Minim Creek to Stono River (Day 45) then Brunswick, GA (Day 46 & 47)

Sunday, November 10th (Day 45)

We both slept well in the calm anchorage.  I had the alarm set for 5:50am which would give us a little time to get the boat going by 6:15 - first light.  No problems as I completed my morning engine checks and we were underway as soon as I could see the channel markers.  As I was pulling the anchor, another sailboat motored by.  Someone else was up at this hour?

I used AquaMaps with the Army Corps of Engineer survery overlays throughout the day to stay in the deeper water.  This section has been dredged over the past few years and there was still a dredge running by McClellanville.  High tide was at 8am but there was still 4 feet of tide as we approached the typically bad section just south of McClellanville.  After passing the dredge and moving back to the center of the channel, the water depth was 12-16 feet all the way through.  Nice!

Here's what it looks like as you approach a dredge on the ICW.  Which way do I go?  Actually, I called the dredge on the marine radio and he gave me directions.

We saw several bald eagles in this area and Laura got this great shot with her Nikon.

Slow Cruisin' had passed us a little ways back so they led the way to Charleston.  Of course, they run 8.5 knots while we run a little less than 6 so they ended up more than 10 miles ahead by the end of the day.  And, they even stopped for fuel!

Not much wind to help us as we motored up this open area before Charleston.  Only problem was the Ben Sawyer Bridge was on it's weekend schedule - only opening on the hour.  When we were 10 miles or so away, my GPS said we would arrive at 1:20pm.  Bummer.  I slowed down to kill 40 minutes before the 2pm bridge opening.

Did you ever see white Pelicans?  Here is a group having a party next to the waterway,  They are cool!

After passing through the Ben Sawyer, it took a little over an hour through Charleston Harbor to the next bridge, Wappoo Creek.  I love the old houses on the Charleston waterfront.

We passed through the Wappoo Creek Bridge around 3:30pm and had the current with us through Elliot's Cut that pushed us to over 8 knots.  A few years ago we tried to go through here against the tide and I thought the houses on shore were going to pass us....

Slow Cruisin' had anchored in Church Creek but we couldn't make it that far before dark.  Instead we motored about 3 miles up the Stono River and anchored by the southern shore.  It was quiet and peaceful but a little chilly.  I'm still waiting for nice weather to eat dinner in the cockpit and watch the sunset.  Seems like it's been a long time...

Monday, November 11th (Day 46)

We slept in a little today waiting so we'd leave near high tide which would help us up the Stono River then down the North Edisto River.  Plans were to head off-shore from the North Edisto and sail overnight to somewhere near Florida.  Winds were supposed to be pretty calm so we'd probably be motoring the whole night.

There was a little fog this morning on the river and it was very calm.  The water was like glass.  Check out this reflection of the bridge we passed about 1/2 hour underway..

Because of the cold front coming through tomorrow night, we decided it was time to make some miles south and GET WARM!  During the day I called and cancelled our reservation for Lady's Island Marina in Beaufort and tried to make a reservation for a mooring in St. Augustine.  No mooring available so they put me on the waiting list.  Now we had to figure out where we were going to sit out the storm on Tuesday night.

As we motored down the North Edisto, the tidal current really picked up and the boat hit 9.8 knots.  We were zooming!  Out onto the ocean for about 5 miles before we could turn south and not be in shallow water.  There was a 1-2 foot swell that ended up just behind our beam (coming from just a little behind us) so we pulled out 3/4 of the mainsail and sheeted it in tight to stop the boat from rolling.

The day was sunny and nice as we motored southwest toward the GA / FL border.  I wanted to be on a mooring or in a marina for this storm so eventually decided to head into St. Simons Sound and Brunswick Landing Marina.  We'd stayed here many times in the past and it's very nice and protected.  I called them and made a reservation for Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

We could have made St. Augustine by the end of Monday but the winds were supposed to clock to the SW in the afternoon which would be right on the nose.  Plus, we didn't have a place to stay for the coming bad weather.

Just before sunset, a beautiful full moon rose in the eastern sky and kept playing peek-a-boo with us through the clouds.  It was a very colorful sunset over the Savannah River entrance.  See how calm the ocean was?  We are 10 miles off-shore here.

Laura hit the sack just after dinner and I planned on letting her sleep until about 1am.  Then she would take the watch until we entered the St. Simon's channel around 6am.

I had no problems on my watch and was even able to roll out the jib which helped our boat speed and also made the ride much calmer.  Now we were going too fast with the sails helping so I lowered the engine RPM to just off idle.  I tried without using the engine but not enough wind to keep us moving at even 4 knots.  Ok.  Low engine RPM was cheap on fuel and much less noise to sleep.

Tuesday, November 12th (Day 47)

Laura took over just before midnight.  I was pretty tired and slept almost all of the next 5 hours.  She woke me up when we were about 3 miles from the entrance channel so I could do the more difficult navigation.

Sometime during her watch, the moon came out from the clouds and she was able to get this picture with her Nikon.  Pretty amazing figuring she was standing on a moving boat.  Well.... the camera did some of the work too.  A great zoom lens and image stabilization help a lot.

I continued to slow down as the marina doesn't open until 8am.  We entered the river channel at 6am and slowly motored the 5 miles to land.  Sunrise was just before we entered the river proper.  Another pretty one but you've seen enough sunrise and sunset pictures, right?

On September 8th, the car carrier Golden Ray floundered and turned over on it's side in St. Simon's Sound.  The wreck is still there and the cleanup is in work.  It was an awesome sight coming in from the ocean to see this 660 foot freighter laying on it's side blocking a fair amount of the channel.  The investigation is still underway to determine why it turned over but crews are currently draining / transferring the 300,000 gallons of fuel from the vessel before they figure out how to get the gasoline out of the 4,200 vehicles still inside.

