November 2-7, 2014 Still in Wilmington, NC

Another week in Wilmington!

Sunday, I enjoyed singing with the choir again at St Mark’s.  Then I spent a little time shopping before returning to the boat. 

We didn’t receive the parts we wanted until Tuesday and Wednesday.  So spent the first couple days cleaning, again.  We are cleaning the outside of the boat as well while we have unlimited water, and it needs it. 

Wednesday night, Dave was trying to finish a project outside.  He was making a hole in the transom for an electrical through hull.  It was getting dark and the bugs were biting.  So he was trying to hurry.  He was drilling on the outside with his left hand and holding back a hose on the inside of the lazarette (storage areas in the cockpit).  As the drill bit went through the fiberglass, it caught a piece of uncut fiberglass and went right for Dave’s finger.    It went into his first finger on his right hand at the nail bed.  He came inside, and I cleaned it and bandaged it right about the time he thought he was going to faint.  I gave him a cold wet cloth for his head and started fanning him while he had his head between his legs in our aft head.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with him if he did faint.  It would have been awkward to get him to lie down from there.  But he came through OK.  He still went out and finished the job. 

Thursday, we were going to return our rental car, since things were wrapping up.  But I was feeling kind of claustrophobic without it.  I have gotten spoiled having it.  Since we feel “stuck” here, the car has been my “escape”.  So we talked through the reality of leaving here by the weekend, and decided it wasn’t going to happen.  Then we hopped in the car and went out for breakfast. 

I was able to go to choir practice on Thursday night.  That  always lifts my spirits. 

On Friday, we thought we were going to have our sea trial, where we take the boat out with the boat yard mechanics and test all the systems that were replaced.  The electrical man called about 8:30 and asked us to start the engine about 9:45 to let it run about 30 minutes before it would be tested.  Well it was blowing about 15 knots, so I wondered if we would actually take the boat out.  Since we are on a river and the tide affects the area, it can be difficult to get back into your ship on a windy day.  Well, the engine mechanic came and tested a few things.  But he said he wanted to come back on Monday when the engine was cold for another test.  And he would have to have access to our batteries (in the back of our “garage”).  So that was it for a sea trial today.  We were kind of pissed off, because this part could have been done today had we been better informed on what he needed access to.  We had things tucked away thinking we were heading out to sea.  Had we known he needed to have access to the batteries, we would have had that ready for him.  POOR COMMUNICATION at our expense. 

Dave spent part of the day “cleaning our fuel”.  I think I mentioned this before, but we have “algae excrement” in the fuel in our jerry cans.  When he noticed new crud in our new jerry cans, he decided we needed to do more.  If this is what we are getting at a station in Wilmington, what will we get in the Bahamas and beyond?  Now Dave is concerned about the fuel in our tank.  Our neighbor, who has been sailing around the world for over 20 years, said he has always used a Baja filter along with a biocide.  Well, we have a Baja filter with one screen, but they don’t make the one our neighbor uses anymore, the Grand daddy with 3 screens.  After more research, we decided to buy a portable fuel polisher-a pump with a couple filters, along with using a biocide.  When you polish the fuel, it runs through a couple filters to clean all the gunk that could have come from the fuel source or has grown in your tank, and it removes water from the fuel.  Dave said it also has a “voodoo filter” that lines up the fuel gremlins and marches them right out of the tank, making the fuel even more efficient.  We inquired at our marina and it would cost us about $500 to polish our fuel.  So we feel comfortable that our own polisher will pay for itself.  And we’ll sleep better thinking we are preventing our engine from stalling with clogged filters.  The fuel runs through the polisher and back into our tank.  The process takes about an hour.  And we will do this occasionally, especially after we've been out to sea, because the fuel will have been "stirred up" from the movement of the boat. 

I, on the other hand, went to see a matinee movie.  I had just read The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks and didn’t realize it was showing in the theaters.  I picked up the book at our marina.  The laundry room has a book exchange area.  Since many Nicholas Sparks’ books take place in North Carolina, I felt I should read one of his books while I was here.  The location in the book was Oriental, NC.  But the movie location was Louisiana.  It was a typical N Sparks love story, but just what I needed.

