Monday October 29: Washington, DC

The trip to DC was uneventful and we arrived just in time to pick Becky up from the airport at 4pm. Checked into our hotel and made our plans for seeing Matt and Tim run in the Marine Corps Marathon (30,000 finished the race).

 It was a fun day - as it always is but the strategic planning of being a marathon watcher is always critical.

Seems like it should be easy to do but following someone around that is running on average a 7 minute mile is tough to do!

Lots of good pictures though - will post a link one of these days to pictures of the race.

So we spent our time visiting the National Cathedral and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, stocking up on water and and some food .... just in case :-)

Sandy is now on land and is now a tropical storm. Not a lot here in DC other than gusting winds and rain most of the day.

The federal government was shut down today as it will be tomorrow. Our White House and Pentagon tours tomorrow are cancelled as are all flights out of the area cancelled.

Goal for tomorrow is to get Becky to an airport where she can fly to Los Angeles. Working on a plan for that :-)

All is well - be in Ohio in a couple of days!

Friday October 26: Southport NC: Waiting for Sandy

The park at the marina yesterday was really nice - not many people around but maybe we're just past the prime season. The forests were really fun - there was actually less light coming through than this picture shows. Very foreboding looking as we rode by on our bikes.

Roger and Carol from 'Legacy' joined us at the local favorite (according to the park ranger) for breakfast. It was nice getting a chance to meet them.

After we returned to the boats, we again used our sliver half/cell to check their boat out for stray currents - DC mostly. I figure the more times we use this thing the less cost per use it becomes. We've learned this from our daughter Becky :-)

The 10 mile trip down the Cape Fear River (whose name itself inspires fear!) was very fast as we timed our leaving with the currents in mind. Picked up a rental car yesterday and will be on our way to DC tomorrow to watch Matt (and his brother Tim) run in the Marine Corps Marathon. A total of almost 47,000 runners between the marathon and the 10K.

In the meantime, we've prepared 'Yesterday's Dream' for the upcoming storm Sandy as well as being left (again) for a few weeks. What that means is to double tie all lines, fold up the bimini canvas and basically tie down anything that can be blown away! The docks we are at are floating and the poles have another 10 feet above the high tide line so we should be good to go.

Part of the day was spent checking the rest of our bonding system (so no more corrosion of the shaft). Lots of time spent in too small places :-)

Anyway, we are now good to go.

The sunset wasn't really a sun set as we hadn't seen the sun all day! But the sky was pink at night which is supposed to mean 'sailor's delight' - not sure what it means tonight!

Up early and off to DC to watch Matt and Tim. Becky arrives late afternoon from LA and we'll spend until Tuesday in DC - maybe getting blown away - we'll see. White House and Pentagon tours scheduled for Tuesday. Hopefully we'll be able to do them.

Then a road trip to Ohio for a few weeks. Back to the blog when we return mid-November!

Wednesday October 24: Carolina State Park - Close to the Cape Fear River

It was an early morning leave from Swansboro yesterday as it was going to be a longer day than usual.

I looked out of my little porthole by my bed and indicated that "it's still dark out - why do I have to get up?" Steve replied I was just looking the wrong direction and the sun was on it's way up!

Guess he was right - we left the dock about 7:15. The time I determined was best in order to make the first bridge at 9 am.

The day actually went very well with the currents running such that we were able to make all of the bridges with a maximum of a 15 minute wait time.

Having the GPS is a wonderful thing as I can set the destination and it will give an estimated time of arrival based on the speed we are traveling at any given time. What a great help in making these bridges!!

We arrived at Wrightsville Beach just after 3 pm. Traveled 55 miles in 7 1/2 hours. We've been here 3 times before so it was easy to know where we wanted to stay and best of all where the good breakfast place was :-)

So after breakfast we took a ride past the anchorage area where many of the traveling boats just anchor for the night. We like the option of being able to ride around so prefer to be tied to a dock.

It was looking like a great day. The current wasn't going our way until about 11 am so there was no rush to head out today. I think I even slept in!