Crews have decided that it would be too risky to re float the ship so plans are to take her apart where she lays.  That should be interesting!

This is the bow of the ship as we were going by. 

Once past, I was able to get this picture of the crews working with holes cut through the bottom to drain the fuel and access the interior.

 

Once past the shipwreck, we slowly motored up the Brunswick River to the marina and arrived at 8:30am.  A short while later we were tied up and walking on land again.

We traveled 143 nautical miles in 24.5 hours from our anchorage on the Stono River.  If we had stayed on the ICW, it would have been 203 miles - probably 4 or 5 days.

Plans are to leave here Thursday and head south again.  Maybe St. Augustine will have room for us this time?

Myrte Beach to Minim Creek (Day 42, 43 & 44)

Thursday, November 7th (Day 42)

Not much going on today on Second Wind as we stayed at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club for another 2 days to sit out the storms tonight and tomorrow.

Sandy came by to pick up Laura for their "girls day out" and I think they both enjoyed it a lot.  Sandy's husband (and our friend) John passed away 2 years ago and she is now living alone in Myrtle Beach.  I'm sure she was happy for Laura's company and Laura has only had me to talk with for several days so she needed a break too.

I caught up on some finances and my favorite Internet sites.  My plans to change the oil and other maintenance never came about but, oh well....  tomorrow is another day.

Lee and Linda on Slow Cruisin' came into the marina around 2pm and tied up across the fairway from us.  I went over around 3:30pm to say hello and we decided it was cocktail time a short while later.  Laura came back with lots of groceries around 5pm so I helped her truck them down to the boat and put stuff away.  We then walked back to Slow Cruisin' for dinner.  Lee and I grilled pork loins on the marina grill.  Laura made mashed cauliflower plus we had some of her homemade applesauce.  It was a fun night since we hadn't seen Lee and Linda since Haverstraw Bay 5 weeks ago.

Friday, November 8th, (Day 43 - start of week 7)

Today was maintenance-day.  I started by filling the salt container on our waste treatment system.  Then I started our main engine to warm it up for the oil change.  While the engine was warming up, I unpacked our hose and filled our water tank.  It was pretty low and I put in about 150 gallons which brought it to 7/8s.  We have plans to stay in Beaufort in just 3 days so no reason to carry full tanks.

After the warm-up, I drained the engine oil into a 3 gallon container (the engine holds 2.5 gallons of oil).  Then I brought in the water hose and Laura put on her "bilge monkey" hat and climbed into the bilge.  We had gotten a little oil in the bilge which was making things a little smelly.  After cleaning out all the oil we could, we used the hose to flush / clean the bilge.  Of course our bilge pump stopped working so we also had to fix that (it had gotten clogged from all our flushing).

I then changed the engine oil filter and drained / filled the transmission oil.  After filling the engine oil, I started the engine and let the oil circulate while looking for any new leaks.  No problems so onto the next job.

Our new Honda 2200 gas generator was close to the 20 hour break-in so I started it and plugged in Laura's hair dryer on high to put it under load.  This generator is the easiest engine to change the oil....  After shutting off, I picked it up and put it on one of our back boxes.  I had a plastic quart container which I put under the oil drain then tilted the generator to let all the oil out.  After it was drained, I filled it back up with new oil using a funnel through the same hole.  The whole process took about 10 minutes and now it was good for another 100 hours.

We both relaxed the rest of the day and I took an hour nap in the afternoon.  Linda had made dinner reservations for us and several of their friends that live in Myrtle Beach at the marina restaurant called the Officers Club.  We all met up there around 6pm for cocktails and a very nice dinner.

Here are the 5 couples at the Officer's Club, Myrtle Beach Yacht Club -

Saturday, November 9th (Day 44)

A major problem for boats traveling south is the ICW near McClellanville - about 40 miles north of Charleston.  This area has been a problem for boats over the past 6 or 7 years because it has become shallower and shallower from currents bringing in silt and sand.  Now, there is barely 4 feet at low tide so we typically go around by taking the ocean from WinYah Bay to Charleston Harbor.  The seas were going to be high tomorrow so we wanted to take the ICW this trip.  The high tide is around 7am with low tide around 1pm tomorrow (Sunday).  So, we wanted to get as close as possible today to take advantage of the higher tide in the early morning.

I had the alarm set for 6am figuring we would need about 30-45 minutes to get the boat ready and leave the slip.  The temperature was 38 degrees as we got the boat ready.  I dug out my long-jons, winter coat and gloves. There were no problems and we pulled out of the marina at 6:40am.  We had about 1 knot of current helping us through Myrtle Beach and the three bridges that have to open for us during the first 20 miles.  Everything went fine and we pulled into Osprey Marina for fuel around 10am.  61 gallons for the 370 miles from Norfolk.  Nice!

We entered the upper Waccamaw just after high tide.  We slowed a little than picked up the ebb current on the river all the way down to Georgetown, SC.  Slow Cruisin' left about 1.5 hours after us and passed us on the river.  Here they are coming up on us -

It was a beautiful but chilly day and we made great time.

We were both upset with the cold weather coming this far south and next week was supposed to be even worse.  While motoring through Myrtle Beach, we talked about what we were going to do for the next 3 weeks.  We had reservations at New Smyrna Beach for the month of December figuring we would rent a car for the month and drive back to NY for the holidays.  But, we were way ahead of schedule.  We talked about maybe St. Marys, GA for Thanksgiving which we've really enjoyed in the past.  Only problem is that's only about a week from here and we have almost 3 weeks until Thanksgiving.  We could stay at a few places we like (Beaufort, SC?) but the moorings there are in lots of current and the marinas are expensive unless you stay for a month or more.  Plus, we get bored with staying more than a couple days in places since we don't have a car.

