Temptation - 0 Sea Sprites - 2

October 20, 2007

Ohh it was a nice weekend. We started the morning by seeing Vic Copeland on Oconee off on his BIG adventure. Vic has finally gone cruising. Left this morning (at 7:05 am!! not on island time yet), hopes to be back in the spring of 2008. Now that's a plan.

We had chores planned for the weekend. I started the morning by investigating the battery chargers. They just don't seem to be fully charging the batteries. I have a pair of ProMariner ProTech 4s -- model 1240. They start off charging fine but then after a few hours they just float the batteries at around 12.50 volts or about a 70% charge. I followed the troubleshooting section and the batteries passed 2 of 3 steps but failed the float step. Hard to believe 2 identical battery chargers would have the same fault but they do... Now the troubleshooting guide had a great guidance in it. If the batteries fail the test -- replace an internal fuse -- I'm paraphrasing now -- if the fuse is fine then the circuit board is defective and we don't repair them. Contact customer service for geat deal on a new charger... Ohhh boy -- gosh they are just $380 chargers EACH!!

Well onto the fresh water problem -- A G A I N. The Forward tank had worked just fine until empty but the Aft tank would not work acceptably. When the pump came on it would lose the prime. If you let it run for a minute or two with the spigot open it finally pump up.

I pumped the tank out and then Blew air by mouth into the hose until the air flowed freely. I partially filled the tank and it worked fine. I filled both tanks and they both worked ok -- go figure. Nothing positively identified or fixed so -- it'll be back.

Ohh my favorte reading fluorescent lamp would not work last night -- Main Salon Port side near forward bulkehead. I took the cover off to troubleshoot -- hmmm looking for some bare connections to test for power I noticed a silver cylinder near the on off switch. Gosh (not the word actually used) that is aluminum foil and it looks like the imprint of a fuse under it -- nooo can't be!! Sure enough was!! See picture.

Well thank you previous owner. You just made the next component down the line the new fuse and it is NOT replaceable. Grrrr.

The last job of the day was to properly replace a broken vent screw in the fuel filter housing for the generator. This is a Racor 220 filter that originally came with a plastic vent screw. Well the previous owner had overtightened it and broken the head off of the screw. Then it looks like some clear glue had been poured over it to seal it. Well it didn't seal too well and that is why the generator needs to be bled so often. I drilled a small hole in the plastic screw shank and tried and "Easy out". The material was too soft and it just bit in deeper. I then drove a screw driver blade in it and just made it wider. I then picked off the glue and the remains of an O-ring and drove an even wider screw driver blade into it and that allowed me to unscrew it. I replaced with a new proper fitting metal screw from Racor and it is working fine now.

That was enough for one day. Ity was Heinekin 30 and time to sit back and enjoy a few beers and humice and visit with the Thompson's.

All in all a pretty productive day but now a week to sit with the catalogs to decide what to do about the battery chargers and fluorescent lamp fixture or maybe fixtures -- the other 3 fluorescent lamps seem finicky in their operation. They turn off by themselves and you have to "rap" them to make them come back on. I think I'll just bite the bullet and replace all 4.

VAMPIRES on the Neuse River

Sunday September 23, 2007 – I should get a Red Cross Donors Pin

Karen and I had a nice ride the boat Friday evening arriving a little before 8pm. We unloaded the car and headed for the boat – almost immediately we were descended upon by large voracious mosquitoes. Karen had long pants and shirt on and they just bit right through it. We did a hurry unload and only made the one trip to the boat – the mosquitoes were terrible. I ventured out later around 9:30pm but they were still very bad.

I was up early Saturday morning to get the chores done before going to play at South River today. Top of the agenda was to De-Floridaize the boat. I received my registration number plate from boatnumberplate.com for the dinghy and I finished the board with the documentation number for Temptation.

I started by dropping the dinghy into the water about 7:30am – damn – those mosquitoes were still at it. 1 – 2 – 3 bites immediately while standing on the deck!! They showed no mercy. I retreated back into the boat. I installed the Coast Guard Documentation board in the Nav Station area. I then installed the labels on the rope clutches identifying all the lines led back to the cockpit.

About 8:30am I started on the dinghy again and dry fit the boat number plates --- ohh boy. These things are one piece assemblies that contain the entire registration number and a spot for the registration decal. They fit perfectly over the old iron on numbers. Great I won’t have to remove the old – just glue over them.

It was quite damp with a heavy dew so I wanted to wait till things dried before using the humidity sensitive contact cement. We puttered around on the boat and put things away. Then about 10am I checked the weather online and looked at the weather radar to be sure nothing was in the offing – and it wasn’t – just a few showers well out to sea and heading East – away from us. I pulled the dinghy up in the dinghy dock and cleaned the area to receive the number plates. I masked the area and wiped everything down with toluene. The sky looked pretty good with a lot of puffy clouds. I put the glue on the portside of the dinghy, the number plates, then the starboard side of the dinghy. I had no sooner made the last stroke with the brush when I felt a drop of rain --- one dark cloud overhead – blue everywhere else!! What kind of deal is this!! I scrambled for some plastic bags and ripped them open and covered the fresh glue as the rain intensified. I covered both sides and slid the number plates under the dinghy – ohh it’s raining hard now – out of ONE CLOUD!! Aaaaaack!

I settle down and go back to the boat to complain to Karen. I check the weather radar and there are numerous pop up showers in the area. No general pattern just little tiny red dots sprinkled across Eastern NC and more appearing. Grrrr!! It stops raining after about 15 minutes. We go back to the dinghy and survey the damage. The boat number plates are fine. The glued areas on the dinghy each have some water droplets in the glue. I blot them up with a paper towel. Hmmm no too bad. Ohh what the hell – we affix the plates to the dinghy. They look good and adhesion looks good. Only time will really tell. Oh I’m just disgusted with this weather.

