Wednesday May 29: Into the Water Tomorrow!

 

Did I say it was cold when we were in Ohio? Well, it was! This is the frost on the front windshield of Jim and Julie's car which they were kind enough to loan us for the time in Ohio.

Brrrr... the only good thing was it meant that we could build a fire at the farm :-)


The best part of the farm trip (other than seeing my brothers, sister-in-laws, niece and family) was the morel mushrooms we found. Yes they were pretty late in the season which is why we had to find them at Buehler's grocery store in Ashland.

Regardless, they were unbelievably good!!!

Anyway, we arrived in Fenelon Falls yesterday about 3 pm. Guppy was uncovered and almost ready to go!

This is the first time we've seen the boat out of the water so we were pleasantly surprised to see that the bottom of the boat was in good shape and the outdrive and props appeared to good as well.

Steve spent today buffing and waxing the outside of the boat. Fortunately it wasn't sunny all day - just very muggy and warm. For a 25 year old boat, she cleaned up pretty well!

I worked inside putting things away and also getting the GPS chartplotter installed. We just bring the one from Yesterday's Dream and it works great.

Tomorrow we'll finish putting some decals on the boat, finish the side waxing and installing the electronic ignition (replaces the points in the distributor). Once the marina runs the engine on shore to make sure we're good to go, they'll put the boat in the water. I'm thinking we'll head right to the lock here at Fenelon Falls - about 10 minutes by water. It's supposed to be a nice day.

In the meantime, we are staying at the Fenelon Falls Inn - about a 5 minute bike ride from the marina. It works out great! With a microwave and rice cooker Steve is able to create very healthy and great tasting meals :-)

Monday May 27: On to Ontario

After a really great busy time in Ohio seeing friends and relatives, we left about noon today for Canada. The trip was nice although the traffic was crazy through Toronto - as it seems it always is! We'll spend the night here in Lindsay (a town off the main drag we've visited by boat in the past occasionally) and then head to Guppy sitting in Fenelon Falls - still shrinkwrapped from winter storage.

 Posting less often as we rely on library internet :-)

Tuesday May 21: On to Cleveland

Friday was decision day: attempt to fix the hole we found and assume the rest of the shaft tube was ok OR go head with the original (and much more costly) plan of totally replacing the tube.

To find out, we decided to use our computer camera to investigate what the rest of the inside of the shaft tube looked like.

Step 1: again remove the shaft. Steve is getting very good at this - 5 minutes and the prop was popped off with the use of heat. Last time? 30 minutes. Guess experience DOES pay!

Step 2: thread the camera through an 8 foot piece of small diameter pvc pipe. This will make it easy to move the camera around.

Step 3: place a small mirror on a swivel next to the camera lens so we can see the sides of the tube as the camera is moved. The fit was perfect with the mirror Wendy found on our shopping trip to New Bern on Thursday.

Step 4: use the USB port to connect with the computer and we are in business!

Next cover Steve's head and the computer screen so he can see the picture on the screen as he moves the camera inside the shaft tube.

Sadly, what we found was there were more small holes and the beginnings of other holes.

I tried to include a picture of the inside of the shaft but wasn't successful - maybe later. So even though the news is not what we hoped it would be at least we are sure now that the only solution will be to totally replace the tube. Only this time it will be fiberglass and not stainless steel.

To finish up getting the boat ready to sit in North Carolina's muggy humid weather, we hung closet Damp Rid in the main and front cabins. Along with a couple of trays of kitty litter (we've heard this works - will find out for ourselves!) sitting around.








The dinghy was deflated and zipped into it's bag. Many things that might mildew were hauled off to be stored at Matt and Wendy's. Good thing they are in the area until at least October when we return - makes me wonder what we would have done if they weren't here on the Neuse River on the ICW!!

After a very enjoyable 10 days in NC, it was again time to pack our stuff in Wendy's car, go to the airport in New Bern and pick up a car to drive to Cleveland. How we get so much stuff is amazing to me!

Today was a really nice day to travel - a bit of rain for about 10 minutes and that was it. We were closing in on Cleveland quickly!!! Almost exactly 12 hours from New Bern to Julie  and Jim's place.It'll be good to see them again!