I broached the idea of maybe we keep going and stay in Marathon for the month of December.  We had 3 weeks (or more) and could easily make the Florida Keys by the first week in December.  Laura and I decided to talk and think about it while we were traveling.

Here are the other parts of our thought process for deciding on Marathon versus New Smyrna for December -

- We like to travel.  Bruce Van Sant (a boating author we like) would call us Globe Trotters.  We don't typically stay many days in places sightseeing and visiting museums, etc. but would rather keep moving and see the countryside going by.

- The next 3 days are going to be very calm on the southeast coast.  It would be easy to jump off-shore for an overnight and be in St. Augustine on Tuesday.

- Temps in this area next week are going to be 50s and 30s for several days.  In St. Augustine, it will be 70s and 50s.

Finally, we decided to call Burdines Marina in Marathon to see if they even had a slip available for us.  Yes!  They did and we could come in anytime the first week or two in December.

So...  big change of plans for us.  We are going to work our way south tomorrow and Monday then jump off-shore Monday or Tuesday night for St. Augustine.  We'll spend the next 3-4 weeks working our way down the coast of Florida and tentatively arrive in Marathon on December 10th.  That will give us plenty of time to spend a few days in our favorite places like St. Augustine, Stuart and Key Biscayne.

We made 61 nautical miles today on the ICW which is very good for us.  Slow Crusin' and Second Wind are anchored next to each other in Minim Creek about 45 miles from Charleston.   Here was the sunset tonight that Laura took with her Nikon.  It's very pretty here especially since the cold has driven away all the bugs.

Tomorrow we should past Charleston then Beaufort area on Monday.  I'll keep you posted!

Carolina Beach, NC to Myrtle Beach, SC (Day 40 & 41)

Tuesday, November 5th (Day 40)

Our mooring at Carolina Beach was paid for two days so we could spend a day around town and work on a few boat projects.  The morning was nice so we decided to put the second coat on our cockpit combing which we were refinishing.

On our way back from South America 12 years ago, we stopped in the Abacos, Bahamas for a couple weeks.  There was a very nice stretch of weather coming so we decided to strip and refinish (varnish) our cockpit combing.  We stripped, sanded, primed and applied 5 coats of varnish over 4 days at anchor.  Over the years, we have sanded and applied new coats of varnish to keep it looking decent but now the varnish was de-laminating and needed full replacement.

This time, instead of varnish, we were going to use Awlgrip Awlwood.  We had used this to coat our new bow pulpit 2 years ago and had enough left to refinish the combing (we hoped).  The Awlwood is a much harder and weather resistant finish which is supposed to last 10 years without any touch-up.  After 2 years on the bow pulpit, it still looks like new.  The only downside is the cost and amount of work to apply.  To coat our 2' X 4' bow pulpit, the primer, clear coat and cleaner was $600.  Yikes!  Plus, it dries so hard we have to use a power sander between coats to even out the surface.

Since this was only the second coat of the clear finish, we only lightly sanded with 220 grit then I painted on the clear finish while Laura followed with a tip-brush.  It only took us about 15 minutes to finish this coat and it looked pretty good.  Now that we have two coats on the teak and have built up the surface a bit, I will probably power-sand with 180-300 grit before the next coat.  I'll post some updated pictures when it looks a little better.

We saw that clouds coming in so packed our wet-gear and took the dinghy into town.  Looking for a place to eat lunch, we decided to try Pop's Diner.  I thought the "Diner" would mean I could get a nice salad but as the waitress told me, "We don't serve healthy food here..."  Instead I ordered their special - Filet Mignon Tacos.  We also shared their lobster bisque which was awesome.

It was raining when we left the diner so, instead of taking a walk to settle the lunch, we headed straight for the Celtic Creamery for ice cream.  They make their own ice cream and, when we were here in April, I had the best ice cream cone I ever had.  It was rich chocolate with brownies, hard chocolate bits and a few other things.  I was really looking forward to having it again!  But, it was not to be.  Since they make their own ice cream, the Creamery changes flavors to suit the calendar.  This time they had flavors based on Halloween and Thanksgiving.  There was a chocolate ice cream with other stuff but it wasn't as good as my April cone.  Bummer.

But, it wasn't a complete loss.  What we had was very good.  When talking to the gent serving the ice cream, I noticed they had "hot donuts".  I asked to see what they looked like and he said they were made to order.  There was a mechanized deep-fryer on the counter which he turned on and hit the handle twice for two donuts.  We watched as the donuts slowly cooked then flipped over before dropping into a bowl with cinnamon-sugar.  Ok.  Last time here I had the best ice cream I ever had.  This time I had the best donuts I every had.  They were warm, sweet and melted in your mouth.

I forgot to take a picture of making the donuts or what they looked like after they were made.  My excuse was being mesmerized by the whole process.  Here is a picture of the donut machine.

The Creamery also sold lots of what I would call "travel nick-nacks".  My favorite was a towel that said, "A wife was sitting with her husband drinking wine.  She said, 'I love you'.  The husband asked, 'Is that you talking or the wine'.  The wife answered, 'That's me talking to the wine...'

It was still raining when we left the creamery so we walked back to the dinghy for a wet ride back to the boat.  On the way, we spotted this pontoon boat that I thought would have been a great business to run.  It was a "Pedal Pub" where you sat at a bar (drinking?) and pedaling.  The pedals are connected to a paddle-steamer type drum on the stern which moves the boat.  You get a little exercise and scenery while having an evening cocktail.  Nice idea?  I also noticed there was a small outboard partially hidden on the stern so you were sure to get back to the dock even if people stopped pedaling.

