Satuday June 30: Back to Syracuse, NY

 It's been a fast week (again) since we arrived back to Matt and Wendy's place on the Neuse River in NC on Tuesday. The peaceful night Tuesday night didn't last as there was work to be done!

We first moved "Yesterday's Dream" to a marina on the north side of the Neuse River to be pulled and put on the hard for our return. Now we don't have worry about hurricanes while we are away. It's a very protected marina - and on a high hill :-) Next project was one of Wendy's: recover one of her outdoor chairs. The project went well with Wendy willing to finish up the hand work that was needed.

 So it was time for lunch, right? Steve decided we should try the sushi place that is open only during the week and only for lunch. Ok - I was game. Wendy drives to some place that says it is a bait store. We walk in and indeed it looks like a bait store to me! Where is the restaurant????

 Turns out the restaurant is behind the bait store was really there! Great food - will definitely put it on the list for when we return to North Carolina.

Earlier in the day, Wendy and I hit the thrift store on the base - good score with a quilt, a few books, and a couple of other things. Steve and I stopped at one after lunch and found plates, silverware, frying pan, another quilt and a small pan. I love thrift stores!!

Later in the day Steve seemed to be relaxing and not doing to much work. Contrary to what it looks like, he had worked all day with stops to pick up Wendy's vegetables, a physical therapy appointment and in-between had run over to Yesterday's Dream to clean out the fridge and freezer as there will be no electricity to the boat while out of the water. It was a well deserved rest!

 Friday morning it was time to head north. We lucked out with a larger car than we had reserved for the trip to New York - guess it was a good thing given that we seemed to have a lot of stuff to take to the Canada boat with us. The car was $140 a day since it was a 1 way rental so the plan was to drive the 11 hour trip straight through.

It was a good plan and worked well. We drove an hour out of the way to miss the Washington DC traffic on a Friday before a holiday week and I'm confident it was worth it. There was a beautiful sunset over the mountains of Pennsylvania. What a wonderful country we have!

On the way, we were able to stop and buy a folding bike for Steve. The people who were selling it let us stop at 10 pm since it was on the way to Syracuse and the new boat.

Once we were back (about midnight Friday), we just crashed. Up early this morning to turn in the one way rental and pick up a local rental. I'm kind of liking just having rental cars! We always have something that is very new - definitely not the experience we had when we owned cars :-)

 Shopping was in order as there were many things that we needed for the new boat. It was like starting over. Finally a lunch break at the marina - then back to work.

 One of the first orders of business was to steam clean the v-berth.When Steve tried sleeping in it last week, he could hardly breathe and ended up having to just get out of the boat for a while - finally ending up the the dinette seating to get a little sleep. Seems he is allergic to mold/mildew and hence could not use the steam cleaner to do the sides and ceilings in the v-berth with the steam cleaner. Mmmmm....sounds suspicious.

But he did help with the carpet in the main cabin area so I guess it was legit :-)  Besides, I heard him last week trying to breath after just 10 minutes in the front cabin. Hopefully there will not be a repeat tonight!

We will likely be here until at least Wednesday working to get the boat ready to go. Some of the projects (like sunshades on the windows) may just have to wait until we are underway.

Headed Home: Posting from Beckley, WV

 After finishing the paperwork, transfer of money and title, we moved the new boat to Pirates Cove Marina in Brewerton, NY - about a 3 hour trip. The boat performed well over choppy Lake Onieda. Top speed for the day was 20.5 mph. What a change from the trawler speed of 8.3 mph!! I'm sure the gas was flowing thru that engine ....

FYI: if you have your money in PNC (the old National City) and want to make a withdrawal when in NY, forget it. You will have to drive 2 hours south to PA to do that. Guess how we know ...

 We arrived at Pirates Cove in the early afternoon - passing the Albin just like ours as we entered. The owners have been working on the boat for the past ?? years and it shows. Our new boat really IS smaller than Yesterday's Dream!