I then remove the Florida registration sticker from the dinghy and then back on Temptation I remove the Florida Registration numbers and sticker from the bow. It went pretty well but the adhesive removal was a pain. Even the 3M Adhesive remover took a lot of elbow grease.

It’s about 1pm when we have lunch – the sky is dark to the south and thunder is rumbling.. We decide to wait till 3pm to decide whether to go to South River or not – the rest of the gang has already gone.

The weather never improved. The mosquitoes would attack whenever we walked around the clubhouse – the worse I have ever seen here at Matthews Point --- it has got to be worse at South River!! We decided to remain at the dock. We grilled a nice beef tenderloin on the Barbecue grill for dinner – it turned out GREAT. We had a 2 person party. After dinner and cleaning up we had some Baileys and mini éclairs --- Ummmm good. Spent the rest of the evening sipping a Rum Swizzle and reading the book – Hurricanes Wake -- great book.

Sunday morning dawned beautiful but still the voracious mosquitoes were at it early.. Damn those things.

I wanted to go up the mast and inspect the deck light and steaming light at the first spreader. I wanted to use the anchor windlass to get up there too. I set it up using the Main Halyard re-routed to the windlass. Karen operated the switch and tailed the line. We did a couple of practice runs just a few feet off the deck. Good thing – she needed to learn how to keep the line from wrapping both going up and down.

The trip to the spreader was uneventful. The assembly looks bad – it will all have to be replaced. I played with the bulbs but no luck. I’ll replace the whole thing on a cooler day – it was already 85 degrees at 9:30am!!

Back on the boat we gave tours to Steve and Debra, I went down and Gave Sward a hand troubleshooting here TV antenna hook up – there was a short in one connector and she had a splitter on the wrong side of the preamplifier.

After lunch Vic returned from South River and I talked to him – he said the mosquitoes were worse down there last night – good thing we didn’t go. I told him that I had some cracked welds on the companion way stairs and needed a recommendation for a stainless steel welder. He said he knows a great one – “Stainless Steel Fred’ Fred Lindow in Beaufort. He offered to take the steps to him for me – what a BUD… I took him up on that.

We cleaned up and I removed the steps – Vic’s buddy John offered to take them in his truck since they were a very tight fit in Vic’s car. I love these boaters.

We left the Marina around 4:30pm Even though we didn’t make South river we had a very productive and enjoyable weekend on the boat … and Ohhh Yessss – the water system worked flawlessly all weekend on Temptation --- don’t touch a thing now.

Temptation and Fresh Water GALORE!!

Sunday September 16, 2007 Matthews Point Marina

Today began cool and refreshing – finally a break in the heat wave that set records in August and September –

The morning started with the inability to connect to the internet – this happens in about one in three trips with this Beacon WiFi. Oh well – just the motivation I need to start on the chores. After my usual breakfast I went ahead and shortened spring lines and moved fenders to move Temptation about 1 foot backwards in the slip. It looks like in real shallow water the anchor/bowsprit might hit the dock – not now. Whew – worked up a sweat early today.

Well the water system had worked flawlessly since yesterday. I was now drawing directly from the FWD tank. I reconnected the FWD tank to the selector assembly and tried it again. This is easier said than done. That damn fitting is between major hoses and no room to swing a wrench – took more than 20 minutes to reconnect.

Well it seemed to still work just fine. Not bad considering all I did was blow into the tank after emptying it – I guess this needs more study.

I was curious how much water this tank held so I tried the inverse approach to measuring the capacity. I timed the number of seconds to fill a gallon jug – about 7 seconds. WE then emptied the tank and filled it while timing – wow – 15 minutes 54 seconds. That worked out to some 119 gallons!! We thought it was another 75 gallon tank. Thus between the 2 tanks we are carrying 200 gallons of water when we thought it was only 150. Nice surprise .. Now can I reliably pump all that water??? Time will tell.

I filled the AFT tank but played no more with it today.

Another discovery today!! While waiting for the tank to run dry I was inspecting the engine and I found the alternator belt VERY LOOSE. I mean so loose I could turn the pulley under it by hand. Hmmmm this might explain why the alternator did no work when we left Wrightsville Beach a few weeks ago but then worked the next day when we left Morehead City Yacht Basin Marina… Think about it. When I left Wrightsville after spending a long day/night on the hook the batteries were deeply discharged. Thus probably why the alternator did not generate electricity – too much load for the slipping belt -- WOW great luck it was so loose it didn’t burn up!!!

Now when we went into the Marina to charge batteries all night there was virtually no load on the alternator in the morning – thus it charged some. Makes sense at least.

The belt adjuster was all the way out. Nothing left. I removed the belt and found the mounting bolts all loose!! The belt did not look very good. I found a new replacement and installed it. A new belt gives 1 inch of remaining adjustment. We fired the engine up and tested and it looked good. The belt got pretty warm so it might still be slipping a bit but man it felt tight. Something else to monitor.

I was on a roll. So I dug the silicone gasket out of the port side salon hatch and replaced with fresh clear silicon. Hopefully this will stop the leak without having to remove the entire Lexan lens.

We had a hurried lunch then packed and left the Marina just before 1pm to catch the Ferry to Oriental – need to check on Luna Sea and remove a few things. We went the back way and just as we reached the gravel rode we say a 4 wheeler stuck in the mud at the entrance. There was a huge pool of water in the road and he had tried to go around and got stuck in the mud. We turned and went the long way – rather quickly – it was going to be close. Wow we got to the Ferry at exactly 1:13pm and they had already loaded. They were just about to remove the ramp when they loaded us last. Then one minute later they left – actually a little early by my calculation.


It was a fine ride over with a beautiful clear blue sky and nice cool breeze.. We visited Luna Sea. She is doing fine but oh so lonely. I feel bad but what can you do.

