Dessert 1st, Northbound on the ICW

Munchkin · Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:54 am Post subject: Dessert 1st on the ICW

Hello,
Casey and Mary.
Once you make it to the dock at Paul's place you should also visit Bath free dockage at the state dock (no services) and Washington which has great waterfront dockage free for 72 hours if you don't need electric ( it has been a little chilly) If you plan to visit Bellhaven we highly recomend Spoonriver Artworks and Market for a nice dinner and great service.$$ It is within walking distance from Bellhaven Waterway marina and the
town dock.

We have been following your trip and would love to meet you both, but work schedules will get in the way this week. Safe travels
Erma and Ernie
Munchkin

Casey · Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 1:53 pm Post subject:

Jake - you make a good point. I also wondered at the lack of overtaking/passing signals, but they didn't use them. The only signal was (as I mentioned) the dreaded 5-Blast. Personally, my guess is that the on-watch bridge crew had a bet going to see if they could make a power boater crap-his-pants. ...and they almost Did! There never was any Real danger (other than me maybe having a heart attack), but it was an intersting experience. I'm sure it was all in good fun, and I took it that way (although the CO may have reamed a few folks if/when he/sheheard about it).

Munchkin - I don't know if we'll make it farther up the Pamlico than Paul and Ruth's but we'll see.... Likewise for Bath. We'll probably be steaming for Bellhaven when we leave their place.

We decided to take another day at Cherry Point and look around a bit. We hitchhiked five miles into the main part of the base, visited McDonald's then the base exchange. It was interesting to see a few (...Very few) places that I remembered from 60+ years ago.

Nap time.

Best,
Casey&Mary Male

Casey · Posted: Sun May 03, 2015 6:46 pm Post subject:

Well, let's see .... This is Day 30 and we are 904sm (or so) from Astor, FL.
We are currently anchored in a wide open area near the mouth of the Alligator River about 36 miles south of Elizabeth City, NC. The Wx is phenomenal. Nothing over one foot today, and it looks the same for the next few days (which should make for a good crossing of Albemarle Sound first thing tomorrow). The only thing around are four largish sailboats about 1mile away, and about a million (or two million...) crab traps as far as we can see.

Looking back over a previous post, I said the visit to MCAS Cherry Point was somewhat anticlimactic. I was premature. When we arrived at the dock and got situated, it all seemed very calm and quiet. Nothing going on, but that was ok. By the next morning we had met the dockmaster and a couple of people who are living aboard their Westsail32. By the next day we'd been invited to the "Hancock Yacht Club" happy hour so we decided to stay another day. By the third day we were getting the hang of things at Hancock, so decided to stay a third day. By the end of the third day Mary was talking about cancelling the rest of our trip and staying at Hancock Marina! ...time to leave, so on Wednesday (4/29) we finally made our getaway and resumed our northward odyssey.

On Thursday (4/30) we arrived at Pamlico Plantation (near Washington, NC) and met Paul and Ruth Cyr (CD25: "Seaweed"). Paul set us up with a slip in the community marina which has over 200 slips. Between showers and electricity, we were living Large! Paul even assisted in getting us to town, so we were able to visit Walmart and a laundromat. But the best was yet to come. Paul is a retired chef, and the dinner he fixed Friday night was beyond superb ... It was nothing short of Spectacular! (Thank You Paul and Ruth!)

We're seeing more and more vessels headed north now, and the temperature has warmed a bit. Today was a "shorts" day which is a very good thing.

Looking at the water - it is Absolutely FLAT calm as far as we can see. So far, no bugs other than something called a "blind mosquito." We're told they don't bite, but have a tendency to accumulate on the deck of boats. We'll see what the boat looks like tomorrow morning.

The next stop (tomorrow) should be Elizabeth City, where we have a mail-drop ready to be picked up.

Life is Good ... Very Good! Laughing

Best,
Casey&Mary

hardee · Posted: Sun May 03, 2015 7:38 pm Post subject:

Casey · Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 6:09 am Post subject:

Harvey - No, there was no opposing traffic. Yes, the channel was probably wide enough for the Deligence to pass (but that may have made the situation worse.

No, I'm pretty sure it was as I described: the bridge crew was having a bit of fun with the "little guy." The mere fact they waited as long as they did to announce their presence, and THEN chose to announce that presence with a "collision imminent" signal was in itself almost humorous. Collision was NOT imminent; the Deligence also had the option of slowing down so as not to create the event. But they chose not to. ...would have made for an interesting accident investigation to say the least.

Another possible scenario is that the 'watch was distracted (daydreaming?) and failed to see us in time to do anything but sound the alarm ... It takes a while to slow a 210' vessel. Frankly that scares me more than the joking-around scenario.

I was certainly contributory by not keeping 'watch behind (and moving out of the way earlier), but in the end, I think we all got a good laugh out off it. And we got a story to share with the 'Brats! "All's well that ends well."