The ride ended at the Wrightsville Beach beach area. Very nice beach - very similar to the beaches of Florida that just stretch from right to left as far as you can see.

Of course the condo's and hotel stretch that far as well. It's amazing to me that there can be that many people who want to live on the ocean. Although I totally understand it - there just isn't anything like it. I felt like we were back in Encinitas as we walked along the beach. As you can see, the tide is out - which is why we were waiting around a bit to head out.

It was a perfect day. Almost no wind, beaches and marshes on both sides of the waterway - Steve was definitely enjoying the ride :-)

We are back in the land of the 5 foot tide swings. We passed these boats that are on raised platforms to keep them out of the water but there is no way for the boats to leave the dock unless the tide is up. Guess this is one way but it would seem pretty restrictive to base the comings and goings of your boat on the tides.

Must be something you just get used to around this area. Very different than being on the Neuse River where the only raising/lowering of the water level is because the wind is either blowing water into the river or out of the river.

We arrived at Carolina Beach State Park after a short 2 hour run. Very nice facilities and very empty. We were one of two boats here for the night. Turns out the sailboat 'Legacy" is from Ohio ... and they know one of Steve's good friends from Benedictine High School that live in Madison, OH. Small world! Plus they even know where Loudonville is!

This was a great place to ride into Carolina Beach - of course we have a place picked out for breakfast. Nice 4 mile round trip ride on the bikes.

Back at Wrightsville Beach we did manage to find the museum but it was unfortunately not open yet. Steve decided to try the dumbbell sitting in front to see if his arm is really healed :-)

Steve also spotted a pelican mailbox - something we had never seen. He thought Matt and Wendy might enjoy having this instead of the standard Rubbermaid mailbox that is the norm at Cherry Point. Wonder how that would go over?

Unusual home along the way today .... looks like fun :-)


Tomorrow: we travel a whole 2 hours down the Cape Fear River to Southport, NC. We'll leave Yesterday's Dream there for 3 weeks while we travel to DC and then on to Ohio.

Weather is supposed to be great for the next day or two and then quickly deteriorates just in time for the Marine Corp Marathon in DC! More later ....

Monday October 22: Swansboro, NC

 Did I actually make the statement that there wasn't much of our stuff left at Matt and Wendy's place? What a foolish statement! We hardly had room for Fozzi in the car ...

So yesterday morning we packed up our remaining stuff into the car and headed off to Matthew's Marina. It was a cool day with a bit of wind but the sun was out - looked like a good day to start our first travel in a while.

On the way to the marina, we have passed this sign daily. It is amazing to me that someone would really think a sign asking for the return of a wagon would be very effective but who knows? Maybe it will make the person who took it feel guilty or something!

Wendy was up for a boat ride for part of the way so Steve volunteered to meet us about 2 hours down the waterway.

Fozzi finally proved to be of value by helping Steve pull the cart with our stuff out to the boat. He (Fozzi) is always happy to be included in an outing especially in a new place where he can walk around and investigate everything.

I finally had a chance to peek at the boater's lounge here at the marina (the peaked building to the left of Steve's head). It's quite nice with a large porch overlooking the small inlet off of the river.

 After stowing all of the gear and putting the refrigerated stuff in the fridge, Wendy and I left Matthew's Marina bound for Morehead City. Steve and Fozzi watched as we pulled out of the dock.

It was windy this morning on the Neuse River but it had actually died down by the time we were ready to leave - which was nice as part of the trip had us broadside to the waves.

Two hours later, Wendy jumped off and Steve jumped on. A perfect pass off! Wendy was headed back home for a little while before she went on to New Bern to pick Matt up from the airport. He was getting home from his trip early so that was nice.

Wow - first time home alone in a few weeks for them! They will probably want us to come back to keep them company :-)

Finally, a sunset at someplace new! It was really good to be back on the water and traveling again even if it was only 28 miles .....