Best thing about the new boat: 10 foot beam! Steve and I can actually both be up and about without running into each other :-)

Left Syracuse NY, drove to Cleveland, spent the night with Julie and Jim, had breakfast at Shay's, stopped and bought some clothes (we didn't pack anything other than shorts/shirts when we left), drove to Loudonville, visited my Mom (she is doing really well - she thought I was her sister but definitely recognized me as someone she knew), then attended calling hours for our sister-in-law's father. What a great person he was. Lawrence and Donna were married 63 years - what a tribute to two people. We remember many occasions when we visited them on the shores of Lake Erie at their cottage and were fortunate enough to visit on Donna's last birthday in early April when we were last home.

Because I didn't pack much extra medicine, we decided to leave today and head back. Will arrive back at the boat tomorrow (Tuesday) around noon or so. The biggest discussion on the way today? What day of the week it was. I think that is a good thing ...... maybe ....

Friday June 22: Interesting Week - Posting from Syracuse, NY

 We left Matthews Marina on Monday with a destination of New Bern - about 20 miles up the Neuse River. Matthews was a nice marina - lots of sailboats even though the depth was only about 5 feet most of the way into the marina channel. Very nice people - once again. We had multiple offers of rides to a store (there is nothing within even biking distance). Boaters are such a great group of people!

 The river today was as calm as it was rough on Saturday as it just depends on the wind. There is a ferry that crosses the river about 1/2 of the way up the river as there are no bridges since the river is very wide. The amazing thing to me is it is free for cars and people because it is a part of the NC highway system.







We went right past Matt and Wendy's house as we rode up to New Bern. They have an amazing view and it is wonderful to walk into their front room and see the river view.

It's quite shallow close to the shore near their home so we stayed a respectful distance away :-)





This is a blow up of the picture above. If you can see the person standing in front of the house just to the left of the chimney with a red shirt on - that is Wendy! She waved as we went by.

 What a cloud of smoke/steam from the "controlled burn" of the Croatian National Forest that sort of got  out of control! The wind was predicted to be low but then you know Mother Nature!

The smoke was crazy bad in New Bern. We left the windows and doors shut (and ran the air conditioning) as it was really thick.

 The New Bern marina is right in front of the Double Tree hotel. It's very nice and if we want we can take advantage of the hotel facilities like free coffee in the lobby, daily newspaper and pool. Maybe we'll do that before we leave!

 Tuesday: off on a road trip! We had talked quite often about getting a small cruiser to leave in the north somewhere and decided now is the time. So travel on Yesterday's Dream for most of Sept thru May but then take the small cruiser and travel the Trent, Georgian Bay and North Channel in June, July and August - the best time of the year to be up there.

Off to Erie PA to see the first of the boats on our list. We were looking at a Bayliner similar to the 22' we had taken to the Trent for a number of years before we left on the trawler.



 Checked the one at Erie - it looked to us like THE ONE! All was well until we checked the transom with a hammer. The 'thud' indicated rotted wood. Pass on that one. Next on to Buffalo. Nice boat - made an offer on it and waited to hear back. (This is now Wednesday night).

In the meantime, heard about a boat in Sylvan Falls (NY) - only 3 hours farther east! Thursday morning off we go ... only to have a call from the guy in Ashtabula (OH) about one we thought had promise. Turn around 1 1/2 hours from Sylvan Beach and drive 4 hours to OH. Guess what - bad transom :-(   Back on the freeway for the 5 1/2 hour drive to Sylvan Beach arriving about 5:30.

Is it too good to be true? A good transom and the boat we were looking for? Take down that 'for sale' sign - we have a new boat :-)  Of course we are just trying to keep up with our boater friends Peter and Cheryl (who have at least 4 boats that we know of) and Jim and Linda (who have at least 2)!

The perfect Canada boat.

Inside view. Not all to our liking but all cosmetic. Who knows - maybe it'll grow on us :-)  We close the deal tomorrow, move the boat to Pirates Cove (where we stored Yesterday's Dream the first winter), drive back to NC, take care of some projects on the trawler, spend more time with Matt and Wendy then off north we go.

Since Yesterday's Dream is in my name, we put the new boat (yet nameless) in Steve's name. Now he has a boat too :-)

Sunday June 17: Matthews Marina on the Neuse River

Note about the pictures: if you click on any of the pictures, the screen will darken and that picture will be larger. Look at the bottom of the screen and you can click on any of the pictures to see a larger size. When you are finished, just click on the small WHITE x in the mid-upper right side of the screen.

