Day 16, Year 11: Family Visit
Date: Saturday, November 7, 2015
Weather: Another Glorious Day, High in the 80’s F, Rain Late Evening
Location: Lightkeepers Marina, Little River, SC

This afternoon Mark and I were outside working on polishing stainless. Mark was on the dock working on the boarding ladder and I was on the port deck when we heard a woman calling, “Hey, Mark.” I look toward S Dock and see a young blonde woman and wonder who Mark knows that I don’t. We were expecting my niece Jennifer, but this was not her. Then I see my nephew Tommy and recognize the blonde as his wife Marilou. They live in Charlotte, so it was a wonderful surprise to see them here. Marilou’s parents live here, so when they heard we were in town, they decided to make the surprise visit to see us and Bob and Ginny. We sat in the cockpit and visited for a bit and called to see where my niece Jennifer was. She was just leaving Wilmington, so we arranged to meet her at Pizzeli’s for dinner. This is an Italian restaurant not far from Bob and Ginny’s and it is their favorite place to eat. And besides, Tommy and Marilou’s son Ryan works there, so we could have dinner and see Ryan at the same time. It worked out great and it was delightful to see a grown-up Ryan at work. After dinner, Marilou went home to visit with her parents and Jennifer and Tommy came here to Windbird to visit. We solved all the world’s political problems and hashed and rehashed family history.

Note: I’m actually writing this log on Sunday as both Jennifer and Tommy spent the night on the boat and we were up until 3 am talking!
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151107 Day 16 Little River, SC–Jennifer, Tommy, Marilou Visit

Day 15, Year 11: All Alone
Date: Friday, November 6, 2015
Weather: Gorgeous, Warm Day, High Temp 76 degrees F
Location: Lightkeepers Marina, Little River, SC

After two weeks of traveling with James, tonight we are all alone on Windbird. Elizabeth, James’ mother, came to pick him up this afternoon. We really enjoyed having James aboard and we are going to miss him. But have no fear, we are not going to be alone for long if things work out as expected. My niece, Jennifer, called last night and she plans to arrive tomorrow afternoon. She is driving over from Charlotte to visit with her daughter, but will spend tomorrow night with us before heading on up to Wilmington to be with Jessica. So we are looking forward to her visit. And she offered to take us grocery shopping which is very helpful. We love Lightkeepers, but the nearest grocery store is almost three miles away.

Today was a work day on Windbird. I scrubbed the cockpit cushions and then the cockpit. We have basically lived in the cockpit, except for sleeping at night, for the past two weeks, so it needed a little clean-up. While I did this, Mark polished the stainless, starting on the aft deck. This is where we have the stainless arch topped with solar panels and it is the most difficult to polish as you are working up over your head. He did the hardest part and then let me take over. By day’s end we had all of the stainless on the aft deck polished and tomorrow morning we will start working our way forward.

We have spent this evening figuring out how and when we are getting back to Boston. We can fly from Myrtle Beach for about $80 per person on Spirit Airlines, but that means leaving here at 10:30 pm and arriving in Boston at 12:30 am. There’s no public transportation at that time of night, so we are now deciding whether to spend the night in Boston or to rent a one-way car. We talked to Heather and she thinks we should spend the night in Boston. Driving home at that hour means we would arrive after 3 am. She’s probably right, but we’ll think on this for a day or so before making a decision.

151106 Day 15 Little River, SC–Saying Farewell to James

Day 14, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—We’re Here
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2015
Weather: Overcast Turning Partly Sunny Late Afternoon, No Wind
Latitude: 33 51.733 N
Longitude: 078 38.290 W
Location: Lightkeepers Marina, Little River, SC
Total Miles Traveled: 780 Nautical Miles

We’re here in Little River and it feels like summer. The overnight passage from Beaufort compressed three days into one since we sailed night and day. If we had stayed in the Waterway, we would have motored in daylight hours only, anchoring at night. By midnight last night we were passing Carolina Beach which would have been our Friday night anchorage if we had stayed in the Intracoastal. Offshore overnight passages are certainly faster than doing day hops and we prefer passages when there is the light of the moon to guide us. But we didn’t have that last night. It was as black as pitch out there, requiring us to stick our heads out of the plastic cockpit enclosure to check the horizon for lights every 15 minutes. First you look out to port and then to starboard. If there is a light, you then have to keep a constant watch to see what kind of vessel it is and which way it is going. There weren’t many boats out there last night, at least not in our path, but you have to be vigilant just in case. And then in the wee hours of the morning, fog set in and stayed with us most of the way to Little River. The darkness and the fog weren’t major problems, but they certainly made the overnight passage a little more intense than normal. But we are here, safe and sound. Mission accomplished.