Afterwards, I pulled Dave off of the boat to go out to dinner.  I swear, he would never leave the boat unless he needed a boat part.  Our neighbors had recommended Elizabeth’s Pizza.  It is in a strip mall, but you would never know it once you step inside.  And they had Dave’s favorite wine, Lambrusco, from his brown bag days.  It’s just a sweet, fruity red wine, like Dave, sweet and fruity.

November 1, 2014 Polish Festival

Saturday, we went to the St. Stanislaus Catholic Church Polish Festival.  It is in the little town of Castle Hayne, which is right down the road from our marina.  It was raining when we arrived about 1:00, but there were still a lot of people there.  They had food stations (under tent awnings) serving different foods.  There was a Knights of Columbus hall where you could eat inside.  There was also a large tent with tables, a dance floor and a band.  There were tents selling frozen food to take home.  And there was a dessert tent and beer tent. 

We stood in a light rain to get the dinner plate for $11.00 each.  The plate included kielbasa sausage, sauerkraut, stuffed cabbage roll, 3 pierogi and a dinner roll.  We were lucky to find a place to sit inside.  The meal was delicious.  We have had pierogi in Canada.  It is similar to ravioli.  These had a cheese filling.  And I know cabbage rolls take a lot of work to  make.  The best I can ever remember were those made by Anna Moore, my sister’s mother-in-law. 

After eating, the rain had stopped.  I went to the beer tent and bought one of the St Stan’s Baltic Porters that were brewed especially for this festival by a local brewery.  Dave went to the dessert tent.  For the same price as my beer, $5, Dave got a cup of coffee and 4 different desserts.  Then we met by the music tent.  The polka band was from Ohio.  They were a young group, probably in their 20-30's.  It was fun to see so many families enjoying themselves and dancing the polka.  They did a medley of gospel songs in polka style.  I guess I would expect that in the south.  We didn’t stay long, didn’t even dance.  But with the right bunch of friends, I can see where this could have turned into the German tent back in Rapid City.

food tent for the meal

clockwise-pierogi with onions, cabbage roll, kielbasa sausage and dinner roll, saurerkraut

coffee and dessers

 

 

working on getting this video to play

October 29-31, 2014 Happy Halloween

UGH!!   Another week waiting for repairs.  It took all week for the insurance company to OK 2 more parts for our boat by Thursday.  But the parts won’t be here until Monday!  We are getting so frustrated.  I guess the weather wouldn’t have cooperated for us to leave this weekend anyway. 

We are checking things off of our “to do” list.  Dave replaced the pump for our shower sump in the forward head.  When you shower on the boat, you have to turn on a sump to drain the water out of the shower stall.  Earlier this summer, we noticed water backing up into the shower stall.  So Dave researched different pumps and found one he thought would work on our boat.  And this week it was installed.  Our previous pump had a filter screen that had to be cleaned.  It had rough edges and I was always worried about getting scratched and picking up a disease.  This one doesn’t have that, yippee!

Dave made a motor mount on our stern for the new Lehr dinghy motor.  He found a leak in the wash down pump at the bow.  The leak had actually drained our forward water tank into the anchor locker, which went overboard.  Good thing to find and fix before we needed that water.  We had one outlet plate that was loose.  It finally quit working, so Dave fixed that.  Funny how you can put off some minor things like that.  Dave cleaned the air conditioner filter. He also checked the water maker filters.  Wanted to be sure they would be functional when we leave here.  We “pickled” the system when we stopped using it 3 months ago.  So we are anxious to use it again to see how that worked.  It should have kept anything from growing in the lines. 

My focus has been on the galley.  I am trying to use up things in our freezer, since we have found some freezer burn on some meats.  Plus we want room for fish when we head south.  I am planning some meals for when we leave here.  We hope to make a couple over night passages.  So it’s good to have meals prepared that can be eaten cold or easily warmed up.  It's nice to need very little preparation because if the water is rough, you don’t want to be below deck for very long.  I even made home made noodles for the first time.  I have never been very domestic, so I am having fun with this.  Not bad for my first attempt, but they need to be thinner. 

used the glass for my rolling pin

Dave had actually made the chicken soup while I was in SD and put it in the freezer

I am also working on consolidating our addresses and cleaning up our contacts.  I had gotten rid of my address book that I had for over 35 years.  The addresses were in a document in our computer.  But I usually needed an address when away from the boat.  So they are all going in our phones.  I’m sure most people figured that out years ago, but it was never a priority. 

