Nov 9 - Nov 15
Heading south at 10mph!
Hello friends and fam.
At a turtles pace, we continue to move south along the ICW. Trawlers are known for their roomy interiors and fuel efficiency, but NOT their speed. It gives us time to take in the scenery and wildlife around us. A good day is about 70 miles, 7-8 hours.
We left Beaufort and new friends on Nov 13. While there we hung out with a couple, Doug and Lori, and found out we had lots in common. Their first grandson was born the same day as our grandson! We played dice and partied while Tater and their dog, Bear, displayed their love interest with each other!
I forgot to tell you about the singing whales in Beaufort. There are dozens of sailboats docked in that marina that have the 65-ft masts that are secured with many lines (ropes). When the high winds would blow, the lines would vibrate and would make a sound like a pod of whales were moaning around us. Like when you blow over the opening of a bottle. Just magnify that about a thousand times! Very spooky at night when the gale winds came through. Of course there were no actual whales….I think.
At a Farmers Market near the dock, Derek bought a dozen raw oysters and shucked them himself (1st time) for our dinner. When a few hours had passed after eating them, and no sign of stomach cramps or vomiting, we figured we were safe and the oysters were fresh. Good thing since diarrhea doesn’t mix with 7 hours of cruising the following day.
First stop out of Beaufort was at Harbour Village Marina in Surf City, NC. Gusting winds made docking difficult again, and Derek curses the micro commander gear shifter/throttle apparatus continuously. Its VERY touchy and my wonderful husband has many fine qualities, but a soft touch is not one of them! Move the shifter just an inch forward and the boat takes off like a racehorse out of the gate. Derek's big hands don’t do half-inches! And there is a full 2-second delay whenever forward or reverse is put into gear. So he has to guess when he wants to change direction a few seconds BEFORE he actually wants to do it. With high winds and coming in and maneuvering into a narrow slip backing up and having to deal with the delay makes for one very agitated husband. But the docking assistants were awesome and we really enjoyed the one-night stay.
Yesterday we headed to Southport, NC and traveled through the outermost eastern point of NC called Cape Fear….for a reason! This is a famous area for shipwrecks due to currents and winds and shoaling. Lots of famous pirates ended their careers here. We stayed on the Cape Fear River instead of going out in the ocean to avoid disaster ourselves. We had to wait a half hour each for openings at 2 bridges, but God gave us a great pushing current to make up for the time lost. By the way, while waiting for bridges to open (usually every half hour), the boats in either side of the bridge will line up and maintain their position in line and wait out the time till the next opening. This is where we become spectators of boating idiots!!!! A lot can happen when 6 large boats are trying to hold position and 1 or 2 can’t grasp the idea and start doing figure 8s around everyone and not maintaining a safe distance between vessels.
And speaking of idiots. We have come to loath 50-60ft Sportfish yachts. The ones with the tall tower that have a lookout seat 3 stories up. We figured that the sport part of sport fisher boats is passing slower boats (like us) at 30 knots (fast) within 50 feet and throwing a HUGE wake to toss the slower boat around like an empty milk jug on the water in a hurricane. Its just plain mean. Everything not nailed down on our boat goes flying. All other types of boats will slow way down while passing to diminish the wake, as we do for slower boats than us. I hope there is a special place in hell where sports fisher owners will all be in a canoe with huge boats throwing their wake at them 24/7 for all eternity. And thats all I have to say about that.
Great wildlife in this area. A huge flock of seagulls followed closely behind us to look for food in our wake. Pelicans floating in our path would wait till the very last second to fly off out of our way. I think it must be their only form of entertainment…like crazy people who stand on the train tracks in front of an oncoming train and see how close they can come to being splattered!
Then my favorite thing of all…seeing dolphins swimming next to our boat while underway. The best part is they will actually roll on their sides while they are cruising under water to look up at who is on the boat. If you make noise or wave your hands, they will respond by leaping or hanging around longer. We don’t show them to Tater because he might jump in after them to play.
Well this blog has gone on long enough and your eyes are prolly glazing over!
We would appreciate all your prayers for continued safety. All 4 of us are still doing well.
Big hugs and salty kisses.
Heading south at 10mph!
Hello friends and fam.