The rain stopped shortly after we got back to the boat and took off our wet clothes.  We spent a quiet evening watching the British Baking Show which I had downloaded to my iPad the last time we had wi-fi.

Wednesday, November 6th (Day 41)

Another travel day on Second Wind but we only had about 50 miles to the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club where we had reservations for 3 nights.  From Carolina Beach we motored through Snow's Cut to the Cape Fear River.  The river currents can be 2-3 knots so we always time our trip to the current running in our direction.  Today it would be on the ebb (toward the ocean) for the whole morning so I wasn't in a big hurry.

We slipped the mooring lines just after 8am and motored toward the Cape Fear River.  Winds were a little calmer than predicted but I figured it was just because there were houses and big resorts around us.  As we motored onto the main river channel, the winds picked up from behind us and we were able to roll out our sails and shut down the engine for a quiet ride.

Now we had a choice of taking the ICW from Southport to Myrtle Beach or going out onto the ocean for a 25-mile run which would by-pass Shallotte and Lockwoods Folly inlets which are usually problem areas on the ICW.  I checked several weather sites on my phone and they all said the ocean would be a bit rough (3-4 foot, short period seas).  But, the winds would be from the shore which should mean the waves would be a lot less if we stayed close to land (1-2 miles).  Also, the tides were in our favor and would push us out the Cape Fear River then change and pull us in Little River inlet.  We decided to go for it and rigged the boat for some off-shore sailing.

The sail out of the Cape Fear River was quite nice.  We had to sail about 3 miles off-shore before we could turn toward the coast because of shallow waters.  It was a little rough there but I gradually worked the boat back to 1 mile from shore where we had a great ride for a few hours.

Here is your sailing lesson for today -

Our course was almost due west and the NE winds meant we were on a broad-reach (winds coming from our starboard-stern).  Gradually, the winds clocked from NE to E which meant we had to turn the boat toward shore to keep the sails working.  If we turned the boat directly down-wind, the mainsail would block the jib and the boat would slow down quite a bit.  The boat was running around 7 knots with the wind at less then 130 degrees from our bow and both sails working hard.

15 miles into our off-shore sail, the winds clocked far enough east that we would run into shore if we kept going on the broad-reach.  I decided to jibe the boat (turn the stern through the wind) which would put our course away from shore but also slightly away from our destination.  After 30-45 minutes, we could jibe back to the starboard tack and sail to Little River Inlet.

Take a look at the picture from our chart-plotter below.  Cape Fear River is on the right while the Little River Inlet is middle-left.  The yellow track was from sailing here last Spring.  The purple track was today.  Notice the purple track comes down the Cape Fear River then into the ocean.  We turn toward shore to cut down on the waves generated by the wind coming from shore then gradually get closer and closer to shore as we try to keep sailing.  You can see we jibe to turn south (toward the bottom of the picture) then jibe again to the west when we are just passed the yellow line.  Now we can make Little River under sail.

One problem was when we jibed to go farther off-shore, we found the 3-4 foot, short seas that were predicted for this area.  The ride became rougher but still wasn't too bad.  These seas stayed with for the next hour until we entered Little River Inlet.  All in all we sailed almost 30 miles and averaged 7 knots while the rest of the boats heading south motored down the ICW doing the dance with every faster powerboat passing all the sailboats.

Here is a picture I took of our sail.  I also posted a nice YouTube video that I took with our GoPro while off-shore.  You can check it out HERE

After coming in Little River, it was a fairly quick ride to the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club.  We tied up at 4:30pm and our friend Sandy came to pick us up at 5pm.  She took us to West Marine (I had a short list that was over $180) then a nice spaghetti dinner at her house.  We also brought our laundry which Laura took care of during the evening.

Back to the boat around 10:30pm and we hit the sack right away.  Another great day on Second Wind!

Tomorrow, Laura and Sandy are going to have a "Ladies Day Out" and I have several boat projects to work including changing the engine oil / filter and the oil in our new generator.  Lee and Linda on Slow Cruisin' will also be here tomorrow afternoon so we are looking forward to a nice reunion with them.  Last we saw them was 5 weeks ago in Haverstraw Cove north of New York City.

Cedar Creek to Swansboro (Day 37 and 38), Swansboro to Carolina Beach (Day 39)

Saturday, November 2nd (Day 37)

Off the hook at 8:30am for a 50(ish) mile run to Swansboro.  There were two other sailboats anchored near us last night but both had left earlier. 

We motored out of Cedar Creek back onto the ICW and turned south toward Morehead City and Beaufort.  It's tough to figure out the currents in Adam's Creek because the upper section has no tides other than wind-driven water levels.  For example, if there was a south wind for many days, it would lower the water level by Oriental as much as 18 inches.  Then, even a low tide at the ocean end of Adam's Creek wouldn't cause southbound currents.

But, we had a north wind for the last 2 days which raised the water at Oriental.  Plus, low tide at Morehead City was a few hours ago so we had almost 2 knots of current helping us down Adam's Creek.  It was a quick trip at 7.4 knots.

At the lower end of Adam's Creek we approached the Newport River and the waterway opened up.  We ran out the jib so the NE wind would help us against the flood tide current from here to Morehead City.  Winds helped us all day as we turned west at Morehead and continued down Bogue Sound.  It was never quite enough help to turn off the engine and we wanted to get into Swansboro early to spend time with my cousin Tim.  Sailing into Morehead City -

The day was uneventful (always a good thing on the water) and we tied up in Swansboro at the Church Street City Dock at 2:30pm.  After tying up and putting the boat to bed, Tim drove over to pick us up a short time later.  We planned a nice dinner at his house with his friends Mike and Jen.

