November 2016 - Boat Life Larks

Another day on the ocean! Matt spent all this day staring at the engines. Good job he has a strong stomach; I'm not up for pitching and tossing in a confined space! We were joined by a new bird (see how exciting things can be?). It looks like Matt got 9.1 knots on his watch, whereas I slowed the boat to 1 knot on mine. Two new snacks were introduced at night! Someone did an amazing job with provisioning. They should get a gold star.

8:30AM. LW I’m up for the day. I ask Matt how his watch was. “Fine”. Anything to report? “No”. Matt then relegated himself to the engine room. Why? Because Starboard Stan ejected his oil drain plug for no reason and relinquished all his oil. Obviously, this makes the engine inoperable; I would count this as “not fine” and “something to report”. Different communication styles and excitability levels.

Another day at sea? Great, just great!

Staring at Starboard Stan

8:40AM. LW Oh, the ICW is up and running! This time "it’s actually nice to see someone who can do a slow pass for a change. From a sailboat’s standpoint.”

9:00AM. LW "Did you see that boat?" Matt asks as it motors by off our port side. I had just been lamenting the lack of cohorts out here.

9:15AM. LW Breakfast (coffee and cereal) 4 knots is getting old. 7.5 was much better.

9:34AM LW Flying fish! We had been commenting on their lack. Here they are, they say. Happy? Yes. Thanks.

12:45PM LW Portside Pete On - tired on the sails clanking at 2 knots.

1:05pm MC Justin Beiberbird has entered the salon. (This is the first time Justin Beiberbird has entered the log. He arrived sometime earlier and was named for his disdainful attitude and signature head bobbing skills.)

Justin Beiberbird getting bold!

1:24pm MC The 500’+ Vehicle Assembly Building and launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center are in sight! First sight of land since Cape Fear.

3:30PM LW Portside Pete off, Starboard Stan on.

Staring at the water intrusion in the portside engine, mere weeks after we replaced the seal. Good times!

4PM LW Starboard Stan off, Portside Pete on! Stan thinks ejecting his oil is fun and wants to do it all day long.

5:15PM LW - Engines off, sails up, 5 knots speed. Hopefully the wind will pick up one of these days.

While Matt is barking orders from the engine room, Hastings discovers Justin and lunges for him. I lunge for Hastings. As part of the truce, Justin relocates to the dinghy. Meanwhile, a sport fisher appears on my port and Independence lunges to avoid it. Matt wants to know why I’m not cranking the starboard engine. (Matt has now spent most of the day in the engine room, but this third fix seems to be holding)

5:45PM LW Dinner - Shephard's pie

6:00PM LW - I’m on the first night watch with no less than 7 large ships and cruise liners to keep me company. They all seem to be on AIS.

9:00PM LW- Moonrise. Struggling with sea sickness for the first time. The sea state is uncomfortable, the moon hasn’t risen so it is pitch black and I’m doing my watch from the inside nav table. Every time I turn my head to check the radar, I feel really ill. I don’t want to be outside (even though I feel less sick outside) since it’s really windy and I think I’m doing Matt a favor by staying in (less worry!)

10:00pm MC Matt called to duty. Beam reaching between 5.5 and 7.5 knots. At least no engines are blowing up!

12:10am MC Sweet Spicy Doritos

12:53am MC 9.10 knots surfing down a wave in a gust. Is that a record?

1:15am MC Opened the M&Ms

1:50am MC Majesty of the Seas passing on the horizon. Wind calming down, speed now 3-5.5 knots. Still lumpy! Hate the lumpy with no wind.

2:53am MC Nothing is going on. Just felt like making an update to have something to do.

3:00AM. LW Lucy on watch. Matt gave me 5 hours! I feel a little better, but still struggling. Hey, look! M&Ms!

4:45AM. LW Portside Pete on. There is a limit to how much 1.5-2.5 knots I can take. The not getting anywhere is no beuno, but it’s the flailing sails that hurts my kidneys. Navy ship passed 1/2 mile behind me. I was all prepared to get fired on or boarded or something, but nothing.

5:45AM. LW Wind has picked up so I turn Portside Pete off. Making 5 knots now.

7:00AM- LW Passing St Lucie Inlet. Quite a few fishing boats out. Listening to Miss Marple. I have no idea who these people are, who killed who, or why.

7:43AM. LW VHF traffic indicates the ICW is up and running. Sailing at 6.5 knots! Oh how fickle our speed has been!

