30-31 March 2020 - a night at sea

Monday 30 March 2020

I had my usual banana and a bowl of cereal before starting the generator and main engine and rousing Mary to man the engine control on the bridge while I handled the 150-pound anchor and chain with the hydraulic windlass.  As usual, I then took over navigating the vessel while Mary went below to the galley to get her coffee brewed and breakfast made which she then brought to the bridge settee/dinette where she could observe the scenery and kibitz.  After a short time we passed by the town of Beaufort, SC, again wishing the virus crisis would allow us to stop and enjoy these neat southern waterway towns.  A bit later I looked up from the chart plotter to see the Briny Bug with Jill and Rudy Sachez aboard, a couple we had not seen in some years since they left Panama City in their boat to continue their peripatetic life style.  In the old nautical vernacular, we “spoke” the Briny Bug as we pulled up alongside each other to have a “gam.”  Rudy, in his usual sarcastic mode, wanted to know if I needed directions to the ocean.  I told him we could find it by drifting with the tide down the Beaufort River, if necessary.  After crossing wakes with the Briny Bug, we continued down the track to the decision point for whether we would tempt fate at sea with a one-day weather window or continue the possibly more arduous process of avoiding grounding in the Georgia marshes.  Due to the infamous shallowness of the AICW waters there and because of the ridiculously restrictive anchoring restrictions the Georgia legislature recently passed (some of rather questionable constitutional validity), I was anxious to avoid their waters and give them a taste of what will happen to their recreational marine-related interests if they persist in this foolishness.  I am thinking the virus scare with marinas refusing to take in transients, will slow the annual spring boating migration north from southern waters further impacting Georgia.  After a last listen to the coastal marine forecast on the marine radio, we elected to try the off shore route to Jacksonville.  A cool front was blowing through the coastal areas as we exited Port Royal Sound with winds and white caps following us down the long channel to sea.  By the time we got to the sea buoy, the winds were down to five knots or so.  No white caps were seen for the rest of the afternoon as we headed into a two-foot swell with less than a foot of wind waves.  At 1700 the port fuel tank was shutoff, and the starboard tank, which started the day with more fuel in it, was brought on line for the rest of the night.  I closed the two large sea cocks in this hull sealing us off from accidental flooding; these large valves supply a saltwater head (not in use by us) and an anchor wash-down pump and all four marine air conditioners.  The generators and main engine are keel-cooled requiring no seawater intake to cool.  So, about the only thing which could cause the bilge alarm to go off would be spilled engine coolant or oil, and either of those would create an alarm at the helm by the time the high bilge level sensor went off.  Thus set up, we wound up supper before dark and settled in for the long hours of darkness alternating with each other on lookout watching gauges and the two navigation displays and radar, all dimmed to prevent loss of night vision.  The ever present rumble of the main engine and the thrum of the prop against the hull were either comforting or annoying sounds, depending upon the listeners’ predilections – in this case, we all probably know who is who in this boat!  I bought my night vision rifle scope along for this kind of dark night.  All of this business of setting up for and standing the watch is second nature to me from a misspent youth during over 20 years at sea as a “trained killer” in Uncle Sam’s Navy.  Old watch standing habits learned the hard way come to hand without even thinking about them.  For instance, many people scan the horizon with binoculars in a sweep, while the Navy taught that the human eye processes in snapshots and the proper way to scan with binoculars is to make short stop and start overlapping sweeps.  Late in the afternoon, be passed by the entrance to the channel into Savannah and saw the pilot getting on board one of the several merchant ships in the offing.  About midnight we went by the entrance to Brunswick, GA where the car carrier Golden Ray still lies on her side in St Simon Sound waiting to be cut up and hauled away.  With my laptop displaying the chart and our route and us on that route over on the port side chart table, the Garmin chart plotter which its radar overlaid on the chart and route in the center over the helm, and the old school green colored radar display from our second radar on the starboard side, we were well informed of what was happening around us.  I fiddled with the faulty heading reference (compass) of the autopilot to enable it to follow a route from the Garmin plotter allowing us to never touch the wheel of over 130 of the 170 miles we traveled.  We were hardly ever much more than 20 miles from land in about 45 feet of water most of the time.  By 0500 we were turning into the St Johns River channel into Jacksonville and had to motor around for a couple of hours in the swift ebb tide waiting for the Morningstar Marina staff to get into work and for the trawler occupying the spot we needed at the pier to leave.  By 0700 we were moored, ending a long 24-hour run.

