Docked in Brunswick

It was a quiet and peaceful night on the Frederica River.  The trees gave it nice protection from the wind.  It has been added to our list of favorite anchorages.

It was a quick two hour trip over to Brunswick Landing Marina and we were here by 11:15 on Sunday.  The St Simon Sound was glassy, so it was a very nice trip.

After fueling we went to our slip where BTC will stay until after Christmas.

We have been going nonstop since we got here.  Washing off the salt spray, washing clothes and Wayne had to rebuild the head to resolve a leak.  I have been picking up specialty items from our favorite stores but I had not done much provisioning before we left New Bern.  So for the past two days we have been to Walmart.  The lady in line in front of us on Sunday ask if we owned a restaurant !  I am buying nonperishables and still have LOTS to go.  Buying food for 20 weeks takes a lot of planning and shopping !

We are going to be busy between now and when we leave.

Thanksgiving will be in Marietta at the Cook's.  Wayne's sister, Anne, and her family are hosting the Poston family Thanksgiving again this year and we always look forward to spending time with them and enjoying Randy's skill with his smoker and grill :)  Wayne's parents, brother and sister-in-law will also be there.  After Thanksgiving we will check on BTC before heading home to Florida, stopping along the way to visit cruising friends.  Dec 1-9 will find us in California visiting Steve, Jen, Will and Charlotte.  I will give you fair warning now even though this is a blog about our cruise, after our trip to see the grandtwins, I will be posting adorable grandtwin pictures !

After California we get to spend a few more days at the house, getting it ready for our renters.  Then back to the boat, Belsan Christmas, Poston Christmas, Belsan after Christmas then back to the boat for final provisioning and then we head south.

The pelicans love to stand on the pilings here at the marina.  Here is one who stayed on our pole and posed  for us.  He did not seem to care that we were here or taking pictures of him.

Sunrise at Brunswick Landing Marina from the bow of BTC looking at the parking lot.

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving !

Tom Point Creek, Skull Creek, Red Bird Creek, Frederica River

11-16 to 11-19-11

We left Graham Creek in a light fog.  We stayed in fog until we reached the harbor at Charleston.  We like the view in Charleston Harbor but it was cloudy today so it was not a good day to take pictures. At times the fog was challenging.  It was nice to have the GPS map to help keep us on course.  It was cloudy with the winds picking up all day making it a little chilly.  We anchored in Tom Point Creek which was a new anchorage for us.  We would definitely stay there again.  The holding was great !  The wind blew all night and the tide changed, but our 45 pound Delta anchor held on.  I took a picture of our GPS which we use as an anchor alarm.  You can see our arch as we swung around the anchor.

Thursday was a windy day.  We had the currents in our favor but the bigger bodies of water were still choppy.  For some reason we have never caught the Coo Saw River on a good day.  I am not sure if it is us or if it just never has good days !  With the predicted wind of 30+ for the night we decided to stop at a marina.  We ended up at Skull Creek Marina at Hilton Head.  After securing the boat we took a walk around the neighborhood.  It was a windy night as promised and the heat felt good when we awoke to temps below 40.  Getting a dock was the right thing to do.

Welcome to Georgia !  To cross get into Georgia you cross over the Savannah River.  As we were going down the AICW our AIS (Automated Identification System) indicated a Target on the Savannah River.  Note: when we got back from our last cruise we bought Coastal Explorer Navigation Software and it came with an AIS reciever.  BIG boats and ships are required to have a transmitter, but we just have a receiver.  It has been a fun addition going down the AICW to see when ships are near but will be really nice to have when we are making our crossing to the Bahamas. Back to my story...we saw a Target on the AIS.  We decided to slow down and give the ship below the right of way based on the law of gross tonnage !  He was heading to sea, we crossed the Savannah behind him.

Bridges are one of the things on the AICW that can be a challenge.  Some bridge tenders enjoy using their power to make you wait.  We had two bridges in Savannah and if there was a bridge tender of the year award the bridge tenders at these two bridges would get my vote !  Both bridges open on request.  In both cases I hailed them on the VHF to request an opening and BOTH of them said don't slow down I will have it open when you get here !  So Georgia bridge tenders get my vote as the best !!!

As we were approaching a high rise bridge on the other side of Savannah, Wayne looked over and said "that sure is a tall mast; it is taller than the bridge".  I looked at it and said "that can't be a mast, it must be some kind of tower that they made look like a mast".  As we got closer it looked more and more like a mast.  It was a mast !!!  The picture below is of the Mirabella V, you can see the name on the boom if you zoom in.