We actually drove to Morehead City a number of time in the last few weeks from Matt and Wendy's. It's the closest place to find Lowe's, Best Buy and other big box stores. Plus there is a Harris Teeter grocery store - one of the best chains in this area of the country!

We were up fairly early this morning but the current wasn't going to change and be going our way until about 11 so we headed out for a walk to the breakfast place we knew was only a couple of blocks away.

The store next door to the restaurant had cute 'doggie docks' complete with cleats on which you can hook your dog's leash. Quite fun!

Part of our ongoing project of cleaning up the electrical issues on the boat was to install a galvanic isolator. Essentially this serves to separate our boat's ground wire from anyone else that happens to be plugged into shore power.

More phone calls to the folks from whom we purchased our reference electrode to make sure we understood what needed to be completed and YEA we were good to go!!! No more stray current for us! I know it doesn't seem like a big deal but having stray currents running through the boat is likely what caused the shaft to get eaten away. Don't need to have that happen again ......

The dolphins are back! We saw a couple yesterday but today they were really around - and following in our wake. Just swimming alongside and playing. They are such fun to see!

Steve, of course, is always trying to entice them to stay near the boat.

He stands on the side of the boat and waves at the dolphins that are swimming alongside. It's crazy but they will actually turn and look up at him. I don't know if you can see in this picture but the dolphin is swimming on his side. Look close and you'll see his eye! (To see a larger view, click once on the picture - now right click and choose "open image in new tab". Now click on that tab (top of the screen) to see the picture.)

It was a really nice day - calm water, low winds, lots of sun.  Sandy islands near the waterway. Looks like paradise to me :-)

Tomorrow will be a 60 mile day to Wrightsville Beach. Plus the added challenge of trying to time 3 bridges - two of which open only on the hour and the other on the hour and half hour. I see some wait time in our future ...

Saturday October 20: No Rest for the Wicked - Still With Fozzi

Where does our time go? And we're still not really ready to leave! Maybe we're just having too much fun here taking care of Fozzi. Mmmm... nah that's not it. It's the projects that have occupied us.

Thursday was a trip to New Bern (about 25 minutes away). A VERY productive trip: first Steve with a good physical therapy session - then a trip to Lowe's for wire, some oak boards to fix a couple of things here for Wendy and a few misc items.

A stop at the store that shall not be named as well as a stop at the health food store looking for some vegan gluten free worcheshire sauce for Wendy (no luck). Last on the list was to stop and pick up some firewood. It's going to be cold one of these days - who knows how long we might stay? Just kidding Matt and Wendy - we're still leaving Sunday :-)

It's surprising how much wood Steve was able to pack into the trunk of Wendy's little car. Should last for a while anyway. Fortunately we were able to drive around the back of the house so the wood could be unloaded rather quickly.

Yesterday was a trip to the boat to try out our new corrosion reference electrode. Ever hear of it? Neither had we - which is probably why we haven't been able to figure out why the underwater metals on the boat have been having issues. Seems there are "stray currents" - can be either DC or AC - running around the boat wiring which was causing the zincs to be eaten away too fast. But now we can use this electrode to figure out what circuit specifically is causing the problem. This electrode is basically a chunk of silver you hang in the water by the boat and is hooked up to a multimeter. Too bad we didn't just have some silver coins on this boat - could have just used them :-)

On the way to the boat, we stopped to pick up some sand that Steve had spotted on Fozzi's walk yesterday. This will become our 'non skid' for the lazarette hatch. Simply paint the hatch with the final coat of paint and sprinkle in some sand! We've never tried this but from what we hear it will work just fine.

Today was a lack of pictures day. Not much to see, really. We took our newly organized storage tubs back to the boat. Completed some rewiring of the battery charger (the source of the stray current) - then spent the rest of the time we had putting everything sitting around in it's proper place. What a change from the clutter of late.

Off to the airport to get Wendy. She missed her connection last night due to weather in Baltimore so spent the night in Atlanta. Finally -  two hours late due to plane issues - due in shortly to New Bern. Good thing Steve took his book to read.