Halloween was the 40th anniversary of our first date.  I got the trick and Dave got the treat!  We were running errands that afternoon and ended up having lunch about 3:00, so no going out for dinner.  When we returned to the boat, we continued with projects and got ready for our one trick or treat-er.  There is a family here with a 5 year old son.  They had spread the word around the marina that he would be trick or treating.  If anyone wanted to take part, to have a light on their boat.  I moved my Halloween decorations from inside to the outside just to add a little to the festivities.  I now buy my holiday decorations at Dollar General and throw them away afterwards.  

Halloween garland on the life lines

Edward, the star of the day

Sun setting behind Dave as he finishes mounting the motor before the bugs start biting.

We ended up just having a few snacks and watching a movie.  But we had a couple drinks of something we invented.  I had a Moscow Mule back in SD at the Vortex in the Alex Johnson Hotel.  It is a vodka drink with ginger beer and lime and served in a copper mug.  I have only seen it in a couple places since then.  While we were in Charleston, Dave had a Kentucky Mule, same drink but made with Kentucky bourbon.  Dave likes Crown Royal, so we thought we would try the Moscow Mule with the Crown Royal.  We tried it with ginger soda in July, but weren’t impressed.  I had bought ginger beer at Trader Joe’s a couple months ago, just waiting for the right opportunity to try this.  Times have changed, can’t believe it took us this long to try this.  I had limes in my refrigerator wrapped in foil (helps keep citrus fruits), that were over a month old, but still good.  So what the heck.  The drink was delicious.  You use 1/2 lime, 1/2 bottle of ginger beer and 2 oz crown royal (or vodka).  I thought we should come up with our own name.  So we started brainstorming.  Since Crown Royal is Canadian, we started with Canadian Mule, but finally settled on “Royal Ass”.  They are very tasty. 

Happy Halloween!

October 25-28, 2014 St Augustine, FL road trip

Dave had an appointment with the VA in St Augustine, Fl on Monday, so we decided to take a road trip.  We were hoping to be there by boat by now, but we improvised.

Beautiful morning with a little fog at sunrise. our boat's in the middle

Rather than driving there and back in 2 days, we decided to leave on Saturday.  I went to work researching what else we could do between NC and St Augustine.  We have been told that St Mary’s inlet on the southern border of Georgia is a great place to go by boat.  So I checked into what we could do there.  I found the “Woodbine Opry”.  Woodbine, GA is a little town of about 1400 people about an hour north of Jacksonville, FL.  We decided to spend Saturday night there. 

Saturday morning, we left the boat by 8:00 am and stopped at the first little diner we could find on our way out of town.  We went to Shirley’s Diner in Belville, across the river to the west of Wilmington.  There was a sign outside that said “Fresh Spot”.  So we had to ask.  Spot is a local fish.  It was on the lunch menu, but they offered to make it for Dave for breakfast.  He loved it.  

Dave eating "fresh spot" with his eggs, grits and biscuit

We decided to follow the coast for awhile and go through Myrtle Beach.  We won’t go through there by boat, so we thought this would be our chance to see why it’s so popular.  AND there is a Margaritaville in Myrtle Beach.  I am trying to see as many of them as I can.  Now I am up to 12.  Myrtle Beach is REALLY commercialized.  Not a beach we would visit. 

We arrived in Woodbine about 4:00.  We decided to stay in the only hotel in town, the Stardust motel.  It was really old, probably built in the 50’s.  But it was very clean and cheap, $40.  We walked 4 blocks to Captain Stan’s Smokehouse.  It was an old place with a small indoor seating area.  But the majority of the place was outside with partial roofing around the outside and a  parachute hanging in a tree for another part, and a tarp over the bar.  There was a fire pit in the center with picnic tables around it.  The reviews really bragged up the ribs, so we had to try them.  We ordered a full rack to share with one side of potato salad to share.  They were huge and amazing.  We each had 3 ribs, couldn’t eat them all and took 4 ribs home with us.  While we were eating, a band was setting up and started playing about 6:00.  They were a fantastic bluegrass band.  It was hard to leave, but we came here for the Opry and decided to come back before they finished for the night. 