We stopped at Lowes Foods (No.  Not the hardware store) and picked up St. Louis ribs and chicken parts to BBQ for dinner.  After arriving at Chalet de la Mer (what Tim and Karen named their house), we covered the ribs with foil and put them in the oven at 300 degrees to soften up.  We also pre-cooked the chicken in the oven for about 45 minutes on an open pan.

Tim and Karen bought this house 2 years ago as their retirement home.  It has already survived 2 direct hits from hurricanes and we love it.  The walk to the beautiful ocean beach is only 8 minutes.  They have been renting it out but stopped last month so Tim could come down and prepare the house as their permanent home next Spring.  Karen is still working in Upstate NY so she wasn't able to party with us.  Next time Karen!

Mike and Jen drove over from their house near Morehead City and we had a great time with good friends and lots of wine.  Around 6pm we pulled the meat out of the oven and started the charcoal BBQ grill.  The gals made potato salad, baked beans and cauliflower with broccoli.  It was a full grill with all the ribs and chicken -

Dinner was excellent except that I ate and drank way too much.  Here we all are after dinner.  Does it look like we were having a good time?

It was good that we had planned on staying over for the night as we crashed around 11pm in their "Guest Bedroom".  Tim had really changed the place since we were here in April and it was very cozy.

Sunday, November 3rd (Day 38)

It was a quiet morning at Chalet de la Mer as we were all a little hung over from last night.  Laura was up before me and walked to the beach to search for shells and sea-glass (that nobody finds around here).  Except, she did find one nice piece of sea-glass and took this picture of the beautiful ocean morning.

We ate leftovers from last night's dinner for lunch then Tim drove us back to Second Wind.  Laura and I both napped (a few times?) and basically took it easy during the day.  Around 8pm I talked her into taking a walk around Swansboro to loosen up a little.  It was a cool but pretty night as we walked around town for about 1/2 hour.

I hit the sack at 10pm before Laura reminded me that I hadn't changed the clocks for the end of daylight savings time.  It was really only 9pm.  Oh well, I read awhile then fell right to sleep.

Monday, November 4th (Day 39)

We had over 60 miles today in order to make Carolina Beach where I had made mooring reservations for today and tomorrow.  I had the alarm set for 5:30am (I had changed all the clocks now) and actually woke up at 5am on my own.  I decided to download the latest charts for the next couple weeks to my iPad so spent a few minutes doing that.

I run a navigation program called AquaMaps on my iPad.  The app costs $9.99 a year and is well worth it.  For that price, I can download all the latest U.S charts PLUS all of the Army Corps of Engineer (ACE) survey data.  The ACE contracts marine surveyors to take very detailed depth soundings of areas that frequently shoal so they know where to schedule dredging.  Plus, they publish this data on-line which can be used as an overlay on AquaMaps to show very accurate depths. 

The results of using the ACE survey data are quite remarkable.  Here are two charts of the inlet to the Carolina Beach anchorage / mooring field.  Notice in the left picture it just says "shoaling" by the ActiveCaptain hazzard marker.  The picture on the right includes the ACE data and shows just how shallow the corner is.  I also like the fact that it color-codes the depths so you know where to be really careful.

We left the dock in Swansboro at 6am - just as it was light enough to see the channel markers.  A short while later, I took this colorful picture of the eastern sky just before sunrise.

There are three bridges along this route that all operate on opening schedules.  The first bridge is Onslow Beach which I was hoping to make at 7:30am so we could get to Carolina Beach a little early. 

From experience the past few years, this swing bridge is one of the slowest to open on the whole ICW and frequently takes 7-10 minutes to open far enough for us to get through.  As we approached the Onslow Beach bridge, I called the bridge operator on the marine radio and told him my arrival time from our GPS was 7:34am and I would be there by time the bridge opened.  He said I would have to wait until 8am.  I asked, "Why. Since the bridge takes so long to open?"  He told me his orders were to not open the bridge unless there was a boat waiting at the bridge.  My assumption was there were boaters in the past who said they would be there for the opening but they had to wait for them and the bridge was open a long time closed to road traffic.  Anyway, we slowed way down and went through the bridge at 8:06am.

After the Onslow Beach bridge, there is a very tricky passage through the New River inlet.  It is usually one of the most challenging parts of the ICW because it constantly changes with the currents moving the sand around the bottom.  No problems this time as we motored through the deeper water identified by the ACE surveys.

On the south side of New River, this is this pink house we always like.

The next bridge was Surf City.  It had been replaced by a high bridge that we could get under with our 61 foot mast.  Nice!

After that, we had the Figure 8 Island bridge and the Wrightville Beach bridge.  Here's the problem when heading south...  The Figure 8 opens on the hour and 1/2 hour but the Wrightville Beach bridge only opens on the hour.  They are 5 miles apart.  If we go though the Figure 8 bridge on the 1/2 hour, we can't make the Wrightville Beach bridge in 30 minutes so have to wait 1 1/2 hours for the next on-hour opening.

Turns out we were 10 minutes late for the on-hour Figure 8 bridge so went through on the 1/2 hour.  We now had 1 1/2 hours to go 5 miles.  (See what that 4 minutes late at Onslow Beach bridge is costing us?)  It wasn't a big loss because there was about 10 knots of wind behind us so we rolled out 1/2 of our jib and turned the engine off for over an hour.  The boat stayed at 3-4 knots as we quietly sailed down this short section of the ICW.  When we were about 2 miles from the Wrightville Beach bridge, I pulled in all of the jib because we were going to fast and would be there early.  The boat continued at 2.5 - 3 knots WITH NO SAILS.  It was pretty cool and the first time in 80,000 miles we've done this.  It just worked out that the wind was right on our stern so just blew us fast enough down the ICW to keep steerage.  It was cool!

