Days Events:

Wx - sunny, humid, warm 71/86, winds NW 6-9mph. Thank goodness for the pilothouse and a/c.

Travel - we left at 07:30, arriving at Belhaven at 15:05/3:05, 7.6 hrs and 68 miles later. Had a bit of wind when we left and we were in a rather tight channel in the marina, with a large boat bow sticking out toward us; but we backed out against the wind, with some 'pivoting' maneuvers, and all was well - i.e. didn't hit anything.

Wx was great, almost no boat traffic, only a few miles of no wake speed due to homes/marinas along the shore. We traveled several miles on large' rivers - the Neuse for 18 miles, and the Pamlico and Pungo for several miles each. Fortunately, the wind and waves favored us.

Abandoned boats - We have been surprised by the number of abandoned & partially sunken boats along the ICW, all the way from Florida. This is an issue that some states, GA in particular, have tried to deal with by restricting anchoring and mooring areas. Boaters took issue with the proposed restrictions and they have apparently been withdrawn. Certainly don't want more rules but these derelict sunken hulls are an eyesore. Oddly, they are mostly sailboats.

Marina - the River Forest is an old one, and was the site where the ceremony opening the ICW was officially held in Sept. 1928.

The dockmaster, Henry, is quite a guy. A one-man show essentially and is run off his feet, docking boats, pumping fuel, pumping out, making certain the power connection is good; I hooked up the water. We had the pumpout [boaters must do their own - same with fueling - once the dockmaster sets everything up - it's a liability issue regarding spills into the water, and most marinas now require the boat to do the actual fueling and pumpout]. Very chatty guy, extremely helpful in docking.

Loopers - we met several more today; one couple have completed the Loop twice, spent last winter in the Bahamas until Covid hit, and are now heading North again, but don't know where they will end up, maybe in Maine, since the NY canals aren't opening until Aug. 11, and the Canadian border could be kept closed, instead of opening July 21 as proposed [the Canadian government is apparently concerned about the failure of the US to control Covid].

Today, we finally crossed the latitude for Florence/home - 34.80 - so we are now officially north of Florence. It has taken us 4 mo.

Photos - none today. :(

Food - Marg continues to spoil me with her cooking. Tonight, we had tacos. She had made choc.chip/oatmeal cookies earlier; froze half of them; made an oatmeal 'bar' for me to eat at the helm - because they were slightly 'soft' and crumbled easily, so she mashed them into a 'bar'; doesn't matter to me what it looks like, as long as it tastes good.


MECHANICAL:

Throttle - no problems. Stbd handle moving more easily.

Genset [generator] - couldn't start it this a.m. and found the battery switch for it was broken. Ended up having to bypass the switch and direct connect the two wires together, until I can order a replacement switch. The battery isolation switches - there are 4, one for each engine starter battery, one for the house battery, and one for the generator battery [which is tied into the port engine starter battery]. Their purpose is to turn off power coming from the battery or going to it, so you can work on it. Many boats don't have them though - such as our previous Trojan. So it is not harming anything for me to temporarily bypass it so that the generator will still work.


PS

Certainly glad we had an easy, smooth day. We've had a few stressful events lately and it's good to move ahead. We're in a very nice spot for a couple of days and plan to see a couple of things. Belhaven is a very small community so we won't be venturing very far.

Our passing landscape continues to change as we move north. We have progressed from the lush, heavy, live oak foliage of SC to more cypress and pine.

An update on the godawful "pixie" haircut. It still hasn't grown out enough to hold my reading glasses on the top of my head. So....it's the hair cuts' fault that my glasses fell in the toilet. I know this is the second report of my glasses falling in the toilet but it really wasn't my fault. Thankfully I was able to retrieve them before the vacuflush claimed them. That would have been a calamitous disaster. And just to clear my conscience, I confess that my phone also had a quick dip in the toilet. Fell out of my back pocket. Phooey on retrieving things from the toilet. That's it from me. Time to do the dishes!

Marg

Stay distanced but stay in touch.

Comments:

Ernie R. - 26 Jun 2020: Rob, the right tools always help! Interesting place to keep shoes in the bilge! Or is that to keep someone from opening the seacock and blowing the furniture leg cup off?!! Or I guess it could also be from your cane but think you are way to young for that in spite of some exhibited behavior!! Way to go on throttle issue, now all you have to do is rebuild one of the engines and be certified for all on board systems! Be safe! --

Robert & Margaret - 27 Jun 2020: It would appear that your powers of observation have not been affected by your weakening memory. The cover of the seacock was from J's when they disconnected the holding tank overboard pump hose. The 'shoes' are to protect my soft toes when I'm crawling around the engine room. That's also when I 'gird my loins' with knee pads, elbow pads, a mechanics beany, and an old lab coat, so that my better half doesn't have to worry about tending to any injuries I might incur in the hostile environment of the boat.

Janice - 27 Jun 2020: A pixie cut!!!!! I need to see a picture. PS I’m jealous .... I guess I’ll be growing a pony tail if this keeps up !

Dick - 27 Jun 2020: Hi Rob & Marg, I lived just up the river from you in Washington, NC, better know by the locals as the “original Washington”. You are in Black Beards home waters. He often called Bath his home port. Is there a possibility (probability) that the derelict boats are due to two straight years of pretty tough hurricane in that generation area. I know when I was in Washington during a cat 3 direct hit, there were many “breakaways” that were never found when the eye passed over and the backside wind rushed the built up flood waters down stream taking boats and piers with it.

Robert & Margaret - 27 Jun 2020: Dick, you may very well be right about some of those, particularly if they didn't have insurance to recover them. We have been told that some of them belonged to liveaboards who have moved away and just abandoned them.

Robert & Margaret - 27 Jun 2020: Janice, the Admiral says it will be a cold day in hell before she lets me take her pixie cut photo - and I get to spend enough time in hell already so don't plan on being there any more than necessary. :)