A fine day to travel and an offshore plan

Sunday 29 March 2020

Underway at 0740 again and anchored 61 miles down the track at 1630 about 3.5 miles north of Beaufort, SC at Brickyard Point.  Today’s run in clear, 80-degree weather saw us exiting the southern side of Charleston Harbor into the AICW passing many interesting homes and very few northbound cruisers.  We transited several one to two mile long “cuts” which tend to be shallow in one part or another as we exited one river and entered another.  Our longest run in any river was in the Coosaw which is right nearby.  Waters transited were mostly wide and deep enough that being a bit off the channel was not an issue – that is always a great relief to the helmsperson.  Luckily at the cuts we arrived with a fairly high tide, and judging by the scary shallow readings a couple of times, we needed it!  Our plans for tomorrow are to try to take advantage of the predicted 1-2 foot seas and light winds tomorrow and into Tuesday to make a 130-mile, overnight jump down the coast running overnight straight from Port Royal Sound to Jacksonville, FL.  This will be an opportunity for us to try out the active fin stabilizers this boat is equipped with.  The owner says in four foot seas or less, they are amazingly effective.  We have done this sort of open water travel a number times on the 165-mile crossing from Dog Island near Apalachicola to Tarpon Springs when taking Calypso back and forth to south Florida.  This is a much more capable vessel than Calypso was for open water travel.

Ahoy, Charleston

Saturday 28 March 2020

We got underway as usual at about 0740 in light air for a 64-mile day to Charleston.  Rather than eat breakfast, somedays we just get “on the road” serving breakfast at the capacious dinette booth in the pilothouse.  The weather was mild for the first couple of hours, but turned a bit muggy in the 80s later on; so we had the generator running all day with air conditioning in the pilothouse – luxury.  I never had that in the Navy!  Also as usual, there were a few times the water was so skinny under us you could have read the Lord’s Prayer through it.  At one particular intersection for which I had an alternate route around a shoal in the middle of the waterway, we slowed way down to “feel” our way through because following this alternate plan called for going outside the buoyed channel.  When the water under us ran down to 1.6 feet, I chickened out and decided to try something else.  Luckily another shallower draft boat came up to the other end of this short passage, and I told him on the radio that we would let him come through first.  He took the buoyed channel and reported it was ok for depth.  Another win for us.  As we passed outlying districts of the Charleston area, we began to see more and more speedboats.  I finally stopped looking aft to see if anybody was coming by because there was ALWAYS somebody racing by with a boatload of people in close proximity to each other ignoring any warnings about corona virus.  I guess they all figure it won’t hit me or someone I love or I am young and it won’t harm me.  Some places have shut down boat ramps to shut off one more place people can gather, but South Carolina has not, yet.  By the time we got to Isle of Palms and the last few miles of the AICW before Charleston Harbor, the water was one giant mass of boats going with us or coming at us.  Being the biggest vessel out there, we really had no issues as everybody pretty much avoided us as we moved along at about the same speed as the ones going with us in the “no wake” zone we were in.  Due to the hydrodynamics of hull, the smaller boats actually made more wake then we did at 6-7 MPH.  We finally popped out into sloppy Charleston Harbor where the 20-MPH southeast wind which had been slowing us up all day created a side chop through which we waddled on our northerly course of several miles to Charleston Harbor Marina where we moored port side to a tee head at 1715.  Now until the wind dies off, we wobble at the pier.  Tomorrow will most likely end with us anchored south of here in the marshes.  I am hoping for the coastal winds and seas to subside enough for u to go offshore and shot straight down toward Florida.