We had a nice ride home and planned next weeks outing… A big Raft up at South River next Saturday to celebrate Ralph’s birthday. Hey any excuse is a good one for a raft up. We plan to play next weekend – enough work for a while.

Fair Winds You All..

The BIG WHOOOOPS!!

September 15, 2007 -- Matthews Point Marina

If you have been following this thread you know I have been having a very pesky time with the fresh water system on Temptation. This weekend we allocated all day Saturday to resolve this issue.

I was going to take all the time I needed to fully understand what is going on and hopefully correct it. I brought a big bag of plumbing fittings and hoses with plans to isolate and test various parts of the system.

I was anxious to get started Saturday morning. I waited for Karen to fix her breakfast and free the galley area to use for access to the plumbing. I installed the new “lifting key” in the Main Halyard winch while waiting.

Finally – near 9am she left to get dressed. I jumped on it and planned where to start. Hmmmmm let’s just break this down in to two parts. The input side i.e. tank, piping to selection valve assembly, then to the pump, and then just a straight hose from the pump to sink, thus eliminating the entire distribution system including accumulator and water heater.

I just need to take the output hose from the pump off of the qest fitting and add my longer length of hose. I undid the clamp on the hose and pulled it from the barb fitting. Oh NO – immediately I was hit in the face with a strong stream of water!! The pump came on and the water just soaked me and sprayed in the face – but hey I’m holding the pressure hose and point towards the bilge. Everything including me is getting soaked. Hell I’m holding the hose down and I’m still sprayed in the face – I can’t see!! What to do? Run and shut the pump down?? Call for help – Karen?? I’m confused. Finally the water stream stops hitting me in the face and my vision clears – the water is pumping out the hose I’m still holding and is directed behind the engine to the bilge -- Ohhh the barb I pulled the hose off of – still pointing towards me --- ahhhh the system was not discharged – me BAD – thus when I pulled the hose off the entire 2 gallon contents of the accumulator had to discharge – into my face and under 20 – 40 PSI!!! Me Bad!! Embarrassed and soak and wet too – Ohh and that engine compartment – everything soak and wet. But hey I may have stumbled across an emergency fire extinguisher for the engine compartment???

Ohhh well dry off, cleanup and now BEGIN..

I first pumped out the Aft tank. I wanted to measure how much water it had so I timed a one gallon delivery in the sink – it was about 14 seconds. I topped off the tank and pumped it out. It all went – i.e. no problem on the input side of this tank. Oh – and the capacity is about 77 gallons. I then did the same for the Fwd tank – just like all along – nothing adds up or behaves the same. This tank pumped very slow. One gallon took 1 minute 22 seconds. The water came out with air bubbles too – what’s going on here??. It took better than 2 hours to pump it out but it all came out.

I thought the problem might be with the selector valve assembly so I cut some cable ties and disconnected the pipe from the valve assembly. I then went directly from tank to pump. I put about 10 gallons in the tank and tried to pump it out. No difference!! Once the tank was empty I then tried to blow back through the pick up tube – WOW it was hard .. There must be an obstruction… I blew again and again and finally I could blow through. It got easier too.. I put another 10 gallons in the tank and pumped it out – this time it took about 23 seconds – slower than the Aft but acceptable and no bubbles. I then connected the output of the pump to the distribution system and tried it -- Hey worked pretty well. I then filled about 40 gallons into the tank and we will just use it today and see what happens.

Long story short – it worked fine all day and never failed to pump. Now what does this say!!

This took us to lunch. We had a nice one – home made Tuna Salad. The rain stopped so we went topsides and used my little webbing invention to grease the sail track -- actually a Dry lubricant called Sail Kote. Once we had it lubed we thought, “Lets take the main up”… Well it was still hard and with the new part in the winch -- it still doesn’t feel right. The winch has a binding feel to it and the line stripper is not working right. Damn

Well with the sail up we then investigated the Dutchman control lines. There was little wind so we decided to just jump in and change all the control lines. Well it’s done but it was a bigger job than expected. We had to raise and lower the pennant several times and it was hot – we worked till after 4pm. We had all the lines installed but they need adjustment. We will wait till on anchor and in a gentle breeze to do that.

We showered and relaxed a bit then Buck joined us a little after 6pm and I drove to the Sanitary Seafood Restaurant in Morehead for dinner.

A fine dinner then back on the boat for an evening of reading and relaxing. The “Big Whooops” nearly forgotten.

The BIG WHOOOOPS

September 15, 2007 -- Matthews Point Marina

If you have been following this thread you know I have been having a very pesky time with the fresh water system on Temptation. This weekend we allocated all day Saturday to resolve this issue.

I was going to take all the time I needed to fully understand what is going on and hopefully correct it. I brought a big bag of plumbing fittings and hoses with plans to isolate and test various parts of the system.

I was anxious to get started Saturday morning. I waited for Karen to fix her breakfast and free the galley area to use for access to the plumbing. I installed the new “lifting key” in the Main Halyard winch.

Finally – near 9am she left to get dressed. I jumped on it and planned where to start. Hmmmmm let’s just break this down in to two parts. The input side i.e. tank, piping to selection valve assembly, then to the pump, and then just a straight hose from the pump to sink, thus eliminating the entire distribution system including accumulator and water heater.

