Month: November 2012

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Catch ’em any way you can!

Saturday, Nov 3. Our plan was to make 56nm from Southport, NC to Myrtle Beach, SC.  We’d anchor in a spot we’ve used three times now, just off the ICW in a small oxbow of the Waccamaw River. Only three opening bridges near the end of the day and they were on request.  ( NOTE: we’ve added a new page “Where is Ortolan?” so you can follow our path)

Our stop in Southport the previous night was South Harbor Village Marina and their best feature is the terrific Italian restaurant an easy 3 minute walk from dock to land. The food and service are always excellent and my sister-in-law Kerry would so approve of their black cloth napkins. Ever notice how the linty white ones can leave your clothes speckled white? Ask for a black napkin.

So later that evening we hear a call on Ch16 from a commercial fishing vessel (shrimper most likely) to the Coast Guard. M/V Diamond City was taking on water and needed a pump because hers weren’t keeping up. She was one mile off the coast by Southport. Based on the back and forth Q & A between the CG and fishing vessel, the problem was caused by one of the outriggers breaking and somehow making a hole below the waterline. Diamond Cityhad 1 ½ feet of water when they first called for help. The Captain was very calm. The CG sent out a boat with a pump which promptly became clogged. The last we heard was that a CG crew member was attempting to come aboard to assist and now the water was up to 3ft.   Very hopeful this calamity would work out well; but we wouldn’t know for sure.

Diamond City safe at the dock in Holden Beach, NC

Saturday morning we passed Diamond City, the Coast Guard was there getting a report.

Alright, back to our trip on Saturday. As you may know, we aren’t big on fishing but Russ is determined to harvest fruits of the sea any way he can.  One way to do this is to snag a pot, or better yet, a large net strung across the channel. If you snag a new one that wasn’t weighted properly you can easily come away with a good haul. Right. Or you can stop dead in the channel with green netting wrapped around your sail drive, all the time thankful that you don’t have a traditional shaft drive where the line can get really tightly wrapped around all that exposed metal.

Approximately 10miles before the South Carolina line in the area of Ocean Isle Beach, we began noticing very colorful floats on both sides of the channel. I pointed them out as good examples of visible floats. Minutes later we hear a noise we’ve never heard before but figure we must have snagged a pot- except it sounded like more and we never saw one. I race back to the stern (grateful I was decently dressed) and see a large green net with little float balls (about the size of ping-pong balls) near the water’s surface and trailing out from our port stern. Uttering words even today you can’t say on the radio I look around and see two men in a small skiff over near the channel’s edge. Meanwhile Russ has turned off the engine, leaving the starboard one in gear.

The men come over to help and fess up that this is their net (after Russ asked who’d be stupid enough) and it should sink to the bottom but because it was new…. The water is 18 ft deep here mind you. The nets are in for a short while and then get hauled up. Just our luck.  A Krogen trawler Lili (they have AIS) is headed our way and I hail her to warn of our situation and to proceed with care. She didn’t have much choice because between the net across the channel and us in the middle, the only room to pass was between the float on our starboard side and the edge of the channel.

The culprits help untangle their net from our port sail drive and/or rudder

Rudder with sail drive forward of it

The net gets freed from the port sail drive (might have only been arund the rudder) but the starboard engine was still going to keep us in the channel and not hit the G87 marker. The current is weak thank goodness but it’s moving us back and slightly toward the edge of the channel. Now we see that the starboard drive has caught the net, so we shut it down. What is that noise I ask? Again I ask. Oh no says the Captain, the autopilot is still on!! Turn it off and pray that it isn’t now a piece of crap destined for Davy Jones’ Locker. So now we are just at the mercy of the wind and current; both fairly light.  The men in the skiff use the netting, still attached to the starboard drive, to pull us back into the channel; wish I had taken a picture of that. We give them a line to use instead (you might recall the one- blue with burnished wood highlights?) and once they extract the netting and pull us far enough, we start the engines. They both seem OK and respond well. Thanks for your help I say as the guys toss back our line.  Help? Wish we could have met under better circumstances one guy says.  Hey, at least I did NOT apologize for ruining their new net.

The lesson learned is: beware of identical shiny new floats that appear opposite one another and pay careful attention to whether small boats are near the channel’s edge and close to the floats.  Be extra cautious on weekends.

The sail drives and prop behave well and Herr Otto is back to being his usual stable, keep-on-course self.

And here I thought I wouldn’t have much to write about on our third trip south- same old, same old I figured.  Couldn’t have been more wrong.  Hope you all are enjoying the ride 🙂

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Trick or Treat

Treats for all!  No tricks, not after Ms Sandy; that was enough. We treated ourselves to a two-night marina stay at Morehead City Yacht Basin after moving from our hurricane hole.