I always love entering the Little River inlet with its sand dunes, dune grass, and huge number of birds. Today it was pelicans. I have never seen so many pelicans all in one place. But as we traveled further toward Lightkeepers, we ran into civilization and the birds went away. We stopped to fill up with fuel before heading into Lightkeepers. I keep track of the hours sailing versus the hours motoring, and this trip we motored 80 per cent of the time. We took on 104 gallons of diesel and then headed the last couple of miles to Lightkeepers. Our friend, Lee Kaufman, was on the dock to catch our lines. They put us in the slip next to his boat, Sea Turtle, and I joked with Lee saying he only came to make sure we didn’t hit his boat on our way into the slip! Actually, he thought we were going to be across the dock from him, but the dock master made a change at the last minute. Thankfully it was near slack tide and we came in with no problem. And joking aside, we really appreciated Lee’s presence to help with the lines. It is always a relief to see someone on the dock to throw those lines to. So thank you, Lee.

It really is shorts weather here. Yippee! And a sheet is too much to sleep under. It is in the 70’s and humid, so it feels hot to us. And tomorrow is supposed to be warmer than today. So we will enjoy the warmth while we have it. Our able crew member, James, will be leaving us tomorrow. His mother lives in Raleigh and she is driving down to steal him away for a few days before he flies back to Boston. He has been a delight to have aboard and we very much appreciate all of his help. I’ve invited him to write a departing guest log for tomorrow night, so maybe we’ll hear his side of the story. We do hope he has enjoyed the trip as much as we have enjoyed having him with us. We celebrated our arrival by splurging and going out to dinner at the restaurant at the head of the harbor, Clark’s Seafood and Chop House. It is a little pricey, but we could walk there and we were able to sit outside overlooking all of Coquina Harbor while enjoying fantastic food. And I didn’t have to cook. Life is good.http://

151105 Day 14 Passage to SC–We’re Here

Day 13, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC-Offshore
Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Weather: Overcast, Wind NE <10
Latitude: 34 26.715 N
Longitude: 076 56.135 W
Location: About 21 Miles Southwest of Beaufort
Total Miles Traveled: 671 Nautical Miles (4:30 pm)

The decision to go offshore at Beaufort (pronounced Bow-furt, not to be confused with Beaufort that is further south and is pronounced Bue-furt) was made after listening to the weather this morning. Beaufort is sitting right under a trough that should start to dissipate overnight. When a trough is sitting on top of you, it is difficult to predict the wind as it depends on EXACTLY where you are. The weather predictions are for a wider area, so our northeast wind, what little we have of it, might turn to the southeast. Or we might just get light and variable wind. Or we might get southeast wind 10-20. Nothing indicated that we should have rough conditions, so that made the decision. We could get a few squalls overnight, but again, nothing with very strong winds. The seas are 2-3 feet, so not bad. Because we currently have less than 10 knots of wind behind us, we are motor sailing. But we would have been motoring in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) for three more days. With this decision, we will be in Little River tomorrow afternoon, two weeks after leaving Cape Cod.

We arrived in Beaufort’s sister city, Morehead City, a little after noon today. All you see from the water is industry, but just before we reached the city, the scenery along the ICW changed to sand and marsh grass. We had finally left the swamp and low country of North Carolina behind us and moved into the marshland. We will re-enter that when we go through the Little River Inlet tomorrow, but for tonight all we will see is open ocean. We got a great send-off from Beaufort as we started seeing pods of dolphins right away. And finally one pod came to play in Windbird’s bow wake. These are Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and there were all sizes. There were a couple of calves, a few subadults, and a couple of giant mommas. Some were jumping and slapping their tails on the water. We were so glad that James got to see such a great show.