Georgetown, SC

Friday 27 March 2020

We got underway at 0645 today with the idea that the swing bridge a mile and a half away from the marina was on a half hour schedule only to find they would open on demand – win!  SO we traveled along the waterway ogling the many fine houses.  At one point we were about seven miles inland of the Myrtle Beach area before we debouched into the head of the Waccamaw River.  We went round and round bend after bend in this pretty cypress-lined river as it gradually widened out down near Georgetown, CS, a lovely historic town where people get big property tax breaks for maintaining the exterior look of their homes.  We ended up at the Harbourwalk Marina where the dock master practiced CV19 hygiene by only dropping our first line over a cleat.  He apologized for not rendering all the personal help like connecting shore power but said social distancing had been drilled into him.  He asked us to bring our own pen which we went to the office to check in after completing mooring the boat.  We took a taxi to and from Walmart to stock up a bit in case we find issues getting into marinas down the line.  After that, we walked to a restaurant named River Room and got two carry-out meals, salmon and mahi-mahi.   I called ahead to a Charleston marina and obtained a reservation for tomorrow.

Beating the CV19 panic to Little River, SC

26 March 2020

We were fairly prompt in getting underway today at 0705 from Wrightsville Beach and moored here at the Light Keeper Marina in Little River, SC.  Yes, our third state.  To orient the geographically challenged, there are three great capes in the Carolinas, Hatteras, Lookout and Fear, all of while we have passed closely but inland in the AICW.  We were near Cape Lookout when we were in Beaufort, NC, and today we passed near Cape Fear as we traversed the lower part of the Cape Fear River dodging a large pair of tankers transiting in and out of the port of Wilmington, NC.  The incidence of near catastrophes today was limited to a couple places where the bottom tried to rise up and touch us, mostly in sharp turns and inlets from the sea where silting tends to happen.  Phoning ahead after searching the Active Captain data displayed on the charts of my laptop, we were lucky to obtain the last transient reservation this marina will take until the corona virus crisis is over.  Once here, we were directed tie port side to the tee-head of a pier which already had a large sailboat occupying half of it.  Trying to pull in ahead of the sailboat and just slide in bow first with a spring line did not work out too well, and when scratching the hull paint on the end of the pier became a threat, I ended up having the dockhand toss the line back to Mary while I cleared the pier.  With just a little bit of breeze from astern and no current, I was able to get lined up the back in at an angle so Mary could toss the stern line to the dockhand which would allow me to just push the bow into the pier with the bow thruster like a closing door.  While performing this maneuver, the bow thruster began making a horrible clattering noise when trying the thrust to starboard; thrusting port was OK.  So I used the engine in short periods of ahead clutch with right full rudder to push the bow to starboard and the stern to port, toward the pier while using half of the thruster’s capability to push the bow to port once the stern line was cleated on the pier.  We have a reservation for tomorrow night at the Georgetown Landing Marina in Georgetown, SC some sixty miles down the track.  After that, we do not know for sure if any marinas will still welcome transients meaning we will possibly be anchoring out every night.  Since anchorages tend to be more plentiful south of here, maybe we will not have such a hard time finding a place to spend the night.

