What a Ride..

Thursday we left Ocracoke around 9am.. Wanted to wait for a favorable current up Big Foot Slough. We got it but also 20 kts on the nose so we plugged along at about 5.1 knots. Would have been very bad if the current was against us.

The ride was not bad until we hit the last 2 marks on Big Foot Slough. Suddenly the waves grew from about 1 - 2 foot to 6 foot or maybe a little better. My speed dropped to about 3 kts... The other 2 sailboats did not slow down -- don't know why. On top of this the Cedar Island Ferry was just arriving to come down the channel!!

I have to give credit to the Ferry Operator. He saw how we were struggling in these waves in the entrance and he waited until we cleared. I hailed him on channel 13 and thanked him. That was a very polite and seaman like maneuver on his part.

Once we cleared the mouth of the channel the waves dropped to 2 -3 foot with a quartering sea so it was rolly. Karen did not like it and we immediately recognized that we had not prepared properly for a rough ride as things started to fall down and around down below.. Caught again!!

Once we poked the Jib out a bit the boat steadied but still rolled a bit. It was uncomfortable until past Royal Shoals. Better approaching Brandt Isle Shoals then smooth the rest of the way to South River.

We made South River by 3pm and had the hook down and stowed by 3:30pm. Then we met Julie and Bob Norman on Quest. They are members of the WRCC. Julie is a weather reporter and Bob is a Fleet Captain. KE4OIM and KE4OIL. We had a nice visit with them and Craig and Dovie.. Ohhh Dovie was feeling better since she had a bit of seasickness on that passage.

Later we had a light supper of canned soup and called it an early night. Ohh but not before the fresh water system went down.

The pump came on but pumped nothing. The tank still had 50 gallons of water but I switched over to the full 80 gallon tank and still no output from the pump. I troubleshot and found that the pickup valve was clogged with that crusty while debris from inside the tanks -- I think it is aluminum Carbonate from chlorinated water in aluminum tanks. Must have broken up during the rough passage. I blew through the line and freed it and then sucked on the line and got a mouth full of the stuff. Tasteless but not pleasant. I reconnected but it still was not right. The pump ran fast and long and would shut off but obviously not working the way it should.

I saved further investigation for tomorrow.

First night of this trip where no one wanted to play games!! All that boat motion wears a body down..

Another fine day in Ocracoke

Boy it did get windy last night... Glad I was at the dock. The strongest winds occurred between 6am and 9am.

We had a nice easy day. Wandered around the lake looked at the rough water in the sound, checked out the new "digs" of the welcome center here -- very nice but leaves another abandoned building (the old welcome center). Watched the ferries come and go and watched the tourists shoot their pictures and wander around.

LAte morning we went to the Preservation Society Museum with Craig and Dovie and had a nice time looking over the exhibits. Naturally Craig and I were taken with the photos of the "Beach Jumper" Navy photos -- all that cool old electronic equipment and the discussion of the psychological war fare they presented. All practiced here because of the relative isolation -- not anymore!!

After lunch -- and a stolen nap -- we went to the lighthouse and took a few pictures. Way cool because now they allow you to enter the lighthouse and look up the circular staircase.

LAte afternoon Craig and I had a nice visit with Mark from Liahona -- a 60 foot motor sailor.

HAd a light dinner then ended the day with some games of Farkle and Mexican Train Dominoes which I must admit -- I DOMINATED!! Didn't win all the games but most. I'm sure I'm cursed to never win again after writing this.

The day ended with light winds. Fitting... Forecast was 15 - 20 all day and night and 40% chance of rain and storms.

Saw no rain or storm and the winds laid down by evening.

I feel like Charley Brown kicking the football with Lucy holding when I listen to the NWS weather forecasts.

It's a Small Cruising World

Time got away from me yesterday -- no excuse just too busy doing little.

The forecast looked ominous for Wednesday with strong winds and Silver Lake has a reputation for poor holding so we moved into one of the PArks slip. Not too bad. An easy landing, not crowded and only $1.25 a foot with $3 a day for electricity. We will stay 2 days.

Just puttered around the boat and went for some short walks around the lake since the skies looked like rain and the forecast was for 60% chance -- none came during the daylight hours but it stayed cloudy all day.

