Underway Jose

Tonight we "swing on the hook" (lay at anchor) outside Beaufort, NC (pronounced Bo-fort) after negotiating Adam's Creek. Communications amaze me as we are 1/4 mile from land and I sit at the navigation desk in contact with the world-with no visable means of support.
Last Sunday we slipped off the dock lines, motored out of Oriental harbor, and rolled out the genoa. "Whosh" we were off to New Bern NC to see the sights and visit a bit. The genoa was reefed down a bit and Godspeed shook out the wrinkles and jumped into a high lope and that was all the sail she needed. It was fun with a nice following sea and was fairly uneventful until we hit this narrow channel and decided to navigate it under sail. As we turned into the fist marker we also turned into the wind on a close reach (about 45 degrees into the wind with the sail pulled in tight to the boat) our leeway (side slippage) was too great to stay in the channel and sail at the same time, something to do with that shallow shoal a few feet downwind caused me to start Mr. Yanmar and burn a little deisel. We motored the last 45 minutes to the Trent river and sent Bruce (one of 3 anchors) to the bottom.
Interesting night! There was a 45' bridge(our mast is 54') about 200 yards behind us with 20 to 25 knots of wind on the bow. I slept (not a wink) in the cockpit stareing at the bridge all night and when my eyes closed I saw the mast drifting closer and closer to the bridge as the anchor dragged. Funny thing was, when I jumped up we had not moved an inch. This senario happened at least 1000 times that night until the wind stopped and Lorrie showed up and said "I'll take over the anchor watch now" That's my first mate!
The next morning we found ourselves trapped behind the now closed rotating railroad bridge. About 10 am "Candybar" a little working skiff, raised enough caine on the vhf to get it opened. We quickly pulled up Bruce and turned for the bridge just in time to see it closed again. The next 2 hours we took turns motoring in a lazy oval pattern raising some caine ourselves and got to play a game of bridge with the RR.
Helen met us at the docks and we had a great time. She took us on the town tour, did a little shopping and she dropped us off at the dock. From there we motored Godspeed to the Northwest Creek marina. We were treated to a slip, showered, and off to Helen's dinner party. After a tour of Zepher, Helen's Endeavour 40, Gil and Joanne from 3 doors down showed up and we had a fun evening. Before our trip back Helen gave us some much needed anchor chain, that Godspeed is swinging from as I write this, and some jerry jugs for extra fuel. If that wasn't enough, she drove to Oriental the next day bearing more gifts and best of all, cruising advice! What a
gal!
Dave Wright from St-Bart Yachts stopped by to wish us on our way and Lorrie conned him into a picture. Dave has been a great help and way above the call of duty- thanks Dave! Now we head south down the ditch, watch the depth sounder, and connect the dots!

Casting Off!

Today we hoisted the dingy on the foredeck and are ready to sail away. The last month has been non stop preparation and modifications to our little sturdy ship. My high school buddy Rich came and helped us for a while, it was great to see him again and I still have to get him back for the "incident in Miss Eggo's class". I installed an additional battery bank so we can run electrical items while under sail like electronic navigation, autopilot, frig, tunes, whatever. This is "house power" and is separated from the engine start system. Also installed new marine refrigeration and tricked the bottom portion of the frig into being a deep freeze, it works great and consumes way less power. We had some great neighbors for a few days, they took us to Bayboro on a provision run(groceries and such). We filled the trunk of his rental car and stuffed it away on Godspeed. George is a wealth of sailing knowledge, spends 9 months a year on his 40' Island Packet, how cool is that. They left at dawn this morning and will take the ICW for 2 days until the weather clears and then jump into the ocean until they reach Brunswick GA, we hope to see them there in a couple of weeks. Lorrie has been little miss pack and consolidate, making boxes smaller and then they disappear. Our waterline is getting smaller and smaller, we raised it by two inches when bottom painting and when we finish provisioning it should be just right-lucky guess.
Cody and Beth sent us some climbing gear to get up the mast, so I tried it out and changed a light bulb at halfway up 26' or so, Great fun! Lorrie was the supply Sargent passing tools and such in a bag tied to the flag hoisting lines.
I snuck away from Godspeed for a few minutes today and walked down the dock with my fishing pole when I heard the slave driver giggling as she caught me playing. Just as she walked up wham, a nice spotted trout joined us for dinner! If the weather is OK we plan to head to New Bern tomorrow for a shakedown cruise and visit our new friend Helen(cruiser extraordinaire), ride bikes, maybe a little provisioning, anything but boat chores.

