Goodbye Bock Marine....

Goodbye Bock Marine...until the next time

There is no longer the incessant hum of the insects that I had become so fond of, or the birdsong from the tall pine trees behind us. Nor the clomp, clomp of cars and trucks as they drive over the high rise bridge just to the north of us. There is no longer the beep, beeps of the travel lift or tractor warning people of their movements as they crawl about the yard. All I can hear is the wind and the gentle slap of waves against the hull.

Its not even 8am and its another busy day in the yard - Wandering Star in the slings.

Yes, we finally tore ourselves away from the boatyard and our home for the last 7 weeks that was Bock Marine.  A quick haul out turned into an extended stay. We could have made it go faster but would you think there is something wrong with us if we said we enjoy our time there? You get that we like the place, right?

The docks at Beaufort.

But as the days have grown shorter and colder we have been keen to get back in the water. Four days ago we finally "splashed". As friendly faces waved us off, we once again headed out into the waters of the ICW (intra-coastal waterway).  First stop just a mere 10 miles away was Beaufort, to get ourselves sorted, to launch the dinghy and get sails back on and to catch up with Mark from “:Sealife” before he set off on his offshore trip back to the Caribbean.

Mark and Sim enjoying a beer at The Dock House

We have opted to take the slow route back, on island time, and where it will take Mark two weeks, I doubt we will make the East Caribbean before 6 months has passed. But I am keen to hit the Bahamas one last time and enjoy travelling through the countries we pass.

Sunrise in Beaufort, NC - goodness knows why I'm up that early!

But first we wanted to visit Cape Lookout National Seashore. Cape Lookout is a 56 mile stretch of barrier islands consisting of beaches, sand dunes and marshland.  I have wanted to come here for as long as I can remember – they say it’s as close to the Caribbean as you can get and while it is actually worlds apart, the water has more clarity then we have seen in a long time and the beaches are stunning.  And if you like beach combing and shell collecting, as you all know that I do, Cape Lookout is second to none.  The beaches are just littered with shells and not just iddy biddy ones but giant whelk and horseshoe crabs as well.  We have spotted Loggerhead turtles and dolphins are swimming around the boat. Everybody raves about this spot and it really is that special. And best of all, I guess because it is so cold – we have the place to ourselves.

The beautiful beaches of Cape Lookout

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

Did we mention it was getting cold?

The beach is literally littered with shells

Dolpohins swiming around the boat

Wandering Star anchored in the bight of Cape Lookout

The beautiful dunes of the National Seashore.

Did I mention it is cold?

The evening sky

One Week Left In The Yard - I Hope!

Escaping the boat yard - at Fort Macon, Atlantic Beach, NC

One week left in the yard - I hope! For a short haul out (6 weeks now) we sure do take our time. I think we can blame Sim for this...he is happy as Larry pottering on with boat jobs. Our whole boat has turned into a work shop. Aside from the mess and chaos, I don't mind either. The yard here is very comfortable....surrounded by tall pine trees, and a pretty river...I can see why people get stuck here. I love just stepping off the boat, driving about in the courtesy car, good Internet, electricity and hot running water. The yard is busy too with all sorts people from different walks of life working on their boats.

Work crawls along, it always seems to take longer than expected. Little hiccups here and there slow us down. Like scratching the paint in the hole the rudder goes up, so down it comes with a five day delay as we build up the paint again. The anti fouling paint which we ordered off site (as I wanted to go with a 'green' that isn't sold here) has turned into a bit of a fiasco...first the company forgot to send out the five gallons that we ordered. Then Fed-ex dropped four of them (can you imagine the mess) at one of their depots. Then the company only sends us two gallons back. So we chase them up, get them sent out only for Fed ex to drop them again. By now three weeks have elapsed. The remaining paint finally arrived on Tuesday afternoon. But of course it has been raining ever since.

Sim working on the windlass 

So now we wait for the rain to stop. Everything is damp and soggy. The last of the engine hoses are going back on and the motor for the windlass will be going back together soon. We 'whacked' the galvanised chain for an inordinate amount of time but finally all the links are free.  And the chain has been painted at 5 meters intervals so we tell how much chain we are letting out when we anchor.