I just need to take the output hose from the pump off of the qest fitting and add my longer length of hose. I undid the clamp on the hose and pulled it from the barb fitting. Oh NO – immediately I was hit in the face with a strong stream of water!! The pump came on and the water just soaked me and sprayed in the face – but hey I’m holding the pressure hose and point towards the bilge. Everything including me is getting soaked. Hell I’m holding the hose down and I’m still sprayed in the face – I can’t see!! What to do? Run and shut the pump down?? Call for help – Karen?? I’m confused. Finally the water stream stops hitting me in the face and my vision clears – the water is pumping out the hose I’m still holding and is directed behind the engine to the bilge -- Ohhh the barb I pulled the hose off of – still pointing towards me --- ahhhh the system was not discharged – me BAD – thus when I pulled the hose off the entire 2 gallon contents of the accumulator had to discharge – into my face and under 20 – 40 PSI!!! Me Bad!! Embarrassed and soak and wet too – Ohh and that engine compartment – everything soak and wet. But hey I may have stumbled across an emergency fire extinguisher for the engine compartment???

Ohhh well dry off, cleanup and now BEGIN..

I first pumped out the Aft tank. I wanted to measure how much water it had so I timed a one gallon delivery in the sink – it was about 14 seconds. I topped off the tank and pumped it out. It all went – i.e. no problem on the input side of this tank. Oh – and the capacity is about 77 gallons. I then did the same for the Fwd tank – just like all along – nothing adds up or behaves the same. This tank pumped very slow. One gallon took 1 minute 22 seconds. The water came out with air bubbles too – what’s going on here??. It took better than 2 hours to pump it out but it all came out.

I thought the problem might be with the selector valve assembly so I cut some cable ties and disconnected the pipe from the valve assembly. I then went directly from tank to pump. I put about 10 gallons in the tank and tried to pump it out. No difference!! Once the tank was empty I then tried to blow back through the pick up tube – WOW it was hard .. There must be an obstruction… I blew again and again and finally I could blow through. It got easier too.. I put another 10 gallons in the tank and pumped it out – this time it took about 23 seconds – slower than the Aft but acceptable and no bubbles. I then connected the output of the pump to the distribution system and tried it -- Hey worked pretty well. I then filled about 40 gallons into the tank and we will just use it today and see what happens.

Long story short – it worked fine all day and never failed to pump. Now what does this say!!

This took us to lunch. We had a nice one – home made Tuna Salad. The rain stopped so we went topsides and used my little webbing invention to grease the sail track -- actually a Dry lubricant called Sail Kote. Once we had it lubed we thought, “Lets take the main up”… Well it was still hard and with the new part in the winch -- it still doesn’t feel right. The winch has a binding feel to it and the line stripper is not working right. Damn

Well with the sail up we then investigated the Dutchman control lines. There was little wind so we decided to just jump in and change all the control lines. Well it’s done but it was a bigger job than expected. We had to raise and lower the pennant several times and it was hot – we worked till after 4pm. We had all the lines installed but they need adjustment. We will wait till on anchor and in a gentle breeze to do that.

We showered and relaxed a bit then Buck joined us a little after 6pm and I drove to the Sanitary Seafood Restaurant in Morehead for dinner.

A fine dinner then back on the boat for an evening of reading and relaxing. The “Big Whooops” nearly forgotten.

August 24, 2007 Arriving at Matthews Point Marina --- End of Delivery

The new fresh water pump actually crapped out entirely last night. I tried to reinstall the old pump but one fitting leaked terribly. After a couple of attempts at reseating it I pulled it all apart and found that the QUEST nipple was missing. Obviously fell off and now lost in the bilge -- damn. We borrowed the courtesy car and went to Williams Hardware in Morehead City for a replacement – Great hardware store. Back on the boot the new part fixed the leak but the damn water system worked just as crappy as it has on this whole trip – Grrrrr.

We left the dock around 10 am -- not quite as graceful as my other departures but didn’t scratch anything and recovered nicely. Just as I was running down the channel from the yacht Basin the Fertilizer barge and tug showed up directly in front of me. We held our position until they docked.

We had a nice run up the ICW with a bit of adverse current and the Alternator worked this morning – go figure.

It was a nice easy run up to the Neuse and no wind on the Neuse. We had to motor all the way which was okay since that is what Temptation did best on this trip.

We eased her into the old slip number 42 and she seemed real happy. All kinds of things that were giving us fits were working on arrival – all but that damn fresh water system!!

As with all trips the feelings are bitter sweet on ending the journey. It’s good to be home but I miss the adventure of the travel. I just feel more alive when cruising.

Time to do a little maintenance and Temptation will be ready for the great fall season here on the Neuse.

More logs coming as we adventure on Temptation..

August 23, 2007 Outside to Beaufort, NC

Listening to the weather forecast this morning 6 – 8 knots NE and reviewing the shallow areas on the ICW even before the first bridge after leaving Wrightsville, I decided to go offshore. We left about 6:45am and headed out the Masonboro Inlet. Things looked pretty good except the wind was 10 NE instead of less.

Shortly after clearing the Sea Buoy I noticed the alternator is not putting out a charging voltage – volts on batts was 12.10 - Damn!! Should we turn back?? NO – I turned on the wind generator and it was keeping up and actually charging the batteries. I shut down the PC and Inverter.

The sea was not uncomfortable but the 10 – 15 knots NE was building waves which slowed us down to about 5 knots SOG. It’s going to be a long run today!! It was – it took 13 and ½ hours to make the Morehead City yacht basin. We made the marina right at 8pm just as it got dark. The fuel dock was empty so we made an easy landing there with no assist.

We cleaned up quickly and went to the sanitary restaurant for dinner. Because of the active motion of the boat today we both felt the floor and table moving on us. It was really a rocky ride up outside by traveling through head seas all day.

Ohhh a bit of luck on the decision this morning. Around 2pm we heard a ‘Securite’ on the radio announcing the closing of the Onslow Beach Swing bridge indefinitely for repairs. That is about the time we would have been advancing on it.. It was a good decision today to go offshore.

Sleeping was bliss tonight tied up to the dock with AC running again.