151104 Day 13 Passage to SC–Offshore at Beaufort

Day 12, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—Misty Day
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Weather: Overcast with Mist, Wind NE 12
Latitude: 35 11.758 N
Longitude: 076 35.544 W
Location: Anchored in Bay River, NC
Total Miles Traveled: 611 Nautical Miles

It was another wet day, but at least today was misty rather than pouring rain. Today it misted, and misted, and misted, and is still doing more of the same tonight. But it is warm and mist is better than pouring rain. So we’ll take it. And it looks like we have more rain to come for days. There is a chance of rain in these parts every day for the next week. Hopefully we’ll see a ray of sunshine somewhere along the way.

We motored about 50 ICW miles (statute miles) today and tomorrow we will be in Beaufort by mid-afternoon. At that point, we have to decide whether we will go offshore for a 24-hour run to our destination in Little River, SC, or whether we will keep trucking along in the Intracoastal. The winds offshore are going to be coming from the south, but depending on their exact direction, we might be able to make the offshore passage a go. If the winds are from the SE, we will be fine. If they are SW, we will not. So we will listen to the weather in the morning and make our decision on the fly. Either way, we will be in Little River by this weekend.

Last night we watched “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” and tonight we watched “The Book of Eli.” We’ve appointed James our official entertainment director and watching a nightly video together has been fun. After staring at the narrow waterway all day every day, diversion is a good thing.

151103 Day 12 Passage to SC–Anchoring Off Bay River

Day 11, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC-Off the Grid
Date: Monday, November 2, 2015
Weather: Overcast with Rain All Day, Wind NE 12
Latitude: 35 40.336 N
Longitude: 076 05.635 W
Location: Anchored at the West End of the Alligator River, NC Total
Miles Traveled: 513 Nautical Miles

Well, the internet connect last night wasn’t great, but it was better than nothing . . . which is what we have tonight. We have no phone service, thus no internet, so this log will have to be sent via HAM radio. But we should be back on the grid tomorrow afternoon. You’ll receive no emails, phone calls, or texts from any of us until then, but no worries. We are doing fine. We got up at 6:30 am and made the decision to leave Coinjock. We could pay money to sit in the boat in the rain at a dock or we could sit in the boat for free and move along. I voted for moving. The forecast was for pouring rain from about 10 am to 2 am, but we decided that we could deal with that. So off we went. Actually we never really got pouring rain, just periods of drizzle mixed with periods of steady rain. And that is continuing as I write this log. We arrived here at the west end of the Alligator River at 3:30 pm. We are anchored near the entrance to the Alligator-Pungo River Canal which we will enter early in the morning. More rain and slightly higher winds are forecast for tomorrow, but we will keep moving and should be in Beaufort by Wednesday evening. Little River is either 3-4 days by waterway from there or an overnight if we can go outside. So we’ll be watching the weather carefully and make that decision on Wednesday. I just took a pan of Toll House squares out of the oven and I think I’ll invite Mark and James to come downstairs from the cockpit to sample the squares and watch a movie. Since it is a matinee, the cost of a ticket will be cheap. Maybe I’ll even make some popcorn.

151102 Day 11 Passage to SC–Alligator River Rain

Day 10, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—Coinjock, NC
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2015
Weather: Overcast with Occasional Spitting Rain
Latitude: 36 21.088 N
Longitude: 075 56.865 W
Location: On the Face Dock, Midway Marina, Coinjock, NC
Total Miles Traveled: 513 Nautical Miles

