Merry Christmas

From Beaufort, NC, we wish you
a happy and healthy Holiday Season.

And Active



"Christmas, my child, is love in action."
Dale Evans

Oriental to Beaufort, NC

We finally left lovely Oriental, NC on Saturday, December 20. After such great hospitality, including a Christmas town parade and party, a party with the WINOS and a Wine Tasting event, we thought we should leave now or just stay permanently.

Oriental officially has more boats than people (3 to 1). Slightly less than 900 residents, Oriental boasts a lengthy number of social events and activities. Great restaurants, excellent shopping, art galleries, outdoor excursions -a great destination. Many of the retirees share their experience of visiting by boat (some by car) and liking the area so much that they decided to retire here.

The name of this nautical town is unusual, and the unusual story behind it is fitting. While fishing one day in 1870, Lou Midyette found shelter from a storm at the center of five creeks. He liked the area so much that he and his family settled there and the town of Smith's Creek began. A few years later, Rebecca Midyette, Lou's wife, was visiting a friend in Manteo when she spotted the name board for the USS Oriental, which sunk in a storm off the Outer Banks in 1862. She considered it a great name for her home town, and residents agreed. The town of Oriental was formed in 1899.

Befitting its name, Oriental also has the Oriental Dragon. Each New Year's Eve, the dragon becomes active, leading a parade and appearing at activities throughout the day and evening. Permanently, this beautiful dragon lives in the Duck Pond by the Town Docks.

We enjoyed our time in Oriental, but we needed to resolve several boat issues and prepare the boat to go off shore. Pete, owner of Seacoast Marine Electronics, has our chart plotter functioning properly (well, mostly) and installed Sirius Weather and Radio. Deaton's Boat Yard arrived promptly both times we called them. We really appreciate Joe Valinoti, an experienced sailor and delivery captain, for spending time with us and with Lapidus, sharing his knowledge and skills. He and his wife Paula graciously involved us in Oriental's activities.

Now that we are in Beaufort (Bo-furt), we are taking care of some smaller projects ourselves as well as rearranging items and supplies to make room for two crew members. Seasoned sailors Patrick Gould and Jim Scheer will be joining us as we sail to the Bahamas. Patrick, a retired scientist from the west coast, sailed the Pacific for mnay years and has ocean crossing experience. Jim, retired from R&D in radar and now teaching radar for Georgia Tech, also has extensive sailing experience. We found them through networking in Oriental. They live close by in the New Bern area and we're glad for them to join us. Our plan is to sail off shore as the weather permits. Four of us to share watches and chores will add safety and enjoyment to this adventure. We're looking for a weather window on or soon after December 30.

Beaufort, an historic seaport established in 1722, has its own charm. We'll share more after we have a chance to check it out.

December 11 - Oriental, NC

On December 5, we stopped for the day at the Atlantic Yacht Basin, MM 12. A diesel mechanic successfully took care of our oil leak before the end of the day.

On Saturday, December 6, we had a light day of 38 miles to Coinjock, NC. At our request for an opening at the Centerville Turnpike Swing Bridge, the bridge keeper said to proceed to the bridge, which we did very slowly, probably much too slow for the bridge keeper. She said she would open it when we were closer. As the bridge swung open in our direction, we certainly felt we were way too close.

The other opening we needed was also a swing bridge; this one opens on the hour and half hour. We were happily able to get through behind a power boat, even though the time was six minutes after the hour. This bridge was not intimidating.

The afternoon was chilly but sunny when we arrived at Midway Marina in Coinjock. We decided to finally christen our boat.Many thanks to Ronnie, the Dock Master, for taking the pics.

We ended this lovely day with dinner at Crabbies, a favorite stop for cruisers. My grilled grouper with crab and Larry's seafood pasta were both fresh and yummy.

Sunday, December 7
Leaving Coinjock (MM 50) early, we were in the Albemarle Sound, a large body of water that covers 50 miles, by noon and soon we had 27 - 31 knots of wind and rough, confused seas for most of the 14-mile long crossing. The Sound is shallow and a stiff wind makes the conditions worse. We grounded at MM 83, just as we were coming out of the sound and very close to the Alligator River Swing Bridge. The Bridge tender might not have opened the bridge due to the wind, but we didn't find out. Tow Boat US came as quickly as they could; by the time they were able to pull us off, sunset had passed and darkness was close. We docked at Alligator River Marina, just a mile away. We had been concerned about our boat icon on our chart plotter. If the bow is in the channel, the stern seems not to be. After we grounded and the wind blow our bow off the channel, we could tell our stern was definitely out of the channel. Not good. We'll have an electronics person check it out as soon as possible. We also have a problem in our gear linkage; moving from neutral to forward or reverse is becoming more difficult and makes docking difficult.

Monday, December 8
The Alligator River Swing Bridge opened for us and we traveled the narrow but scenic Alligator River-Pungo River Canal and arrived at Dowry Creek Marian a little after two - a much better day.