We left Wrightsville Beach at 8 am (the bridge there opens only on the hour) after getting up early so we could bike to what could be our favorite breakfast place (I think I have said this before though :-)). Somehow eating a healthy seafood omelet with egg whites is not the same as a regular seafood omelet with cheese and hollandaise sauce. I'm not sure I'm liking this new way of eating ..... Anyway, we found a couple more rocking chairs to try out. Who know? It was surprising cool Friday morning and was the first time I've had jeans and a sweatshirt on in can't remember when.

 Arrival time in Morehead City Friday night was about 6 pm with the current against us much of the time. And windy again! The flybridge plastic is still up even though the temperatures ended up being in the low 80's. The wind in your face is definitely over-rated. Not sure how dogs with their face out the car window do it!

Matt, Wendy and Fozzi arrived Saturday late morning for the ride to Matthews Marina on the Neuse River. It's about 27 miles by water.

 But first an early lunch at the Ruddy Duck. I know - more food on the blog? Really?? I just couldn't help showing Matt's breakfast burrito that was HUGE. Someone said it was as big as his head - I think it might have been a correct statement :-)

 This day (Saturday) happened to be the annual marlin fishing contest. Many tourists around (we consider ourselves to locals wherever we go since we are always in our home where we happen to be ...) and we were very glad that we ended up going out to lunch early as the lines at the waterfront restaurants were out the door by the time we left.














The trip to Matthews Marina was mostly uneventful. Fozzi found his place on the flybridge and was pretty content - until we hit the Neuse River! The wind was still blowing and the river was kicking up whitecaps. When I turned broadside to the waves to make the turn north, Fozzi was sliding around as there was nothing for his feet to grasp. All was well again once I was able to turn with the waves.

A nice night spent watching Captain America (good movie). We are going to stay a while but at a different marina (in New Bern). This will be a nice place for some down time and some projects on the boat that we've been wanting to do since we left Florida.

Thursday June 14: Wrightsville, North Carolina

The ride from McClellanville was very SLOW. Due to the time of the month, the tides were just not in our favor. If we had been able to be in Georgetown just before low tide there we would have had a push the entire way to Myrtle Beach. As it was, we ended up fighting the current the entire way. Doesn't seem like a big thing but if you loose even 1 mph you loose 8 miles over 8 hours which means another hour of travel. But what can you do?

The waterways of northern South Carolina have a new look. Lots of trees and less marshes.

These are pretty small waterways relative to other parts of the ICW. Lots to see along the way. Steve spotted 2 alligators and 3 deer - looked like Ohio whitetail deer only a lighter color - one with a spotted fawn. Good spot job!

There were also lots of turtles along the waterway - sitting on logs along the side. Steve also spotted this group of turtles that to me look like a monster mouth with the reflection in the water!

And of course Steve had to have a picture of the giant dragonfly that was hitchhiking on the stay wire for the mast. Not sure if he wanted to go north but that's the direction we were going!

The ICW runs north of the actual town of Myrtle Beach but there is still evidence of money. Many huge homes but not the number of huge boats parked in front that we saw in places like Fort Lauderdale.

We finally made it to our marina almost at the end of Myrtle Beach. One of the marinas in this group of three is called Lighthouse Marina so I guess it's fitting that there is an actual lighthouse here.

Once again we passed the cruise gambling boats that operate out of Myrtle Beach. I loved the one which was named Aquasino! One of these days I'll find a place to play a few slot machines :-)

Starting out early in the day and heading directly east can definitely cause some issues as far as trying to see. It's not the sun so much as it is the reflection of the sun on the water. Sunglasses help but then it's harder to see the GPS and depth sounder. What a choice!

We had a great plan for the day today. After spending time studying the currents and tides the plan was: leave at 8 am. This would give us current going our way for at least a while. Arrive at Southport at the Cape Fear River at noon. But since the current on the river wouldn't change until 2 pm, we had no choice but to stop at Southport for lunch - our favorite place for seafood along the coast. Plus we could have spent the night at no charge. How can you go wrong with that? Best yellowfin tuna sandwich ever!!!

Once we had the current behind us, the 12 mile trip up the Cape Fear River was very easy. Even though the wind against the tide produces the usual wave action, it was a nice trip. This is a picture farther along the waterway where the incoming tide was meeting with water in an area that had no outlet. It was amazing how definitive the line between the two bodies was.

