We had reservations for some rigging work at Sailcraft Services in Oriental tomorrow with a scheduled arrival for this afternoon so we were up early and underway at first light - right at 7am. There was a little helping wind today as we turned south at Belhaven so we made great time down the Pungo River, across the Pamlico River and into Goose Creek.
Since we were a little ahead of schedule, we decided to stop at R.E. Mayo Seafood to stock up. We bought big shrimp and nice Grouper that were vacuum packed and frozen. When we stopped here in the spring, we bought a lot of the same stuff and it was excellent. When you vacuum pack and freeze fresh seafood, it tastes like you just caught it after thawing.
As we turned down Bay River to the Neuse River, the winds picked up just off the port bow to the mid-teens. It made for a bit of a bumpy ride until we turned west up the Neuse River. Then the 2-3 foot waves were behind us on our port quarter which made for a somewhat rolly ride even though we had the full jib out and working.
Just before 2:30pm, we motored into Whitaker Creek and pulled up to Sailcraft Services. I tried calling them on the phone but it went directly to voicemail 6 times. Turns out their phone service had died and the phones were not working. It all worked out as we flagged down Mike the owner who directed us into the travellift well. We slowly turned into the "well" where boats typically haulout and the workers had us tied up quickly. The boatyard has a big man-lift (cherry-picker?) they use to work on masts and this was one of the places it reaches.
Laura did 3 loads of groceries while I prepared everything for our rigging work in the morning. Our friend Ann (on S/V Drakus) picked us up for dinner at M&Ms with D and Don. We had another great reunion, good food and lots of wine. Always a fun time with this group.
Thursday, October 31st (Day 35)
I didn't sleep well last night and was awake from 2:30am to 5:30am. I just couldn't shut off my brain thinking about the work we needed to get done today and all the things that could go wrong. Finally, I got up, moved to the sofa and turned on the Deadwood shows I have stored on my computer. I've watched these several times in the past so they quickly put me to sleep for a couple hours.
Laura woke me up at 8:30am saying, "Matt (the rigger) is working on the bow." I quickly dressed, put on sneakers and went to supervise / help.
The problem was our main mast was tilted back at the top 1/3rd because the wire at the bow through the jib furler was too loose. When this furler was installed 2 years ago I thought it was too loose so tightened the stays pulling the mast back (back-stays) to make everything tighter. This deformed the mast slightly and it still wasn't tight enough. I wasn't happy with it so was glad to be here for a fix.
Yesterday, Laura and I had dropped the jib on the deck so this morning Matt took apart the drum part of the furler so we could get at and tighten the turnbuckle underneath. I loosened the backstays while Matt worked on moving the drum out of the way. We tightened the turnbuckle under the furler about 3 complete turns then tightened the backstays using a tension gauge. Once we had the backstays tensioned correctly, I could see the top of the mast was still tilted back but not as much. We loosened the backstays again then repeated the whole process with two more turns on the forestay turnbuckle. Now, after tightening the backstays to 10% breaking strength (about 1,300 pounds) the mast looked straight both fore / aft and side to side. Excellent!
Here is Matt checking out the top of our mast.
We put the furler back together, raised the sail and tightened the jib halyard. Matt when up in the bucket to check everything at the top of the mast. It all looked excellent and he took several pictures to show me. I wasn't going up there!
By 10am we had everything back together and it looked much better than before. We decided to stay the night at Sailcraft so moved the boat out of the travellift well and down the dock a bit. Several gents from the yard came and helped us into the tight slip. Now we can relax! Total bill was just under $200 including the slip for tonight. I was good with that.
Autumn Borne is anchored in Bay River next to the Hurricane Marina where Pete and Bunny are working on their boat. Dean, Sue, Pete and Bunny are coming over for cocktails this evening so it will be a nice get together.
I had a nice nap in the afternoon then decided the boat was not in shape for guests. I spent 1 1/2 hours bleaching and cleaning the decks while Laura cleaned and polished all the clear vinyl. I hit the showers just before everyone was supposed to show up and Laura also made a large veggie plate with dip to share.
Around 5:30pm Dean called to say the winds had really picked up where he was anchored and they decided to take a raincheck on getting together tonight. I totally understood as I wouldn't want to leave my boat if there was a chance of winds blowing it around.
Laura and I had our own little party and I grilled a couple NY Strip steaks for dinner. Laura also put out her pumpkin on the bow and lit a candle in it.
Friday, Nov 1st (Day 36)
The reason we stayed another day at Sailcraft Services was a storm predicted for last night. It seemed like everything was going to be fine until both of our cell phones went off at 1am with a tornado warning. I stayed awake the next two hours watching the weather RADAR. Laura rolled over and went back to sleep. I should have done the same as the storm just about missed us completely.
I slept in a little then Laura made me a nice birthday breakfast of steak and eggs. Then I found the rigger who worked on our boat yesterday and asked to borrow his cable tension gauge so I could tune (tension) the rest of our standing rigging on the boat. The standing rigging is the cables holding up the masts. On the other side, our running rigging is used to raise or adjust the sails.
I spent the next 3 hours adjusting all 12 of the remaining wires for the main and mizzen mast. Laura took this picture of me working on one of the lower shrouds for the main mast. You can see the tension gauge over my head showing how tight the cable is. I'm adjusting the turnbuckle at the bottom to tighten the cable.
I finished in time for lunch at D and Don's boat. Laura and I walked about 10 minutes to their boat just a little way down the same creek in Oriental. D made a great shrimp salad (she said for my birthday) and we talked about future plans.
We walked back to Sailcraft then got the boat ready and left the marina. Winds were light but we were only going about 7 miles so we slowly sailed across the Neuse River and into Adam's Creek. By 4:30pm we were anchored in Cedar Creek enjoying a quiet evening and pretty sunset.
Tomorrow we will sail to Morehead City then "turn right" down Bogue Sound to Swansboro. We have reservations for two nights at the Church Street City Docks where we hope to spend a little time with my cousin Tim who has been working on his new house just a few miles away on Emerald Isle.
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