Sweetpea #3Sunday, 12 Oct: Oriental, N.C. is a small town, just a few blocks in either direction, with mostly older neatly kept houses. It is a pretty town, the kind that makes you say, "I'd like to live hear someday". The town focuses on the activities around the harbor. The Harbor is small, no bigger than a city block, with a mixture of large commercial fishing boats and small pleasure boats -- some anchored out and others in boat slips. This has become a favorite spot for boats moving up and down the Inter-coastal waterway as the seasons change and it claims to be the "sailing capital" of North Carolina. We rolled out of our bunks about 9AM and after a shower, I paid the slip fee at the motel. It was a modest $.85 per foot (Sweetpea is 36 feet long) which included use of the pool, showers and head. Since the batteries were fully charged with shore power (plugged in at the dock), we intended leave and make some more headway down the Intercoastal until we could find someone to look at our instruments, autopilot and charging system. A little bit about our concerns at this point ..... The INSTRUMENTS are important because they tell us important things like how deep the water is under us. The Intercoastal waterway is a narrow channel in each perhaps wider body of water which is suitable for navigation. That is, following the channel exactly will keep you from running aground or hitting submerged pilings or from getting lost. The ICW is marked by red and green signs on posts. Some are lighted. All are numbered with numbers which correspond to symbols on navigation charts so that you can know where the water is deep or shallow and where the hazards are. Slight deviations between markers or confusion about whether you are following ICW markers or those for other intersecting creeks, rivers or inlets put you at great risk. Some of the locals make a nice living towing boats that have run aground or salvaging what is left after they have hit something. So for us, the depth sounder would be nice to have operating, but we can continue by being vigilant and conservative about where we go. The AUTOPILOT would be nice to save us the trouble of constant corrections to the helm. It is a 'convenience' for travel on the ICW and a 'necessity' for navigation when we go outside into the ocean. Going outside is the preferred route for a sailboat south of Cape Hatteras because it cuts the travel time by half, but going outside is much more demanding of the crew and the boat. The course from N.C. to Miami requires a lot of steering since we will have to stay within three miles of the coast to keep from entering the Gulf Stream and working against the current. Basically, the autopilot acts like another crew member who can steer the boat while the others (we, the people) tend to other duties. The CHARGING SYSTEM of concern because many of the boat systems are electrical (12 volt). Sweetpea's battery banks will easily last a couple of days without recharge. Normally they are recharged by running the engine about 30 min each day . That is not a problem along the ICW since the engine is always running and if we were at anchor for several days, it would only mean we needed to run the engine every once in a while to charge the banks. That is, IF the charging system is working. Ours isn't so we could find ourselves without lights and other things we need to live and travel in the boat. Thus, if we move on, we can only go a couple of days without plugging into shore power for another charge. Certainly, going off shore is out until we get this problem fixed because the auto pilot is a 'thirsty' system and would deplete the batteries quickly. Normally, these things are well tested by local cruising before attempting such a journey, but since we just finished installing them a day or so before we left, this trip became the sea trial. While leaving without this equipment working may seem foolish to most people, Barb and I decided to leave on our departure date no matter what the condition of the boat because what seems to happen to many would-be cruisers is that they wait for everything to be done and never really leave. Since we had already delayed our departure one year, we were set on making it this year. Even so, our current situation had me wondering about the wisdom or this approach. The only pus here was that we DID leave and I had Ed and his experience with me and insurance against doing anything stupid. With these things on our mind we set out to get lunch and to look at a pair of dividers (used to space off distances on a navigation chart) that Ed suggested I buy at the local marine supply store. While wondering around the marine store, we noticed Nexus instruments on display so I asked if they had anyone who had installed these instruments in the local area. They did and offered a name, telephone number, and use of their phone as well. The prospect of the instruments and perhaps the autopilot working was worth a delay in departure so we called. The installer, a Brit named Regg, told us that he would be glad to check out all three of our systems, but he couldn't get to us until tomorrow. We decided the delay was well worth it so we agreed to meet him first thing in the morning and set off to explore the town of Oriental. Lunch at the local family restaurant was good. And when we returned to the boat, we decided to check into the problem with the charging system. We checked all the connections, read about the system in the installation books and resoldered some connection that had been done in a hurry just prior to departure from Maryland. When we started the engine to see if our efforts made a difference, we also noticed the engine seemed to be running rough, so we decided to change the fuel filter and other things that might cause that to happen. Eventually, we discovered that our effort with the charging system had been successful and