Cheap motels, expensive campgrounds, and well fed mosquitos!

We prepared our house for renters, sold all kinds of stuff, stuffed the rest in the barn and saw it all disappear in the rear view mirror August 17. Fosston Mini-soda was the first stop to see Lorrie's family for a few days and it was a good visit. Then for our first circumnavigation- Lake Superior, in our land yacht. One fun place we went was the site of our first DATE - "Eighteen Lake" near Isabella Mini-soda. One summer evening 28 years ago, we drove to this lake in Lorrie's Dodge Colt and swung on a rope swing splashing into the lake, google eyed, laughing, and having the time of our lives. The tree was still there, however it has fallen into the lake now but what fun to see that spot again. Pat cooked up a few walleye fillets with a fried green tomato, and we laughed about the swing and Lorrie's "Green Bikini". Then we camped and moteled our way down through Ohio and made a few calls on sailboats in the northeast. After a few conversations & Yankee hospitality, we immediately turned south to the Mason-Dixie line. We stayed with Pat's parents for a few days, rode our bikes, and studied available sailboats. After a whirlwind trip to Florida, and a whirlwind trip back and found ourselves in Oriental North Carolina, they claim there are more sailboats than people and it is actually true. Dressed as true yacht buyers, shorts, flip flops and a garage door t-shirts, we found her.
"Wind Breaker" looking a little neglected on the surface but a very solid boat with a new Yanmar diesel, good sails, and below looked like a fine furniture store. She did not have the "funky boat smell" many of the others had so we moved forward, beat the owner into submission and bought the boat. We finished the paperwork and such at the yacht brokers office, all excited, we hopped into our trusty Tahoe and as we started rolling she came to a grinding halt. The transfer case was toast! So we pulled our bikes off the back and continued to our new home. Later that day, we limped the Tahoe(1 mile per hour) to Jonathan's, the only fix it shop in town. Well funny how things work, we were going to put it up for sale that same day anyway and Jonathan could not believe it had no rust and had to have it. SOLD! Two bikes and a boat, What fun is that!
We had her "on the hard" for 12 days doing hull maintenance, buffing, and bottom paint, while Lorrie removed the old name, faint images of other lettering slowly appeared "Amazing Grace" that had been covered up by "Wind Breaker", Our U. S. Coast Guard paperwork had already been sent. so "Godspeed" she is.
We have been back in the water a week now at Pecan Grove marina in Oriental. The morning we were put back into the water, the wind had blown most of the water out of the Pamlico sound and it was very shallow. Dave Wright, the yacht broker that sold us the boat, is one great guy. Dave jumped aboard and guided us through the shallow waters and raging winds to the marina. the trip over was only a mile or so, but horrifying. The depth sounder was oscillating 4', 5', 4' ,5' and we draw 4'10" of water. Dave took the helm at the end and expertly tucked her into the slip and here we are. Now we are taking day sails and adding some long range equipment to her, preparing to cast off for adventure.

Sailboats - a bad investment!

So we set out to buy a sailboat to sail the seven seas, or maybe one. In our search, we fell in love with the beautiful golfing communities of the south. It is true, we have never been known as golfers but what a great sport to learn. The hunting and fishing should be great on the course after hours and Pat can get a part time job fixing golf carts and caddying for his superiors. Lorrie was swept off her feet when meeting the members of the local garden club and her new sport of speed walking/talking. After all, sailboats will always be a bad investment and real estate couldn't be a better buy right now. So as not to disappoint everybody, we did the right thing......





WE BOUGHT THE BOAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Endeavour 35 just back in the water after twelve days "on the hard"(not in the water) and our journey beings.