As I look around the house, there is almost none of our stuff left - good thing :-)

Wednesday October 17: Fozzi - the Boat Dog!!!

Fozzi is now an official boat dog :-) He needs a bit of help getting on/off the boat but personally I think he's faking not being able to step aboard. No matter - Steve is happy to carry him on and off of the boat!

After dropping Matt at the airport yesterday, we headed off to the boat (now at Matthew's Marina so no stress with making the ferry each day).

It's amazing the number of things we want to get done and the seemingly limited time in which to do them.

Yesterday, Steve took care of getting the bikes back to working order. It's amazing how quickly they rust in this saltwater environment.

Plus it has been 4 months since we have really traveled on Yesterday's Dream (one day to Dowry Creek, two days there and one day back excepted). It's hard to believe it has been that long......

I spent the time putting a coat of Cetol on the lower teak railing and rub rail (which describes what I do when coming into the dock too often - rubbing the rail :-) ).

Of course the only picture Steve took was when I tried out the hammock for a whole 2 minutes!!

One more coat of cetol and the job will be done. It's nice to be able to get a couple of coats on before we leave on Sunday as the longer it has to dry the harder it becomes.

It has been too long since we've redone the teak for sure. It's starting to look like someone really cares about this boat :-)

So today when we headed out we thought maybe we could get some work out of Fozzi. It didn't take long to figure out that was just not going to happen! He was very content to just lay around and do some sleeping :-)

More cleaning took place - Steve took all of the mini-blinds in the main cabin down. We're just going to replace them as they have yellowed quite a bit since we installed them 5 years ago. The 3 in the aft cabin were ok so I just cleaned them instead.

Fortunately they are fairly easy to take down and put back up even though the one above the desk proved to be a real pain in the neck.

There was still some hope that we would get some work out of Fozzi.....

but he obviously just was having too much fun stretching out on the floor and snoozing!

Steve continued working on the lazarette hatch cover. The edges were sealed with an epoxy so no water would be adsorbed into the wood. Next step was to paint the top then screw in the hinges.

Tomorrow when the silicon has set, he'll tighten the screws - then it will be ready to be painted. Long project with a successful completion. Good job, Steve!!

Coming back to Matt and Wendy's is like Christmas somedays! We have really taken advantage of being able to order anything and everything that we need or have needed for our continued travels.

It's nice to have a place to send things and KNOW we'll be there to get them. We always the option of having things sent to a post office or marina but that is usually dependent on getting where we think we will at a given time. Much easier this way!

Last project for today (to be finished tomorrow) is to reorganize the 8 storage tubs which are kept under the dinette seat. We first did this 3 years ago - along with a spreadsheet detailing what is where. Definitely a must for finding a particular tool or whatever on this boat.

We brought all of the containers back to Matt and Wendy's just to have more room. How nice it will be to have the spreadsheet accurate again!

Tomorrow: a trip to New Bern for a physical therapy session for Steve's arm and a trip to Lowe's for a few more things to complete a few projects we want to finish before we leave on Sunday.

Monday October 15: Fun Times in New Bern

Yesterday was the perfect day to move the boat. The Neuse River was almost flat - very different than  Saturday!

I left the marina with a destination 5 miles across the river at Matthew's Marina. Steve left with the car to take the ferry across the river and meet me at the marina. I crossed behind the ferry so Steve was able to get some pictures of Yesterday's Dream actually cruising along - fun to actually be able to see the boat moving through the water. I see now why we ended up with the ICW "moustache" when the paint on the hull was becoming porous enough that the water stain came up higher than we thought on the bow. Somehow I thought we ran pretty flat in the water!

Matthew's Marina is a great place for us to spend the next week. The dock is a perfect height - no tides - close to showers/restrooms - close to the parking lot - what more could we want :-) And a hammock nearby to boot!

This will be our home port until next Sunday when we leave to head south. The weather here is still nice - mid 70's or higher in the day with low 60's at night. We know that will begin to change though.

