Beaufort NC at Bock’s Marina
It has been a hot, humid, busy month of June. We had a list of things to do – (no we are not done working on the boat yet!) – and we were looking for a dock to do them. We also needed a safe place to leave Yume while Ryan and I drove Shelly to her Mom’s in Asheville for visit.
The grand plan was to rent a car, take Shelly and Goose the 6 hours to Asheville, then turn around the next day and drive back to the boat leaving Shelly for a nice visit while the boys had some bonding time working on the boat.
Yea right.
First let’s catch up. In Wilmington (where we left you with the last blog post) we ended up anchoring over in Wrightsville Beach for a weekend right where all the weekenders love to run their boats at just the right speed for maximum wake. You can almost get seasick when these idiots do this all day. Plus they play this game of ‘how close can we come to the anchored sailboat without actually hitting it’. Not our favorite game. That is what they make flare guns for. Yes I own a gun people.
On Sunday afternoon after they all went home (and back to work on Monday hehe) we made a deal with a local restaurant to let us sit on their docks during the week. The folks at paws4people were awesome to let us borrow a nice Tahoe to cruise around in all week. Shelly attended trainings for new clients and their dogs, while Ryan and I ran errands and got caught up some.
We had nice dinners with Terry and Kyria of p4p and Jim and Pat, all great people, and got out of town on Friday noontime heading north to Beaufort NC.
BTW, I suppose you do know that in NC they call it ‘Bowfort’ (long o) and in SC they call it ‘Bufort’ (long u). Just so you get it correct…
The first night, in Swansboro, we anchored off an island made from the dredging over the years to keep the inlet open, and spent some nice time at low tide playing on the beaches.
Just about dinner time, one of those massive summer thunderstorms came up out of nowhere. In no time it was raining and blowing about 50 mph and we could not see the shore through the rain, but I knew we were dragging anchor. By the time we got the motor started and the anchor under control we had dragged across some sand banks at least a half mile. We pulled up the rest of the anchor and chain and motored back to a marina to spend the night. Yuk. We need a better anchor!
The next day we pulled into the town anchorage in Beaufort after a morning of strong SW winds that helped get us there quick, but made for some choppy water.
One night was enough and we left the next morning up through Core Creek Sound to Bock’s Marine. Kenny and Nancy Bock built this marina and yard over the last 32 years or so and are well known for their hospitality and service. We like this place and these people!
This coming Friday will make almost a month here but we have managed to do a lot.
One of the things we did in Wilmington was bite the bullet and buy a bigger, beefier alternator, and the shop was kind enough to modify for me. Unfortunately the damn thing burnt up the first day heading north!
So – Ryan and I detoured three hours out of the way on the return trip from Asheville to take the alternator back to Wilmington so they could look at it. They were super nice (Alternator Specialists) and completely rebuilt it with new diodes and a rectifier. All seems well now! The nice folks at Enterprise were amazed at how many miles we put on their car in 28 hours.
Besides the alternator, the other disappointment was fuel leaking – for the third time – from the port tank. So the first task after dropping Shelly off was pulling the floors up, removing the hatches I made, finding a 55 gallon barrel and pumping out all the fuel. Then I cleaned the tank, sanded it, added more glass and resin. Let the tank set for two days then put the fuel back in, let that set for two days testing for leaks and closing it back up. I am getting really good at this. Maybe someday I will even stop the leaks!
Our bread machine finally died and we found a replacement in a Salvation Army store for $10!
A list of all we have done would include:
Finally ripping out the evaporator and fixing it correctly. I am very happy to report the new evaporator looks very nice, and the refrigerator seems to be working flawlessly. Pray that it continues.
Making new cockpit cushions. Isn’t Shelly talented?
Replacing the blower motor for cooling the alternator.
Replacing the anchor with a brand new 55# Vulcan. This anchor is supposed to bury in its own length. They warn you not to back down on the boat to set it or you might break something. Plus I bought the next size bigger than they recommend. Lord help me if I have to pull this thing in without the windlass!
Adding varnish to toerails, steering column trim, cockpit table and the companionway stairs (which look awesome!)
Replacing the generator salt water cooling pump (allowing me to put the air conditioning on during the week of 100+ degree days)
Pulling the davits and adding big backing plates for better support.
Removing the nonskid paint in the cockpit (put on by the previous owner and it was badly peeling)
Replacing two more side ports (only three small ones to go!)
Of course in the middle of this, Ryan and I rented another car and drove back to Asheville to pick Shelly and Goose up and bring her home. We had missed her and were hungry to see her. Well, we were hungry period. That bonding thing did not include a lot of eating as we had no refrigeration and it was awfully hot!
Since that all took about three weeks, and if you pay for three weeks you have paid for a month, and since we had just a couple more things to do – we are staying a day or two more.
We have to borrow a car and go see the new Jurassic Park movie, go to the grocery store one more time, and do laundry one more time.
Then we will head up into the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers up through Oriental, Bellhaven and up into the Alligator River to Pamlico Sound. There we have to decide which way to go to Norfolk. Either we go up to Elizabeth City and up through the Dismal Swamp Canal and locks (which we really like) or change up and go through the busier Albemarle Chesapeake Canal and pass through Coinjock and Pungo Ferry into Virginia.
Decisions decisions.
Either way we are not far from the Chesapeake Bay. We have a couple of months before we have to be in DC, and it will be interesting to see what we can find to do.
Really, don’t worry about us. We’ll manage.
Come see us!