November 16th

Reading over the log, it seems like a pretty dull day. We’re finally downwind sailing with variable wind speeds. We saw lots of dolphins during the day and night. We were beyond excited to enter Florida waters and change into shorts and t-shirts. It was almost too hot!

Terry the tern joined us for a rest. Hastings tried to evict him but he snuck back on. We both deluded ourselves into believing that a possible blip at sunset was a “green flash”.

During Matt’s last night watch, Starboard Stan had an oil problem. Wait, did I say it was dull? In non-passage related items, today was our 6 month anniversary since we officially left our home dock. Also, you can tell who is writing the log but our use of capitals: Lucy is shouting out AM, and Matt is whispering am. What larks!

8AM. LW. Matt ate 5 snaps in one sitting? Is that a record? Humm. I wrote that I had 3, but really, I just ate a bunch and wrote 3. It was probably more. I mean, I wouldn’t lose count at just three, right? They are really little. Tiny. Made for borrower people, not humans! 3 little ones is like one regular size one. And ginger is a veggie. Really, people should be amazed at our commitment to health, even in the middle of the sea.

Everyone is up for the day. No one wants a nap. I think Hastings is a little dissapointed that we’re still in the ocean. Will it never end? I left the boat sailing at 7.5 knots. I awake to it floundering along at 4. What kind of stewardship is that?

We can see a “Tower Horn” on our starboard side. Yesterday afternoon, we decided to shave 40 miles off the trip by going through the “Tower Horn” area. Thankfully, they showed up really well on radar and were well charted. In the day, it looks like a huge crane structure - in the middle of the ocean! We are 50 miles offshore. Seems like a lot of effort to build these structures in the middle of the ocean. What is their purpose? We will have to find out when we get google back. (Apparently, they house equipment to monitor Navy aerial combat training exercises)

9:10AM. LW Hastings kept me company during breakfast but got into his bed for a nap. It’s a ruff life!

10:31am. MC Angry ICW boater 1: “Hey, thanks for rearranging the furniture!” Angry ICW boater 2 retorts, “If you don’t like my wake, slow down ’n I’ll give it to you again!”

11AM. LW Port Wine Cheese and crackers for elevenses. Yum! Hastings will wake up for cheese!

12:30PM. LW We’ve been underway 50 hours and are about halfway. Winds are very calm; we are trudging along at less than 4 knots. Jibed to sea. Making 3.5 knots in mostly the wrong direction makes me really think about motoring, . Hot dog lunch. See the first boat I’ve seen since the whacko tried to run me down last night - a sportfisher crossing a few miles behind us.

1:15PM. LW Wind at 3 knots, traveling at 1.5 knots, mostly in the wrong way. Turned on portside Pete. Motoring at 6 knots. Lounging on the tramps, enjoying the Florida sunshine and looking forward to 3PM tea and chocolate biscuits.

Ruff life!

1:30PM LW Dolphins! 2,3,4,6,8 - mother and babies! Stayed for 15 minutes.

1:50PM LW More dolphins! We’ve both changed into shorts and t-shirts and agree the Florida sun is almost too intense.

Dolphins between our bows

3:45PM LW Tea and chocolate biscuits

4:00PM LW Engine off, sails up - 4.5 knots in 8 knots of wind, running

5:25PM LW Sunset! Sunset in NC was 5:12 so we have added 13 minutes of daylight. Yay! We think we saw a little blip right at sunset and have decided to call it a green flash. Dinner of chicken pot pie (premade) topped with Pillsbury croissant roll for the pie crust. Really good!

Sunset at sea

6PM LW Wing on wing. Dolphins on starboard side, tern on the tramps. The tern tried to land in the cockpit but Hastings heartily voiced his disapproval. It’s a funny thing to be such an animal farm miles from shore; Hastings barking in the middle of the ocean seemed very unexpected.

6:39pm - MC wants to make sure that the tern is in the log. His name is Terry Tern. He is resting on the starboard bow now. LW hunting for bioluminescent dolphins.

7PM. LW Dolphins in our underwater lights! So cool. These ones are the little fast ones. We’ve had a lot of bigger ones, some really big ones, and some spotted. We really need to add a whole bunch more lights so the whole length of our hulls are lit up.

8:00pm MC Matt on watch. Moonrise!

8:50pm MC Running port tack now. New waypoint off of Cape Canaveral, too far for the GPS to compute our time of arrival. Manual estimates: sometime in the late 26th century.

9:13pm MC Strange bird calls from the dark: whoo lou lou lou whoo lou lou lou. Terry Tern unimpressed.

9:16pm MC Wind is picking up but from an unfavorable direction.

