Catchup Blogpost!!! Hapton VA 10/18/17-Beaufort 10/31/17

Hey Everybody!!!
Its Lucy! I am so sorry I got so behind on the blog. With the way I was writing before, describing ever little detail of the day, takes to long to be doing along with schoolwork, moving everyday, and exploring new places. I became so behind that There would be no way for me to catch up without missing out on alot of places and experiences. Dad decided to help me catch up so here it is...


10/18/17

Left Hampton VA today.

The dockmaster gave us the nod with the wave off when I went to pay for the last 2 days we were at the dock. It was buy 3 get 2 free day apparently.

We crossed above the Hampton Roads Bridge/Tunnel and plunged right into the beginning of the Intracoastal Waterway at mile 1.

The kids were riveted by the massive Navy ships, carriers, gunships and all of the other slate gray ships with massive numbers on the bows. Small security speedboats buzzed past while Osprey VTOL planes and huge Blackhawk style helicopters thrummed overhead.

It was not exactly a nature cruise.

Stan was vibrating with excitement.

We continued past the military industrial circus and approached our first drawbridge, flanked by a metal scrap yard that was busy with mighty machines moving bits of metal and a huge ship tied to a wharf that was using a crane and magnet to unload it's holds full of metal shards. This was highly entertaining as we had to wait a good 30 minutes for the next scheduled bridge opening. Various powerboats elbowed past us to get close to the bridge so as not to get stuck behind the slow motoring sailboats.

Eventually it opened and we passed through. This was the first of many fun interactions with bridge keepers for the coming months.

Next stop was Atlantic Yacht Basin along the ICW.  

Stan was in big-ship heaven!

First bridge of the ICW!

10/19/17

Stan and I went on a long march out into stripmall-land to hunt down some engine parts and do some food shopping.

Back to the marina where a nice mechanic named Tim did some troubleshooting and repairs on our "Stuffing Box" the part of the boat where the propellor shaft that is attached to the back of the engine passes through the hull to the wet side of the boat. A little water is supposed to drip into the boat to keep the bearing cool but issues on Cape Cod had created a tinkle of water and doing adjustments to the part came with risks that I did not want to take. If you take it apart and water starts pouring in and you can't get it back together, one needs the security of a marina Travel-lift or possible haul-out solution to avoid the boat sinking. Of course, because Tim had this option, he was able to successfully repair the box and, Bob's-your-uncle, we were all set. He also made some adjustments to a leaky fuel filter that would continue to be a pain-in-the-neck - and we were off that morning before noon.

We continued down the ICW amid the company of many other boats, past Coinjock and into the remote marshlands of Buck Island anchorage for the night. We dined on vegan shepherd's pie and went to bed early.

Outside the boat, huge clouds of strangely fat gnats buzzed at the windows.

ICW view

Change of scenery

Beautiful sunset

Bugs too bad...stuck inside

Giant gnats. Could not get a good photo of them. 

10/20/17

At dawn the next morning, as we pulled up the anchor to get a jump on the ICW traffic, the same areas covered with gnats the night before were now covered with a weird green slime. Folks on the trawler "Red Tail" that we spoke to on the VHF radio the next day recommended that we do a good job of cleaning the slime off as it would attract huge frogs, local to the lowlands.

I did that all the while considering the possibility of leaving it so I could get a chance to see the frogs.

We moved south with no sign of the frogs. Maybe next time.

The marshland and rivers opened up to the Currituck Sound and then emptied out to Albemarle Sound where we hoisted the Main, Mizzen and rolled out the big genoa for the first full canvas sail of the trip.

I jumped in the dinghy and buzzed around to take some great photos.

From there it was down to Roanoke Island and Manteo (pronounced Man-Knee-Oh) where we tied up to the free town docks for 2 days.

Much to the kids delight, there was a playground next to the dock and a great town with a Piggly Wiggly market and a beautiful living museum called Festival Island complete with an early settlers ship named Elizabeth II al-la Plimoth Plantation/Mayflower II style, complete with actors and re-enacted early american village situations. I

t was a great educational experience.

We celebrated my birthday here in true Pirate style. Mom and the kids wore their pirate finery and Jessie baked me a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. We dined at a local Mexican restaurant. It was fab.

Amazing sunrise

Fog + Sunrise = Beautiful

Putting up the sails

Sailing! Finally!

Dad in the dinghy. 

Homework on the ICW

Manteo

10/22/17

Left Manteo at first light down through some very tight channels among dolphins and wildlife and out into Pamlico Sound pointing the boat toward the tiny Island of Ocracoke just South of Cape Hatteras, the "Graveyard of the Atlantic"....

It was a long day, over a 10 hour sail and we arrived at the entrance of the island's tiny harbor. Just as we were about to pass thru into the harbor called "Silver Lake" through the busy, narrow channel, the fuel pump that brings the fuel up from the big fuel tank under the floors, died.......

Guessing what made the engine stop, I spun the boat around and used the last bits of momentum to get out of the channel and drift in the current down towards Teach's Hole, the historic outer harbor named for its most famous pirate visitor, Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard. Just like Blackbeard did, we dropped anchor and plotted our invasion of the island.