After Wrightsville Beach we motor-sailed the last 10 miles to Carolina Beach and tied to a mooring I had reserved yesterday.  We'll be here for two days to relax a bit and dinghy into one of our favorite towns.

I poured a short glass of Tequila, got out my guitar and played several songs in the cockpit with Laura singing nice harmony.  I haven't been playing the guitar often enough to build up calluses on my left hand fingers so am working on playing almost every day.  I can now play 8-10 songs before my fingers get too sore.

We grilled porkchops on the BBQ for dinner and spent a quiet evening watching last few episodes of Jack Ryan - second season.  Not as good as the first season but still entertaining.

Had the fan blowing in the bedroom as it was a warm evening in the mid-70s.  Very comfortable and we both slept well in the quiet Carolina Beach bay.  Tomorrow we plan on taking the dinghy into town and maybe to the beach.  We'll have to dinghy around the afternoon thunderstorms.

 

Belhaven to Oriental (Days 34, 35 and 36)

Wednesday, October 30th (Day 34)

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.

Great Bridge, VA to Belhaven, NC (Days 31, 32 & 33)

Sunday, October 27th (Day 31)

Laura and I slept in a little today as this was a "rest" day for our trip south.  Rain was predicted for the afternoon so we walked through the woods in the morning on a very nice trail from the Visitor's Center.  The walk was along groomed trails east following the waterway.  Laura took this picture of me walking along the trails.

We worked on a few boat projects but mostly relaxed.  The next step on our cockpit combing was to epoxy a few holes so they wouldn't rot and would fill correctly with the gloss finish.  This only took about 15 minutes then we were on to other projects.

Dinner was scheduled with Dean and Sue at the local Mexican restaurant - El Toro Loco.  Those of you who have been following our blog for many years may recognize this place as the "big margarita" restaurant.

Dean and Sue knocked on the boat around 4:30pm and asked if we wanted to walk with them to a local Antique Store.  I declined (to work on the blog I think) but Laura accepted.  About 1/2 hour later, Laura texted me from a local pub just down the road and asked if I wanted to join them.  I laughed and said, "How long could you have spent at the antique place?"  I was practicing my guitar and had just fixed myself a tequila so declined this time.

A short while later we walked to the Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Food and drinks were excellent as usual. This is an updated picture of the restaurant with Dean, Sue, Laura and I at dinner -

As we were checking out and paying our tab, I mentioned that we came here twice a year as we traveling north or south by sailboat.  The manager (owner?) gave me his business card after he wrote his cell phone number on it.  He said they were moving this summer to another place about a mile away.  He would gladly come and pick us up at the free dock for dinner at the new restaurant.  I love that!

After dinner, we walked back to our boats and prepared for leaving tomorrow morning.

Monday, October 28th (Day 32)

Our plans were to be off the dock by 8am so we could make the next two bridges when they opened every hour and 1/2 hour.  I didn't sleep well and was up for several hours in the night.  I finally fell back to sleep around 6am.  I woke up and looked at the clock.  It was 7:45!  Holy cow!  I quickly performed my morning engine checks, we brought in the boat bumpers (fenders), started the engine, turned on all the electronics and were off the dock 10 minutes later.  I didn't really feel like I was awake yet as we motored south from Great Bridge on the ICW.

No worries with the two bridges and the 10 miles or so of twisty waterway before it opened up at Currituck Sound.  Winds were much higher than predicted yesterday (prediction 5-10, actual10-15, gusts near 20) and proved helpful for the rest of the day with a reefed jib pushing us along.  We anchored on the eastern shore of the North River around 4:30pm and configured the boat for our overnight stay.

During the day, we completed the next step on our cockpit combing refinishing with sanding the whole piece we were refinishing including the epoxy we applied yesterday.  After we anchored, Laura used a paint brush to apply the AwlWood primer while I followed with a lint-free rag and smoothed everything out.  Here are the before and after pictures of the primer -

 It's not shiny yet.  Just sealed and primed for the AwlWood gloss we will apply over the next couple days if it doesn't rain.

Tuesday, October 29th (Day 33)

Yesterday I made an appointment for Wednesday evening at Sailcraft Boatyard in Oriental for some work on our standing rigging (the wires holding up our two masts).  I don't know why I didn't give us an extra day but I always seem to make us hurry.  Getting there by Wednesday would mean about 140 ICW miles in two days.  We better get moving!

Dean and I had agreed we'd have an early start so I had the alarm set for 6:30am and we had our anchor up just before 7am.  NE winds were very helpful all day and it was one of the quickest and nicest Albemarle Sound crossings we ever had.  Sometimes we don't make it through the Alligator River Canal on the second day from Norfolk and today we made it through the can plus another 10 miles.

We averaged 7 knots for the first 4 hours and zoomed down the ICW with full main and jib plus engine at cruise RPM.  Autumn Borne was 1-3 miles behind us most of the day.  We entered the Alligator - Pungo Canal around 1:30pm with plenty of time to make the 22 miles through the canal to a nice anchorage before dark.

