. Ed has come on for the trip down the Chesapeake to Norfolk and my dad will stay on to Savannah, GA.

On Friday my I had a boat load of people join for an afternoon sail. They were my brother Tom and his wife Tracey, Aunt Vicki, Uncle Cal, cousin Kate and her son Javin, Cal’s brother Mike and his son Michael. They all traveled down from Pittsburgh that morning spent the afternoon sailing and then drove back that evening. We had a fun time as we sailed out of the creek to Thomas Point Light house and back. As always at family gatherings we had plenty of food and lots of laughs. I am thankful to all of them for traveling down to visit and be able to share with them a little of my adventure.

Ah. Back under sail. We left Saturday morning at 7:00AM sharp with plans to travel to Solomon’s Island and expected to arrive before 5:00PM. They were calling for NE winds at 10-15 knots. After a quick motor out of the creek, we set sail and took off like a rocket. It appeared we were right on the edge of the front as you will see in the picture of the sky. We stayed with that edge the whole way down. With these winds we were able to sail down wind under main and jib. I was working on the spinnaker and decided we didn’t need it on this trip yet. We were consistently sailing above 8 knots and peaked around 11.5 knots. You couldn’t wipe the smiles off of our faces. We made it to Solomon’s by 1:30PM that afternoon. 48 miles in six and a half hours. That was the fastest trip since on the boat. We decided to tie up on the dock at the Tiki Bar for the night.

As we were docking we had our first and hopefully last casualty. As we were along the dock, I asked Ed to jump to the dock to tie off the line. As he left the dock, it occurred to me that this was a bad idea. Ed has just had surgery to scrape his knees three weeks earlier. As he hit the dock, his knees gave out and he went into a tuck and roll and then a beautiful splash. There were many good things that did not happen, including he did not hurt his knees at all, the water was relatively warm, and he did not lose his eye glasses. He did wash the cell phone though and cell phones don’t like to go swimming. I do feel real bad and have learned not to ask people to jump to the dock, I am sure it is a bad habit of mine that I have been doing for years.

After we were tied up, I took Ed’s clothes off to the laundry to dry as they were his only jeans and called my friend Bill McDaniel for some assistance again. I needed a ride to Kmart to find a portable heater as the temperatures are dropping. I was able to get a propane camping heater and it does a good job at warming up the main salon area. Afterwards we all retired to the local restaurant for some local fish dinners including crab cakes (of course), shrimp and crab stuffed fish.

I want to thank you all for the messages and emails I have received while off-line and will keep you up to date as we travel along. I expect we will have another 3-4 days before we reach Norfolk and then we are off to the ICW.

10/02/2008 Titus and Cliff visiting

09/27/2008 I had some visitors on the boat with me this past weekend. They are Titus and Cliff. We had sailed together on my trimaran sailboat in the San Juan Islands for nine days. They arrived at 3:00 am after flying in from work Friday night. The downside was that they arrived for the last full day of rain from the weather system I had been sitting through since Tuesday. We didn’t let it stop us though. They were both happier being on a boat in the rain instead of working. Late in the afternoon the rain let up enough that we were able to walk into Annapolis, have dinner and stop at the grocery store on the way back to stock up.

09/28/2008 Sunday we decided rain or no rain we would take out for a sail and went over to the eastern shore to St. Michaels. The weather cleared up and we had a great sail all the way into the St. Michaels harbor. We found a space to anchor for a perfect night. While Titus and Cliff were here for entertainment we played a lot of cards and dice games and would cook up some good meals. For dinner that night we cooked up Chicken Marsala on the boat. If you think that I am just camping this whole time, I believe this is living a good life.

09/29/2008 Monday we took a walking tour around the town and made a trip to the local library to check on email and weather using the computers. While there I came across their books for sale. What a deal, $1.00 for hardbacks and $.25 for paperbacks. Easy way to fill up the library and get me through the next wave of rainy weather.

I then got to have the pleasant experience of pumping out the holding tank. The holding tank is the septic tank of a boat. It was completely full and under pressure. I needed to undo the screw cap and get the suction hose on without a major explosion. I was patient and “got er done” without a bath. The dock attendant told us of watching people in their khakis’ and white shirts and taking a geyser shower and deciding to just jump right into the bay to clean off. That would make for a bad day, but a funny story to tell your friends. Titus and Cliff were glad it was my boat and not theirs as it was my responsibility to clean the tank. After that we had a good sail up the Miles River to the bay and then the wind died and we had a flat water motor back to Annapolis. For dinner that night we cooked up a beef stew, played cards and watched a movie to finish up the trip.

09/30/2008 We went into town Tuesday noon, had lunch and worked to find out about the public bus from Annapolis to the Baltimore airport. I had been looking on-line and found that there was a bus line “C-60” from Annapolis to the airport. We asked the woman at the local information booth and they knew nothing about the C-60, but gave us information about the C-14 that would need a transfer using the light rail to the airport. We then went to the main information centers and ran into the same information until pushing a little bit more. They originally thought that line was stopped, but then found the information that showed the route. We were told it was a three block walk to the bus stop. We did not think much about it as in Annapolis and other old towns, the blocks are usually short. It turned out to be more like a two and a half mile walk to the bus stop. When we arrived there we decided to call the bus company to verify the line still ran and were told it did and the bus would be there on time. As we were waiting for the bus, other buses came on went. There were the standard size buses and a shuttle size bus. At 3:00 the C-60 bus showed up. It was the Chevy version of a Ford Explorer, a total of 4 seats plus the driver. Basically for $4.00 you got a taxi ride from Annapolis directly to the airport, and you hoped there wasn’t any other group trying to use the same bus line.

That night I anchored off of the sea wall at the naval Academy. There were about four different groups of youth sailing activities going, some of it right off of the bow of my boat. It was great to sit and watch these youth out sailing. There was aggressive sailing on the start line and laid back. There were pre-teens on prams and teens in double handlers. It was cool to see no fear in the young sailing around in gusty winds and all of the boat traffic in the area. All were having a good time. I have also seen the Naval Academy sailors out. They have four different sailing fleets including a single hander (Laser), double hander, quad hander and the big Navy 44’s that had a crew of 8-10. It definitely teaches sailing skills and builds team work as they sail in the different classes.

10/01/2008 The next day I moved from the Navy sea wall back to Weems Creek where I feel like I have taken up residence as it is a great anchorage. On the way up, I motored past the Naval Academy training ships. They are the YP class of boat. It appeared they were doing “touch and go’s” in docking and man-over-board drills.

The other boats here are boats you come across in a good water front. This beautiful three masted yacht was anchored just up from me. At night time, they light up the masts and made for a beautiful site at night time. The other boat I believe is an Open 60 that is used for racing around the world by the single-handers non-stop.