Bird Island beach walk

After some morning projects, it was time for a beach walk. And we were checking out a place to pull out the boat for some bottom painting in the same area. Scoped out the marina then off to Bird Island Reserve, NC for a long walk. Oh my goodness what a beautiful beach it was. If you're a shell nerderler, then this was not your beach, but for us sand-seekers, it was lovely.

 Joaquin and/or a recent North-easter have eroded the sand dunes here. They're being cut away. The high tide water mark is only about 10 feet away from these dunes.

Little River Inlet SC is below as seen from Bird Island, NC. This happens to be where we left the sea and entered the ICW when we brought the boat to Little River. And the place she'll leave at the end of November.

Walking back to the board walk through the dunes, we turned around to catch this view below.

The South and North Carolina border is somewhere in this picture.

Amazing to think that it's still 2 hours before low tide. 

Steering tightening....2 hrs to 2 days....

The wheel has always had a bit of looseness. Nothing serious but I wanted to deal with it before we set off once again. A very timely posting came in from Ocean Navigator Online from over in Maine. ......a two part video on how to clean and maintain an Edson system. So I think...hmmmm....maybe I should have a look....so I do. 

As it turns out, I haven't been tightening the cable in the exact manner in which it was designed. Ok..now is a good time to change that. So I crawl down into the garage and have a look. What I find is that the SS eyebolts that are supposed to be run freely inside a hole in the quadrant are in fact seized up from likely 30 years of not being lubricated. SS and aluminum don't get along very well especially without some type of barrier coating between them. I begin to weigh out the different options because by now, I'm far enough into this that I really want to have it all working properly.

New quadrant....$450.00 and as the tech says at Edson " you really should replace the chain and cable every 10 years...$285 and.  How does the wheel brake work...$85 gets you a new one of those, while you're in there already...".

Or....I can take out the quadrant, put some heat to the casting and bolt and.....low and behold...out come the corroded seized up bolts. A bit of wire brushing, TefGel.....my all time favorite anti seize on the boat, and some patience, now has us with a cleaned up quadrant, perfectly good SS eye bolts cleans up perfectly. Now the final tensioning of the cable is done by threading the nut onto the eyebolt after it passes through the casting. Lots of TefGel on the bolt as it passes thru the casting will prevent the seize up in the future.  I took out the chain/cable and cleaned, oiled and inspected carefully......all is well here as well......no need to replace that now. The brake......well ours works just fine. End result, the Edson tech guy tried to put the fear of God in me that the system was doomed to failure but with a bit of persistence, I feel quite good about the overhauled system. Knock on wood. Oh forgot to mention....the play in the wheel is now gone...:-))))) it's never run so smoothly!

Annapolis Boat Show, Oct 8th

We hadn't been to the Annap Boat Show in a few years. Time to head back to get new perspectives on wind generators, aft mast arrangements, solar applications, hardware, cookware, latest Passport news, and to meet up with a few friends.

What a great day. Did you know you can park at the nearby elementary school and your dollars go to the PTA? A few years back, they were buying band instruments for the kids; this year they had some projects and travel plans that they were funding. A worthwhile way to use your parking dollars.

And although VIP day has the extra entry fee, it's sooooo much nicer at the show with fewer crowds.
For one day of boat show, it really makes it easier to see everything and talk with vendors.

We left Minnie at the Greater Annapolis Vet Hospital. Very well rated and we were confident in leaving her in good hands there. After her excursion, when she got back to the boat, she was going to sleep anywhere even if her favorite donut (from Aunt Ellen & Uncle Barclay) was oriented vertically:

Great to see dear friend Bruce Schwab (Vendee Globe 2004 on Ocean Planet), and to brain-storm solar ideas with Stephens The' and Megan from Orca Green Marine (cool!). And hearing about South River Federation's clean up and restoration of South River MD from Sarah Giordano. What a thought to have Rachel Miller and Sarah join up for a Cleaner Ocean's project -- one for the river shores (and watershed) and one for the Chesapeake it feeds into.

Bob and Deb Gurwitz came down from LCYC and we met up with them after a show party for us and after they got out of a major traffic jam. We had a pre-arranged a meeting address but by the look of things, parking was going to be, um, interesting. We sat on a curb-side bench and waited while scoping out the whole scene when lo and behold, the Gurwitz's pulled into the spot right in front of our feet. It was such a weird coincidence that the spot had just become open, and that they just pulled in, and that we were sitting just 10 feet in front of them. Did the 4 of us really talk till midnight over dessert at Normande's? That's the first time Deb or I had seen lemon sorbet served inside a frozen lemon. Delightful.

In closing: Ern and I will likely not seek out pet-friendly hotels in the future.

Nose bleed

Ernie's about to have a nose bleed :-) because we got so much done today.

