Earl and Karen Quick's blog for their Bahamas Trip in their Endeavour 42 named "Temptation" is located at the following site: quick-temptation.blogspot.com . Drop in and give them a read!

What A Beautiful Day!

The weather today was absolutely grand!

Alas, I was still working on the head repair....but....it is done!

The resin had not "kicked" and was still tacky when I checked it this morning. I mixed up a "hot" batch and spread it over the tacky stuff and in just a very few minutes all was happy! I ran the reverse cycle heat to dry the cabin air....ran the portable heater to warm the tacky bit....and also warmed the can of resin while I had my morning oatmeal. It must have been the oatmeal that did the trick.

The Dri Dek is all laid except for the pieces I am putting into the freezer and refrigerator but that will only take a few minutes when I get around to it. It feels good to see some progress.

The "To Do" list is going to be tailored to accomodate taking the boat out for a couple of days....either to the anchorage at Banks Channel in Wrightsville Beach or maybe even down to the Pipeline Lagoon near Southport. I am continuing to check the weather with a view towards making an outside run from Masonboro Inlet north to Morehead City and on up to the Neuse River.

A very nice Gulfstar 43 Trawler crew visited a bit today while they were doing chores following their arrival. They will be living aboard here for the foreseeable future as the wife has taken new employment here in town. Their Dachshund introduced himself to Frady this morning so they say. I wondered why Frady was hanging around this morning and not making his regular rounds in the Hunting Ground. Appears he got down onto the finger dock and was heading ashore when the Wiener Dog happened to be in the way. Frady lived up to his name and turned tail seeking cover and concealment aboard Luna.

I have been keeping up with Earl (Joe) Quick and his wife's blog they are keeping for their Bahamas Trip in their Endeadour 42 named "Temptation". Earl earned "Guru" status during the time we were docked together at Matthews Point Marina. In just over a year....I stumped him with just one question! It sounds as though they are having a great time. Perhaps I missed something but I thought Earl said he got soused as a Chicken the other day. I will have to hit him up on Skype and get to the truth of the matter.

'Nuff for today....time for a quick bite to eat....had a proper steak dinner for lunch....fired up the gas grill after I discovered a package of steak hiding in the refrigerator. It pays to neaten up the place now and then I guess otherwise it would have been grilled cheese instead of steak.

Long Day!

Made a lot of progress today....after a poor start to the day!

Replaced the burnt ends of the shore power adapter cord....of course one of the new adapters had to be taken completely apart to get the thing sorted out to the point it would clamp down on the wires. At least I know what the insides of the adapter look like.

The fiberglass is curing....boat stinks of the resin and the electric heater is blowing hot...somewhat dry air onto the stuff....hopefully it will kick tonight and be dry enough to install the bladder. The UPS man arrived with the bladder while I was out shopping and having my duty Cheeseburger at Cubbies. Cubbies is the burger joint that did "Freedom Fries" after our French allies begged off showing up for this last bit of unpleasantness in Iraq.

The cockpit looks a bit better now with the Blue Dri Dek tiles installed. That was a learning experience! Aft bunk took just a few minutes to lay out those tiles....being rectangular helped a lot. The cockpit sole was a different story with all the corners, cutouts, and obstructions to work around. The idea behind putting the Dri Dek under the mattresses is to allow for a flow of air to carry off the condensation caused by the body heat being transmitted to the mattress and then coming into contact with the cold surface on which the mattress rests.

I believe it is a curry night.....beef madras, boiled rice, and spiced popadoms will hit the spot after a long day working on the boat!

It's a Sailor's Life For Me!

This morning has gotten off with a great start.....as only can happen in cruising sailing!

I awoke to the sound of an intermittently buzzing....quite like an alarm of some kind. It was....upon trying to figure out what it was as it was not a formal alarm of any kind installed on the boat...I discovered the shore power control panel to be showing two great big Red Lights instead of the three very pretty Green Lights it normally does. I turned off the shore power to the boat and chased down the problem. It appears the Y-adaptor cord at the Electrical Pedestal had shorted out and burned up the female end of the adaptor (West Marine Price....$289). I have opted to buy two female replacement connectors (West Marine Price....$35 each) and put them on myself. That means a trip to West Marine this morning....at least I can also buy my hose for the head repair at the same time (West Marine Price....about $8 per foot).