After a quick bike ride around the area (we already have our breakfast place picked out :-) ), it was time to change the engine oil. This is an every 200 hour thing so about every 1400 miles. Sometimes I really think we are just pretty slow in the uptake. Used to be that I had to get down by the engine, maneuver around with the drill pump and an empty oil container to drain the oil out. Gosh - why not run a hose so we could just do all of that in the aft cabin? HOW MUCH EASIER!!! Definitely one of those constantly annoying things that we took care of.

So this blog uses the new interface that I am reluctantly changing to. Hopefully the pictures will be easier to see. We'll see.

Tuesday June 12: McClellanville, SC

The new water pump arrived about 10:30 this morning. Isn't it a lovely looking thing? Remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and when I look at the front of the engine when the pump is supposed to be, the new pump looks even more lovely! Installed the pump, messed with a couple of hose leaks (created by disturbing them to install the pump) and we were ready to head out by 12:30.

Looking back as we left, the skies were darkening and again threatening rain. Solution? Go farther north of Charleston! It worked pretty well as we had some rain but only for a half an hour or so. The waterway north is quite small (relatively) and is missing the large sounds that dot the coast of Georgia. The fun house with the deck on the roof is really not typical but, hey, if you want to see the ocean you do what you have to do :-)

One house had a pirate smiley face. Seems like we saw that on the way down ... or up. Regardless it was fun. This is again the land of the mile long piers. We found out that it cost about $85 a FOOT to build these piers. So for some of the long ones several hundred feet long, you're talking about the price of a small home. And that cost doesn't include the fixed dock at the end or the lifting device for your boat or for the small floating dock. Big bucks. With the late start from Charleston, we decided to stop at McClellanville - about 30 miles from Georgetown. Guess Georgetown will wait until the next time. We will pass it by as we head on to Myrtle Beach tomorrow.

Monday June 11: Charleston Revisited

What we had reinforced today: You can make all of the plans you want but the bottom line is the plan isn't always going to work! We left Charleston about 8:00 or so headed off to Georgetown - about 47 miles up the coast of South Carolina. With less than 4/10 of a mile out, the alternator quit putting out voltage and the RPM gauge was sort of stuck at 500 rpm.

Have we seen this before? Yep - the last time it happened the fan belt had broken. So I called down to Steve to check the engine compartment to see if the fan belt was turning. No problem, he said, the belt is intact. But there is antifreeze coming out from somewhere at a somewhat alarming rate.

I wanted to just drop the anchor and check it out but Steve insisted that we go back to the marina we just left. This MAY be one of those times when I MAY have muttered "guess you were right" under my breath. Oh well, he has to be right every once in a while to keep him happy :-)

After much investigation (a water leak is SO HARD to pinpoint), the culprit was the water circulating pump on the front of the engine. Easy fix - drain antifreeze, remove fan belt, remove 4 bolts and put the new

pump on .... except we didn't have a replacement pump. So we have a pump coming tomorrow before noon - might as well enjoy the afternoon here in Charleston.

So off we headed on our bikes. We've ridden around some of Charleston before but last time we came through Steve wasn't riding a bike yet because of his arm. The battery - a point at the south of Charleston overlooking Fort Sumter (start of the civil war) is a really nice park with many monuments and cannons.

The monument that is most usual to us northerners is the one dedicated to the Confederate soldiers who defended Charleston during the war. It's nicely done and is a reminder of that we are in the south. I don't recall ever seeing any monuments to Union soldiers in the north but I'm sure my brother Pat would know if any existed!

The streets around the battery are surrounded by many, many homes on the National Registry of Historical buildings. Most have at least a small plaque as a designation but others have some history about the building.

One thing I have noticed is the shutters along the coastal homes - real shutters! In the north you have shutters for windows but they are just for looks as the shutter is typically screwed to the side of the house. Down here they really are hinged and can shut - and locked from the inside. There is also always a 'hook' at the bottom that holds the shutter open.

Anyway, it's now raining quite hard so it must be time to read. The power keeps going off and on so the satellite won't hold a signal ... not that there is much on anyway!

Tomorrow: up early, clean up the engine, wait 'til the water pump arrives, install it and head to Georgetown - again :-)