November! And we are in our shirt sleeves, having shed the long underwear and layers of clothing. We traveled through the Dismal Swamp today and tied to the face dock at Midway Marina in Coinjock, NC at 2:15 pm. It was a dismal day to transit the Dismal Swamp. The skies were overcast with not one ray of sunshine. But it was warm and that was good. The boat behind us on the dock, Black Cat, has a young couple from Montreal with their two children, ages 8 and 10, aboard. They are headed to Beaufort and then offshore to the British Virgins for the winter. The boat in front of us is from the Chesapeake Bay and headed to the Abacos in the Bahamas for the winter. The company is good, but this marina is far from fancy. In fact, it is not far from crumbling into the Waterway. But it has a washing machine and dryer that we have kept busy today and we were able to fill our water tanks. That plus the fact that it is not terribly expensive made it a very convenient stop. We actually just had to pull over to the side a few feet and tie up—easy to do when there is no wind and the current is running just right. People here are talking about staying put tomorrow as they have heard that it will be stormy. I know what the people here are saying because Mark and James hung out on the dock with them this afternoon. My one and only picture for today is of Mark and James just sitting on the dock watching the water. I think they are enjoying the laid back nature of this place and they might get to enjoy it for one more day. Our reports indicate heavy rain all day tomorrow but not strong winds. We will listen to our weather guru in the morning at 7:30 am and make the decision of whether to move on or stay put for the day. Other than a forecast of three rainy days ahead of us, all is well here.

151101 Day 10 Passage to SC–Laid Back in Coinjock

Day 9, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—In the ICW
Date: Saturday, October 31, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Very Little Wind
Latitude: 36 43.280 N
Longitude: 076 14.502 W
Location: Free Dock at Great Bridge, Chesapeake, VA
Total Miles Traveled: 471 Nautical Miles

The fantastic sail we had yesterday continued until midnight. Then the wind moved further behind us and we started the engine to give us a boost and to keep the sails from slatting so people could sleep. I was on watch but the slatting of sails brought Mark up to help me get things set. Then just before 1 am, the wind speed dropped even more and Mark had to come up again to help get the head sail furled. We motor sailed the rest of the night with only the main up and made our turn into the Chesapeake Bay just after sunrise and then on into Norfolk and the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). We knew we had to make the Belt Line Railroad Bridge in Norfolk for the 2 pm opening or stay in Norfolk for the night. That bridge is undergoing repairs is only open at 11 am, 2 pm, and 5 pm for the next few days. We enjoyed our water tour motoring by the ships in the Navy Yard and then actually had to slow way down to bide time for the 2 pm opening of the railroad bridge. We made in with time to spare! But it was truly a Waterway traffic jam with boats of all sorts waiting to go through. With a little patience, we all got through that bridge and the next one before we spread out a bit. We were the slowest boat in the pack so when we got to the Great Bridge Lock ten miles on further, we were surprised to find most of the boats that passed us were still in the lock waiting to go through. I guess it was a case of hurry up and wait for them. Just after the lock we decided to stop for the night at the free dock on the north side of Great Bridge. There is another one on the south side of the bridge but we weren’t sure there would be room for us. As the saying goes, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” So we decided to stop at the first free dock. We immediately met a very nice couple, Tom and Nancy of Francis B, who caught our lines. They spent the summer in Greenland and are headed home to Georgia for the winter. Mark mentioned that we have friends, Geoff and Chris of Shambala, who just returned from Newfoundland. And believe it or not, Nancy had noted that it was Shambala that passed them at the entrance of the Cape Cod Canal at 2 am in the morning. They saw the name on their AIS. Such a small world.

Mark, James, and I walked into town to the little strip mall and had dinner at a Japanese sushi restaurant. It was quite a treat to not have to fix dinner and the sushi was really good. After dinner we did a little food shopping at Farm Fresh and then walked back to the boat. There was a young couple with a little tyke dressed in a Captain America costume down by the boat dock, so we invited them to come Trick or Treating at Windbird. James donated a candy bar and I found some packets of trail mix. I don’t think Captain America had ever come to a boat to get Halloween treats before. That was our extent of Halloween celebration except for receiving some fantastic photos of grandchildren in their costumes. We had a robot, a fairy princess, a bike racer, a cowboy, and a Dalmatian puppy. Happy Halloween!

