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!!!
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