9:35pm MC More dolphins. Yawn. Regular dolphins, not bioluminescent dolphins. Double yawn.

9:55pm MC Starboard Stan called into duty: cargo ship and tug converging (12 miles off, seen on AIS) and wind is keeping us in the shipping lanes for too long. Hastings and I accidentally scared Terry who flew away, but he came back.

11PM. LW on duty. Sleep is nice. Being awoken is not. The moon is up, making it perpetual dusk. Off St Augustine. I’m sure Dave Barry and a lemon drop will help me adjust, although I’m worried what I’ll do for the next 300 years.

Nov 17th

12:11AM. LW BBQ chips snack. Tern still hanging out. No dolphins. No anyone.

1:12AM. LW. Matt got up to check on the wind. Still not enough to sail (5 knots apparent). Lemon drop.

3:15AM. LW. Dave Barry is over. Now I’m just stuck with “Passage to India”. I've been listening to it for 14 hours, and I'm not sure why. I thought it would be like this log, you know, talking about a slow ocean passage. From England to India is a really long way, so I could have the company of a fellow passagemaker. But the book starts off already in India! Ginger snap.

3:59am. MC. Matt on duty. Terry still resting on the bow. Being overtaken by a tug.

6:00am MC. Strange chirping noise. Investigated. Engine oil pressure alarm chirping on and off. Shut down engine to sail, will check engine after sunrise.

7:20am MC. Hastings got up for a pee and Terry took his leave. Turns out, terns are messy house guests.

Terry the Tern

7:34am MC. A large pod of dolphins has been hanging out with Inde for at least 30 minutes now.

Have you ever seen a green flash at sunset or is it all lies?

Another day on the ocean. We passed by Charleston first thing and enjoyed a warmer day. We’re still close hauled and dealt with variable winds from 2-17 knots, and had to motor through dead calm for a few hours.

Red Sunrise

Matt caught our first two fish! Very exciting! Sadly, they were bonita which are not good to eat, so they are free to swim another day.

Fish on!

It was bigger than it looks, I swear!

Sunset, somewhere in the Atlantic

Our wake at 7 knots

View from our emergency hatches - check out that clear blue water!

Today’s first night watch was the stuff dreams are made of. I’ve been so caught up in waiting for weather windows and worrying about staying awake on night watches that it never occurred to me to look forward to the actual passage. It’s just been a means of getting to Miami.

Sitting out, watching shooting stars blaze amongst a million other stars and the milky way - looking down to bioluminescent jelly fish flashing on and off - watching a dolphin swim through our bioluminescent wake- it’s pure magic. I enjoyed this show for an hour until the next phase of the night: the red super-moon rising. The fires in Georgia have meant that every celestial event has been red, red, red. The moon is so bright it blots out the stars and the bioluminescence, but it’s pretty handy to have the sky as bright as dawn throughout the night. I think it’s one of the reasons I haven’t felt exhausted or glued to watching a slow moving clock.

Night watch

Red moon rising

Hour by Hour Tedium- brace yourselves!

8AM- Matt’s on watch. More dolphins! Heave to, let the dog go on deck, un-reef. I head to bed for an hour while Matt makes himself coffee and breakfast

9AM- Up for the day, and I don't feel tired or out of it at all. I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful! Baby stepping to Miami! What we need here, is a vacation from ourselves!

Matt makes me coffee. Speed is 1 knot - we turn on Portside Pete to get 5 knots. Message my dad on the iridium and receive a reply. Nice to have some contact and let my folks know everything is good. Last night I had thermals, two sweaters, scarf, hat, hoodie, and my big jacket on. This morning just jeans and a long sleeve. No thermals, no layers, no hat, no scarf, no jacket! Is it because we are further south or just that today is a warmer day? We will take it!

Swell around 3 feet. Comfortable ride even though we are disappointed to have to motor. We can’t have it all!

By the way, Tango is still ahead of us; they did not turn to Charleston. Are they going to Savannah? Wouldn't it be funny to follow them to Florida?

Hastings slept in bed all night with the off watch person and is napping in the cockpit, he seems fine. He doesn't like rough weather and will get seasick so these conditions are good.

10:30AM. I’m sitting in the cockpit reading with Hastings. A weird noise catches my attention. This is a noise I have never heard before so it takes a while to register: FISH ON! Matt also takes a moment to register my words, but snaps into action, hauling and hauling and hauling. I slow down the boat. Matt says it doesn't have much fight, maybe it’s just an old boot? It’s a fish! Looks little; is it even legal size? Is it a tuna? Can we eat it? It’s a bonita tuna, and we know that’s not good eating. Shame - would have made a good sashimi! He goes back into the water. We’re both so unused to this that we didn't get a good picture. It’s the first fish we’ve ever caught on Independence! The line is back in the water and we’re now waiting for an edible tuna or mahi.