Both Matt and Wendy have been working like crazy ever since we arrived. Nice for us because we were able to use Wendy's car just about anytime we wanted but they were both ready for a real break. Off to the New Bern MumFest we went!

Scored with a good parking spot - $5 to the downtown church that was raising money for their youth program. They had a beautiful area between their two buildings that had a number of crape myrtle trees. Don't know much about them but they were quite unique.

Lots of food places, crafts and other booths on three blocked off streets in downtown New Bern.

We finally stopped to see the drug store that was the birthplace of Pepsi. Kind a fun with lots of memorabilia for sale - and of course you could have purchase a Pepsi!

This is someplace we have driven by a number of time but never stopped. It was fun to finally see it.

Entertainment included BMX (hope I have that right) demonstrations. These kids were really good and on such a short track. Many flips and other tricks. It was nice that they encouraged young kid in the audience to try these tricks (unlike the commercials that say 'don't try this at home') but ONLY when using appropriate safety equipment.

There was a Purina dog show - lots of Frisbee through and catching. I thought we should bring Fozzie along so he could learn some new tricks but sadly, dogs were not welcomed at the MumFest.

Matt was inspired by the BMX guys and was checking out the skateboards at one of the booths. It was pretty impressive that he just hopped on and off he went!

I think there may be a skateboard in his future - for sure :-)

New Bern had lots of bears around the city - Steve chose to pose by the Pirate Bear!

All of them were decorated - some were standing and some were like normal bears with four paws on the ground. It's surprising to me how many cities have done something like this. I had always thought that Cleveland was quite unique when they always had the decorated guitars each year.

Wonder if they still do that?

A nice dinner out at the local Japanese steak house and it was time to call it day.

Steve was up early this morning to take Fozzi on his morning walk. They walked down to the marina on base (sadly we can't stay there as Steve is not former military) to watch the sun come up. There was an alligator there the other day - first one spotted here in NC.

There are rumours that one lives behind Matt and Wendy's house but we haven't spotted it yet.

Dropped Wendy off at the airport for her work trip to Baltimore. Tomorrow we'll take Matt to the airport for his work trip to Arizona. Meanwhile we'll spend this week between the boat and their home - taking care of Fozzi. Sounds like a great week!!

Saturday October 13: Good News and Bad News

The good news: Yesterday's Dream did indeed go back in the water on Thursday. Finally!!! It was good to be back in the water .... again. The bad news is: we still are leaking water from the shaft log into the boat. The good news: we are headed south anyway :-) The two nights we spent on the boat made us feel like we were really almost home!

I guess the moral of this story is that water will find it's way in no matter what you do. We've actually decided that it is better to know where the water is coming in than to totally block it and not know where else it is moving - possibly causing damage that we could not see. But at this point we are confident that the repairs we had done made certain the boat is structurally very sound and we will have no issues traveling. What's nice is we were able to find the issue and determine why the water was coming in. So the plan is to bring the boat back here next spring and have the shaft log replaced. This can be done while we are in Canada living on Guppy. Sounds like a good plan to us .....

The marina let Steve use their giant wrench again to finish tightening the prop. Once that was done, our part in getting the boat in the water was finished.

Asa aligned the engine Friday and we were then good to go.

Meantime, we headed off to Oriental Friday morning to meet some friends.

Jim and Linda from Edisto Island, SC were on their way south and stopped for the night in Oriental - about a 15 minute drive from our marina! This is the couple from Selah that we traveled with from Chicago and the inland rivers.

We were fortunate enough to be able to stop at their home twice now - what a wonderful couple - it was so good to see them again :-)

Jim and Linda's new boat is Symmetry II (in the background left) and is a beautiful Symbol trawler.

We were able to join them for both dinner Thursday night and breakfast Friday morning for some good catch up time. Our plans will take us to Edisto Island on our way south - sometime around Thanksgiving. They have already graciously invited us to plan our stop around Thanksgiving so we would celebrate the holiday with them at their home in South Carolina.