We walked back to the motel and dropped off our ribs.  Then we walked about 4 blocks in the other direction to go to the Woodbine Opry.  It was held in the community center that was the old high school.  It started as a fundraiser years ago and the musicians decided to continue the fun.  Every Friday night, they have a bluegrass jam session and old time country music on Saturday nights.  There were about 6 musicians on the stage when we arrived a little after 7:00.  There was theater seating and room down front for people to dance.  We just stood in the doorway a few minutes taking it all in and a guy came up to us to show us to an open seat.  He asked if it was our first time and led us to two open seats down front.  We sat next to an elderly couple and found out their son was playing the steel guitar on stage.  He had to be at least 65 or 70 and his parents close to 90.  A guy in front of us introduced himself and told us all about the event.  A friend of his was playing violin and singing.  He used to play with Loretta Lynn.  He said all the musicians come here every week from Jacksonville.  They pass a hat to help cover their travel expenses.  They also sold raffle tickets for baked goods and had a 50/50 drawing.  We weren’t sure how late we’d stay, so we didn’t buy any tickets. 

The music was unbelievably good.  They took turns singing and accompanying each other.  And everyone had so much fun dancing.  You could tell they all new each other and took turns dancing with each other.  We had fun dancing, too.  I had a permanent smile on my face.  We were probably the youngest in the crowd. 

At 9:00, the band took a break.  They turned up the house lights and the leader took the microphone.  We had e-mailed him to ask about reservations and cost.  He returned our e-mail to let us know it was free.  Bob asked if there were any first time visitors.  They went around the place and had everyone say their names and where they were from.  Someone was videotaping the whole thing.  Rapid City, SD really got some reactions from the crowd.  Then they had the drawings for the baked goods.  About half way through, the guy that won told the “couple from South Dakota” to pick out something for themselves.  So Dave picked up a plate of pistachio bread.  Later, while we were getting a cup of decaf coffee at their snack bar, a guy had to tell us he had driven truck to Sioux Falls, SD.  By the water fountain, there was a sign posted “caution, this water can cause romance”.  It was a joke because there were several couples who met there and ended up getting married.  It was just an all around, good clean fun loving bunch of people.  They have a website www.thewoodbineopry.com.  And the video of our introduction is supposed to be on there.  Maybe other photos of the evening, too.  I would highly recommend this to anyone that would be in the area.  It is a little piece of America that you don’t usually get to see. 

 

dark part is Dave singing to me

I thought it was so cute that they were holding hands.  Dave thought he probably had a tendency to wander off, so she was just holding on to him :)

We left the Opry about 9:30 and went back to Captain Stan’s for the last set of the bluegrass band.  It was still a beautiful night to be sitting outside.  Everyone at the bar was very welcoming, too.  Our waitress and the bar maid welcomed us back.  Another guy invited us to sit by the fire pit.  As we were leaving about 10:30, one of the musicians from the Opry stopped us.  He knew this band was good and came to listen after they finished.  He walked out to his car as we were leaving and gave us 2 of his CD’s.  He didn’t want anything for them since we were visitors.  It was his gift.  We just couldn’t get over how so many people went out of their way to welcome us and how 2 people gave us gifts.  We will be back some day.

Sunday, we headed to St Augustine and were able to check into our Holiday Inn early.  Just a lazy day.  I guess we spent our fun tickets yesterday.  I went to church at 5:00 and picked up Thai food on the way back to the room.

Monday, Dave had his “new patient interview” with the VA, since this is a new clinic for him.  Plus he had to do the blood work for his exam later in November.  I read a book.  Then we headed back to Wilmington.  We stopped for dinner about 7:00 and decided to spend the night in Florence, NC.  We’re getting lazy.  Plus we were still waiting for the insurance OK on the last parts we need for he boat.

Tuesday, arrived back at the boat and made a plan for what needed to be done on our part to be able to leave here when the boat is finished with repairs.  Then set to work (at least that what I am saying we did). 

October 14-24, 2014 Wilmington, NC

Yes, we’re still in Wilmington!!  We can’t get over how long this boat repair is taking.  One problem has been that the boat yard would send in one part of a system, install it when it returned, and then discover another problem with that system.  This happened in more than one situation.  If they had sent in all the components together, it would have saved a lot of time.  In another situation, they sent a part to a repair center on the west coast when there were 2 centers on the east coast.  Plus we feel like we have to stay in their face every day for them to continue to work on our boat.  Dave could have done a lot of this himself and he thinks he would if this happens again. 

