Wednesday, October 21st (Day 23)
The carpenters were busy until Thursday so we had a day to ourselves. We relaxed and took a walk around the area. Our friends D and Don were away on a road trip and were not coming back until Sunday or Monday. We were not sure how long the carpentry work would take but we planned on staying a week or so anyway.
This marina is pretty isolated. The nearest restaurant is at the adjacent golf course and you have to walk across the fairway to get there. The next closest restaurant is about 5 miles. A little too far to walk there and back.
Thursday, October 22nd (Day 24) and Friday, October 23rd (Day 25)
Rip out all the bad stuff -
To prepare for the carpenters today, Laura and I had taken down all the trim from the ceiling and walls around the area to be worked. Jeremy and Justin came on board around 10am and started ripping and tearing away the rotted wood. Here is what the workshop side looked like before they started. You can see all the bad wood in the corner. Laura and I also removed the three portlights - two from the workshop area and one in the salon (that's the big hole you see in the boat on the right side of the picture). The wood around these ports needed to be replaced (as you can see) and I had ordered new ports which Laura and I would install after the new plywood was up.
It took most of the two days to rip out all the rotted wood and fair the edges. Here is what things looked like after the guys left on Friday. Notice the walls are down to fiberglass plus the ceiling and bulkhead are cut out.
Here is the workshop side...
Saturday and Sunday - October 24th and 25th (Days 26 & 27)
The carpenters didn't work on weekends so we had a few days to ourselves. Sunday was supposed to be rain and thunderstorms but Saturday was beautiful - sunny, warm and calm winds. We decided to drop the dinghy, install the outboard and go for a ride.
Out of the creek we headed west toward New Bern. The Neuse River was pretty calm with only waves from powerboat wakes. Hey! That's us now! We zoomed along at 15 knots enjoying the water and houses on shore. Here is Laura wedged into the dinghy relaxing while we are traveling at almost 20 miles per hour over the water.
A short while later we decided to check out one of the creeks along the river. We motored slowly into Mill Creek and it was pretty nice. The red-wing black birds didn't like us around as they chirped loudly when we passed a few places with long grass. I really like this picture of the creek with the reflections of the trees and clouds.
The rain and winds started Saturday night and lasted almost all day on Sunday. We had put plastic wrap over the open portlight holes and it prevented most of the leaks. Our stay in Wayfarers had been warm days with cool nights until now. This front would bring colder weather with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s. Now we'll be using using heat instead of air-conditioning.
Monday, October 26th to Friday, October 30th (Days 28 to 32)
This week was kind-of a blur with the carpenters working on-and-off and making slow progress. I talked to Rick, the carpentry shop owner, about the slow progress and how much this job was going to end up costing. He said the guys were also working a couple other important projects and I wasn't going to be billed for 8 hours a day. We agreed on limiting the total cost to $2,000 and I would stop loosing sleep while counting my dollars flying out the open windows.
The bulkhead and ceiling were the first priorities. They repaired the bulkhead by fairing-in a new piece of plywood, screwing it into the good wood and epoxying over it for added strength. Here is the bulkhead repaired plus the ceiling patched with new plywood. Notice they also patched 40 years of holes in the wall.
By the end of Wednesday, they had the bulkhead repaired, new walls in the salon and workshop plus the teak veneer up in the salon. In this picture the veneer is the lighter shade of wood on the wall next to the door.
Now that the new wall plywood was up, Laura and I could install the portlights. We spent almost 2 hours installing the new portlight in the salon. The next day, she went into town for groceries with D so I installed the two portlights in the workshop area. As these were # 5 and #6 portlights we've installed, it went pretty good. I only had to ask the carpenters to help a couple times.
The shelf next to the bulkhead and the ceiling under the window were also rotted and needed to be replaced. Rick hadn't included the shelf in the price had agreed on so we decided to "split" the additional cost. It seemed like he was trying to be fair but I wish we had detailed the work required and total cost at the beginning. We almost never hire outside help for the boat because we have learned to do everything ourselves so this was a learning experience for us.
By Friday afternoon they had the veneer up on the workshop side (and it looked beautiful), new plywood with vinyl cover (vinyl supplied by us), new shelf and new side plywood on the workbench.
Laura and I had sanded and painted primer on the walls before the carpenters installed them. On one of her trips into town, Laura purchased the paint for the walls that closely matched what was already there. After taping around everything, we put the final coat on the walls and they looked pretty good.
We also stapled the vinyl on the ceiling (that job sucked!) then re-installed all the molding. Rick had given us some powered dye to help varnish the new teak veneer to match our other wood. It actually worked great and you almost can't tell the new wood unless you look closely.
By mid-day Saturday, we were done and happy with how it looked. Notice how the new veneer in the corner now closely matches the older wood around it.
Here is the completed repair from the workshop side. The only part that doesn't match is the ceiling vinyl. This was from our "spares". Maybe we'll replace it sometime in the future - probably not. It all looks much better than when we bought the boat 14 years ago.