Sliding in to home plate of a wing and a prayer

25 March 2020

We got underway in calm conditions from Beaufort at 0840 and went around Radio Island to enter the main ship channel where we turned about 270 degrees to starboard to head back in toward Morehead City where we picked up the 80.5-mile route I had previously laid down as just a reference never thinking we’d complete it in one day, but circumstances forced us into an after sunset (barely) arrival at the Wrightsville Bridge Tender Marina, which, as the name implies is hard by the south side of the Wrightsville Beach bascule bridge.  After passing Morehead City to starboard, we entered Bogue Sound which is very shallow except for the AICW (Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway for those who already forgot), and there are some scary shallow places in it too.  It required intense concentration at our sedate speed of 7-8 MPH to steer this beast within the narrow channel which has few physical channel markers meaning the I was “on instruments” looking at both the installed chart plotter zoomed way in and my laptop with its charting software.  The trick is to keep the three-minute long heading cursor emanating from the moving boat symbol aligned with and on the axis of the channel ahead – a video game with real world consequences, if you will.  I describe this process because it happened every day of our travels for shorter or longer periods of time as the AICW runs through shallow sounds and rivers and bays, and today really had its share.  It is always a relief to enter a n area with adequate depth wider than a mere hundred feet.  Coming out of Bogue Sound, we entered the Swansboro area where a thoroughly daunting experience hit us as we crossed the swiftly flowing and narrow channel of the White Oak River.  The buoys were nothing if not confusing as both AICW and regular channel buoys of both sides of their respective channels were placed in close proximity.  One turn involve using full power and the bow thruster and full rudder to get turned through a sharp turn in the AICW then another sharp turn into the river’s current and finally, a last sharp turn out of the current back into the AICW depending on the proper placement of the buoys while seeing less than a foot of water showing on both depth sounder display.  Had we run aground there, I cannot say how we would ever get off in that swiftly flowing mess.  Then it was on thought the US Marine Corps Camp Lejeune and the signs warning of the possible stoppage of the AICW due to live fire exercises and others along the shore warning of unexploded if one were foolish enough to venture ashore.  After lunch, we began looking ahead for a place to anchor or moor, but little was available except one boatyard/marina which I called.  We would be arriving around 1730 giving us plenty of daylight to get in and settled.  The lady who answered said that a vessel of our size could use the north side of their well and that we should hug the “green side” entering their channel off the AICW.  When we finally got there, it was evident that the “well” was simply the concrete slot in the shoreline where their travel lift straddles to lift boats out and that their channel was too shallow and iffy for this big boat.  Casting around for options, we could see nothing nearby because we are too deep to just exit the AICW and anchor in most places.  Eventually, I called to the Bridge Tender Marina and discussed the matter with them.  Problem was they were closing at 1900, and we could not get there until 1930, AND there were two bridges which were 20 and 14 feet high when closed, and they operate on a i/2 hour schedule until 1900.  We solved the first possible delay by lowering the mast giving us a 17.5-foot “air draft.”  The second bridge is right here before the marina, and since it was 1930 (the staff had agreed to wait for us), the bridge tender opened on demand.  We slipped through and thankfully moored as darkness became complete.  Whew!  What a day!