As that was not a good enough way of starting the day....went over to Gregory Poole's Parts room to pick up the Defender's Shipment that had my replacement holding tank bladder and fittings. Upon opening the box.....no bladder but the fittings and the Portable VHF radio had arrived. The Dri Dek decking panels had also arrived.

I hauled the boxes to the boat....returned the wagon to the parking lot...and called Defender to find out where the bladder and radio battery was in the shipping process. After being put on "Hold"...the dark and gloomy looking sky turned into a downpour of rain. That caught me in the parking lot...phone in hand...on hold...and a bunch of hatches on the boat open, the cardboard boxes I had unloaded sitting out on the deck....several electrical cords laying about to get rain soaked and ripe for shorting out due to the wet.

I spent the next few minutes...cell phone in one hand...sorting out the mess with the other.

Somehow it seemed like the thing to do was brew up a coffee....crank up the computer and make a post to the blog.

Defender says the bladder is in Wilmington...the battery will arrive by US Postal Service.

Upon opening the radio box....I found one of the prohibited to be shipped by UPS batteries inside the box that arrived by UPS. I haven't the courage right now to call Defender back and see if it is a second battery that is arriving by Mail.

As I was pouring my coffee....Frady came bounding into the boat looking like a slick tailed Rat. Soaking wet he was! I towelled him off...listened to him purr like a Harley and then fed him his delayed breakfast. We did the morning post dining routine of Kitty Treats and wiping his eyes with a medicated wipe...he has some sort of chronic eye weeping per the Vet....I know it as simply having "Eye Boogers".

So....coffee in hand....clothes drying out...Cat fed and attended to....it is off to my favorite Marine shopping store (not!) to buy the hose and cable adaptors.

I will do the electrical cable repair...get the heat/Air Con working to de-humidify the cabin....do the fiberglass work on the head holding tank compartment to turn it into a "tub"...replace the hose...paint the locker....and when the paint dries....and if the bladder arrives by UPS today as promised....install the bladder tomorrow...lay the Dri Dek tiles under the forward bunks...put the mattresses back into place...make the bunks and that job is done.

Then it is inspect the aft holding tank bladder and hoses....install the Dri Dek under the aft mattress...install the Dri Dek in the cockpit and hopefully....finally....with luck....take the boat out again. The weather forecast shows some good windows for doing an outside passage north to Morehead City....then on up into the old stomping grounds for a couple of weeks. Knowing my luck....Global Warming will strike me as it does Al Gore and I will be sailing in blizzards and sub-zero temperatures.

Till then....as the Irish have said...."Life is short and we spend way too much time looking up at the lid!" At least with the boat....I never have to think up something to do!

Road Trip to Elizabeth City and points east

Hit the road yesterday and headed to Edenton and Elizabeth City to look at Edenton Marina and Lamb's Marina along with some others that I happened by. I liked the looks of the Edenton Marina and think the town of Edenton is a very pretty place. Lamb's Marina....well let's just say it would be a good port in a storm. The City Docks in downtown Elizabeth City seemed a nice place and there seems to be some new construction going on just around the inlet from there. Perhaps someone has the intent to put a nice new modern marina there in Elizabeth City....it would be a winner if they did.

I drove through Oriental to catch the ferry over to the south side of the river as I planned to stay in Havelock for the night. Dinner at Barney's was depressing as ever....seems whatever beer you wanted...they did not have. I remember once again why I so enjoy Wilmington!

Got up early and hit the mini-storage to fetch some tools and materials I need for the holding tank repair and some other projects. The ferry was not running due to the dense fog so I took the time to swing by Matthews Point Marina and have a cup of coffee with the guys. Al Becker the Dockmaster was there and his usual hospitable self as were Joe the Broker and Dale from Hi Flight (a Pearson 424). Alas, Dale's lovely wife was away in town shopping.