August 22, 2007 DESTINATION: Wrightsville Beach, NC

We were up early and left by 7am for Wrightsville Beach, NC We knew we would have to fight the current up the Cape Fear River.

The trip up the Cape Fear river was the mildest one I have ever experienced. The entrance to Snow’s Cut was tricky and inattention on my part resulted in another “bump”. We encountered other shallow spots around Carolina Beach Inlet but made Wrightsville before lunch. We anchored with a little difficulty – had to draw back further than expected but it did grab.

We made a beer run to Robert’s Grocery – 2 cases then had lunch at the Sunset Grille. It was interesting – there 4 business people all talking about taking over a particular business and then consolidating offices and locations to save money – which would have resulted in lost jobs. Kind of scary to see how life altering decisions for the affected people are so casually made over an informal luncheon.

Now back to the fun world of cruising we made another provisioning run to Robert’s for some food then back to Temptation for a nice swim.

I changed the diesel filter on the generator. No debris found in the old filter but because it was installed too tight it was destroyed in the removal. The filter pump would not suck fuel from the tank so I changed the fuel line to the tank. It was hot work and I had to lay on the floor to reach the tank fitting. Then the hose clamps would not fit the new hose and I had to make a run to marina for more hose clamps. I left a big pool of sweat on the floor!! Even after all this the pump would not pull fuel from the tank!! Another night on the hook with no AC – whaaaaa.

We had a nice dinner at Neptune’s restaurant and a fine walk on the beach. It was a great night on anchor and tied to decide whether to do the ICW and the shallow areas or run up outside tomorrow. Decisions decisions – looks like ICW tomorrow.

August 21, 2007 DESTINATION: Pipeline Canal in North Carolina -- getting close now

We had a long day planned today. Some nearly 60 miles and the Sunset Beach Pontoon bridge. The trip through Myrtle beach was just long and uneventful. We arrived at the Pontoon Bridge just after 12 noon and had to wait 50 minutes till 1 pm andit still opened 5 minutes late.

The shore and water really started looking like our home waters now. The radio chatter and weather info was all familiar now – getting close to home now.

We pushed long and hard today so we would have a short run into Wrightsville Beach tomorrow. We entered Pipeline Canal just before low tide – damn it was shallow – right around 6 foot for the most part. It took awhile to find a spot to anchor that would not have Temptation aground at low tide. It took awhile for the anchor to bite too. There is a boat ramp here and the boat traffic was annoying until dark. Looking back now I don’t think I’ll recommend this place in the future. Skipper Bob has some alternatives nearby here.

During the night we heard storms advancing on us but no direct hit – just a little rain. Good thing – I was leery of the holding here now.

It was moderately buggy here so it was another hot night in the berth.

August 20, 2007 Day Trippin in Georgetown and anchoring on the Waccamaw

We were up early and had a nice easy run to the Georgetown waterfront.. I put a lunch hook down just so we could go into town for a few hours. Conditions were mild and I didn’t set the anchor too hard -- poor holding here. We were on the streets of Georgetown before 10am. We walked about a bit, visited a fine book store and I bought a book – a cook book. Buck took off for a quick walking tour of the town and I went in quest for some gas for the dinghy and check on the boat, We met up around 10:45am and watched a little alligator work his way up a drain pipe. A little after 11am we found a restaurant and had a nice early lunch. It was a fine lunch but they wouldn’t let us leave. Their charge card processor was down and we had of wait for it to come up – a good 20+ minutes!! It was a rush visit but we still enjoyed the town.

We left the anchorage around 1:30pm and started up the Waccamaw River. There were some really large fish jumping way out of the water ahead of us. I tried to get some video of it but they stopped when I started the camera. It was a beautiful and comfortable ride up the river. We anchored just off the river in an OXBOW area just before you leave the river and enter the populated areas before Myrtle Beach. This anchorage was actually the best. It was pretty, comfortable, and bug FREE. That was really unexpected. We had a nice swim here too just before dinner.

We cooked dinner on the grill and relaxed in the cockpit till well after dark. Being bug free I tried to sleep in the cockpit but the cushion was just too uncomfortable for a long rest. I went below and sweltered in front of my partially defunct cabin fan – it would turn slowly for a while then stop Grrrrr. Overall it was a pleasant night in this little anchorage.

August 19, 2007 DESTINATION: Minim Creek to anchor

Buck made his way to the boat early this morning. We all – minus Kourtney and Stephen – had a fine leisurely breakfast at the Marina Restaurant. They excel at breakfast at this place. We had taken everything Karen and Andy would need to the truck before entering the restaurant to avoid another long walk back to the boat.

After breakfast we said our goodbyes and Karen and Andy left to pickup Kourtney and Stephen for the long trip home. We would miss Kourtney as crew.

Buck and I made it back to the boat just as a very big catamaran came and crash-landed – ouch -- on the dock directly in front of me. Ohhh man. No boat in front of me all weekend and now this just minutes before leaving!! Fortunately with the help of the current I was able to easily navigate away from the dock and around his WIDE boat.

We had a nice run across the harbour. Not much wind or wave action this morning. We had to hold up before crossing the centerline of the harbour as a large container ship was making its way to sea.

We got caught at the first Swing bridge as you leave Charleston which only opens on the hour – had to wait 50 minutes for it to open!! We then had just a long run up to Minim creek with lots of small boat traffic today. We anchored easily and then – disaster!! Well not quite that bad. I started the generator and it ran for about 2 minutes than wilted and died. It would not restart. Arggggh. I tried bleeding it under these hot conditions but no luck. Ohhh it was a hot night and the buggiest anchorage we have been in this entire trip. Could not stay up in the cockpit. During the night I stuck my head out the companion way a couple of times and was completely engulfed in a cloud of mosquitoes – I didn’t do that a third time.