In the other Beaufort

Tuesday 24 March 2020

Today was another long day of nine hours underway wending our way to Beaufort (pronounced BO-fort rather than Byew-fort, SC), NC which city tonight to go into a shelter-in-place mode by order of the mayor.  We got underway at 0730 under overcast skies which later turned mostly sunny in 60-degree weather.  Our route took us at our zippy eight miles per hour down the Pungo river and across a smallish arm of Pamlico Sound where we ran across another of my Trawler Forum friends, Dave in Sylphide heading north.  Dave is a really entertaining writer and amuses us all on the Forum with his antics in his new-to-him boat.  We then entered Goose Creek, a narrow passage down to a body of water for some reason called Bay River which debouched into another section of Pamlico Sound where we encountered a bit of northeast wind making the sound a bit choppy.  However we soon turned our stern to the wind heading inland giving us an easy ride for the next fifteen miles heading southwest up the Neuse River before turning southerly again into Adams Creek for the next fourteen miles which in turn dumped us into the Newport River, the body of water behind the cities of Beaufort and Morehead City.  These bodies of water while not true creeks and rivers had to be named something; so I guess the namers selected things they resembled.  Adams Creek in particular was lined with many pastel colored homes which we assumed were mostly getaway places.  There were some rather stately ones.  We also noted a lot of duck blinds near the shoreline of lower lying lands.  This area under the great flyway of the migrating ducks and geese has been a waterfowl hunting paradise for well over a hundred years.  Back in the late 1800’s there was such demand for feathers for ladies hats and meat the birds were significantly overhunted, and many tales of hunter versus regulators ensued.  The infamous punt gun was one of the poachers’ potent weapons.  We arrived at Homer Smith Marina here in Beaufort at about 1615 being assured the winds were going to blow us right onto the pier.  By the time I had gotten our steel beast turned around and headed to the tee-head of the pier for the desired port side landing, the wind came up astern and threw the stern away from the pier.  Some helpful person had grabbed our bow line and made things worse by securing it to a cleat meaning I could no longer use the bow thruster to push the bow away from the pier in order to pivot the boat about its axis swinging the stern back in.  I was afraid we were going to hit one of the large concrete pilings supporting the floating pier scratching the hull up, but I got the bow line released so I could get clear and make another attempt.  In the end, the simple thing to do was get the boat turned so that I could back up into the wind and let Mary get the stern line to the helper on the pier.  Then I simply pushed the bow in with the thruster while holding up against the wind with a bit of astern gear.  After signing in at the office, we grabbed the courtesy car, always an adventure in all-but-a wreck auto management, and went off to the Pig, Piggly Wiggly, to you Yankees to stock up on a few items before the town went into shutdown mode as a measure to prevent corona virus spread.  The wake-up weather may be a bit too windy to safely get off this pier; so we will just have to see…
The business end of the bridge and what do we have here, just swinging the camera to the left?  Why it's Mary "standing watch" in the pilothouse.  :)

A long day to Belhaven, NC

Monday 23 March 2020

Underway a little after 0700 with the rain holding off and the terrific current which had flowed through the canal reversed and slowed way down making it easy to get away from the pier.  We meandered down a very narrow and twisting waterway until we entered Albemarle Sound, a 14-mile run.  The wind in this open, shallow sound can kick up a heck of a nasty sea as was reported to me by a boat which came through there on Sunday.  Luckily we got only a foot or two of chop on the starboard beam which made one of us feel not too good, but it was all over in a little while as our 8-MPH speed ate the distance up.  Then we entered the Alligator River where we met a boat I had been conversing with on the Trawler Forum.  We exchanged pleasantries as we passed each other heading to different marinas.  In total we saw about eight to ten other vessels today, all headed north.  Then we entered the 22-mile long Alligator River-Pungo River Canal which at its western end dumped us into the Pungo River along the banks of which lies Belhaven, our destination for the day.  We made quick work of mooring at 1823 in Belhaven Marina ending an eleven-hour run of 87 statute miles.  Tomorrow we will head off to Morehead City, NC near Cape Fear.

At Coinjock Marina in North Carolina

Today was a bit of a lazy day as we got underway a bit late and quit early.  We only ran about 3.5 hours through some nasty rainy weather across Currituck Sound and down Coinjock Bay to the narrow pass where this marina is located.  The option to continue on to an overnight anchorage in this messing weather was not appealing, and the predicted winds at 20 MPH from the east tomorrow will make Albemarle Sound a real bear for anybody crossing it.  So we will depart here on Monday and expect to see the dying gasps of this system as we head off toward Morehead City down at Cape Fear.  With diesel prices plummeting in this weird time, we elected to take on 500 gallons in the boat’s belly tank.  Now there will be no farther need to concern ourselves with how low on fuel the boat may be when it arrives in Carrabelle at the end of the trip.

About our only excitement today came as we met two US Navy landing craft (LCUs) apparently ferrying Marine vehicles to Little Creek from the nearby Marine bases.  We met them in the narrow cut as we exited Currituck Sound and into Coinjock Bay.  We were in good water and not hogging the middle but the first LCU decided to hug the east bank and apparently hit the bottom.  Well, not such a big deal for a craft designed to run onto open beaches you might think, but looking back we saw him sideways in the channel as he extricated himself.  The following LCU saw this and made a dramatic turn in our direction to move more to the center of the channel as can be seen below.  We all survived.