We have already set back our clocks and will be leaving here at the 7 am EST bridge opening. It will now be daylight at 6 am, but that is just too early for me. I need at least one day to adjust. Luckily tomorrow is a short day mileage wise. The next couple of days, however, are long ones requiring the earlier get up and get going time. So I’m going to have to adjust to the 6 am to 5

151031 Day 9 Passage to SC–Water Tour of Norfolk Navy Yard

Day 8, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—Sailing, Sailing
Date: Friday, October 30, 2015
Weather: Sunny and Warm Enough, Wind WNW to N to W 10-15
Latitude: 38 16.601 N
Longitude: 075 02.391 W
Location: Just Passed the Ocean City, MD Inlet, Delmarva Peninsula
Total Miles Traveled: Nautical Miles (5:20 pm)

What a beautiful day it has been without a single cloud in the sky. We left our anchorage in Cape May at 10:15 am, raised the main, and got to the inlet along with a Coast Guard boat, two commercial fishing trawlers, a sport fishing boat, and a small freighter. I think we all had the same idea of going out at the turn of the tide, but it was actually still running a knot against us. Yet it was calm, so no problems there. Once outside we headed south and have been sailing all day. The wind was WNW 10-12 when we started out and we sailed with a full main and headsail. After lunch the wind started to die down a bit and had turned more to the N putting the wind right behind us. We decided to furl the headsail and put out the spinnaker. It took Mark and James almost half an hour to get it up due to a rusted snap shackle. They had to put a new one on and then we sailed along beautifully for a couple of hours. Mark and James were both downstairs napping when the wind took an abrupt turn back to the W and it quickly increased from 10-12 to 12-16. That put us on a beam reach and we were flying, making me uncomfortable. I wanted that spinnaker down and was really glad that Mark got up about that time. We dowsed the spinnaker (after another fight with a snap shackle that wouldn’t release) and are back to sailing with the full main and headsail. We are sailing along at 7 knots on fairly calm seas—really nice. But the wind is supposed to completely die out sometime before dawn and the sailing will end. At least we got in one sailing good day before we start the long motoring trip down the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). We’re not sure where we will be tomorrow night. We just have to see what time we arrive in Norfolk and make a decision to stay there for the night or move on down the ICW. Stay tuned.

151030 Day 8 Passage to SC–Spinnaker Sail

Day 7, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—Still in Cape May
Date: Thursday, October 29, 2015
Weather: Sunny and Warm, Temp in the Low 70’s F; Wind 10 WNW
Location: Anchored Off Coast Guard Station, Cape May, NJ

We’re still here in Cape May. Our weather guru, Chris Parker, said this morning that outside Cape May the waves were 9 feet and the seas were confused coming from the E, the SE, and the S. His quote was, “It’s like a washing machine out there.” Well, none of us were interested in experiencing the washing machine motion, so we made the decision to stay put another day. We had hoped to leave at first light tomorrow morning, but the tide will be coming in until about 10:30 am. The inlet can be rough with the incoming tide, so we might wait until the tide turns to leave. That will mean that we won’t reach Norfolk until Saturday afternoon, so the plan right now is to stay there Saturday night and head into the Intracoastal on Sunday morning. Of course, that could change, but at least we have a plan. We should reach Beaufort, NC, on Wednesday. If the weather is perfect, we can go outside there and be in Little River by Friday. If not, we will reach Little River on Saturday or Sunday, November 7th or 8th. Mark has to be in Boston on Monday, November 16th, so even with all of our detours and delays we are still on schedule and are still having a good time.

The ‘boys’ did a little boat work again today. First we sent James up the mast to change the mast light. It is located at the first set of spreaders, not all the way at the top, and James handled it like a pro. And he successfully got the light changed. Mark then had James tracing wires that come into our compass. The compass light has not been working and James found the loose wire and fixed that. I defrosted the freezer while they were doing this. I really just wanted to know exactly what was in the freezer, but since I had to take everything out to inventory the contents, I figured I might as well go ahead and defrost it. Then I made banana bread. That was about the extent of work done today.

It was sunny all day and the temp was in the 70’ . . . nice weather. But tomorrow and Saturday will be considerably cooler between here and Norfolk, but still only in the 60’s. We haven’t needed to light the Mr. Heater propane stove to keep warm and it doesn’t look like we are going to need it. That is very happy news.

151029 Day 7 Passage to SC– Up the Mast