I guess I'm getting a little complacent with my driving the ICW.  Through the 22 miles canal, I had the boat on autopilot and only had to look up every 20 seconds or so to make adjustments so the boat wouldn't drifting too close to one side or the other.  After over 2 hours through this boring section I picked up the iPad, turned on Kindle and started reading - looking up very often to prevent problems.  Well....  I guess the book got very interesting and I didn't look up for awhile.  Laura was down below whipping up something in the oven when the boat hit a submerged tree stump on the side of the canal and took a pretty good jump.  We stopped almost immediately.  I was able to turn the boat a little back toward the middle of the canal with full throttle and full starboard helm but we were not moving.   I dropped the dinghy to lighten the load on the boat and help push us off.  I was able to turn the boat more toward the center by pushing on the bow with the dinghy while Laura applied full throttle in forward.  But, we were stuck.

Autumn Borne came by a few minutes later and offered help.  Dean motored the bow of his boat slowly up to our bow while Sue handed off a line.  The line was attached to both bows and Dean slowly backed up to tighten it.  I then applied full throttle while Autumn Borne pulled in reverse.  It took about 20 seconds, but eventually we were pulled off the stump and back in the deeper water.  Thanks Dean and Sue!  You saved me 1-2 hours calling for a tow-boat!

We stopped the boat and I hauled up the dinghy on the davits.  5 minutes later we were underway again.  This is my 29th trip on the ICW and I've only been able to make it all the way without going aground twice.  Not this trip...  There is a song by Eric Stone that says, "If you ain't been aground, you ain't been around..."  I've been around a lot.

Laura had purchased a nice pumpkin at the grocery in Great Bridge and decided to carve it today.  Here she is hard at work digging out the guts.

We exited the canal at 4:30pm and decided to keep going for a bit to take some miles off of tomorrow and hopefully arrive at the marina before everyone left for the day.  The slip where we needed to tie up for rigging work is very tricky and we need help from shore to get in there.

After anchoring near Belhaven, NC about an hour later near the north shore.  After dinner, Laura lit up the pumpkin and displayed it on the back deck.  He's a happy pumpkin.

Tomorrow we have about 40 nautical miles to Sailcraft in Oriental where we will be spend at least one night for some boatwork.

Fishing Bay to Mathews Yacht Club (Day 28) then Norfolk (Day 29 and 30)

Thursday, October 24th (Day 28)

Dean mentioned he was having some problems with his mainsail mast track so I volunteered to dinghy over and help him this morning.  He had to go up the mast and repair the track that had broken which allowed the sail cars to come disconnected from the mast - not a good thing.

After breakfast I dropped the dinghy and motored over.  Dean had everything ready and we went over the procedure before he went up the mast.  As typical for mast work, we had a bosuns chair (seat) attached to a halyard which went through a pulley at the top of the mast then back down to the deck. The deck end was wound around one of the mast winches.  On most boats, you would use the winch to pull the person up the mast and hold him in place while working.  Autumn Borne and Second Wind have steps attached to the mast so it is a little easier.  The person climbs up the steps while a helper keeps the halyard tight around the winch.  If the person slips or wants to stop, the helper just secures the line around the winch and cleat.  Very safe operation if everyone pays attention.

All went well and he completed the repair in about 1/2 an hour.  I motored back to Second Wind and secured the dinghy for our short run to Mathews Yacht Club.

Laura and I prepared to get underway then raised the anchor and motored south out of Fishing Bay.  We continued south to the end of Gwynn Island then through the Gwynn Island Bridge.  It was a twisty-turney course around the islands which we took slow because we were at low tide.  Approaching the yacht club about an hour later we had less than a foot between our keel and the bottom.  No problems as D and Don were there to help us tie up at the yacht club.

We were here for the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) dinner that evening.  Many of the OCC members had come to the club for lunch and we joined them a short time later.  Laura and I split a crab-cake sandwich which was yummy (you have to eat crab when in Chesapeake Bay).

After lunch we unpacked some of the packages we had shipped to our friends Chris and Bill who live in the area and were OCC members running the dinner.  Our packages included the new Honda 2200 generator which I hauled down to the boat, filled with oil and gasoline, and had running a short time later.  The packages also include both of our new NY driver's licenses which we had renewed just before leaving Catskill.  Yea!  We were legal again!

Just after 6pm we dressed up a little (I put on long pants and collared shirt) and headed to the dinner.  Turns out a past Commodore of the club decided to buy drinks for everyone so it was open bar all night.  We met many new friends and had a very tasty dinner of fried oysters and BBQ brisket plus all the fixin's served home-style. After dinner was a slide presentation from two couples who had sailed around the world (circumnavagitor's) - one in 1992 and the other in 2016.  It was very interesting to compare the two voyages and the changes in world travel during those periods.

After dinner we said good-bye to new and old friends before retiring to the boat and crashing.  I don't think either of us slept well from the drinks and rich foods.

Friday, October 25th (Day 29 - start of week 5)

We had not slept well and, since we were both awake, we decided to get going early.  It was still dark and only 6am.  I used a hose on the dock to wash some of the salt off the boat and fill our water tank to about 3/4 (we'd have a chance to fill the tank again in the next day or two when we filled up our diesel tank so why carry the extra weight?).  After engine checks and pulling in the power cord, we were underway just as it was light enough to see the water.  Here's a cool picture Laura took before we left the dock.  Notice the little sliver of moon.

No wind and glassy water made for a beautiful, sunrise ride back to Fishing Bay where we could reconnect with Chesapeake Bay and turn south to Norfolk.

Here was just before sunrise a short time later.

As we motored back through the Gwynn Island Bridge, Slow Cruisin' was coming out of Fishing Bay and Autumn Borne was just picking up their anchor.  Once again, three boats from Catskill Creek within a few miles of each other after traveling over 400 miles.

The day became overcast with no wind.  I don't think I've ever seen Chesapeake Bay this calm.  I took this picture as we were motoring south past the York River.  Where does the water end and sky begin?