We hired a car again through Enterprise over the weekend. Their $9.99 a day deal is hard to pass up. It's nice just for a couple of days to have the freedom of being mobile and not confined to the yard except for two hour stints in the courtesy car. We did a little stocking up for our journey to....wherever we end up. And took the car out for a drive over to the outer banks - where we didn't see much as it was grey and drizzly. But back out through Morehead City to Atlantic Beach the sun peaked through and we enjoyed a short walk around Fort Macon and its surrounding beaches and sand dunes. It really is such a pretty area. Halloween passed us by with a small cruiser get-together BBQ that evening.  For now we plough on with all the iddy, biddy jobs and one last coat of anti foulinng and hope  to be out of here in about a weeks time.

Out and about on a Sunday afternoon

Pumpkin anyone? - a church giving them out for free

Its common to see houses decked out for Halloween

Driving through a place called Sea Level - not much going on there.

One of the many churches in North Carolina - coincidentally our radio on board cant pickup any thing other then religious radio stations.

Provision store near the Outter Banks

America east coast has incredible beaches.

 Atlantic Beach 

The beaches stretch for miles and miles

I still cant resist a good beach walk

Sim on the other hand whose knees are playing up prefers to sit and watch

But he does make it over the sand dunes

A Week Of Work And A Weekend Away

One of the rare sunny days

It’s not easy to achieve a lot of work in the boatyard when it is raining.  And it’s still raining, but thankfully not as much as it was before when Joaquin passed by to the east.  But we (the royal “we”) still managed to keep chipping away at the jobs.  Sim removed the: oil cooler, heat exchanger, cooler pipes, fuel filter, fuel pump and alternator from the engine to overhaul them, or in the case of the engine drive plate and heat exchanger, as it turned out, to replace them.

Sim stripped down the oil cooler, pipes and heat exchanger - we are replacing the heat exchanger and repainting the rest.

We have chipped away at our steel hull as best we can in awkward places with the chipping hammer. Ideally we would use the compressor and needle gun but the compressor is still on the blink and we are still waiting for parts.

The rudder has been dropped, paint removed  and layers of new paint are being built up before we put it back into place with a new modified stuffing box.

Sim grinding the old paint off the skeg so we can start to build up the paint layers that protect the steel.

And here is a photo to prove that my shells do come in useful - especially when we need measuring spoons in a hurry to mix the two part paints.

The top sides have had an acid wash to remove the dirty brown build up deposited by the murky waters of the ICW. Who knew that good old lemon juice is nearly as effective as “the Works” toilet cleaner (with its mild muriatic acid base) to remove the nasty stains, it’s not nearly as harmful and doesn’t remove the wax.

Our friend Jim very kindly came and picked up our chain and anchor to be galvanised. So it’s all systems go.

The kitty has been helping out when she can, or chasing giant spiders! Sim loads up Jims truck with our chain and anchor.

 But all work and no play make Sim and (especially) Rosie very dull. So we took a very short vacation to see Jim, Linda and Jennifer at their home near Apex in North Carolina. Apparently a relatively short 3 hour drive away in local terms (Obviously not UK terms!).  We hired a car (US$9.99/day – over the weekend with Enterprise car rental – what a bargain – they even picked us up and dropped us off for free - a 20 mile drive each time from their office to Bock Marine) and we drove with cat (and all her paraphernalia) over to see our friends.  They live in a very rural and bucolic setting amongst tall pine trees, just a few minutes’ walk from a lake. It was the perfect antidote for a boatyard get-away.

Jennifer and clan introduced us to the delights of biscuits and gravy for breakfast - which in English terms translates to crumbled sausage meat in a white sauce over a greasy scone! - It was good!!

Jim cooked an amazing BBQ and then we had "smores" (a toasted marshmallow sandwiched between a piece of chocolate and a couple of graham crackers) around the fire.

They very kindly let us bring Ali with us - and the kitty and puppy became the best of friends......well almost ;-)

Jennifer teaches us a little archery - Sim pretends he is Robin Hood!

