My hope is that this blog will be a journal of our wanderings as we sail the good ship Legacy ( a Caliber 40 LRC) from our summer dockage at Sea Harbour Yacht Club to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and to the Dominican Republic. Come along with us as we follow our path to the sun and away from the cold breath of winter. Kathleen and I will endeavor to post daily although we will not always be within reach of internet connections.
Legacy at her berth at Sea Harbour
Sunday October 25Today we are resting after a day of working with the good folks here at the Sea Harbour. While Kathleen assited in triming some of the shrubs and such I worked with a group building a shaded area on D Dock. It is amazing the talents that were shown and at the end of the day ( literaly) there was a structure that any one would have been proud to have had a part in. ( for pictures taken by Lynn Moore go to the following link
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1Absmjho5csWNC)
Oct.25, 2009
We had a nice Bon Voyage dinner with Larry and Julie and her brother, Wally and Kelly, and Sam and Barb ( LIz-- an inside joke). There was good food and good conversation and all too soon it was over.
Nov. 2, 2009
We left Sea Harbour Yacht Club at 7:04 AM and proceeded to cross the Neuse River towards Adams Creek. The weather was cold and overcast and the Neuse was a little bumpy. As we turned into Adams Creek things started to settle down and we were able to motor sail most of the way down. We stopped to take on some diesel (60.1 Gallons) and were on our way again. I chose not to fill both tanks as the fuel was a little pricey.
When we arrived at the Bogue Sound the wind started to pipe up out of the North at 10 to 15 knots so I unfurled the Jib and we motor sailed which was helpful as we were bucking about a 2 knot current . At Swansboro we avoided a faux pas as there was a red buoy on our port side. As I moved to pass it on our starboard I realized it was not an ICW marker and was able to quickly get back into the channel. Wheww!!!! The rest of the day was uneventful and we were able to make Mile Hammock Bay and were ready to drop the anchor. We were about 80 feet away from some dipstick who informed us he had 120 feet of chain out( an 8 to 1 scope ) and felt we were too close. As we were anchoring in 13 feet of water ( a 5 to one scope which is more than enough in the good holding here) I was more that happy to put as much distance as I could between him and I. We finally got settled at about 17:30 so we made 64 statute miles in 10 hour for an average speed of 6.4 statute miles/hour which I think is pretty good time considering we were stopped for about 45 minutes getting the diesel.
Kathleen made a very good dinner and we are all set to do it again tomorrow. We need to make another 60+ statue miles again to get to Southport so we well turn in early to be ready for the challenges of tomorrow.
Nov. 3, 2009
At 6:45 we left Mile Hammock Bay the last of about 30 boats headed for Southport. The tide was high as we left so we didn’t experience the low water we saw in this area last year. For the first two hours we had a nice following current and we were moving along at better than 8 knots. Farther on a pod of river dolphins were playing in our wake and it was fun to watch as they would swim through our wake. At the Wrightsville bridge there was a major traffic jam as about 15 boats all waited for the hourly bridge opening. We pointed our bow into the current and were able to stay virtually motionless as we waited. After we made it through the bridge they had to close it for emergency traffic so the jam of boats sort of thinned out. At G155 about a mile from snow’s cut the water got really thin but we were able to make it through. After Snow’s cut we had a nice ride down the Cape Fear River and made Southport at 4:45 P.M. We stayed at Village Harbor Marina where Bill was very helpful in assisting us in tying up to the floating dock. After a shower we had a nice supper at the Dead End Saloon right close to the marina ( they had a special - ½ off on bottles of Budweiser).
Nov. 4-5, 2009
We decided to go outside from Southport to Charleston so at 9:15 A.M we cast off and headed out. The day was nice on the Atlantic. We had a nice sail as the wind was 7-15 knots on a run and the waves were only 2 to 4 feet. That night the wind died and we had to motor and at about 3:30 the wind started to gain speed and was dead behind us. As I was in a hurry to get to Charleston we continued to motor. We arrived in Charleston at 9:15 A.M. and anchored in the Ashley River. I immediately went to sleep and Kathleen read.
Nov. 6, 2009
We stayed at anchor here to R&R and I attempted to get the generator running. It looks like the carb has a problem as I could get it to run for a second or two by dropping a small bit of gas in the cylinder through the spark plug hole, but it would only run for about a second. Talked to Honda service and they suggested carb cleaner, unfortunately I have none so the repair will have to wait till we reach Beaufort S.C…
(Picture from Charleston City Marina. Note there are some BIG boats that dock here.)
Nov. 7, 2009
We left Charleston at 8:45 A.M as the Wappoo Creek Bridge does not open from 6AM to 9 AM. We got to the bridge at 5 till 9 and made the bridge opening with time to spare. Going down Elliot’s cut was a gas as we had about a 5 knot following current and were doing 11 knots for a short time. As we cannot make Lady Island bridge in Beaufort by 4;00 PM we decided to anchor in the South Edisto River about 35 miles from Beaufort. If the weather stays nice we might stay on the hook an extra day as some of our errands in Beaufort will have to wait until Monday anyway.
Nov 8, 2009
About a mile after raising anchor we ran into a group of dredges headed up river from us. In this case it was an example of the golden mass rule: He with the most mass rules!!! Needless to say we got out of their way Pictured below is just one of the three barges being towed up stream.
We arrived in Beaufort, S.C. today at about 1:00 PM and are now lying at anchor in Lady Island Creek. Tomorrow we will take a slip and complete running a few errands. We need some provisions and I still need to get the generator running. It was a really pleasant run today even if it was only 4 hours. The weather was warm ( in the mid 70’s) and the winds were very light at only 3 to 6 knots.
Just Past Brickyard point about 4 miles from Beaufort. We are starting to see some palm trees.
Lady Island swing bridge—Beaufort S.C
Nov. 9, 2009
We took a dock today at Lady Island Marina and the folks here are very helpful and friendly. It will definately be a stop as we return in the spring. It is located on Factory Creek just off the swing bridge and is well protected from the wind. I worked on the generator today at as they said in the Frankenstein movie " IT"S ALIVE". I got some carb cleaner and used on the carbureator and after a little coaxing got it started and running. So one thing is checked off the must do list. Tomorrow i will need to look at the GPS. It is intermittantly giving the message "position lost". I believe I have a problem in the cable and will have to splice out a bad section. Oh well the to do list just gets longer, never shorter, but as Scarlett O'hara said ' Tomorrow is another day"
