April 11, 12,13, 2007

April 11, 2007- On Wednesday we began to prepare Shorty to move on up in North Carolina from Bob’s boat basin in Swansboro area of North Carolina. We went out and bought some food for the next week that Bob is going to accompany me on the trip north. Then we did a few things at Bob’s place to get ready. There is always the air of anticipation about the next leg of the trip. It is all new water for me and for Bob it is a chance to see what new has happened since he was last in the area we will approach tomorrow. For me it will be fun to have some company on the next legs as there will be the possibility of some difficult water to traverse as the sounds will get much larger and the waves will be a little larger depending on the breezes we meet. But we are ready and I am excited to be moving north again after a rest and the wonderful hospitality shown me by Bob and his wife over the Easter period.

April 12, 2007 – The morning dawned with a thunderstorm and showers and low ceilings. But after awhile they passed and the skies cleared some and we took off. The first place we came to was Morehead City and then on to Beaufort and up the waterway. As we continued along the winds got stronger and stronger until sections of the waterway were whitecap ping. We reached the Pamlico Sound and we got bounced around pretty good. The waves were about two feet with an occasional three footer thrown in for good measure causing us to slow down some from our running speed of twelve knots till we got down to about five to six knots before reaching Belhaven Marina in Belhaven, NC. This marina was our goal because we had to fuel up before the next day. This made our days trip a little over 100 miles and we arrived at a little after five well shook up and tired needless to say. We were very proud of the behavior of Shorty though because we put him through his paces. This last part of travel over the Pamlico Sound is always a rough one even in lower speed winds because they were forecasting 20-25 knots of wind and everyone was having a tough day even the ones we passed. After tying up at the marina we signed in and took a look inside the Mansion and hotel that is part of the Belhaven Marina as well as the restaurant. After taking a few photos of the mansion in the late evening sun we retired to the boat for our dinner of the day. As quick as the sun set it began to cool off and we made up the cabin of the boat for a bed for the first time and it worked really well. Bob slept in the bunk while I slept in my usual spot in the fore cabin with all of the rest of the stuff that sleeps up there with me that won’t pack into another storage place. It got very cold and our shore power source cut off in the middle of the night and poor Bob was freezing when I woke up. I started the diesel heater and Bob reset the outside breaker on the pole then we tried to warm him up before we started the next day.
April 13, 2007 – The day dawned cold and after getting Bob warmed up we ate breakfast and then started to prepare for another long ride in the Pungo River toward the Albemarle Sound. The wind conditions were promised to be the same 20-25 knots. Well we started the morning off with a five mile run and since we had one foot of chop we let Shorty run at 3500 rpms to gain some ground before we went from sheltered waterway to the Albemarle Sound. When we reached the beginnings of the Sound we saw the conditions were the same as the day before and we were going to get a little bouncy ride to say the least. We then experimented with Shorty in various modes of trim and we found we could trim the engine with bow down as far as it would go really was best because the V of the bow cut the waves better but boy was it wet with spray flying over the top of the boat and the windshield continuously wet but with it rain-exed it shed water like a duck until we literally wore it off I guess and resorted to more use of the windshield wipers. On different sections of the run we of course experienced waves from all directions as well as wind drifting us out of the channel but once we got into more sheltered waters we began to get a smoother and smoother ride until the last 20 miles of today was directly into the wind and we were doing 12-14 knots in the gusts with a smooth ride. Tonight we are at the city docks in Elizabeth City, NC getting ready to make a short run tomorrow to the entrance of the Dismal Swamp Canal to Norfolk, NC and the end of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway until we get to New Jersey. As we set here tonight we feel that Shorty did an admirable job in the conditions dealt to him and while not as smooth as a forty footer in the same conditions. He did exceptionally well for an 80 mile jaunt in which we left at eight fifty in the morning after everyone else had left an hour before us and we met and passed them before the hour was up. The Alligator River has a reputation I guess for always being rough no matter what the wind conditions are. Well we arrived in Elizabeth City at about two thirty and covered eighty miles and only had maps and charts and a few other things fall off on the floor during a fun ride for us. Tomorrow morning it will be through the Dismal Swamp and then into Norfolk where I will lose Bob to a vacation in Hawaii which he said sounded better than three weeks on Shorty. I am hoping he will come back after vacation as I would really enjoy that.