The gossip centered around the news that Town Creek Marina in Beaufort is going into bankruptcy and has generated a lot of business for the Morehead City Yacht Basin and Al reports all the MCYB slips are full now.

The "Ming" has sold and is now somewhere in the Wilmington area....knowing my luck she will fetch up in the slip next to me at the Wilmington Marine Center.

Diesel prices remain a mystery to me! I saw prices that varied from $2.09 per gallon to $2.79 per gallon...and the lowest and highest prices were both Hess Stations. The usual "cheapest" places (Exit 150 on I-85 near Burlington) were Twenty Cents a gallon higher than most places in Wilmington and around Kinston.

Arrived home to find Frady sitting in the window. From the "purrs" I heard, I believe he was happy to see me.....although it might have been the bag of Kitty Treats I had in my hand.

Back to the boat late tomorrow....and time to turn to on the repairs on Monday.

Awoke at 0530 to the sound of rattling halyards and the boat heeling over to port and staying there while the wind howled in the rigging. I tried the "roll over and snuggle into the pillow" method of ignoring the noise but in the end got up and got the coffee going while I did a line check.

Makes me glad I am in port tied up to the dock....and not on the open water.

It is cold outside! Frady is ashore doing his morning hunt.....open season on squirrels, mice, and other prey. It is a fair deal in there is at least one big Gray Fox in the patch of woods he hunts....thus he can be hunted as well.

Quick sniff check confirms all is well in the forward cabin....even the pine sol aroma has gone.

Today is travel to Winston-Salem day....heading home for Christmas with Mom.

Interesting week it was.

Got shifted from a fixed dock to a floating dock and took the opportunity to fuel, pump out, and fill fresh water tanks in the move from one dock to another.

The next day....while walking bare foot back into the aft cabin I discovered the walkthru carpet was soaking wet along the edge of the bulkhead behind which the Port side water tank hides. Being a wizard, I quickly discerned the source of that "wet" was the Port side water tank...oddly enough.

After a couple of days messing with the thing....and fearing I would have to replace this tank as I did the starboard side tank....relief was had when I figured out I had over filled the tank. After running a portable heater into the tank compartment all was back to normal. Carpet back down and dry....leak stopped....life is good.

Wrong assumption there.....the day after putting the water tank back into operation I managed to once again play squishy toes in wet carpet. This time it was in the forward cabin....within which hides the forward Head holding tank. It was only partially holding it seems. Upon digging into this new and delightful problem....I discovered the Pump Out Hose fitting had been partially torn away from the flexible bladder that is the holding tank. The tank had thereupon taken a leak into the the forward part of the boat, soaked the forward cabin carpet, leaked into the bilge under the main cabin area.....and just plain made a mess.

Two days of great fun has gotten the boat cleaned up, dried out, and de-odorized. The old bladder is in the dumpster and the boat now smells like a Greyhound Bus Station men's room with all of the Pine Sol I poured into the problem.

After Christmas, I will glass in the holding tank compartment to make it a "Tub", install the new bladder and a new fill hose that leads from the head.

Weather is windy and getting colder.....as a Cold Front blows through. Frady made a short visit ashore after his dinner but returned for his evening slumber on the settee. He is slowly getting used to the idea of being a boat kitty but having grown up Feral, he is taking some time making the transistion.

My current slip is adjacent to a very nice Nordhavn 40.....one of the Nordhavn's that did the around the world cruise....it wears a decal showing 26,000 Miles in 26 Weeks. It is a really impressive boat! A couple of boats down is a very nice 35' Foot Hatteras Convertible....came from the Great Lakes and does not even have rod holders installed....much less all the outriggers and such as is normal in these parts. Across the way is a very nice 42' Krogen Trawler....makes me wonder why I was born handsome instead of rich!

When I poke my head out into the cold tomorrow....I will think of Earl and Vic down in the Sunny South worrying about skin cancer, coral heads, and bad rum!

Just getting started with this blogging thing.

Purhased the boat in May of 2007 after retiring from helicopters for medical reasons.

Kept the boat at Matthews Point Marina, near Havelock, NC, until October 2008 and now have it moored at the Wilmington Marine Center in Wilmington, NC.