We had the tidal current with us most of the day and motored past the huge Navy ships in Norfolk around 2:30pm.  Now we had to decide where to head for the night.  The past few days have seen LOTS of boats around us heading south.  I think the bad weather last week had backed up all the southbound boats so, on the few nice days for traveling, everybody was on the move.  This meant that many of the anchorages would be overflowing (and they were) plus some of the places we normally stayed would be packed too.

Gilmerton Bridge in Norfolk is the only one that has to open for us but there are 3 other railroad bridges that are normally open but close periodically for trains.  The Gilmerton Bridge stays closed for rush-hour between 3:30pm and 5:30pm.  We could not get there by 3:30pm so I idled through Norfolk at slow speed.  We motored past the beginning of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) at Hospital Point - Mile 0 at 4pm.  Wouldn't you know, the very first ICW bridge (out of maybe 200 between here and Miami) was closed for a train and we had to wait. 

There was a huge Gypsum loading pier next to the bridge which I checked out as we waited for the train.  I had thought that Gypsum was brought into Norfolk by train then loaded onto ships for export.  But, after a little on-line research, it turns out that Gypsum is brought into Norfolk by ship from Nova Scotia.  In Norfolk, there is a huge factory for building wallboard with the Gypsum.

After about another 1/2 hour, the bulk carrier train finally left the station and traveled west out of Norfolk.  The bridge opened and we proceeded down the Elizabeth River where we waited about 15 minutes for the Gilmerton Bridge.  After the bridge it was only 2.5 miles to Top Rack Marina where we tied up to their fuel dock for an overnight stay.  We've stayed here many times.  The fuel is just about the cheapest on the ICW (was $2.58 / gallon of diesel) and the dockage is only $40 per night.  Up to two years ago, the dockage was free if you ate at their smancy restaurant.  The food was always excellent but expensive.  We never got out of there for less than $100.

They had excellent WiFi here so we watched a few new Netflix shows and hit the sack early after a long 12 hour day on the water.  62 nautical miles traveled today.  That's a lot for us!

Saturday, October 26th (Day 30)

I was up at 7:30am to prepare the boat for leaving as soon as the 8am crew arrived to fill up our diesel.  I disconnected our power cord and coiled it on the deck to dry.  As I was filling our water tank, one of the marina staff came by and we talked about fueling up.  My goal was to fuel up and leave here as soon as possible so we could make the 8:30am opening of the Great Bridge lock and maybe beat some of the boats coming from Norfolk to the free dock in Great Bridge.

We started filling our diesel tank around 7:45am and finished with 62.5 gallons shortly after 8pm.  That was our usage for the past 15 days since Atlantic Highlands.

Everything was quick and we were off the dock by 8:10am - right in front of a line of powerboats from Norfolk.  Of course, they all had to pass us over the next 10 minutes even though it was only 2 miles to the lock.  No problems making the 8:30am lock schedule and we tied up with 1 other sailboat and 9 powerboats.

When the lock door opens to let everyone out, the powerboats think it's a race to the bridge only 1/2 mile away.  They were even passing me in the lock and got yelled at by the lockmaster.  The Great Bridge Bridge opened on schedule at 9am and we were able to tie up at the free dock on the south side a short time later.  The dock was empty except for a large Army Corp of Engineers boat on the north end.  We tied up way down the south end with our dinghy off the dock so we could leave as much room as possible for other boats.

Dean and Sue on Autumn Borne arrive at the next bridge opening and I helped them tie up in front of us.  They had decided to anchor at Hospital Point last night and not wait for the train and Gilmerton Bridge.  Yea!  We made the free dock and could relax for a couple days.

Not so fast....  After tying up Autumn Borne, we noticed there were signs on all the dock posts that the entire dock was reserved for the "Corp of Engineer Boat - Ewell" from 8am to 6pm TODAY.  Oh no.  But wait...  the big boat tied up at the north end was the Ewell.  I walked up and talked to the Captain who told us they were here for the Veteran's Day Festival and they did not need the whole dock.  But, we should check with the lady managing the festival.  After asking around, I found the lady in charge and she said we were fine where we were.  There was only one other "big" boat coming to the festival - the Miss America - and they should be able to fit in front of us.  Cool!  We could stay.

Laura took this picture of gents working wood-lathes at the festival.  The festival seemed to be mostly this type of work including fly fishing and metal working booths.

We did enjoy the festival - especially the hotdog cart where we had lunch.  A short time later an older 30 foot powerboat came in and tied up in the middle of the 100 feet open dock reserved for the Miss America.  Turns out they were the Miss America.  Don't know what connection they had to the festival but, guess they were invited for the day.

Since they were tied up in the middle of the 100 feet of open dock, they had left about 30 feet on each end - not enough room to tie up another boat who might be looking for dockage.  I walked over and suggested to the Captain that he move the boat either forward to back to make room for another boat since the waterway was very busy.  He told me, "This is where I'm supposed to be and I'm not moving."  Several boats stopped and tried to get him to move during the day but he would not do it.  Always one in every crowd.....

After lunch we walked down Battlefield Blvd to a small strip-mall that had a salon where we've stopped in the past for haircuts.  They were able to work Laura and I into their schedule over the next hour or so.  Now we were good lookin' again!

A few bag of groceries at Krogers (we only needed eggs...) and we walked back to the boat for a nap.  Dean and Sue came over for munchies, cocktails and MUSIC around 5:30 and we had a fun time.  Dean and I alternate playing songs on our guitars and now Laura is adding to the mix with a few songs on her Mountain Dolcimer.  After they left Laura made chili from the fresh hamburg we purchased today and we relaxed to a few shows on the TV.

Rain tomorrow so we will probably sit her for the day and maybe talk a walk between the raindrops.