Friday night we had D and Don from Southern Cross and Minta and Rob from Caroline over for cocktails and munchies. Don't know if I've mentioned Minta and Rob before. The 2nd or 3rd day we were here they motored in and docked next to us. We started talking and became new friends. It was a fun evening to celebrate finishing the wood-work on the boat.
Saturday, October 31st (Day 33) - Holloween
We puttered around the boat and took a longer walk today with D and Don.
Laura carved a pumpkin which we put out on the bow for a couple days. She is very creative and I thought this was cool. Is it an ugly ghost with crooked teeth or a sailboat on the waves?
The three couples decided to get together for cocktails and dinner up at the marina lounge. It was chilly and windy (high 50s). Laura made pizza for dinner. She made and pre-cooked 6 crusts plus all the fixin's. Minta brought some chicken and sauce (for BBQ chicken pizza) and D brought a great salad.
The gals loaded up the pizza crusts then Rob and I cooked them on the BBQ grill. We had a very nice evening with new and old friends (plus several bottles of wine).
Today is a full moon. It's the second full moon in October so it is called the "blue moon" which has nothing to do with colors. Laura took this picture with her SLR camera during the evening. She didn't edit the picture or color it. This is the picture her camera took. Pretty cool!
Sunday, November 1st (Day 34)
Today is my birthday. Wow. I've packed a lot into 68 years!
Laura made a nice breakfast and I think we took another walk during the day. After looking at several dinner options, I decided on a local seafood restaurant with D and Don joining us. We took their car to Gary's Seafood Restaurant in Arapahoe. I feel so bad for local businesses like this during COVID. There was only one other couple in the restaurant plus the 4 of us. We had a couple bottles of Pino Grigio and I ordered the fried oyster dinner. On our RV trip to the Canadian Maritimes last summer, I was looking forward to fresh, fried oysters but every place (but one) had frozen strips. Gary's had the real deal. They were awesome and I ate everything on my plate. Fun times!
Monday, November 2nd to Thursday, November 5th (Days 35 to 38)
Monday and Tuesday we finished a couple other boat jobs we had on our list and were ready to go. Monday night, we got together for dinner again in the marina lounge. D had made pulled pork, Laura and Minta made the fixin's, Rob, Don and I showed up for the feast. It was a fun dinner. The pork (cooked in the crock pot) was excellent. Laura made an apple kuchen for dessert that was very tasty.
Here is our dinner group. From left to right is me, Don, D, Rob, Minta and Laura.
Tuesday afternoon I worked on getting the boat ready to go. I filled our water tank, strapped down the dinghy, completed all my engine checks and secured everything on the back deck. I also walked to the office to pay our dockage for the past 15 days. Total bill was $245. Pretty cheap. We were ready to go!
Wednesday morning is calm and beautiful - a perfect day to get underway. But, the water level was about 1 foot less than when we came in here when the entrance was only 6 feet deep. Hmmm.
I walked up to the office and the recently retired marina manager was there helping out a bit. Tom has worked here for almost 20 years so he knows all the ropes. I asked him about the current water level and our 5 1/2 foot draft. We walked down to the water and he showed me his gauge - stairs on a floating dock that were currently even with the bulkhead. He said at this water level we would have only about 5 feet over the bar just outside the marina entrance. Bummer.
The water level in the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound do not have tides because there are only a few inlets from the ocean on a large body of water. Instead, the water height changes with the wind and air pressure. Winds from the west or south blow the water north, away from the Neuse. We would need winds from the east or north to raise the water enough for us to get out. Thursday the winds are supposed to be NE but less than 10. We can only hope that is enough to raise the water about a foot.
I paid for another day at the marina and we relaxed for the evening.
Thursday brings more of the same. Light winds (so far) and the water level hasn't moved more than a couple inches. Laura and I are going to take the dinghy out to the entrance and measure the water depth. I have an accurate depth sounder on the dinghy so let's go see!
Tuesday I decided to try and do something about the poor Wi-Fi reception on the boat. I dug out our extension cable for our amplified antenna and tried moving the antenna around for a better signal. I eventually settled on the top of a piling near our bow. I used duct tape to hold it up there and we were able to get slow Wi-Fi now. So, yesterday I walked up to the office (much better Wi-Fi) and uploaded all our pictures. This morning I spent several hours writing this blog. Hopefully, we'll be able to leave here in the next day or so and I'll have more travel stories for you.
A few hours later.....
We sounded the entrance channel to the marina with our dinghy. The narrow channel is about 6 feet deep at the current water level. That's enough for us to get out but the channel is narrow and shifts from one side to the other between the breakwater. If we drift even 10 feet to one side or the other it will be less than 5 feet. I know where the deeper water is now but don't think it would be easy. Why take the chance? This place is cheaper than some moorings we've stayed on and we have power, water and (somewhat limited) Wi-Fi. I've paid for another day. Tomorrow the winds are supposed to pick up from the NE so it should get deeper. We have our fingers crossed!
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