It was a long hot night – my cabin fan died entirely – and I was bothered that the generator would not run. That and the fresh water system was still acting up Grrrrr. Probably the low point of the trip tonight.

August 18, 2007 Family Reunion in Charleston

The family will arrive today and will return home tomorrow with Kourtney. What a shame – such great crew but school beckons her.

I was up early and planned the installation of the SSB. Buck took off early to explore the town by foot before the heat of the day and Kourtney finished the laundry – got to have clean sheets and towels for the Momma.

I took about 3 hours and temporarily installed the SSB – worked great but all the antenna wires were exposed – run across the floor under a rug and out the hatch and over the aft deck to the backstay.

I hen installed the spare water pump for the fresh water system. It did not work well at all. Just ran continuously and would build no pressure. We later found the accumulator bladder flat so we added some air with a found foot pump and the system would at least cycle after that.

We had lunch on board. Karen, Stephen, and Andy made a slow trip to the boat arriving about 2pm. Buck had made arrangements for a motel room for the night. The motion on the boat was lively when they arrived. What with the wind driven waves and the Saturday afternoon boat traffic. Stephen arrived feeling worn and ill before even stepping on the boat. His condition worsened immediately. He got real pale!! He and Kourtney then decided to get a motel room for the night – oh what a mess this was turning into.

When we decided to head for dinner we had to go to 2 motels to gather everyone up – that was about 45 minutes but else did we have to do tonight. We decided on a restaurant in downtown Charleston and I made a reservation while we were driving. When we got there we did not like the looks of it so we drove on. We ended up at the Brewery and smoke house. Fortunately they took us right away. Dinner was quite pleasant.

Afterwards we delivered everyone back to their respective motels and we returned to the boat arriving around 10 pm – whipped we all went to bed soon after that.

It was actually a very productive day.

August 17, 2007 Destination: CHARLESTON

We got off early this morning to make an early arrival at Charleston – need to do a provisioning run to the Harris Teeter and we need to do laundry.

We had a good run up to Charleston but with a slight adverse current. As we crossed into the narrow waterway immediately preceding the Bascule bridge just as you enter Charleston harbour the current increased and had us under 5 knots. It was going to be close to make the bridge opening. I had been babying the engine all the way so far – 200 RPM. It was time to drop the hammer. I increased RPMs to 2400 and this was the first time we heard the Turbo kick in – SOG increased to 6.2 knots!! We made the bridge opening,,,

We arrived around noon. The wind had really piped up and was setting on the dock. They gave me a location way out on the outside of the Fuel dock. I turned around to face the current, then crabbed in with the bow trying to face into the wind. With fenders out we made a soft landing on the pier. Damn there was room on the inside!! It was blowing us too hard against the dock to think about moving now – this was going to be home sweet home.

We had a fine lunch at the Marina Restaurant but they had put us so far out there it was a ¼ mile walk just to the parking lot!! They brag about there 3000 feet of dock space but man it’s a long walk.


After lunch it was off to Harris Teeter in the Courtesy shuttle – ouch – dropped $208. Kourtney said we bought too much beer. Hey – I feed my crew well.

On the way back to the boat I pulled or bruised a tendon in my left ankle -- boy did it swell up. There would be no going out to dinner tonight!


Back on the boat I cooked the fresh shrimp and made a salad for dinner. But first we had sundowners, cheese and smoked oyster.

While Kourtney and Buck went off to do Laundry I met some cruisers on the same fuel dock as us. We had a nice chat and all were complaining about the heat.
The AC and everything else but the fresh water system was working fine on the boat. Boy we all slept well this night.

August 16, 2007 Destination: Anchor in Tom Point Creek

We got off uneventful and made the 7am bridge opening. Then it was just a long run of about 50 miles to the Tom Point Creek to anchor for the night. The long passage across the exposed Coosaw River went very well. We found a little shallow water coming off of the Coosaw River back into the ICW and I made a light bump when I looked away briefly at a chart.

We made Tom Point Creek and anchored easily. Buck and I went for a swim – felt very nice. Then we all took showers. A nice dinner from the grill and all was right with the world.

It was a peaceful anchorage with few bugs. After dinner we had some Gin and Tonics and a nice chat in the cockpit.

Buck and Kourtney saw a very long and bright shooting star cross the sky but I unfortunately had my back to it. Damn – I would have liked to have seen that.

We had fired up the generator and AC earlier and had a very nice sleep in a cool cabin.

August 15, 2007 Rock & Roll --- Hubris Rebuffed

Coming in from Offshore to Beaufort, SC

When we had a good Cellular connection I called Craig to give him an update. I should never have boasted how we were “beating” the ride through Georgia on its convolyuted portion of the ICW. Georgia still made us pay!

About dark the previous evening that advantageous wind had now set up a wave pattern and a swell that was directly abeam of the boat causing it to rock and roll and yawl. The motion became alarming by 10pm. The stuff in all the lockers were banging and rattling. The Genoa was snapping from the roll so we pulled it in. We were frced to slow down so the motion did not become violent but we were now averaging less than 5 knots. It just got worse though.

I stayed up with Kourtney through her watch – not because she needed me there but I was more comfortable on deck. I tried to sleep but couldn’t. I joined Buck during his watch. It is just too rough tonight with all the lockers rattling and bumping and water sloshing in the water tanks.

Ohhh and what about the sloshing fuel?? I was worried that the fuel filter might become clogged and stop the engine. It was a restless night.

At day break we were approaching the Sea Buoy off of Port Royal Sound. We decided to head into Beaufort to refuel and rest. We were whipped.

When we headed into the Port Royal Inlet I left the helm and went to sleep for about an hour. Buck and Kourtney brought the boat back into the ICW. I rejoined just as we passed Parris Island on the way to Beaufort.. We made the City Marina by 11am and took on 47 gallons of fuel – 26 in the tank and 21 in the Jerry Cans on deck. We wanted a slip but none were available. A fishing tournament had taken all the slips so they could not accommodate us. We moved off and anchored just off of the marina.