11:15AM Another fish! Another bonita. Matt retires his fishing pole as fishing is too exhausting.

12 Noon. Motor is off and we are sailing at 5 knots, close hauled, tacking away from our course. It’s been smoky on the horizon today due to fires on land.

12:15PM. Lunch: Bread, cheese, chips, garlic dip, hummus, carrots, cucumber.

2PM: Matt on watch. Lucy sits down to read. How is this different from being on watch?

3:05PM. Spotted dolphins Hank, Phil and Seymore rode the bow wave. Cowabunga.

3:13PM. High tea with Lady Lucy, Baronette of Lagoon Manor.

4PM: Lucy on watch.

5:11PM: Sunset, glowing red due to the smoke

5:30PM: Lentil chili and bread dinner. Really glad we cooked ahead - makes meals and dishes so much easier and ensures we eat well instead of solely subsisting on granola bars and chocolate.

6PM: Lucy on watch. We have 2 AIS boats behind us - but going at 9 knots they are sure to overtake us! They are headed to Miami and Ft Lauderdale. Good idea!

The winds are slacking and we are crawling at 4 knots in 8 knots of wind - still a close haul.

6:30PM - It’s only 6:30, yet its incredibly dark - so many stars - and one shooting star. Now we are barely making headway at 2 knots. Matt said the wind would fill in right away from the north, so I’ll wait until 7, but I’ll turn on the engines then if there’s no improvement.

I’d been so wrapped up in weather planning, and meal planning, and worries over hitting things at night and being bored and sick and tired and hating night watches I’d forgotten how beautiful passages can be, and how lucky I am to have such an amazing experience.

6:46PM - Bioluminescent flashing jellies!! Love it!

7:20PM - Amazing night. Next up: bioluminescent dolphin. Yeah, baby, yeah! Then the supermoon rose and blotted out the bioluminescence and the stars - but hey, this moon is like the sun. It’s red due to the ash/smoke/fires, and so bright! It’s mesmerizing, and really helps to stay awake. Of course, I have some whacko who has the whole ocean but insists on being within 1/2 mile of me. It’s cause we’re so attractive here.

8:30PM Chips and garlic dip snack. I should save some for Matt, but I don’t. Selfish. Winds so light and variable - driving me crazy. 4 knots, giving us 2 knots of speed. 11 knots! 6 knots of speed! Nothing. 0. Sails flailing. I’ll turn on the engines, you bastard! Oh wait, here’s 13 knots.

11:00PM Matt on. Woke Starboard Stan for his night watch. Wind calm.

11:45PM Night watch. Three podcasts down: Alton Brown cooking biscuits and gravy for William Shatner, Neil Degrass Tyson interviewing George Takei and the 59-North podcast interview of the Pardeys. Dolphins don’t seem to like underwater lights. Peanuts, granola bars and Reese’s Cups. Lots of cargo ships around.

1AM: Back to Lucy. “Time for your watch” I’m told as the light is thrown on. That’s more like the hard passage I was expecting. I wake Matt up nicely, asking how he is, etc. Not Matt. "Get up!" I was asleep too.

1:20AM. You know what? Matt gave me 4 hours! I guess I shouldn’t complain!

2AM. Wind has filled in, I pull out the jib and turn off the engine, which wakes Matt up to check on me. (We can make all sail changes, including reefing, without leaving the helm). 11 knots true/17 apparent, giving us 7 knots, close hauled.

4AM. 3 ginger snaps.

4:40AM. Granola bar. Better wind angle, but quite slammy.

5:05AM. Went to get Matt for his watch. Turned on the light. Hastings opened his eyes and looked at me. I leaned over Matt. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

5:10AM. Is it possible that he is dead? It’s really quite slammy. That light in the bedroom is pretty dim though- one of the cheap LEDs we got. (When I went to bed, I realized the problem; the bright moon was shining directly through our overhead hatch and it already seemed like day, and was definitely brighter than the hall light I was relying on to wake Matt up!)

5:20AM He’s finally up and has taken over the live blogging.

5:45AM. Wind has finally begun to shift as forecast. Now on a beam reach. 5 ginger snaps.

6:40AM. Sunrise. A pod of very small dolphin raced to the boat, leaping out of the water and gathered in the bow wave. They seemed overjoyed at the new day!