what caused the engine to run rough was the 100 amp alternator kicking in when the batteries demanded charging. The fuel filter change was not unnecessary because there was some water in the system and I learned how to do the procedure, including bleeding the entire fuel system on the diesel engine. (Water in the fuel is a common occurrence as you fill up in a variety of places with marginally clean fuel). After a few adjustments to the charging system, our problem appeared to be resolved. It might be worth mentioning, the system I installed is very sophisticated and can be regulated through a control panel inside the main cabin. The problem with all this control is that one sometimes has too much information and tends to worry about things that you would not normally know about. We were hopeful that this problem was over and looked forward to the opinion of the expert the next morning. Monday, 13 Oct: Regg showed up at 8 AM and began checking out the instruments. He confirmed that the wiring I had done was OK. (The boat has many sensors -- a small paddle wheel in the hull that measures boat speed through the water, a propeller on top of the mast that measures speed and direction of the wind, a sounder just inside the hull that measures depth of the water below, and a electronic compass that measures the heading of the boat -- these are wired to a server [brain] and all the information is sent to displays at the helm). All indications pointed to problems with the server which could be replaced, but only after another was sent to us. In a complete system, the server sends information to the autopilot and the autopilot steers the boat. since the server was not working, we disconnected it from the autopilot and wired all the necessary sensors directly to the autopilot's brain. NO change! We concluded that the autopilot was wired correctly by me, but its brain needed to be replaced too. Again, it was gratifying to know the mistake was not mine, but we knew the fix would require replacement parts -- FAST! I called the maker of the instrument and autopilot system and their customer service manager agreed to send replacements via next day air with a morning delivery. Regg agreed to help with the new installation at noon the next day so we were hopeful about a afternoon departure by Tuesday and the prospect of going off-shore a day later. A storm was brewing and rain was predicted for later in the week. Our hope was to shoot outside at Moorhead City NC and sail to Charleston SC in a 30 hour passage which would make up for any lost time during our delay in Oriental. We each had small projects to complete, so Ed set up the storm sails and the Aires Vane Gear (a mechanical steering system that hangs on the back of the boat which can steer for long passages, not using any battery power, but not useful to us when we have to stay within the three mile corridor between here and Miami). I completed installation of the anchor washdown pump ( which allows me to hose down the anchor with sea water as it comes up from a muddy bottom). While I was working with Regg on the instrument system earlier, Ed talked at length with a cruising couple who was anchored out in the harbor and they invited us to join them for dinner on their boat. They picked us up at the dock in their dingy and I had a wonderful night listening to Ed, Steve and Joy talk about places they had sailed to and people they had met along the way. With that, I remembered why I was doing all this! Tuesday, 14 Oct: The parts wouldn't be in until noon so we slept in. I awoke at 7:30 AM and went for a run through town and to the florist to send Barb flowers for her birthday. Regg arrived shortly after the parts and we began installing them. The system checked out beautifully The only task left to be done is the dockside and sea trial checks for the auto pilot which means bleed the hydraulic system of trapped air so the linear arm will push the rudder efficiently. With air in the system, the pump runs for several seconds before anything happened. In a system which needs to move the steering wheel several every few seconds, this bleeding is important. As we began the bleeding process we noticed the 7 " arm that connects the hydraulic push rod to the rudder post (what translates the linear movement of the hydraulic ram into circular movement for the rudder) was loose. So we took the mechanical linkage apart and ground a flat spot under the set screw to prevent slipping around the round post and really tightened all the bolts connecting all the parts. The system was ready to go, except the bleeding task. By the time we finished, we were too late to leave so we decided to depart the next morning and to try another size hydraulic hose in the next port. Wednesday, 15 Oct: We got up early, met Regg at the local cafe to settle our bill, ran around and paid other bills due, worked on the autopilot some more, and departed Oriental about 12 15 PM. It felt good to be moving again even if the autopilot was still not working. We entered the Intercoastal again at Mile Marker 185 about 1:15 and followed the markers to Moorehead City, N.C. where we tied up against the famous Sanitary Restaurant. This restaurant has been around since the 1930s, but was closed down by the Health Dept. sometime in the 1940s for bugs (the kind you would expect to find on a dock with sea food). When they reopened, they changed their name to the Sanitary Restaurant as a joke and it turned out to be a great name. Since then, it has been visited by almost every summer camp attendee in N.C. several U.S. Presidents, and other important people. Sailors like the place because they allow overnight dockage for $10 if you eat there. As soon as we tied up, and the engine was quiet, I began to hear a popping noise like rain splattering or grease popping on a griddle. Ed saw me investigating it as I looked into cupboards and