I did a Google search and found this web page http://www.mirabellayachts.com/ which tells us the mast is actually 292 FEET tall !  She is 247 feet long and 48 feet wide.  It is the largest single masted yacht in the world !  That is a 35 foot power boat that looks like a toy in the foreground.

We anchored south of Savannah at Red Bird Creek. This was a new anchorage for us, but one we have put on the list to stay at again.

Today was another pretty day on the water.  It was over 70 degrees out and sunny.  We always enjoy watching the dolphins and birds.  The pelicans must be very used to boats going by because they do not move as we pass, they just continue to float around.  It was nice to have the tides and currents in our favor as we wound our way through the Georgia AICW.  It reminds me of being on the switch back roads in the mountains but you are weaving in and out of the marsh land.

Tonight we are anchored in front of Fort Frederica on the Frederica River at St Simons Island, Georgia.  As we were anchoring, the cannon went off.  I think they were welcoming us !  Actually they were doing a reenactment of some kind.  We could see soldiers in their red coats.

We are protected from the wind so it should be a good anchorage.  Low tonight only 55.  Tomorrow we move on to Brunswick Landing Marina.

Mile Hammock, St James and Wacca Wache

11-13 to 11-15-11
It was a quiet night on the hook at Mile Hammock Bay.  We were surprised that there were only 10 boats there, but is was nice because you did not have to worry about having enough room.  We got an early start and were out on the waterway before 7:00.  Wayne got some beautiful Sunrise pictures before we left.  Here is one of them, the water was so calm you can see the sunrise reflected in the water.

I took this picture as we were entering the waterway looking out behind us.  Sunrises and sunsets over the water make them even more beautiful.

We made great time all day.  We timed the bridges perfectly and the bridge tenders were kind. Our normal anchorage is at Carolina Beach, but we had a favorable current to make it through Snow's Cut and across the Cape Fear and it was early afternoon so we decided to keep going.  There were not any good anchorages on the other side of the Cape Fear.  We heard other boats calling the St James Plantation Marina.  We called and they had a spot for us for a reasonable price.  We got fuel and tied up to a slip.  St James Plantation is a gated community near Southport, NC.  They had a nice ships store and restaurant.  We would stay there again.

We got another early start and made great time.  We had another beautiful day on the water and saw dolphins, turtles and LOTS of Pelicans.   We tied up at Wacca Wache Marina for the night. Wayne's cousin Bryan and his wife, Sam, live just off the Waccamaw River near Wacca Wache Marina.  They had invited us over for dinner and were nice enough to let us do a load of laundry.  We had a fun evening and a wonderful dinner.  Bryan had caught some fish over the weekend and blackened them for us.  He also created a new shrimp recipe with a secret ingredient that was an emergency substitution that turned out REALLY good.

Tuesday found us out again early.  Wayne had to do some fancy backing to get out of the marina, he did it like a pro.  I guess this is like riding a bike we are getting used to it again very quickly after our 2 year break.

The Waccamaw River is different from most of the waterway with it's large moss covered trees.  I always enjoy the ride through this section.  The leaves were not quite as colorful as in the past but still very enjoyable.  This is a view along the Waccamaw.

 Today we played dodge the lily pad.  From far away this looked like a lot of debris in the water.  When you get up close it is clusters of lily pads.  We needed to avoid them to keep the roots from getting tangled in the props.  It is kind of like a live video game !

 We heard a boat ahead of us say "dolphins at red 26".  There are dolphins everywhere, so this was a little unusual.  We get there and my guess is there were 20 to 30 dolphins !!!  They were playing and having fun.  They love swimming next to the amas like they are racing the boat.  I was on the bow trying to get pictures...not a single one turned out.  I had so much fun watching them race the boat and jump in the wake. I kept thinking to myself these must be the teenage dolphins and if their mother's knew what they were doing they would be in trouble, but it sure was fun !

We passed this "one car ferry" in an out of the way place on the waterway.  The waterway was not very wide at this point .  I am not sure I would want my car on it.

We stopped at Graham Creek for the night.  We like this anchorage and have stopped here every time we have passed it.  After we had the anchor down the boat ahead of us hailed us and ask if they would like to join them and the two boats they had been traveling with on their boat for Happy Hour.  We had been in this group of boats off and on since we had anchored with them at Mile Hammock.  We met Ross and Diana from s/v One White Tree, Chris and Brenda from s/v Tango and John and Deb from s/v Java.  It was a fun get together.