Wednesday May 15: Two Good Days on Land

Our list of things to do before we leave Yesterday's Dream is getting smaller thanks to two really good work days. Monday was all about flushing the engine and generator will fresh water, changing the antifreeze in both engines, checking oil levels and greasing parts that might rust because of the lack of use while we're gone.

Steve also got a start on installing the new windlass. Now we know what parts we need to finish the job.



Meanwhile, up on the flybridge, I removed the controls for the shift and throttle and then placed the cable ends into a baggie with oil.

In theory, the oil will make it's way down the length of the cables to the engine with the end result of smoother lever controls.

I left that for overnight and will hook them back up today - we'll see how well it worked!

Just spending the night at the boat saves us the 40 minutes back and forth to Matt and Wendy's place and, fortunately, Wendy didn't need her car either Monday or Tuesday so that worked great for us!

First thing yesterday morning, we emptied the aft cabin and sealed (hopefully at least!) off the aft cabin from the rest of the boat.

It's time to start digging down into the concrete to see what we can of the shaft tube. It has at least 3 holes in it and is why a small amount of water is able to make it's way into the bilge.

.The plastic did it's job quite well as the aft cabin was full of dust from Steve air chiseling away at the concrete/fiberglass surrounding the shaft tube.

It took about 5 hours to really make enough of a dent in it to see the hole in the tube.

It's circled in the picture below. Hard to believe this little hole could be such a project!







In the meantime, I spent part of the day working on the wiring for the wiring for the windlass. It was a relatively straightforward replacement and so needed a few new holes drilled and wires replaced but otherwise no major changes.

Best of all? It should work and I didn't blow any fuses or shock myself :-)

Back to Matt and Wendy's for some R & R. Sometimes it's good to have deadlines for us to leave the boat :-)

And of course the night would not be complete without a nice sunset over the Neuse River ....

Sunday May 12: A View from the Penthouse

Friday was the final day on the water. By the time we managed to finish up the electrical work in the morning, it was after lunch and time to pull the boat.

Matt and Wendy were due to pick us up at the marina (about 45 minutes from their house - including the 20 minute ferry ride) on Saturday morning so we spent the night living aboard out of the water! The view of the marina from the flybridge is now like being on the top floor of the local hotel!

Nice place from which to view the sunset :-)

Saturday the initial unloading was freezer and fridge contents along with our bikes. They will stay at Matt and Wendy's in the garage. Good place for them to be out of the salty air - keeps the rust from getting worse while we're gone.

Our home out of the water actually works out well as the boat is sitting very close to the showers/restrooms and more importantly close enough that we are able to get power to the boat.

This means we can have out usual power supply for cooking, lights etc. Matt's climbing back down as we prepare to leave for the weekend.

Tomorrow we'll head back to the boat to complete a number jobs to prepare the boat to sit for the next 3 months. This is a great place for Yesterday's Dream to be for what we hope will be a mild hurricane season!

We also need to figure out how to approach the leaking shaft log. But that's for another day ....

For now we'll enjoy being with the kids and enjoying the view the sunsets over the Neuse River from the front yard.

The plan is Cleveland/Loudonville a week from Tuesday then on to Canada the following week.

Friday May 10: Wayfarer's Cove, NC

It was a good second day at Dudley's in Swansboro. The weather wasn't supposed to be all that great for traveling so we were staying put. It was up and bike to breakfast. Same place as yesterday – still good. Then ride a mile or so farther out the main highway. We were looking for a continuity tester. This handy $5 device will allow to trace wires easily. One end on one end of the wire and the other end of the suspected other end of the wire and presto! A light comes on! So much easier when trying to trace a wire that starts in the engine compartment and ends up in the electrical panel.

Sadly after spending the morning working, tracing and testing we didn't feel like we were any closer to a solution. Time to go – 11:30 target leave time with an actual leave time of noon.

We are still very close to Camp Lejeune – as was evidenced by the pair of helicopters that were apparently practicing taking off, flying over us and then landing. Take off, fly over us and land. Over and over. Practice must make perfect :-)

But it was really fun watching them – definitely had entertainment value!