At a turtles pace, we continue to move south along the ICW. Trawlers are known for their roomy interiors and fuel efficiency, but NOT their speed. It gives us time to take in the scenery and wildlife around us. A good day is about 70 miles, 7-8 hours.
We left Beaufort and new friends on Nov 13. While there we hung out with a couple, Doug and Lori, and found out we had lots in common. Their first grandson was born the same day as our grandson! We played dice and partied while Tater and their dog, Bear, displayed their love interest with each other!
I forgot to tell you about the singing whales in Beaufort. There are dozens of sailboats docked in that marina that have the 65-ft masts that are secured with many lines (ropes). When the high winds would blow, the lines would vibrate and would make a sound like a pod of whales were moaning around us. Like when you blow over the opening of a bottle. Just magnify that about a thousand times! Very spooky at night when the gale winds came through. Of course there were no actual whales….I think.
At a Farmers Market near the dock, Derek bought a dozen raw oysters and shucked them himself (1st time) for our dinner. When a few hours had passed after eating them, and no sign of stomach cramps or vomiting, we figured we were safe and the oysters were fresh. Good thing since diarrhea doesn’t mix with 7 hours of cruising the following day.
First stop out of Beaufort was at Harbour Village Marina in Surf City, NC. Gusting winds made docking difficult again, and Derek curses the micro commander gear shifter/throttle apparatus continuously. Its VERY touchy and my wonderful husband has many fine qualities, but a soft touch is not one of them! Move the shifter just an inch forward and the boat takes off like a racehorse out of the gate. Derek's big hands don’t do half-inches! And there is a full 2-second delay whenever forward or reverse is put into gear. So he has to guess when he wants to change direction a few seconds BEFORE he actually wants to do it. With high winds and coming in and maneuvering into a narrow slip backing up and having to deal with the delay makes for one very agitated husband. But the docking assistants were awesome and we really enjoyed the one-night stay.
Yesterday we headed to Southport, NC and traveled through the outermost eastern point of NC called Cape Fear….for a reason! This is a famous area for shipwrecks due to currents and winds and shoaling. Lots of famous pirates ended their careers here. We stayed on the Cape Fear River instead of going out in the ocean to avoid disaster ourselves. We had to wait a half hour each for openings at 2 bridges, but God gave us a great pushing current to make up for the time lost. By the way, while waiting for bridges to open (usually every half hour), the boats in either side of the bridge will line up and maintain their position in line and wait out the time till the next opening. This is where we become spectators of boating idiots!!!! A lot can happen when 6 large boats are trying to hold position and 1 or 2 can’t grasp the idea and start doing figure 8s around everyone and not maintaining a safe distance between vessels.
And speaking of idiots. We have come to loath 50-60ft Sportfish yachts. The ones with the tall tower that have a lookout seat 3 stories up. We figured that the sport part of sport fisher boats is passing slower boats (like us) at 30 knots (fast) within 50 feet and throwing a HUGE wake to toss the slower boat around like an empty milk jug on the water in a hurricane. Its just plain mean. Everything not nailed down on our boat goes flying. All other types of boats will slow way down while passing to diminish the wake, as we do for slower boats than us. I hope there is a special place in hell where sports fisher owners will all be in a canoe with huge boats throwing their wake at them 24/7 for all eternity. And thats all I have to say about that.
Great wildlife in this area. A huge flock of seagulls followed closely behind us to look for food in our wake. Pelicans floating in our path would wait till the very last second to fly off out of our way. I think it must be their only form of entertainment…like crazy people who stand on the train tracks in front of an oncoming train and see how close they can come to being splattered!
Then my favorite thing of all…seeing dolphins swimming next to our boat while underway. The best part is they will actually roll on their sides while they are cruising under water to look up at who is on the boat. If you make noise or wave your hands, they will respond by leaping or hanging around longer. We don’t show them to Tater because he might jump in after them to play.
Well this blog has gone on long enough and your eyes are prolly glazing over!
We would appreciate all your prayers for continued safety. All 4 of us are still doing well.
Big hugs and salty kisses.
 One of Gypseas hiding spots, under the helm. |  |
Taters friend Bear.
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A Sport fisher boat...ughhhhh!
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