Jennifer shows me how it is done on the trampoline

Opus (we collectively refer to all our boat friends by their boat name) - have a very cool backyard.

This gorgeous walk is literally out their back door and hang a left down to the lake.

They even had a snake in their shed!!! - Yikes

The plate of slow cooked pork at the last supper!

We've Been Bugged! - The ICW North Carolina to Virgina

Heading towards our anchorage for the night...

Sim was pleased we had found a lovely anchorage, tucked up close to land to avoid any chop from the sea. It had been fairly windy but this spot was quite protected from the prevailing wind. There was nothing or no one around us for what seemed like miles. As I got into bed that night I could hear a loud buzz like static on a radio or a far off engine. I asked Sim what the noise was and after poking his head out of the cockpit door said it was the hum of insects. "Eww" I thought. As I lay in bed reading I could see outside our screened window a few bugs landing on the dinghy and mosquito mesh. We were obviously not alone!

 

Laying in bed we could see all the bugs attracted to our light.

But nothing could prepare us for what we found the next day. I got up, opened the companion way door and instantly shut it again. Outside in the cockpit was a scene you wouldn't believe. The entire bimini was covered in what looked like mosquito's, it was thick with them. They were buzzing around and seemed to fill the entire aft end of our boat.

It was the morning we had a really long day in front of us and needed the early start to cover the miles to the next anchorage. But we could see that we weren't going anywhere soon.

"No problem" I said feeling brave. I'll go out there and spray them with bug spray and shoo them all away. So dressed in leggings and a long sleeve top with a mosquito net wrapped around my head and 50% deet on and a fly swat in my hand, I went out to battle the bugs. I sprayed and swatted and swatted and sprayed but all I succeeded in doing was driving the critters into a flying frenzy - the noise they made was deafening. I was so overwhelmed by the futility of the task I admitted defeat and climbed back inside the boat.

Can you see all the mosquitoes on the bimini?

Next up - Sim. We swapped clothes - he was quite a sight in my leggings and tucked in t-shirt with mosquito netting wrapped around his head...superhero Sim - the caped crusader. 

Sims turn to battle the bugs

He attached the long hose to our seawater deck pump and hosed the entire boat down with muddy river water. It was carnage. The deck was black with mosquito mush. The dinghy and everything in it was full of dead knats. 

Our back steps full of dead mosquitoes.

By now we realized these were not the biting kind, thank goodness! They are harmless enough....except for the greeny blue poop they left behind that stained the boat. Clothes, covers, headling and our white painted hull are all covered in tiny blue spots.

Headlining stained with ... poop?

It took half a day of continuous hosing to exterminate the swarm. They would just fly around and re-land. I later learned that they die off after a few days but I don't think we could have waited that long. When we felt that we had reduced the numbers enough to get under way, Sim drove and navigated up the narrow ICW while I continued operation 'clean up'.  Its been an on going task ever since.

We clean up piles and piles like this.

 Eventually after another long day we made it to the free dock at Great Bridge,Virginia. That night it rained and cleaned our decks with fresh water. There are just a few stragglers left now. Tomorrow we move up through the lock and on up to Norfolk, Virginia and the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay where we will wait for a weather window for an outside sail up to New York.

And some photos from the previous weeks journey.

Broad Creek, North Carolina, mile marker 173.5 to Great Bridge, Virginia, mile marker 12.

Shrimp boats are a familiar sight on the ICW

We passed Bock Marine - our favourite boat yard...who we'll be paying a 

visit to on the way south.

The intra-coastal waterway (ICW) has lots of nice looking properties 

lining its banks.

Motoring along...dumdidum...can be pretty boring at times

Small boats out dragging nets for shrimp.???

Motoring days on end might be a little boring at times but it has its moments.

In rural areas only trees line the banks.

Sim studying the chart

Another bridge to pass under.

Ooo excitement....a bit of traffic

It can be a little hairy at times passing big traffic in the narrow channels

We are glad  to see the back of that tug and barge.

Calisto...a boat we sailed and chatted with on the radio for a couple of days

And this is what happens when you veer from the channel....its not as 

deep as it looks - see one hull is out of the water!

On every ICW marker is an Ospreys nest.