So in the meantime, we reorganized what is stored under our v-berth.  We are realizing that there are some things we should keep more handy, others store for longer periods and some things we should get rid of.  We are going to continue that process through out the entire boat, since we have been on board for a year now.

We were able to put most of the items we had stored in our aft berth back into that cabin.  That made our living space more livable again.  We had that cabin pretty much emptied so the electronics were more accessible.  It’s nice to be able to comfortably eat at the table together again, simple pleasures. 

We have 4-5 gallon jerry cans with extra diesel fuel.  Dave discovered algae growing in the cans.  Their “excrement” settles on the bottom.  You don’t want this in your fuel tank because it can clog the fuel filters and shut the engine down.  So he researched what we should do: install a system to clean our fuel, pay to have our fuel cleaned, keep lots of filters on hand to change regularly, or add biocide to our fuel.  After talking to some experienced sailors (20+ years living aboard), he decided to go with the biocide.  But in the meantime, he had ordered 4 new jerry cans.  He’ll filter the existing fuel and get rid of the old cans.  We may, down the road, still install a system to clean the fuel in our tank.  It becomes more of a problem if you are buying fuel outside of the US. 

We decided to change our home port to Rapid City, SD.  Right now it is Daphne, Alabama.  We were told that we had to list our home port where the boat was registered.  Well, like everything, you can’t believe your first answer when it comes to the government.  We called the Coast Guard directly and found out it can be any US city.  Your home port in on the side of your boat with the name of the boat.  So it is a good conversation starter with other sailors.  They especially want to know how we got this boat to the ocean from South Dakota :)  So, to change the home port, we had to file a change with the Coast Guard, since our boat is a “documented vessel” with the Coast Guard.  To do this, we had to pull out our printer.  And as long as it was out, we also got our the scanner, and I spent an afternoon reprinting some of our identification info for our “ditch bag”.  We keep copies of our passports, driver’s licenses (that changed to Florida), contact names and numbers, and the phone numbers of our credit cards, and insurance information.  It seems like I am forever updating emergency information or our boat documents.  I still want to organize the boat manuals.  Now that I’ve put it in writing, I’ll feel more committed to getting that done. 

Besides, the paper work, I talked to a local sign company to have the lettering done for Rapid City SD.  We used a company that was recommended by our marina.  Well that involved 2 trips to their office which was about 30 minutes each way.  Once the official document from the Coast Guard returns, we’ll physically change the home port on the boat. 

We have also been spending time scrubbing the deck and cockpit.  We are always fighting mildew.  And it has a green tinge in this environment. 

We showed another boater how to send e-mails using the single side band radio.  Then the next day , another boater showed us how to receive weather faxes from around the world from our single side band radio and they show up on our laptop computer.  Lots to learn when it comes to weather.  And the better we can predict the weather, the safer we’ll be.  When you are on the move, it sounds like you could easily spend a couple hours a day studying weather.  We really learn a lot talking to other sailors. 

Last week, I went to choir practice on Thursday night and then sang with the choir on Sunday at St Mark’s Catholic church.  They were so welcoming and fun to sing with.  I really miss singing 4 part music with other people.  I am welcome to come back, but not sure if it will work out again. 

We seem to fill our days with projects and learning experiences.  And then there is eating out.  We found an authentic Mexican restaurant.  Dave ordered four tacos, fish, beef lips, beef stomach and beef intestine.  He loved them all and wants to go back to try the cheeks.  I had a fish taco and a pork burrito.  Dave called it a “taco wagon with seating”.  They grilled jalapenos for him and they had a salsa bar.  Loved it.

Taqueria Los Portales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday Mood

October 8-13, 2014 Blue Ridge Parkway and Atlanta, GA

This morning, we left the boat early enough to have breakfast at Carolina Girls with Nancy and Rick and get them to the Harley dealership by 9:00 am.  Rick rented and drove the Harley Road King by himself to our destination so he could get used to handling the bike again.  Nancy road with us to Blowing Rock, NC.  This was a pretty little resort town.  We almost just stayed here a couple days.