6:46AM. Banana stocks reduced to nil. Halfway through a Ms. Marple audiobook. Who are these people?

7:04AM. CG securite message about Right Whales being active here. Don’t go near them, report sightings. Lies, all lies.

7:22AM. VHF radio studies indicate that the ICW Rat Race has begun for the day.

Are you a night person or do you prefer to get up early?

I have 5 days of notes from our passage south, and I will be presenting these two ways: 1. quick overview for normal people who only have a vague interest. 2. Copy and paste of my very tedious hourly entries for those who want to count how many ginger snaps we can eat, or who desperately want to try to look “busy at work” instead of arguing with your family members over the best way to cook sweet potatoes.

Day One, Monday, November 14th

We awoke to find fog concealing the marina inlet. This gave us a good opportunity to take Hastings on a long walk, enjoy our coffee and breakfast and chat with neighbors. By 10:30AM the fog had lifted and we were on our way! We were pushed out the inlet at 9 knots and watched dolphins surfing the waves; a good omen at the start of a voyage.

We’ve been anticipating this passage south for a long time we’re pleased as punch to actually be underway. It was an overcast day and we made about 6 knots close hauled (sailing with the wind in your face - this is like walking uphill)

Melissandre would say “The night is long and full of terrors”. This is mostly true, but I think she’s a little negative. Maybe she needs better snacks to help her out.

Fog at Bald Head Island, N.C.

Goodbye "Old Baldy", the 1817 lighthouse

Departing Cape Fear Inlet

Tedious Minutiae for the Really Bored, or those looking for a sleep aid.

10:30AM Depart marina and make 9 knots out the inlet!

10:36AM We’re in the ocean and watching dolphins surf waves to the beach. A good omen!

10:45AM Sails up, engines off. 3.5 knots in 7 knots of wind, close hauled

11:03AM Ginger Snap

11:15AM Banana

11:30AM 6 knots in 10 knots of wind, close hauled. 3-5 foot swell, but feels negligible compared to the choppy bays we have beaten through. Who knew the ocean was kinder than a bay?

11:45AM Mustard delivery vehicle (hot dogs), salt and vinegar chips, fun size Almond Joy

1:11PM Jib in, Starboard Stan on. We were tacking into Cape Fear’s separation zone and need to motor to keep on a course outside the zone. Lemon drop.

1:35PM 4 dolphins portside!

2:37PM Motor off, 6 knots in 13 knots of wind, still close hauled, which is like the downwind sailing every forecast said to expect, but different.

3:30PM Tea and chocolate biscuits

4:20PM Drizzling rain with storm clouds and lightning on the horizon. We reefed the main in case of higher winds in the storm. ("Reefing" involves making the main sail shorter. This reduces the chance we will be overpowered by wind. If you leave "full sail" up and get really high winds, a catamaran like ours runs the risk of being capsized or the mast breaking. This would make everyone sad.)

4:21PM Reefing the main has caused the rain to stop and the storm clouds to vanish. Good job, us!

5:12PM Sunset, unnoticed due to clouds. Getting cold.

5:20PM Dolphins! Baby dolphins! Leaping by the bow!

5:30PM Glad we figured out how to set the auto pilot to the wind angle. It’s keeping us a 35 degrees off the wind, as close hauled as we can get, and and near to our course as possible. Dinner: Ready to heat spinach and chick pea curry. The dolphins stayed throughout dinner.

6PM. Sticky rice treat with the left over rice from dinner. Matt is on the first night watch (yep, it is pitch black at 6PM!) The waves feel bigger, but I think it’s just the darkness. Hastings decided his duty is to keep the off watch person company.

10PM.Matt gave me 4 hours off-watch. No wonder it seemed like a very long 3 hours! I don't think I slept at all. The first part of the night I laid there thinking about Matt being washed over, and how I would get up, discover he was missing, set a GPS marker, turn around, follow my course back while trying to figure out which way the waves would have taken him and calling the Coast Guard. I wondered how cold the water was and how much battery the lights on our PFDs have. (We have Personal Locater Beacons, attached to our life jackets, that would send out a signal to our GPS in the event of a crisis, but nighttime anxieties are rarely rational)

Then I moved on to more important concerns; what kind of snack would I have when it was my watch? Would I start with a granola bar, or a Reese’s? Will I feel like making brownies tomorrow? Also, why does it sound like the boat is tearing apart? Our boat is so loud when beating into the wind! It creaks (this is a production boat issue I think), and waves slam between the hulls (this is a catamaran issue). It is really loud!