Wednesday was a day of boats on the move; the radio was alive with passing arrangements and comments about swift currents. We kept the VHF on to listen for any problem areas, Coast Guard announcements and get a beat on the whereabouts of boats we knew.

Halloween night was our second night and not only did we treat ourselves to dinner at Floyd’s 1921, but we had trick- or-treaters come to the boat!  Of course I was not prepared, this being a new possibility in the lives of a boat seldom at a dock. We quickly put some of my (confession time) peanut M&Ms in three snack baggies and handed those out. M/V Makara, a captained ninety footer with one woman crew member, was docked behind us and they were prepared with a basket of goodies. The woman confessed that her mom had sent the candy to be sure they had some. Next year I’ll be sure to buy a bag of M&Ms snack size- just in case. 🙂

M/V Makara is way more prepared with treats!

Even cruising kids want to Trick or Treat

Thursday we headed out, hoping that the 65’ highrise bridges would not have too much water under them.  Storm surge and the recent full moon made for very funky tide ranges and currents; no one could accurately plan ahead. Lady Luck was your best bet. Usually, we prefer to make a coastal trip between Beaufort and Wrightsville Beach. Two good inlets and doable in 10 hours- roughly.  Jumping out here avoids having to time the scheduled opening bridges. Unless you want to get going at  o’dark thirty, the average sailing vessel won ‘t make it to Wrightsville anchorage via the ICW in daylight. Conditions weren’t right for a jump outside and we’d been hanging out in NC long enough; so ICW it was.  Using ActiveCaptain, we located a place with good depth (for us that would be between 5 and 10 ft), room for several boats and an easy approach; Sloop Creek.

A few hours into our trip, just north of Swansboro, NC, a monohull (Pearson I guessed) just ahead hailed us. A few seconds before I’d had the binocs on them to see the boat name in case we needed to call them about passing. I put them down quickly when I saw theirs were trained on us. Umm, odd.

The radio comes to life with, “This is the sailing vessel Lutra calling the catamaran behind us.” Did they want us to pass, or not to pass, or maybe they wanted to know what make of cat we were? “Can we switch to 17?” asks a pleasant-sounding female voice. Now comes the classic land neighbor question; you know, the one about borrowing a cup of sugar.  My face must have registered surprise, delight and confusion all in a 30 second time span. The woman on Lutra wanted to know if we could spare two eggs as this was her uncle’s birthday and she wanted to make cookies but realized had no eggs.  Luckily I had plenty, even though Russ had used three to bake Challah bread. How to make a safe transfer? I wrapped the eggs in paper towels and placed them in a plastic (non-zip style) bag leaving a bit of air and secured with a twist tie. Russ didn’t want to snug up too close, therefore an egg toss was out of the question. The boat hook was called into use and we wrapped blue tape around the neck of the bag and I went to the bow for the hook, wrapping the remaining length of tape just before the actual hook.

Eggs, set, go! I am so nervous at this point.

I even did a quick weight test to be sure the tape would hold the bag. The wind had other ideas and when I extended the precious cargo toward Lutra, halfway across the bag was torn off and into the water it went! OMG!   But the bag was floating and Lutra turned around to execute a masterful retrieval.  As this scene is playing out, a small sportfish behind us is being entertained.

Lutra (Sea Otter) goes back for the floating egg bag

A few hours later as we waited for a scheduled opening bridge (the great equalizers) Lutra caught up and passed a bag of chocolate chip cookies to us via boat hook. Lucky for us they approached our stern fairly close and the bag was hooked on to the hook part. Cookies for lunch dessert!

An ICW cookie exchange. Successful pass by Lutra!

Later on we passed along info on our anchorage for the night. A convoy of four boats entered together but all had plenty of room along with a lovely marsh grass view.

You may recall our friends on MoonTide, a beautiful Shannon 53 with a too tall mast. They need 64′ and inches which can be problematic in normal conditions with certain bridges, but post-Sandy was extra ugly.  We came upon them anchored before a highrise bridge that looked to be only 63ft- at low tide. We took it slow, MoonTide watched and reported we cleared with room to spare. That tells us we may only need 62 1/2 ft. Note to selves: next time Benj goes up the mast, have him measure the instruments on top.

After dinner we officially met Patti (Captain of Lutra) and her uncle, Don. Patti is a single-hander who occasionally has company and help along the way from family members or friends. Don’s leg will end in St. Augustine.  Overall, this was a memorable day and a much-needed reminder of why the cruising life is so special.