It was hot with a heat index of 105 degrees already today – we need Air Conditioning.

I started the generator – no problem – then switched the transfer switch – Uh Oh – no juice to the breaker panel!! Damn!! I cut the switch back and forth a few times – finally power from a finicky switch. Oh the AC felt good..

We went into town for lunch -- very good and very coool.

When we got back to the boat we all went for a swim and took some naps. We went back to town for dinner. The place we ended at had loud music which was a downer for the dinner. Afterwards we took a nice long walk around the town and their Beautiful water front.

Back on the boat we went to bed early. We needed to be in motion by 6:30am to make the 7 am bridge opening. Miss it and it will be 9am before it opens again.

Ohhh we slept good in that AC. Hell we ran that generator for some 18 hours and the fuel gauge hardly moved – got to love it.

August 14, 2007 Just another day at Sea

Offshore running up the Florida coastline

It was still a little roily this morning with the beam seas still working us over. No wind to sail by yet.

We just sailed along and kept moving up the coast. We were between 30 and 32 miles offshore today. We did not have any cell phone coverage out here but the VHF would chatter a bit. We did not try to call anyone though. Around 4 pm we’re approaching the St Mary’s River Sea Buoy and when about 7 miles offshore the cell phones worked again. We all checked in with loved ones then.

At one point around 11:30am we stopped and killed the engine. It was dead calm on the water. Kourtney and I went for a “mid” ocean swim. She was nervous after watching Shark Week last week, but I was giving the sharks a fighting chance since I had a tuna sandwich for lunch and thus tuna fish on the breath. We put the 24 gallons of diesel we had on the deck into the tank. I checked the engine oil level and it was fine. We fired up and continued on.

It was another hot one this afternoon with little wind and a heat index of 105 –110 degrees. We crossed the St. Mary’s Inlet around 4pm and entered Georgia – Florida GOODBYE!!

When we turned to hug the Georgia/South Carolina coast about 8 – 10 miles offshore the wind came up and we could finally sail. With just motor sailing with the Genoa we cranked the RPMs back to 2000 and sailed at 7.3 – 7.9 knots – felt great. Buck analyzed the control line on the Genoa and determined that the current application was totally impractical. No way to properly reef the sail – we worked out an arrangement to add later that would address this problem. Now this is a proper shakedown cruise. We planned to drop the sail around dark since thunderstorms were expected tonight.

At 7pm the crew is relaxing in the cockpit reading after a dinner of sandwiches and pickles and beer of course. I’m on watch from 6 – 9pm followed by Kourtney then Buck.

The sailing life is good.

August 13, 2007 -- TOASTED!!

Ran up to Cape Canaveral then went Offshore – to Charleston hopefully

Ohhh it was hot on anchor last night. I didn’t want to run the Genset and AC just yet -- too much new stuff to deal with. The batteries were down to 11.95 Volts by morning – not good – 3 year old AGM batteries.

We got underway early – 7:15am. However the Lighthouse Windlass looked like it was slipping on the retrieval with only a moderate load on it.

We made it to the Barge canal of Cape Canaveral by 11am. We encountered the first Bascule bridge at 11:10am and had to wait 20 minutes for it to open. Then we went onto the Lock. I called when it was in site and I was informed that a Government ship was coming through the Bascule bridge and would immediately enter the locks. We needed to wait and KEEP CLEAR!! That process took nearly 40 minutes..The “Government” ship that came through was a NASA vessel – big whoop huh.. Then our turn came and it went pretty well – only 10 minutes. We went right through the triple Bascule bridges and entered the Cape Canaveral port proper.

We hailed Cape Marina about 12:30pm for accessing the fuel dock. Repeated calls went unanswered. We finally just landed and I searched for the office on foot. I spoke with a woman there and she explained that it was lunch time and there would be no one available until after 1pm.. This is a BIG place!! We took advantage of the time to bring the dinghy aboard and lash it down. I had trouble getting out of the dinghy and back on the side of the boat so I just let go and fell into the water – to both cool off and get back on Temptation via the Swim platform.

Ohh it was HOT!!! The fuel attendant finally showed up but admitted he was new to the job.. He could not get the pump to come on so it would pump continuously. Finally someone else showed up and we moved to another pump.

The gauge showed ½ full but it only took 23 gallons to fill it up. I also filled the 4 deck 6-gallon deck cans for an additional 24 gallons.

Ohh it was hot – I was beginning to wilt but Buck was going strong – thank goodness. We then filled the water tanks and took a few minutes to cool off. We finally left the Fuel dock at 2:30pm and headed for sea. It was a great day with calm seas – this is definitely going to be a motor trip.

We set up on a 3 hour watch with me going first followed by Kourtney then Buck. We just ate snacks and leftovers for dinner and just motored into the evening.

The evening was mild then about 11pm the wind clocked to our starboard side. Soon we were moderately rolling to beam on waves.

My next watch was 12am – 3am. Five minutes into it Kourtney came up and hung on the rail – she did not feel well. Uh Oh and she was supposed to relieve me at 3am!! Doesn’t look good.

She stayed in the cockpit and focused on the horizon awhile. Then rolled up in a sheet and slept awhile. Wow at 3am she was a new person. She felt good and did her whole watch – that was GREAT.

I couldn’t sleep very well – my fan didn’t work well and I was just too keyed up – the motion was unpleasant also. I slept maybe 2 hours. At 6am when Buck took over I made coffee and watched the sunrise with him.

It was a long night. I saw 3 large boats pass us at 6 – 10 nm away. When waiting for dawn – it never comes soon enough.

Overall not a bad night for our first one at sea.