Dave, Mary, Rick, Nancy

behind our lodge

Bald Guy Brew coffee shop, took us back 50 years

On Thursday, we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The fall colors were appearing and it was a beautiful drive.  Rick and Nancy had a wonderful drive on the motorcycle.  We stopped to hike to a waterfalls along the way.

That evening we had dinner at a local restaurant in Bryson City, NC.  I had an Elk burger, first ever.  It was very good, but not much different than a hamburger.  We chose this destination because Rick wanted to ride the “Tail of the Dragon” the next day.  This is a section of highway that is 11 miles long with 318 turns.  It is on every motor cyclist’s bucket list.  Or least on the risk takers lists.  We watched a you tube video and decided we didn’t even want to drive it in a car.  Too many other crazy people that could ruin your day.

Friday morning, Rick and Nancy left early for their ride.  We drove up to the start of the “tail” and just checked out the bikers.  When anyone on a motorcycle arrived after driving though the Tail of the Dragon, I thought we should all clap for them and congratulate them.  Obviously, the bikers thought this was no big deal. Nancy was going to wait at the restaurant here while Rick took the ride, so we thought we might see her and talk to Rick after his ride (or take Nancy to the hospital if there had been an accident).  We later found out that Rick handled it well and enjoyed the ride with no complications.  Way to go, Rick. 

miscellaneous bike parts

Here come a couple crazy ones now

We decided to spend the weekend in Atlanta, GA with SD friends that have been inviting us to visit them for years, Randy and Debbie Louchart.  We had a relaxing weekend in their beautiful, huge home.  We went to a Greek festival on Sunday and drove home on Monday.  

friend Drew, Nicole, Deb and Randy Louchart

Sept 30- Oct 7, 2014 Back in North Carolina

My flight out of Aberdeen was delayed on Monday because of mechanical problems.  I had really short connections in Minneapolis and Atlanta.  So rather than get stuck in one of those airports, I stayed another night in Aberdeen.  Jim’s aunt Mary and uncle Henry were also spending the night on their way home to St Cloud, MN.  I was able to enjoy a nice dinner and visit with them. 

My flight was at 5:10 am on Tuesday, so my loving sister took me to the airport bright and early.  We discovered at the airport that Jeff Sveen (Sven) of Aberdeen was on my flight.  I met Jeff at Ski for Light in the Black Hills.  We both were guides for visually impaired cross country skiers for many years.  But it has been over 5 years since he last guided.  He was going to Raleigh, NC, but would be in Wilmington on Wednesday.  It worked out on Wed to pick him up at his hotel and bring him to the marina for a tour of our boat.  Jeff is a lawyer, but also has a turkey farm near Huron, SD.  So he was here on turkey business.  They supply the turkey for Disney World, Firehouse Subs, Denny’s and other chains I can’t remember.   Pretty cool. 

The boat is still being worked on.  Most of the parts that were sent in for repair have returned.  So this week they have been testing systems after the installations and still running into problems.  So more parts are being ordered, which will take a couple weeks to receive and install.  Since the repairmen aren’t working on the boat, Dave was able to do his own projects.  He has been working on electrically bonding the metal that is exposed to salt water.  This will help protect any metals from corrosion. 

Since a lot of the electrical parts are accessed through our aft cabin (the garage), we still have the things normally stored in our garage out in our salon area.  We can’t even sit down at the table together for meals.  So it’s a good time for another road trip.  We are going to do some major reorganizing once this is all done. 

While I was still in SD, Dave met another sailing couple from Canada, Rick and Nancy.  They spent 11 years building their own boat and have been living aboard for 15 months now.  We are enjoying their company.  We have gone out to dinner together, spent an afternoon shopping (since we still have the rental car), Nancy and I went to Riverfest in downtown Wilmington on Sunday.  Now we are planning a road trip “together”.  Rick and Nancy are renting a motorcycle and we will take our rental car.  We are heading to the Blue Ridge Parkway through the northern part of NC.  So stay tuned. 

Wednesday, October 1 was one year since we moved out of our condo and onto our boat!!  "They" say that you should reassess your situation every year to be sure you want to continue living aboard.  We decided to give it another year :)

On Carolina Beach