How are the boats we have been tracking? Is Tango still abeam us? Is that Matt clanking, or is that more boat noises? I wonder how fast we are sailing. During our previous passages, the wind usually dies at night and we slow right down to 3 knots and sometimes motor. I haven't heard the motor come on, but Matt did say we were doing this trip for free no matter how long it took.

Maybe I’ll start with a lemon drop. Maybe there’s some sticky rice left! This isn’t good. We’re 10 hours into our passage and I’m going crazy. That’s 1/10th of the way. Reese's. That’s what I’ll start with. Oh, ginger snap! Yeah! Ginger snaps are the best. They’re yummy without being too sweet and supposedly help keep the mal de mar at bay.

10:32PM. Listening to a Dave Barry audiobook. It’s set on Key Biscayne in Miami, our destination. Gotta get mentally ready for the craziness that is Miami!

Super moon and two sailboats are keeping me company. Tango, on the AIS, is 2 miles ahead, and an unknown boat is about 2 miles behind. Are they headed to Charleston or will they keep going? We’ll find out tomorrow morning! (We have a send and receive AIS system. Other boats with AIS send their position to us, and we can see them on our GPS. It's really handy at night because I struggle to tell how fast a boat is going; the AIS tracks speeds and directions and warns us if we are getting too close to another boat. We also have radar which will pick up other boats and even navigation markers)

11PM Reese’s snack

11:30PM Passing Georgetown, S.C. - Winyah Bay inlet. Tango moves to our port side. The appearance of their green running light takes me a while to figure out!

Midnight - Tuesday, Nov 15th - finish off the salt and vinegar chips.

1:30AM-Off watch after 3.5 hours

5AM - back on watch after 3.5 hours of sleep. It was hard to get myself back out of bed! Wind has died to 7-8 knots, speed is 3.7 knots. When the sun rises, we will take out the reef and get more speed. 15 miles from Charleston - I can see ships in the distance and lots of AIS targets. We have overtaken Tango instead of being neck and neck. I guess he is a sailing purist also as he is trailing us at a snail’s pace.

6:15AM - sunrise, joined by 3 dolphins for about 10 minutes. I think Tango has given up and is motorsailing - they’ve smoked us while we dodder at 3 knots.

7AM - granola bar

What's your go to snack to keep you awake at night?

Check back on Friday to see how many lemon drops I can eat on Day 2!

Friday, November 11 - Sunday November 13th

We've been lingering in Carolina Beach, but the days are getting shorter, it's getting colder, and our ICW friends are arriving, staying the night, and departing first thing, making us feel like slackers. So, do we continue down the ICW or attempt another passage?

Looking at the weather, it seemed we would have a weather window open up on Sunday, November 13th. We wanted to stage our exit as near Cape Fear inlet as possible, and Southport seemed like the obvious choice. It’s supposedly a cruisers paradise with many marinas etc. The one marina that could accommodate us was $1.95 a night, and we just couldn’t get excited about it. The truth is, we’ve become curmudgeons about the ICW curmudgeons and prefer out of the way places rather than the “you must stop here or else” places. So we set our sights on Bald Head Island, just a few miles from Southport and directly on the Cape Fear Inlet.

The area between Carolina Beach and Southport is a little tricky. If there is a favorable current in "Snow's Cut", the current will be against you in Cape Fear River. We chose a favorable current in Cape Fear River - last time we had the current against us here and it slowed us to 3 knots for hours!

We have a system for the ICW. I helm. Matt downloads the Army Corp of Engineers reports, Active Captain reports, and enters waypoints if necessary. He then reads off the info - "hug this green and then go straight to the red." "The next red shoals completely, so keep your distance." "This is where we change from ICW to Inlet markers so the colors reverse."
The Corp keep the surveys up to date - this one was completed 2 days before we transited!
Army Corp of Engineers Snow's Cut data

We conquered the shoals and currents (getting 9 knots down Cape Fear River with the current!), arrived at our marina, got diesel and had the slowest pump out ever. 20 minutes to pump maybe 30% of our tank; yes, everyone gave up. We wanted to see the town and not just say "We went to Bald Head Island and watched our crap flow for 3 days. It was fun."

Bald Head Island is only accessible by private boat or a ferry from Southport. It’s a summer vacation and golf spot where most of the residents and visitors use golf carts to drive the 3 mile long road. “Old Baldy” - the 1817 lighthouse - is the town’s mascot. The marina had space for us on a very nice floating dock and was only $1.50 a night. We planned on staying 2 nights (we find that one night isn’t enough to get to know a new place) but ended up staying 3 when a coastal low decided to linger.