Craig came over a visited awhile and then about 3pm a large cruising ketch came in and anchored -- hey it was LIAHONA with Mark and Willie aboard. We crossed paths with them many times in the Abacos this last winter. In fact it was the first cruising boat I saw when Rachel, Diva, and I crossed into the Bahamas on December 21. Liahona had just cleared customs that day at Spanish CAy and passed us on our way to GTC.

Small world. I talked to them briefly and gave them the 30 second verbal tour of Silver Lake with a promise to meet up soon for a longer visit. They are on their way South after going all the way to Newfoundland this summer. Now that is a VERY long trip.

Karen fixed a couple of Fococcis for dinn er and Craig and Dovie came over and enjoyed it with us.

We then spent the rest of the evening playing Farkle. Oh I won 3 of the 4 games -- I was lucky!! And I didn't even keep score!!

I adjusted lines just before going to bed.. It was dead calm and the sky was clear!! We should have traveled today. The weatherman missed again.

This morning started with a "What the ...."

Boy the ol weatherman is definitely asleep at the stick... AGAIN!!

Last night the wind was only supposed to be 5 -10kts. Back on the boat at 9:30pm it was blowing 17kts and gusting. Today was supposed to be a nice day with rain creeping back in tomorrow.. NAW!!! THE DAY STARTED WITH LIGHT RAIN. A look at the weather radar showed the lower half of the entire state in light rain this morning. Now how did they miss that??

Ohh well, we just made the best of it. Off and on again showers just let us poke out occasionally during the day. We did make one "foraging" trip to town and bought some fresh shrimp -- tonight's appetizer with sun downers. Ohh I was looking for some local Ocracoke color or natives. The ubiquitous community store is now staffed by Mexican immigrants rather than the previous older lady natives. What a disappointment and no local food available.

We went out to eat last night but the first restaurant we stopped at Dajio did not wait on us. We waited 5 minutes then left. Then it was obvious why they were not hustling -- only show (food service) besides the Jolly Rogers which was closed last night. We walked down the highway and came to a Pseudo sports bar and everyone but me ordered burgers. I had the fried oysters which did not digest very well.

Hopefully tonight we will find something better.

On the plus side -- Ocracoke is really laid back during the off season. The pace is much -- much slower than it is in the summer. Maybe the rain, maybe the clouds, but it is restful.

Good day to do some reading. I'm re-reading a first edition copy of Out Island Doctor -- Evans Cottman signed by the author. I found it online at a book seller in Great Britain -- not too expensive < than $30.

Temptation is riding pretty here in the harbour but the internet connection is very slow -- too slow to post pictures. They will come later so stop back.

Anchored in Silver Lake

NICE DAY... Wasn't perfect but very nice.

We had a comfortable night on the hook in South River and got away on time this morning from South River to Ocracoke. The only complaint was the anchor mud. I have never seen it so thick and tenacious as it was this morning. It took 20 minutes to get the hook up and still I had a muddy mess.

I was trying to activate the route I had built for this leg and inadvertently deleted it!! Damn... Fat fingers!! Next time I'll put the routes in TWICE..

It is difficult to load routes into the Garmin. Requires changing the interface to Garmin/Garmin and then have to reboot the PC to get NMEA back.

I just wrote down the waypoints I had used in my first trip to Ocracoke in 19996 and used those. They still good -- got here!! I use EASY GPS to manage the waypoints and it works great..

It was a fast motor sail averaging 6.3 knots. Got stuck with the ferry coming in Big Foot Slew and he pushed me to the edge ... Then just as we were to enter Silver Lake here comes the Swan Quarter Ferry out!! I turned tail and waited on him.

The anchorage was nearly empty.; Two small boats on anchor and no one on them. We anchored. Bubbles took a slip at the PArk Service docks -- they were nearly empty too.

Tonight it is showers aboard and off to find a Restaurant meal. Then a night of Mexican train on Bubbles.

We played Farkle last night and that was fun but we quit early since Craig and I were very tired. He scuba dived on Bubbles and I snorkeled dived on Temptation. Temptation didn't need much -- pretty clean.

I did stay up for awhile to enjoy the nearly full moon last night in South River. It was glorious -- clear and cool but still an annoying mosquito or two.

Tonight hopefully it will be clear here in Silver Lake for the REAL Full Moon night.

Time to shave and head for dinner!!