PUNGO! Friday 20 March 2020

We got underway from Cobb’s Marina at 0800 as the base was holding colors.  Today’s goal was to get clear of the busy Norfolk area which we accomplished by making a total of 48 statute miles.  We had probably two hours of delays due to bridge and lock schedules and a slow merchant ship taking up the whole Elizabeth River channel as it turned into its mooring. 

We had a bit of bouncy weather as strong winds from the southwest riled the waters off Willoughby Spit as we made our way to the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, a path I traveled from my Newport News home for five years when stationed aboard USS Preble and USS Iowa in Norfolk.  We saw a guided missile destroyer and a submarine exiting the Naval Base.  There were three armed patrol boats surrounding the sub warning all and sundry to remain well clear.  I guess everybody figures a destroyer can handle its own exclusion area.

Eventually we entered the Elizabeth River and calmer water.  I pulled us over alongside the memorial ship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) the sister ship of the battleship Iowa so we could snap a few photos before moving on.  As we passed shipyard after shipyard it seemed every guided missile destroyer and cruiser in the Atlantic Fleet was undergoing extensive overhaul.  We saw a few amphibious warfare ships too.  Navy and private shipyard patrol craft we in evidence at each yard.

As the afternoon wore on, it became evident we were not going to make the anchorage I had planned on; so we began looking on the laptop on Coastal Explorer’s interface with Active Captain, a crowd-sourced data base of nautical information.  There we found the old and defunct Pungo Ferry landing with a three year old comment about mooring to the face pilings.  Sure enough, the pilings were there, and we pulled up and secured the boat to them.  Mary likes being secured to solid objects rather than swinging at anchor; so WE are happy.  We have a front rolling through tonight with the wind projected to switch from south to north and northwest and about a twenty five degree cool off.

I am reminded of my presence here at Pungo in 1964 when as a member of the Norfolk Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol I along with a number of other teenaged cadets decided that we were going to do “JFK walk” which was fifty miles long.  We had not done the first thing in the way of preparatory walks.  We started after dark from here in Pungo thinking we could use the cooler air of the night to our advantage.  Dawn found us scattered along the route.  I think I got over thirty five miles, but was in bad shape limping along and took the option to jump in the car of one of our support persons to finish.

If the weather is nasty with a lot of winds kicking up places like Albemarle Sound, we may not make much more than 25 miles tomorrow.  It’s not like we are on a schedule.

Ready in all respects for sea

Thursday 19 March 2020

We arrived at Cobb’s Marina at noon yesterday after a small bit of confusion with the plethora of interstate numbers including I-64, I-264, and I-446 and maybe a few others.

Chip and Glenn and I spent an hour or so in the engine room going over all the systems and piping there before heading to the pilothouse for continuing education.  Owing to the fact that all restaurants were closed due to the corona virus epidemic, we ate lunch and dinner aboard with Chip heading off to a nearby seafood restaurant for a to-go order of 60 fried ship for the six of us.  He made up some grits and beans to complete the entre of shrimp and grits.

This morning we got the Eleohn underway with Chip watching to see that we had gotten the operation of the boat down pat.  Glenn discovered an o-ring seal leak in the hydraulic system, and chip went off to get an o-ring selection.  The leak was quickly resolved, and Chip and Glen and the kids are packing up their car to head home.  Then Mary and I went onto Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, the fence of which is about 100 feet from us, to shop at the Navy Exchange and the commissary.  Because this boat has not microwave nor TV, we felt it important to get one of each to help us stay abreast of conditions in the country as well as properly fed.  After this expedition, I turned the car in at Norfolk International Airport which was completely empty with not a soul at the baggage carousels as I walked out to the taxi stand.  The cabbie said he had been waiting for six hours for his first fare (me) of the day.  This crisis hit all pockets, some worse than others.