Final cowl guard got to the welder today where two of it's legs were tack welded to the feet. One more leg to finesse and that can then be welded.

Spliced in the snap shackle for the staysail halyard. We've used a bowline for quite a few years now, carrying around the un-used shackle.

And the furler halyard has neen replaced with a loop spliced in for a shackle as well. Woo hoo!   

We have carried around that halyard for a few years so to have it installed is great. 

CDC and USDA have been contacted to find out if there's new regulations for importing a feline back to the US if the pet has been out for more than 30 days. There's apparently new reg's for dogs so it seemed worth a check for our cat Minnie.

Shroud base butyl tape has been scraped away and replaced with new material. Holes are now plugged against water ingress.

Maybe tomorrow is a sewing day and more finessing the cowl guard day. Maybe.

Espar heater is taken the chill out.....

Engine maintenance success

18 Oct 2015:  Today was dedicated to engine maintenance. And it's a good thing we opted to do this before we took off again.

We have a minor leak (but a leak none-the-less) in the engine coolant system. Quick inspection under the engine showed the dried up pink antifreeze in the drip pan below it. But it turns out the hose clamp is just a tiny bit too large so you can't tighten it down. SS clamp shopping tomorrow to replace it. Form-a-gasket will help, but the real problem is the mis-sized clamp.

Then we took off the cover for the front of the engine - safely covers the belt. Some dust under there;
it turns that the belt is rubbing on the cover in a location where there is no stand-off. But we want the
cover on because there's an engine water cooling hose that passes by the belt very very closely. That same hose is probably what pushes the cover too close... Now that we understand the problem, we can fix it tomorrow. Never finish today what you can put off till tomorrow.
Actually, we have bigger plans for today.

Water impeller removed and inspected. We replaced it. Olive oiled the old one and kept it for a
spare. O-ring is in good shape too.

But the real push today was the mixing elbow... Here's the before picture at 555 engine hours:
Wow. Major clog. All that schmutz is not supposed to be there.

 That can back-pressure the engine from the exhaust side. Not good-nic.

  And then after clean out photo:

Re-installed that puppy. Re-installed the sound insulation that had to be extracted for more room too.. So much better now!

Friday the 16th of October......2015

It's been a busy week for us but at a pace that is comfortable and controlled. We are plugging away at projects that we'd like to have done before the next leg begins. 

Today however, will have a special meaning for Bette and I as we move forward in our adventures......more on this in the days to come.....for now suffice it to say we will say so long to a dear dear friend.....dignity is something we should be able to hold on to as long as we can.

Columbus Day throwback

It was this day in 2014 that Ernie and I started the first leg of our trip on Iemanja heading south from Lake Champlain. We've learned so much since then. This year, it's pretty cool to be already in South Carolina on that same day. What a difference.

She floats as we left her

Arrival back to Iemanja last night around 1900. Pizza of course at Christophers was our first priority even before we went to the boat since we knew that the frige and freezer has to be re commisoned and loaded before we did anything. We would be pretty crankie if no food was had first. Canvas on this morning first thing since rain enmass is on its way for after lunch. All is well here. 

3 sardines in a can.

07 October 2015:  On the road again!

Wake me up.....

.....when its time to go. 

A wild weather week....

Well it's been a wild week along the east coast of the US. Between a very slow moving ...Nor'easter of sorts that dumped inches and inches of rain and heavy NE winds along the entire east coast as well as Hurricane Joaquin giving everyone a scare.....we sat here in VT getting ready to head back to SC where Iemanja has weathered it out.

One thing is for certain.....a fresh water shower was had which is always appreciated...maybe not in such excess however.

I've checked in with James at Lightkeepers a couple of times and he has been aboard the boat to be sure the bilge pump was running......which it was. I'm sure we'll find a few leaks here and there but nothing too serious.

I just checked in with a website that talks about up to date road closures in SC and found that most of the serious stuff was centrally located around the Columbia area as well as around Charleston.

We are over on the right hand eastern border of the state around the Myrtle Beach area which appears to only have only minimal closures. 

Currently we are loading up the little blue Cheve Cavalier with gear, frozen food, some but not too many cloths and of course....Minnie and all her stuff.

Wednesday we'll head out early, making a stop at the Annapolis Sailboat show and then on to Little River to reunite with our girl.

The rest of October and early November will have us recommissioning the boat, bottom paint, install a new wind generator on the transom and a couple of other minor projects....then off to the Bahamas once again. 

That's another story for the next post.......Joaquin reeked havoc on the SE lower Bahamas chain. Long Island, Rhum Cay and a few other spots have been hit pretty hard with wind and rain. The central and northern islands seemed to have been spared the worst but we will see. Not to mention the ongoing search for the the missing crew of the El Faro.....a loaded up freighter that went down during the storm. This may also throw a few challenges our way in the weeks to come. So the next leg will be interesting to say the least......