The sunrise Friday on the way to Oriental was incredible! First sunrise I have seen in a while :-)

Today we had hoped to move the boat to a marina closer to Matt and Wendy's place but the wind didn't cooperate - we took the spray from the ferry hitting us on the upper deck as a sign that tomorrow might be a better day! So that is the plan for tomorrow morning - move the boat.. We'll stay next week at Matt and Wendy's house to take care of Fozzi as they both need to be out of town until next Sunday.

So the plan is we move on next Sunday - maybe a whole 30 miles to Morehead City :-)

Tuesday October 9: Back in the Water - Tomorrow .....

Remember the sign at the bar that says "Free Beer Tomorrow"? The point of course is that if you go back tomorrow the sign still says the free beer is tomorrow. Something like the song with lyrics of "tomorrow never comes" - because once tomorrow comes, it is today. All of it is semantics, right? Well, tomorrow really IS the day!! 8 am launch time. In the meantime ...... what we've done.....

As I said, mornings begin at Ziggy's. If it's the weekend, Matt and Wendy join us sometimes. Either way that ended yesterday as Ziggy's will be closed for the next 3 weeks for remodeling ... Sad ....

There was one day of really nice low winds which is great for paddleboarding (Matt) and kayaking (Steve) on the weirdly calm/wavy Neuse River. It's so nice - walk out of the garage door with your toy of choice - then walk several hundred feet and plunk into the water. The wonders of living right on a large waterway.

In the meantime, we've kept in touch with Sailor Dave on Mary Lee. We first met him in Baltimore last September as Steve was recovering from his broken arm - along with Amanzi crew Lance and Mary. We have all since gone our separate ways but we knew that eventually we would meet up with Dave as he returned to Mary Lee a month or so ago with a destination SOUTH!

Oriental, NC was that meeting place. It was so fun driving over the bridge and seeing Mary Lee anchored in the harbor!

We joined Mike and Dave for breakfast as they were on a mission to get as far as they could before Mike needed to head back home. Dave will continue solo.

A trip to the grocery store for supplies and off they went. It was really great to see him again! We will keep in touch as we expect to meet up with him again as we head south also. Hopefully we'll be able to spend a bit more time with him than a couple of hours.

So Steve has carried Aunt Josie's meat grinder on board Yesterday's Dream for the past 3 years. How many times has it been used? NONE. What is the rule? If we haven't used something in the last year - overboard it goes. Trouble is, I was never able to find the doggone thing to get rid of it! Hard to believe on a 36' foot boat isn't it?

The good ending of all of this is he made potato pancakes the other day. What can I say? They were great!!! Good thing I didn't know where he was hiding it :-)

Meanwhile, back to work today. Brad finished the fiberglass yesterday so today's goal was to get the boat ready to put back in the water. The top of the shaft tube was secured .....

Next was to push the shaft in. Sadly I didn't get a picture of how we managed to get this over 9 foot shaft in Wendy's little car. Just a little bit was hanging out of the window ......

More hardware added which completes the connection of the shaft to the transmission. All new hoses, clamps etc.

The alignment to the transmission isn't very good though as only one of four bolts will line up. Part of having the boat in the water is to give the hull time to reshape itself to 'normal'. Sitting on land distorts the hull somewhat but I don't really think it's going to be ok so we'll still have to align the engine and transmission to make sure there is no stress on the connection. We'll have help with this as we've never done it before but next time ....

Last step: installing the propeller. There are two nuts that hold on the prop. One wide nut and one narrow nut. Which to put on first??? Should we listen to the guy at the shaft place - put the wide on on first. Definitely. Or listen to our trawler association members - put the narrow one on first. Definitely.

After extensive research, we went with the narrow nut first. That's how it was on. That's what the neighboring boat has on first. That's what Michigan Props brochure says. We'll do it.

Ready to go into the water tomorrow at 8 am. We'll leave here at 6:40 to make the ferry and get there by a little after 7:30.