Just across the fence from us on the base is the boat ramp used by Coastal Riverine Squadron Four, and we have seen some rather large and powerful Navy vessels being launched and pulled out.  As we motored down the fairway for our test run this morning we passed by the piers where the large landing craft designated as LCUs moor and then saw off to starboard the armed Navy patrol vessel ensuring that no unauthorized vessels entered the waters of JEB Little Creek.

Our plan is to leave here as soon after sunrise (0700-ish) as possible tomorrow and get down through Norfolk and out into the hinterlands where we will likely anchor for the night.

Racing the corona virus

Whew! With all the activity related to limiting the spear of the Wuhan China virus including closing restaurants except for take-out and possible hotel closings and advice to hunker down like Indiana Jones running out of the cave with that big rock ball rolling after him.  Today we will get to the safety of the boat at noon where we can be away from PEOPLE.  So far we have been very careful anytime we get out of the rental SUV using plastic gloves to handle the gas pumps and spraying disinfectant about the rooms we use at hotels.  Yesterday it was "air hungs" and elbow touches with Mary's delightful friends Janice and Richard Terrell when we met for lunch at a nearly vacant Outback in Salisbury, NC.  The word had just come over the news that the Governor had ordered restaurants to close at 5 PM except for take-out.

We will occupy the captain's cabin tonight while Chip and his two children Elena and John and our friend Glen sleep in other horizontal areas of the boat for heir last night aboard.  Even without the virus threat, they are anxious to get headed back to Madison, FL and will likely do so by Friday at latest possibly spending a night in a hotel in Norfolk on Thursday.

Ready to roll out

We picked up and immediately spray-disinfected a Hyundai Tucson medium sized SUV at Enterprise today before we even got into it and spent some time getting to know its quirks before beginning to pack it.  It quickly became obvious that the storage containers in which we had packed loose items we reducing the packing density of the cubic space available.  So we pulled several of them and emptied the contents into smaller bags which could be stuffed into corners and spaces between other stuff.  With all that stuff in the vehicle, it should ride quietly!  So now it is RainX'd and ready to roll early tomorrow morning.

News from Norfolk is that the pre-underway checklist of forty two items I gave Chip and Glen is only four items short of being complete.  We are all happy that Glen went along with Chip to help sort out snags as they were encountered.  The John Deere technician is supposed to be there tomorrow to bless the main engine.  The weather has been too sour there to get underway, and we are now thinking Thursday will be a good day for it when Mary and I can be there to run it out into Chesapeake Bay at full cruising RPM.  Chip is now thinking that he, his two kids, and Glen may be able to head home to Madison, FL on Friday if we are happy with everything.  Suits me to a tee.  Since they are all living aboard the boat, he may have us stay in a motel on Wednesday night and plan to sleep aboard beginning Thursday, but he hasn't made up his mind yet.  At any rate, if we end up in a motel, we will unload the SUV onto the boat except for what we need that night.

Packing up

With a nod to corona virus pandemic, we are stacking up the items we will be taking to Norfolk with hoping it will all fit into the small Enterprise crossover SUV we are supposed to pick up tomorrow.  We have collected the various plastic gloves and hand sanitizer bottles and wipes we had around the house to take along.  Every fuel stop will be a potential health hazard as I pick up a nozzle handled by hundreds of people daily; so I will be wearing gloves or immediately sanitizing my hands after each fueling with a pump bottle of hand sanitizer kept in the door.  Same thing for any other things we touch outside of the car which we will sanitize when we pick it up.  We hope to get to the boat midday on Wednesday 18 March without picking up the virus along the way.  Because we are not flying, we can pack pretty much whatever we want as long as it will fit in the vehicle.  On the other hand, the decision about what NOT to pack is complicated by that very fact.  I would truly hate to have to be flying to the boat's location because our kit includes a number of things from lithium batteries in electronics to a firearm frowned upon, made more complicated to carry, or just outright banned on planes.  Besides, I have made it a rest-of-life goal to never set foot inside an airliner again, a thoroughly detestable way to travel.