Yesterday, on the Alligator River was interesting. There were at least 12-15 occasions when overtaking vessels announced their presence early and slowed to maneuver past. All without incident. One vessel (about 60' as I recall) was literally hauling-ass, but we could see him coming (we watch astern a little better Now), and we'd heard previous radio traffic announcing his presence. As he approached, both Mary and I commented about his wake and bow wave; they were Gigantic!!!! When he passed I fell in behind. As he put the yacht back up on plane, I accelerated as well just to get an idea of his cruising speed. At 30mph I broke it off and he was slowly pulling away. I would estimate his cruise speed at about 32 or 33mph. I suspect he burned as much fuel coming to planing speed as we burned all day (at 8mph)!

An interesting day.

Best,
Casey&Mary

BoaterHomer · Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 10:08 am Post subject:

Here's the boat/wake Casey was talking about barreling up the narrow Alligator River:

http://caseyandmary.smugmug.com/Florida-to-the-Chesapeake-2015/i-Zgk2294/M

http://caseyandmary.smugmug.com/Florida-to-the-Chesapeake-2015/i-64kkQgG/M

(I tried inserting as a photo instead of link and it didn't work for me this time. Used [img] and [/img] as usual but photo wasn't there. Oh, well.)

BoaterHomer · Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 12:02 pm Post subject:

For anyone wanting to follow our trip. A work in progress. Will add captions when we have internet access.

http://caseyandmary.smugmug.com/Florida-to-the-Chesapeake-2015/

hardee · Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 12:48 pm Post subject:

Wow...That wake is incredible, big, ugly and brown. Imagine what it is doing to the shore line. (And what it will do to that sailboat in the next pix or so to the left.) I hope that was taken with a VERY LONG lens, or that poor sailboat is going to have some "issues" Evil or Very Mad

Nice to get a look at the pix, even without the descriptions. Nice Sunrise/sunset pix and I loved the little red car on the "ferry". Nice looking food too. Thanks for the links.

Now find a nice cool place to be for a few days as the heat is coming on.

Harvey
SleepyC Moon

Larry Patrick · Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 3:22 pm Post subject:

Food looks delicious ,and all the stop overs beautiful areas. Cant believe that wake that guys making.

thataway · Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 7:09 pm Post subject:

Probably in a hurry to get to the next fuel dock,,,before he runs out of fuel…These guys make the ICW a pain…

You all are doing it right--going slowly and enjoying the ride! Thanks for the "trip"...

JamesTXSD · Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 8:14 pm Post subject:

Very nice - well, except for the wake... but nice that you documented it. Guys like that give powerboaters a bad rep.

Keep the fun coming!

Jim

Casey · Posted: Wed May 06, 2015 6:29 am Post subject:

Good Morning 'Brat's!

We didn't leave Elizabeth City until 1330 yesterday, and needed fuel before we proceeded onward. Interestingly, it seems the only place in EC with fuel is Lamb's Marina, a few miles to the north. The rumor was that the EPA has made it increasingly difficult for marina fuel vendor's and most have opted-out. ...anyway, we got our fuel and proceeded onward - into the "Dismal Swamp" (cue the scary, haunting music).

It was Beautiful ... and not scary at all. The South Mills Lock is fourteen miles north of Lamb's, and we knew we would miss the last opening for the day, but no problem. We tied-off between a couple of dolphins, and spent an absolutely quiet, no current/tide/wind/boats/bug's night. Delightful.

The first opening today will be at 0830, so our plan is to motor through and probably spend the day (and maybe the night) at the DS Visitor Center dock. Evidently "rafting" is very common due to the number of vessels that layover at the visitor center, so we'll be planning for that.

Yesterday morning (in Elizabeth City) was interesting. We had some errands to do, and we went back to "Quality Seafoods" for an early lunch. Mary had a double soft shell crab sandwich (which she raved about), and I had a side order of crab cakes that I thought was very tasty. The very simple place is highly recommended.

After lunch we visited the (free) Museum of the Albemarle. On the way back to the boat. We expected to spend a half hour, and ended up being there over two hours! It was Very interesting, and extremely well done.

While under way yesterday I noticed some strange goings-on with the switches and circuitry on the boat. After refueling I noticed that the fuel gauges only registered about 3/4 but I knew the tanks were full. We also noticed that the horn didn't work. Trying to determine what was going-on, I flipped the nav light switch and both fuel gauges and horn began working properly. When I turned the nav lights off everything continued to work normally. Hmm.... (I've always felt that electricity was about 90% magic; now I'm sure of it.). But happy to report - everything seems to be back online.

That's all for this time!

Best,
Casey&Mary

Jake · Joined: 31 Jan 2012 Posts: 171

Casey · Posted: Wed May 06, 2015 12:12 pm Post subject:

From comments on the Active Captain Facebook site the concensus seems to be come off plane and SLOW down to the point one's wake is not an issue. Many slower vessels suggest that they slow as well, thus making the passing interval as brief as possible. The main issue seems to be that the burdened(passing) vessel communicate their situation/intent soon enough to avoid a problem.

We have found that if we time the passing properly we can make a 360 degree clockwise turn, which then positions us perfectly for crossing the faster vessel's wake. Naturally that requires enough room to starboard to make a turn (and not put us aground). The alternative is to have the passing vessel proceed, and have their wake contact us on our port quarter - for us, not good. We prefer to contact their wake bow-on.

Best,
C&M