Again, there were some restaurants that were open, some had limited hours, and some were closed for the season. We had a great meal at the Cuban restaurant at the marina, and walked to the grocery store. A very friendly local saw us walking and gave us a lift in her golf cart. The Carolinas sure are friendly. We stocked up on passage snacks and pre-cooked all our passage meals. Previously we have been un-energetic about cooking underway, so I wanted to make sure we had food to eat and not just granola bars!

It was pretty cold during our stay - and very windy - so we did not get to explore all the creeks on the island. We did get plenty of walking in and met a few friendly fellow boaters at the marina.

Bald Head Island North Carolina Boardwalk

Boardwalk - one side for walkers, one for golf carts

Old Baldy lighthouse overlooking the salt water marsh

Old Baldy

Bald Head Island Chapel

Bald Head Island Marina

How Floridians cope with winter - stay in bed and hog the heater!

We're wearing all our clothes!

Supermoon over the marina

Bald Head Island Marina - note the golf cart!

Hastings is blatantly nosey and was super interested in our friends docking. He even barked out helpful instructions!

Passage Prep!

Do you like visiting islands "in season" when everything is open or prefer the quieter off season vibe?

November 8 and 9th

After our 27 hour trek, we didn’t do much but walk the town and check weather. Late afternoon, several boats joined us in the anchorage - boats that shared the free dock with us back at Great Bridge Lock! We keep bumping into boats we have either left behind or have left us behind. At 6PM, the mooring manager came by to collect $ from everyone. Matt had already paid online, but apparently there were two Independence’s in the mooring field - one who had paid and one who was free-wheeling. The manager very heartily welcomed us to Carolina Beach and even offered to take our trash. (No, we didn't give him our trash. That seems like a very rude thing to do!)

We’ve spent a lot of time staring at the weather and trying to figure out our southbound strategy. Our preference would have been to make a passage from Beaufort, NC to Miami, FL. We "did" the ICW on our way north, and are anxious to get back to warm waters and family. We did leave Beaufort and headed into ocean waters; but ducked inland after 60 ocean miles to avoid a cold front. Cold fronts have been sweeping through every other day, leaving only 10 hours at a time to travel in between “waiting out the weather”. Do we take on the ocean and put up with an uncomfortable passage? Do we keep slowly going down the ICW? I foolishly hadn't anticipated the constantly bad weather, so I have been sad. The key to happiness is very low expectations; clearly an attitude adjustment is needed.

Hastings is so popular in North Carolina - people will come out of stores to pet him. The locals are all so welcoming and friendly. While some restaurants and stores are closed for the winter, we’ve been able to get coffee and Thai dinner, so we can’t complain too much.

Hastings used to be chief shade finder, now he is chief sun chaser!

Story of our lives - we could have used some fried fat and sugar!

Dinghy dock just feet from the mooring field, and steps from the beach!

Beach walk

Paw prints on the dunes - our kind of beach!

Ears flapping in the wind. He can't get any cuter!

Enjoying a dinghy ride through town

The boat, the pelly and Hastings

Sunset over the mooring field

Sunset, Carolina Beach

Note: Hopefully, we are away from internet on the long awaited passage south and will respond to comments when we get back to civilization!

In which we leave a North Carolina Beach town to arrive at a North Carolina beach town via a sound, the ICW, the ocean, the ICW- 20 knots on the nose, to 0 knots, to 20 knots on the nose. This is boating!

November 8

We were up at first light (like real sailors) and departed Ocracoke. Exiting the Ocracoke channel was pretty rough with breaking waves and a glaring puppy. We seem to like beating directly into 20 knots of wind. Thankfully it calmed down after 2 hours. After 4 hours we had 0 knots of wind and had to motor!

Hastings was unhappy about bashing into the wind. He's also been so cold, he shakes! Poor baby.

We re-joined the ICW which was surprisingly quiet.

ICW, near Beaufort, NC

We headed out the Beaufort Inlet at sunset. We haven’t sailed the ocean or done an overnight passage since St Mary’s to Charleston in June. Part of that record still holds as we motored all night. First, there was only 3 knots of wind. While the wind did build to 20 knots throughout the night, it was - you guessed it - directly against us. (We did the math on tacking out to sea and back and forth, but decided to keep motoring. Laziness always wins around here!)