put my ear to the hull (looking for a leak) and said we would be hearing that sound for the rest of our voyage. It was crilla, tiny almost microscopic shrimp which were trying to attach themselves to the hull. He assured me it was OK so we rushed off to the local hardware/marine supply store, bought some tools we needed for the auto pilot and then caught a cab to the local NAPA store for some new hydraulic hoses. We were determined to get the autopilot fixed that night and leave early the next morning for outside passage to Charleston S.C. The trip to NAPA was successful and when we returned to the boat, we stowed the hoses and went into the restaurant for a great dinner. After dinner, we set about the task of changing the autopilot hydraulic hoses. remember it is well after dark now and we are tied up just outside the glass windows of the restaurant. It looked like the 'midnight boatworks'. Nothing new for us, but I'm sure quite a sight for the diners. Our fists task was to remove the old hoses which we thought to be over sized for the system. They were put on really tight in the first place and resisted movement t even by the biggest wrenches. Sometime during the process, we needed something to block movement by the pump so we wedged a can of evaporated milk between it and the bulkhead (we had to be creative to get the right size). When it exploded at the same time the last hose loosened, we had a good laugh! (You had to be there!) We got the hoses changed and the bleeding process seemed to progress much smoother. While I went through the bleeding movements, Ed set about readying the boat for going off-shore -- attaching jack lines to hook our harnesses to as we move about the boat (to prevent falling overboard), and tying off some of the extraneous line aloft (up the mast). The weather forecast suggested we had only a small window to go off shore because storms in the Atlantic were building and the prediction was for gale force winds and 17 ' seas in about two days. As We watched the hydraulic ram move the rudder post we were delighted that it wasn't slipping but we became concerned that too much stress was being put on the small part of the hull where it was mounted. The prospect of cracking the hull off-shore began to worry us so as two AM approached and the system was still not bled, we decided to continue down the Intercoastal and fix the system the system and lay up some fiberglass to spread the load on the hull when we got to Georgetown, S.C . Thursday, 16 Oct: We got up early, had breakfast in a local cafe and headed to the hardware for some fiberglassing materials we might not be able to get elsewhere. At 10 AM we were off. On the was out to the Intercoastal, we took a moment to try the sea trial checks for the auto pilot and ...... It worked! Somehow, over night the system bled itself. So we used the autopilot frequently while underway to continue the bleeding process naturally. So..... now we have all problems resolved, except the need to reinforce the spot where the auto pilot ram connects with the hull. This task would be no problem since Ed was the guy who taught me to fiberglass years ago. We motorsailed with the autopilot, making 5 knots on average and arrived at Wrightsville Beach, NC (near Wilmington) about 1 AM and anchored in a protected cove. The sleep was good! Friday, 17 Oct: We awakened at 8 Am weighed the anchor and headed for a dock to refuel and do some shopping for warmer clothes (for me) and parts for Sweetpea. We departed Wrightsville Beach at noon and anchored in Little River, S.C. -- in a cove (at the intersection of two rivers) just off the ICW, by 1130 Saturday, 18 Oct: Awakened by fishermen speeding by early in the morning, we ate and weighed anchor about 9 AM and headed for Georgetown at 9AM. Encountered fairly constant rain and increasing winds along the way. Weather was closing in. Arrived at Georgetown S.C. about 5:30 PM. Decided to delay the fiberglass work until Charleston which might offer better weather. Sunday, 19 Oct: We departed Georgetown at 4 Am to take advantage of favorable tides. It was a dark, rainy, cold day so we decided to take one hour watches -- change off every hour at the helm allowing the person who is not on to sleep. It rained most of the day and I learned the value of good boots and warm socks. We arrived at the Charleston City Marina about 3 PM and were assigned a great slip since Ed knew the people who worked there. I called home and went to a local restaurant for dinner while Ed was elsewhere with his friends. I was exhausted! Almost went face down in my cheeseburger. After dinner, I went straight to the boat and slept for 15 hours straight! Monday, 20 Oct: Up at 9Am (after a long sleep, I felt like a new person). We had breakfast and took the courtesy van to a local hardware store to see about renting a grinder for our fiberglass reinforcement job. What we needed was not available so I just bought one and we returned to grind the hull down and reinforce with more fiberglass mat and cloth in such a way that the load on the hull would be spread out over a lager area. The job took the rest of the day. We were through about 7 PM, cleaned up the boat, took a shower and headed off for some local entertainment. Ed had a friend in the area who was performing at a local coffeehouse. It was native drum night!. If you can imagine up to 8 drummers thumping out rhythms together for the whole evening. It was fun and the audience participated too. I got back to the boat about 2 AM. Ed went with his friend and shot pool until much later (good friend will sometimes kill you that way). Departure is anticipated for mid-day after picking up some food, fuel and other items. We will head off-shore, just inside the Gulf Steam, for St. Augustine, FL. The next leg is anticipated to be 18-30 hours depending on winds.
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