It was a fitting coincidence for our little pirate ship but the entrance that we did make into our home for the week, Silver Lake, was not so dramatic. Arriving being towed by a bright red Towboat US vessel is no way for a ragtag ship and her stinky buccaneer crew to enter a pirate festival. Not very threatening at all.

Anyway, we did get a replacement part as well as a spare and set about moving the boat to the head of the harbor for a forecast blow on night 2. The massive 85# Mantus anchor dug in deep in the harbor bottom mud as the wind gusted to almost 60 MPH that night. Sarah and I were awake for most of the night watching the wind instruments and keeping an eye on the anchor drag alarm.

A few other boats were not so lucky as the next morning there were noticeably less neighbors, actually 2 or 3 unoccupied boats had dragged anchors down to the ferry docks.

While in Ocracoke we rented a golf cart and went surfing on the outer beach, dined many times at the Taco Truck, hung out and did school work at the Library, hung out and did school and worky work at the Coffee House, met new friends Mike and Deb who drove us around a lot, I hitchhiked with my board to the beach, Sarah performed at an open mike at a small place called Coyote, one song (Little Bit 'O Lovin), brought the house down, shopped at "Teach's Hole" and toured their Blackbeard Museum, hiked Springer's Point, paddle-boarded the entire harbor with whole family on 5 boards then Jessie and I did a longer paddle outside the harbor.... Then, finally, what we had come all of this way for, it was Pirate Fest time! 2 days of full dress Pirate fun. Random unprovoked sword fights in the streets, Jessie, Lucy and I attended a "pirate conference" out at the Community Center, saw a pirate magician with a real wooden leg, watched a stage show-contest called "will the real blackbeard please stand up" and listened to the interesting music of the "Motley Tones".

The next day we started by watching the practice runs of the pirate battle that would be performed later in the day and headed into shore, fully outfitted in our sunday-go-to-meetin pirate best in our buff-red pirate inflatable dinghy and really got down to some serious pirate mischief.

Needless to say, much buccaneering and privateering was done and we later dinghy-ed out to watch the re-enactment of Blackbeard's final battle. Contrary to popular belief and lore, Blackbeard's headless body did NOT swim 5 laps around the ship after being relieved of the aforementioned hairy sphere.

We hastily weighed anchor and headed out of the harbor amid the fan-fair of the ending of the battle and the sounding of our conch horns and made a beeline South-west for the mainland as another outer-banks style wind event was forecast for the next day.

We arrived in the pitch black darkness at our planned anchorage, Broad Creek, to find missing navigation lights and confusing channel markers. We felt our way in and dropped the hook for the night.

First surfing lesson for a long time, and first ever, for Stan.

Jessies up!

Stans first ever wave!

Heading back out.

  

Back on the boat.

Open mic at Cyote Music Den

Kai the cat followed us for about a mile before we saw the phone number
on his collar and called his owner.

Pirate Fest!

Captain Greybeard

Captain Greybeard and First Mate Sally

First Mate Sally

The whole crew of buckaneers

The crew of Flying Fish-minus the first mate

Captain Greybeard's grey-beard

Taking over the island

Captain and First Mate

Captain steering our longboat

10/29/17

Early departure for Adams Creek - a canal that cuts through the upper landmass above Beaufort NC -to the shelter of Jarrett Bay Boatworks to avoid the oncoming blow. We were well inland and missed the worst of it.

It was a rainy day

10/30/17

Homer Smith Shrimp Docks.

Narrowly missed filling up water tanks with deep well, sulfur smelling water that would have tainted the whole system for months. The technique of pouring a test glass to sniff and possibly taste became the new normal.

Toured the Beaufort Maritime Museum. Spent half the day immersed in Beaufort's history. Great place. Great folks there.

There was a library at the Beaufort Maritime Museum. Jessie learned the old ways of how
to use a card catalogue. 

This is awesome!

Paper straw and biodegradable plastic cup! Awesome!

10/31/17

Moved down to Beaufort (pronounced Bow-Fort) Town Docks.

We took the dinghy over to the Rachel Carson Preserve island and hiked out through the muddy trails and had some enchanting encounters with many of the wild horse populations. We did a beach clean-up and headed back to the docks to get dressed up for more pirate fun at the best Halloween street ever. The Town blocks off Anne Street and thousands of kids and adults do a high density Trick-or-Treat march down the road. People line the street with buckets of candy and houses glow and throb with adult Halloween parties. Porches are filled with costumed southern folk dispensing candy and general old-hallows-eve weirdness. It was the best Halloween ever.

Moving to the Beaufort Town Docks.

NOAA Lab

soft corals under the dock

Fish snacking on the soft corals.

Soft corals

We are back at the Black Sheep!

Our shoes got a little muddy...

A large amount of the trail was flooded and muddy

Horses up ahead!

Jessie was very exited about any sign of horses

So much wildlife

Horses!

Beach cleanup

Awesome pirate ship!

All costumed up for Halloween

This was before it was that busy...

Big decorations

You had to wait in line for each house.

Craziness!