By 3 pm we were were passing through Moorehead City – a mere 27 miles from our destination of Wayfarer's Cove on the Neuse River. It seemed funny to see large ships in the seeming small port. We're also very close to Beaufort but since we've been there by car a couple of time we decided to skip going there by boat.

The ICW travel is marked by miles with a marker placed every 5 miles. I don't think this is along the whole length though. What the 200 means is if you continue on the ICW you will in 200 miles reach Norfolk, VA. The sad thing? The first time we traveled this way, we thought 'mile 0' was New York City! Wow was that a shock!! Oh well, live and learn :-)

While piloting the boat, I have lots of time to think about what we need to do to get ready to change boats. Yesterday's Dream will stay on the Neuse River while we drive to Ontario and travel the Trent on Guppy. Sadly I never remember to bring paper up to the flybridge so notes end up on my hand. So the list is: have our mail sent to Matt/Wendy's, go into ActiveCaptain to make a note of missing markers 45A and 20, order enough medicine to carry us through September, check out getting some LED lights for Guppy, and take some earthquake putty to Guppy (it holds electronics and stuff very nicely for the rough water).

It was getting late (7:30) by the time we made the turn into Wayfarer's Cove just across the Neuse River from Matt and Wendy's home. The sand banks have been shifting for the last 6 months making the channel in interesting. An “S” curve – it seemed as though we wouldn't fit but we did.

However the catamaran that needs to leave here Monday CAN'T fit!! Sounds like there will be some dredging going on over the weekend.

And the electrical work continued. All day Thursday. Trying to make sense of how this boat is wired. How hard can this be??? Finally after much thinking, many drawings and sleeping on it, we figured it out. 

The real issue? Red wires (that are HOT) are spliced to BLACK wires (so now the black is HOT). 

Wouldn't be so bad but all of the OTHER red wires in the boat are NEUTRAL. Amazing to us.

Fortunately most of the work was done in the closet and not under the floor. Definitely a good thing!!

Steve was a very happy camper when the clamp on ammeter finally read “0” - which meant all of the current entering the boat also left the boat!!! (so 30 amps IN – 30 amps OUT = 0). What a battle this has been. Probably the most challenging issue to track down that we've dealt with on this 35 year old boat.

Cross it off of the list!!!

Tuesday May 7: Work in Swansboro

 Finally - a nice morning to go exploring! We found a fun breakfast place in the old downtown of Swansboro. It has a lot of Elvis stuff but also has many pictures of old cars (like from the 50's).

There was even a poster of the Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels - none of this Johnny Depp Tonto stuff).

The town itself is quite small. I think we could have ridden down every street in a sum total of 30 minutes or so. The marina here has a courtesy car but we really didn't need anything (main stores are about 5 miles or so away).

You can tell  you're in a small town when the main bank in town has rocking chairs on the front porch!

Steve found the breakfast place had some really nice flowers - exceptional is the way he termed it.












Many of the homes were from the 1700's and 1800's as the town was founded in the late 1700's. Very interesting place. The 'old downtown' has a variety of restaurants and gift shops.



The most surprising thing we saw was the flock of pink flamingos. I didn't realize they lived this far north :-)





The view riding back across the bridge was nice. Sure didn't look like this when we pulled in yesterday. A few sprinkles last night and that was it.

Today was a work day. We are again chasing down an electrical issue. It's becoming a familiar theme. Most likely a loose or corroded ground wire somewhere on the boat. And of course this means the front cabin, closet and dinette seat are all torn up. The sad thing is that working on the issue from 11 am until 5 pm didn't produce a solution. We think we've isolated the issue to a couple of places but still it just seems that this shouldn't be that hard to figure out.

Tomorrow is another day - the weather is supposed to be good and we will continue up the waterway. Should end up at the marina that is just about 20 minutes from Matt and Wendy's place in Havelock. I expect it will seem like we never left :-)

Monday May 6: Dudley's Marina in Swansboro, NC

Go? Don't go. Go? Yes. No. Maybe.

Finally this morning with the bridge opening in five minutes we decided to GO. Under the bridge and after 10 minutes we were in the lead of the pack! 5 sailboats, 1 trawler, 1 power boat and 1 catamaran.