August 12, 2007 Finally Underway

Destination – Dragon Point near Melbourne, FL

Everyone is leaving today. Karen and Stephen are driving home. Kourtney, Buck, and I will deliver Temptation home – eventually, but every journey must start with a first step.

Karen and Stephen finally left about 8:30am. I was eager to go and I hope my impatience did not show. We tried to leave at 8:45am but a problem right away!! I had started the engine and before shoving off I noticed that there was no charging voltage on the batteries – Uh Oh!! I tried calling Al but no answer. I thought about this awhile then remembered that this high output alternator needs a certain higher RPM before starting to charge. We revved the engine to 1800 and had charging current.

We were able to leave the tight enclose of the slip uneventfully. Big boats all around. We had no problem winding the private channel to the ICW. We had an easy motoring to Dragon Point to anchor --- very light traffic for a Sunday. Anchoring went well, then we all went for a swim -- it was HOT!! Boy that felt good.

We fixed steaks on the Magma Grill after first having to fix it. The regulator would not work but I remembered that Al said there was a new one in the spares drawer – what a guy. Once it was replaced the grill worked fine however it has only half the complement of briquettes that it should.

It was a fine night and we thought we would rough it with the AC. We tried to put the screens in the ports but they do not fit very well – real cumbersome. Hopefully there is a simple trick to this – I’ll need to read a manual.

We were whipped so we all turned in around 9:30pm. I slept in the main salon under the cabin fan – it failed after a couple of hours – ohh it was a hot sticky night.

AUGUST 11, 2007 ---- It’s Like ”the Old Woman who lived in a Shoe”

Making the boat ready for travel at the Marina Slip

WOW lots to do today and it is just so crowded with all the people and stuff to put away!!

We brought more stuff from the truck to the boat. Al and Maggie showed up at 9am sharp. Al went over all the major systems with me and pointed out all the spare equipment that was being left aboard -- that would mean more later. Al and Maggie left a few hours later and Maggie was shedding a few tears – she really loved this boat.

I removed the Loran unit from the instrument pod and installed my handheld Garmin 48 in its place. I then wired it to ships power and installed a DB9 RS232 cable at the Nav bench so it would talk to both the Notebook PC and the SSB once it is installed. This went well enough and tested ok the first time.

I looked at installing the SSB and data modem but it was a daunting task on this boat. No obvious runs for the wiring or place to install the antenna tuner. I did install the SSB base unit to the floor of the Nav station.

Karen, Kourtney, and Stephen made a provisioning run for the items on the list we created yesterday in the truck on the way down. After stowing everything for the most part we all went out to dinner at a nearby Italian Restaurant – very good.

Oh before dinner we tried taking showers but the fresh water system would have none of it. It kept losing its prime and thus low water pressure. I had to constantly bleed and fuss with it while each person took a shower. They tried to do the same for me but I went to dinner with a bit of soap still on me. This water system would continue to dog us every day!!

This got to be real annoying so I called Al to ask what is the secret to get the system to behave. He said he had noticed an intermittent problem with it and thought it was a weak pump. He reminded me of the new pump on board and suggested I change it.
This was a tough day. I got some things accomplished but nearly what I had hoped for. Too many distractions and too crowded. Oh well --- got to get moving…

August 10, 2007 --- The Origins of ‘Temptation’

Traveling from Durham, NC to Vero Beach, Florida by Truck

Ahhhh to be an absent boat owner! We actually closed on ‘Temptation’ our 1991 Endeavour 42 (Hull Number 257 – the last one built) on Wednesday August 8, 2007. Boy that was an empty feeling -- sign all those papers and not have actual possession of the boat!!

We drove down today – all 710 miles --Friday August 10th to take physical possession. The Intrepid mariners – Karen, Kourtney, Stephen, Buck, and myself. The actual delivery crew would be composed of Kourtney, Buck, and myself.

But what a trip!! Five full grown adults in the 96 Chevy Pickup loaded to the gills with stuff to move the new boat with and the personal gear of each occupant. This would not have been possible if I did not use one of Beth Haskell’s suggestions of using the vacuum packed space bags for all the towels, pillows, bedding, and all our clothes. Wow they make a huge difference!!

This crew needs major accolades for putting up with that 12 hour drive. It should have been 11 hours but we made frequent comfort stops to ease the discomfort of so many folks.

We arrived at the Marina at 6:30pm. Al and his wife Maggie were already aboard and we met with them. We transacted the business of my passing Al the BIG check and he the keys to the boats plus we had to sign off on some paper work. They left and agreed to meet again in the morning to orient us to all the systems on board. We cranked up the Air Conditioning and left for dinner. We found a R.J. Gators nearby for dinner. Actually ate some “gator bits” as an appetizer.

Back on Temptation we moved some stuff on board and settled in for the evening. I think we all hit the sack around 11pm.

The day – all in all – went very well.

She is not ours yet --- SURVEY FIRST

Started the Blog today -- in Anticipation of moving aboard S/V Temptation -- a 1991 42 foot Endeavour Center Cockpit. She hails from Vero Beach.

The deal has been made, financing approved, insurance approved but all awaiting the the outcome of the Yacht survey. Certainly no trifle..

This is not the first Endeavour we have almost bought. There was the "Fawlty Beagle" a 1989 Endeavour that we went all the way through the survey and due to problems noted in the survey that the owner would not correct or compensate -- we had to just walk away. But it may be for the best. Temptation is a far nicer boat than Fawlty Beagle. If the survey goes well -- then this blog will continue.

We are fast approaching the heart of hurricane season and this boat is deep in Florida. I expect to do a quick delivery once the deal is consumated.

Standby for the progress reports and once underway I can update this blog via my SSB Winlink account.

Now to just await the survey -- July 27, 2007... Wish us luck.