We used our dinghy to get over to One White Tree.  This was the first time we had used the dinghy and the dinghy motor in 2 years.  They worked well and we once again were able to remember all of our methods of getting the dinghy down, the engine on etc.  For those of you new to the blog we have a 10 foot Avon Inflatable with a 15 hp Mercury Mariner outboard also known as the "family car".  We also carry two sea kayaks for a little exercise :)

On our way !

Thursday night was predicted to be windy and cold, therefore a good night to be tied up at our home dock at Northwest Creek Marina, so we delayed our departure until Friday, 11/11/11.  We jokingly said we were going to leave at 11:11:11,  but at that time we were still wondering if the wind would lay down enough for us to go.

At noon we decided it was time to go.  Dawn and Paul helped us by tending the dock lines.  Everyone else was tucked away at home because it was chilly.  We were very thankful for our full cockpit enclosure to keep the wind off.  The wind was behind us and gave us a little added speed.  We put up the main (our smallest sail) until we made the turn into Adams Creek.  The Genny would not stay full so we took it down.  The current was favorable as we went down Adams Creek.  Adams Creek is where we join the ICW from the Neuse River.  We had our fastest time ever and made it to Town Creek in Beaufort and had the hook down by 5:00.  New engine, sail drive and Otto all working well !!!

It is always fun to watch the dolphins in Adams Creek.  They were with us again today.  Old sailors say they are lucky !

After not anchoring for over 2 years you always question if you will still be able to do it...but we did just fine.  It almost looked like we knew what we were doing.

We were both tired after a busy day.  It was a calm night.  The hook held well.  Although it was cold outside, our berth was cozy.

Saturday we were up and ready to go in time to go through the 7:00 AM opening of the Beaufort Bridge.  We have never been through this bridge before in Born to Cruise.  It is the best way to go if you are going out in the ocean, but taking the waterway like we normally do, we prefer going under the high rise bridge and avoiding the traffic in the busy part of the yacht basin. Below is the bridge as it opened for us this morning.

It was chilly out this morning, but the water was like GLASS !   Saw lots of dolphin and pelicans. Lots of fishermen were also out and about. The good anchorages are limited on this part of the waterway, so we had a short day. We are now anchored in Mile Hammock Bay near Camp Lejune, NC.   Pat said we should change the oil in our "new" engine after about 10 hours just in case there was a sliver of metal or something that got in it during the rebuild.  The engine now has 12.2 hours, so this is a good time to change the oil.  Wayne is also changing the port engine oil now so we can keep them on the same schedule.

It is great to be back out on the water !

Starboard engine and final prep

After our trip to Florida it was back to New Bern to find out what was wrong with our starboard engine.  Pat arrived late Tuesday afternoon and decided it would be best to start fresh on Wednesday morning.

First a little back ground on our engines, you understand of course that I am not a mechanic, Wayne handles that, I write the Blog, so this will be nontechnical terms.  Being a catamaran we have 2 engines.  They are 35 horse power Yanmar Diesels.  They are raw water cooled, meaning they use the water we are floating in to cool the engines.  They no longer make this style of engine because salt water causes corrosion. Now back to the story…

When we tried to start the starboard engine so Pat could see how slow it started, see the smoke it created and hear the noise it was making…it refused to start…not a good sign.  So he pulled the top of it off (the head to those of you who know engines).  He immediately saw that a push rod was bent.  He suspected he would find a bent push rod because that is what normally causes the clanging sound we were hearing.  If this had been the only problem he could have fixed it and gone home that day…but something caused it to bend. The normal cause is a water leak.  He dug further and found everything was clogged and corroded. Not good.  This meant a rebuild. 

Pat called a friend in Ft Lauderdale to see if they had an extra core so he could start with that to make the rebuild quicker.  They did not have a core but they did have a rebuilt engine.  Pat told them to put his name on it.  After hearing the price we agreed that was the way to go.  (The price was cheaper than the estimated cost of doing a rebuild and you already know the cost, when you do a rebuild the costs are unknown…which is scary). Transportation was arranged, the rebuilt engine would arrive early Thursday morning.  Wayne and Pat took our engine apart preparing for the new one to arrive.  To keep this short, the rebuilt engine arrived on Friday.  The surprise was that it was a fresh water cooled engine.  The “footprint” is the same and it came with all the parts that make it different from a raw water cooled engine.  Simply put we got a better engine than we expected, so we were happy.  The engine was installed in just a few hours and runs great.  So we now have one fresh water engine and one raw water engine.

Pat took the old engine with him and over the winter when he is not busy will see if he can rebuild it.  We have two engines so we may need another one.