Tuesday, December 9
We started early for the fifty mile trip to Oriental, NC, but we came in well after dark because we grounded again, partly because of the chart plotter heading not properly functioning, but the wind conditions were 20+ knots, which lowers the water depth in the Bay and Neuse Rivers that we were traveling. We're glad we have unlimited towing with Boat US. We had no costs, but the invoices were over $750 each. Coming in after dark was challenging; the dockmaster at Oriental Marina stayed late to talk us in and help us dock.

Wednesday, the 10th, Eric, a great mechanic repaired our shifting problem. Peter, an electronics expert was here Wednesday afternoon and is here again today. Issue with chart plotter is not solved at this time.

So, hear we are in the quaint little town of Oriental, called the sailing capital of North Carolina. Our friend, Jenny, has told us what a great area this is and we agree. We're staying at least through the weekend, maybe longer, depending on repairs and weather. Oriental's Spirit of Christmas is Friday and Saturday; a few pics will catch some of the friendly faces we've seen.

Bridges & Naval Shipyard

The tugs and the Naval Shipyard are intimidating enough, but add eight bridges and one lock, and uneasiness and awe describe the emotions. We were off to a great start, with bridges opened as we came through, until the seventhbridge, the "Steel Bridge" which opens on the hour. We arrived at 9:07 as the bridge was closing; thus, we circled and fought the pushing current until the 10:00 opening. Then we rushed to the Great Bridge Lock, which also opens on the hour, luckily, it was still open when we arrived around 10:30, so we cleated to the side wall for the short rising to the water and headed toward the Great Bridge Bascule at Mile Marker 12 (we started the day at Mile Marker 0.4). We did have to wait until 11:00 for the opening. The Atlantic Yacht Basin is just past this bridge; we pulled in and docked to have a diesel mechanic check our oil leak. The knowledgeable mechanic at Atlantic Yacht Basin found the problem and several hours later had the issue solved. The Deltavillains Schroeder Boat Yard was supposed to have checked and replaced as needed the filters and hoses on the engine, but that was the leaky area. Oh, well. We're good to go Saturday morning. Twelve nautical miles, bridge and lock experience, and a repair that ended well -a pretty good day.

2nd day Heading South -Bahamas Bound

We left lovely Yorktown early and worked our way back out to the Bay. We arrived in Norfolk, Mile Marker 0 on the ICW at 2:30 and we stopped for the day because we could not make it through the bridges by their published closing time, most at 3:3o, one at 4. The weather report was correct today: windy and stormy seas. The choppy seas were a bit uncomfortable, but more so were the many commercial vessels, mostly tugs pushing, pulling or leading container ships. They took the channel,

sometimes hailing you to move out of the channel, sometimes not hailing you and you just knew to move out of the channel


So, tomorrow are the bridges. We were not too unhappy to put them off for one more day. We are a bit over whelmed with so much new info and action, but loving it all at the same time.
Weird? You can see from the cockpit pic that we have charts everywhere, as well as 'Otto,' our favorite guy, binoculars, and anything else we can grab to 'help' us.

Goodby Deltaville (Deltavillains describes a few folks)

Tuesday, early am, December 3rd:
Simple Plan. Spend months preparing, then start the engine, untie from the dock, and head out. But, wait, we didn't move. An exceptionally low tide had us grounded! We had moved our boat closer to the front of the marina to a dock with cleats only and no pilings to not only escape the strong wind but to also have a faster get-away. The dock was supposed to be deep enough for our 6' draft and we had no trouble docking there.

So we did a few more chores, wiped the remaining frost from our enclosure, questioned Mother Nature, and had a good laugh. Around 11:00, still not tied to the docks, Lapidus started floating. We quickly started our engine and crept out into the shallow narrow channel. Our depth finder indicated several times that we should be grounded, but we kept moving, so we were probably traveling in mud. Grounding in this channel is all too common.

With the wind and the current on our nose, we motored; our speed was much less than we wanted. But, the sun was shining, our enclosure kept us warm, and we were on our way. What a beautiful day.

The Hampton Roads harbor is home to vessels of all kinds, including commercial and military. We did not want to face this nautical freeway after dark. So, around five, we turned into the York River channel and went up the river to Yorktown. This area too has some commercial and military traffic, but it's not heavy and the river is wide and deep. We moved to the edge of the channel as a tug pulling a large barge passed us, and we followed him in. We were docked by 8 and enjoying a cocktail in one of our favorite spots that we often visited when we were staying in Glocester. We had not planned to visit here on our boat. But we didn't plan to leave late and dock at night at an unfamiliar dockage. So go plans. All in all, we loved our first day headed south.

So, today, we'll plan to enter the Hampton Roads harbor and Elizabeth River. The first 8 miles from Mile Marker 0, Norfolk, are congested with six bridges that we have to go through. More about that later.
My connection is iffy here. More pics tomorrow (if I can hook up).