Eventually we all settled into our spots: the powerboat first, the catamaran second, the trawlers third and the sailboats bringing up the rear.  It's the cruising speed that matters.


It was a day of timing bridges and watching the rains come and go. We actually thought we would miss most of the worst of the rains. I think it was wishful thinking! The storms would kind of come and go from off shore in a circular fashion.

Some wearing itself out before reaching shore (and us) and others not.

One was a REAL downpour that opened our eyes to the fact that our flybridge canvas clearly needed to be waterproofed again!

Fortunately Steve came up to the flybridge using an umbrella to try to stay dry coming up. Little did he know that I was going to confiscate it in order to stay dry under the canvas! Water was coming in everywhere through the canvas. The chart was soaked as was anything laying around inside what we though was a dry area. Guess that goes on the list of thing to do :-)

The timing of the bridges could not have been more perfect. First the one 5 minutes from the dock and the next one 3 hours away. We were hampered by currents again us big time (like 2 mph) so we had to compensate by exceeding our normal cruising speed.

The result was we made the 12 noon bridge by about 2 minutes! This is just too much stress. If we had missed the bridge, it did not open again until an hour later at 1 pm. The picture above are the sailboats behind us that just didn't quite have the speed to make it - sadly they have almost an hour to wait. Sometimes it sucks to be a sailboat .......

The friendly giant giraffe is still living at the same home as before! We enjoy seeing him every time we make this trip :-)


Then it was on to Camp Lejuene. The marines were out in full force with their what appeared to be 'duck boats' although we don't really know what they were. As you can see there was a long string of them. Fortunately we were very near the front when we joined them at an intersection in the waterway. They waved us forward - thank heavens - they are MUCH slower than we are! Really cool though!! There must have been about 30 of them.

And as always, there is the usual assortment of old equipment lining the ICW through the Camp Lejeune area. There are sometime live round (like gunfire) along here and then the Marines just close the waterway.

As you can see in the background we are just traveling along the Atlantic with narrow land masses between the ocean and the ICW.

After an overall rainy cloudy day, we arrived in Swansboro with a wonderful blue sky. Steve is finishing tying up the boat.

We saved an hour at the second bridge by not having to wait for the next opening and 30 minutes by just also making the 3rd bridge. So in and tied to the dock by 4 pm instead of arriving at 5:30 pm.

What a difference that made!

And a great sunset to boot. Can't ask for anything more ....

Sunday May 5: Wrightsville Beach, NC

After checking what the weather was doing, we finally decided to move on today a very short 14 miles to Wrightsville Beach.

This area (including Carolina Beach) is made of up of many areas that are nothing but sand dunes. There are a few along the waterway but farther out toward the ocean they seem to be everywhere.

Many small inlets along this stretch - the other side of the waterway is mostly homes and boat docks.

One of the reasons we moved on today was to be near the bridge that opens only on the hour. It's so much easier to time when we're docked 5 minutes from the bridge!

The next stretch of travel (about 8 hours worth) has 3 or 4 bridges that we will have to have raised and all are on a schedule so being near the first one really helps.

Plus it keeps the next leg of travel to a reasonable 8 hours instead of 10. This part of the ICW has limited marinas and even more limited anchorages! Normally we would just anchor at a place in Camp Lejeune but with the wind still predicted to be high, we'll likely pass it up this time around.

It was a good score on the bike ride though. A nice Harris Teeter grocery store and a CVS pharmacy with a Redbox! We started watching "The Hobbit" when we were at Matt and Wendy's but didn't have enough time to watch the whole thing.

We also scored by being in CVS during the quick downpour (which wasn't supposed to happen).

So tonight: The Hobbit is on the agenda. We really like Redbox - wish it would have been my idea to start something like that!

I keep forgetting to add the picture Wendy sent a while back: proof positive that there was work accomplished while we were staying at their place a few weeks ago.

Wendy and Matt had hosted a volunteer appreciation get-together and given the great view they have, the windows might as well be clean!

We'll be back there by the end of this week - wonder what work they have in store for us this time :-)  Seems like a fair trade for housing though so no complaints for us!