This is a picture of Pat putting parts back on the 'new' engine after having to remove them so the engine could be lowered through the hatch.

Saturday we spent resting and spending time with friends that we will not see again until we return in the spring.  Now that the engine was running it was time to work on the autopilot.  Wayne installed the autopilot without any problems.  Tuesday was a beautiful day.  Sue and Mark from Patience joined us for a ride in the river to calibrate the autopilot and give the engine another test.  Both worked GREAT !

After provisioning runs, lots of clean up, several trips to West Marine and a trip to the Yanmar dealer buying spare parts, replacing the lens on the tricolor and giving the deck a final scrub we were ready to go.  Weather predictions were saying there would be a blow on Thursday night with low morning temperatures, so spending Thursday night at the dock seemed like a good idea.  The winds were supposed to lay down in the early afternoon on Friday and it should be a good day to leave.  Plans were made to leave on Friday afternoon.

October getting ready for Cruise #3

Wayne ‘retired’ again on Sept 29.  I don’t think we have slowed down since!

Our haul out was scheduled for Oct 3 at 7:30 AM.  At 7:31 BTC was coming out of the water !  This was our 3^rd haul out at Bock Marine and it will not be our last.  Kenny and his crew always do an excellent job.  Since we were there last they have added a very nice new boater’s lounge and bath house. 

Picture of Wayne watching our haul out, seemed funny to be wearing a jacket and jeans but it was chilly !

This haul out was the shortest and smoothest on record for BTC.  The bottom was sanded and painted. Hulls compounded and waxed. The rebuilt and new to us starboard sail drive was installed.  Engine exhaust was moved from between the hulls to the exterior. Exhaust used to billow under the dinghy and then come into the cockpit enclosure, so this is resolved.  Wondering why we did not make this change earlier !  Sail drive oil changed and the zincs, seals and boots were all replaced.

Our excitement from the great haul out was short lived.  The trip back to Northwest Creek Marina confirmed what we suspected, that Otto (our name for our autopilot), our faithful third crew member, was not working and our starboard engine that had been smoking, making excess noise and had been difficult to start was worse.

After further testing and following the trouble shooting manual it was determined Otto was officially dead.  The corepack and head would need to be replaced. Luckily the linear drive was still working.  Parts were ordered knowing Wayne could do the install when they arrived.

The starboard engine was another matter.  We had our local engine guy check it out and he determined it was more than he wanted to take on.  After calling the local engine people we decided to call Pat McCartin from Inland Marine Diesel who came highly recommended by George and Lynn on Sunspot Baby.  Pat could come to New Bern to work on the boat November 1.  This fit well with our schedule. 

We visited Brian and Almendra then both sets of our parents and were happy to spend two weeks at home in Florida working in our yard and enjoying floating in our pool. 

Getting Ready for Cruise Number 3 !!!

It has been way too long since I have updated this blog !!! Life is GOOD but VERY busy !!!

A few highlights since I last posted:

Wayne has been working since January of 2010, first back at his old job at New Hill, NC (we had an apartment in Cary). In February we moved to an apartment in Hartsville, SC where he has been working for Robinson Nuclear Plant. His last day of this contract is Sept 29, 2010 and YES we are going cruising this season !!!! YEAH !!!

A few exciting family things and then back to talking about the boat which is why you are reading this. We have added 4 new family members since I last updated the blog.
On July 24, 2010, Brian and Almendra were married, so we now have another beautiful daughter!!! They purchased a beautiful new town home in Cary and have just celebrated their first anniversary.
On July 27, 2010 - my 55th Birthday, Jenny had TWINS !!! So Steve and Jen are now a family of 4 with Will and Charlotte. Our grandtwins are adorable, we just wish they were on the east coast instead of California. Steve has promised to request the east coast for his next Navy duty assignment.
On August 7, 2011 - my brother, Jay married Ginger. We are excitied to have a new sister-in-law.

While Wayne has been busy working one of my projects was doing some landscaping on our house in Florida. We have discovered what grows best in our yard is weeds !!! The inside of the house is looking good, I have painted everything except the 4th bedroom. Still working on pictures and organization but I am willing to bet the former owners would not recognize it. We must admit it is a challenge keeping up with a boat, an apartment and a house !!!

Yes, we are planning on cruising this season. The plan as of today : Finish work end of September and haul out for paint, oil change etc first week in October. Take Born to Cruise to Brunswick, Georgia in early November. Enjoy the holidays with family and then head over to the Bahamas early in January !

So now we are busy planning our cruise and getting the dust off of Born to Cruise.