Sailing a catmaran out the Beaufort, NC Inlet

Beaufort Inlet at Sunset

Beaufort Inlet at sunset

Fishing Boat, Beaufort Inlet

We took 3 hour shifts. We were within range of an NPR station all night, so election coverage kept the on-watch person company. It was an easy overnight - we had the moon to the west, stars in the darkness to the east, and dolphins checking out our underwater lights.

We arrived at Masonboro Inlet at dawn, and ducked back inland due to an impending cold front. We’re on a pleasure voyage and there’s no joy in bashing into 14 foot seas and 30 knot winds.

No matter how long the night, the sun always rises.

We re-joined the ICW and motored 1.5 hours to Carolina Beach. We were joined by a number of dolphin families with baby dolphins on the way. Upon arriving in Carolina Beach, we picked up a mooring ball.

North Carolina saltwater marshes

At this point, I had been awake since 3AM, but a nap is not my first priority. A land walk for Hastings is! The Carolinas are the dog-friendliest states we have been in and allow dogs on the beach. We enjoyed a quick walk, coffee and pastries from the Java Hut, and headed back to the boat to veg and stare at weather reports.

Hastings enjoying a quick beach walk

What's your priority after a long night?

November 5

Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason, and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot!

I totally meant to do something for Guy Fawkes Day, but I thought today was November 4th, so a little bit of a problem there! (Guy Fawke's Day is a celebration observed in England which involves burning a "guy" and setting off fireworks while you freeze and get ash in your eyes. This serves as a reminder not to try to blow up Parliament like Guy Fawkes did. We burned him alive.)

We got up at 7:30AM to find everyone outside the river had already left. Sailors are very early risers and leave at dawn. When you are traveling at 5 knots and the days are short, you want to maximize mileage. We’re lazy bums first, people that live on a boat second, and people that will sail if conditions are perfect on 3 days a year.

We rejoined the ICW at 8:30AM and joined a slow moving retired Dothraki hoard of boaters headed south. The sailors stay on one side, while the power boaters roar past us, making radio calls and wakes. The sailors are angry about the wakes and point out their deep consternation on the radio. After all, we are on the ICW because we can’t handle wind and waves. Then the Coast Guard tells everyone “Shift your traffic. Channel 16 is for hailing and distress only.” We’re really just angry that the power boaters, who undoubtedly have heaters and all the toys will be in Miami tomorrow, and we’ll still be freezing after making good about 10 miles.

Most of the AIS dots headed on the ICW towards the Alligator River; whereas we headed towards Manteo, an Outer Banks town. We had great sailing all day and made it to the free dock at Manteo just in time for a delicious pulled pork sandwich. We walked to the Hardware Store, because we are addicted to walking to Hardware Stores. Matt is not on a sailing journey, but rather a trip to compare and contrast coastal hardware stores. A few other rebellious sailors rejected the ICW route and joined us in Manteo for the night. We were thrilled to meet Pura Vida, Instagram friends who we have been hopscotching with since MM0.

Independence at Manteo's free dock

Manteo Lighthouse and anchorage

November 6

We were up and out at first light in order to make 77 miles to our next anchorage on the south end of Pamlico Sound.

Heading out the Manteo channel

Roanoke Sound

After exiting the Roanoke Sound channel and getting back in Pamlico Sound, we cut the engines and raised the sails. We then realized we wouldn’t make our anchorage, so we changed course for a mid-Pamlico Sound anchorage. This would be 2 hours off our course and Ocracoke is only 1 hour off our course, so why not go to Ocracoke and have delicious Daijos pizza for dinner?

We took down the sails and motored to Ocracoke, making it in time to anchor before sunset and discover the sad news: Daijos is closed for the season. We nursed our deep sorrows over sundowners with Pura Vida and Hastings awarded himself their bean bag chair. I’m surprised he got back in the dinghy with us; obviously they wouldn’t be a continuous disappointment like we are!

Racing Pura Vida

Is there anything more depressing than a "Good Food. Closed." sign?

Sunset on Ocracoke

November 7

A cold front passed through all night and high winds prevailed so we stayed put for a day, wandering around the town and whittling away the hours. In an act of extreme optimism, I bought a pair of sale shorts from the surf shop, which is still open because surfers are insane enough to surf in cold weather. I can barely sit on the toilet in cold weather.

Zillie's is such a welcoming place - and note the bikes the Ocracokers use to get around.

Zillie's was still open and we enjoyed a local beer while downloading books and weather. At this point, we are still hopeful for an passage from Beaufort to Miami, hence the books, weather, and shorts.

What overly optimistic things do you to get through the dark cold winter?

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