Jul-Sept

July 2 ( 0 miles, 0 hours)
I finished making the cockpit covers on Sunday. This afternoon I drove down to Oriental. The cushions look and fit good. On the way I called my diesel mechanic. He returned my call when he got back to his office about 6:15 PM. Having not heard from him before then, at 5 PM I applied "J D Weld" to the leak around the radiator cap neck - both outside and inside. It has to setup for 15 hours before using. The mechanic is going to come and look at the situation in the morning. Laurin and I are planning to head out as soon as that visit is over. We plan to make Ocracoke tomorrow on our way to Manteo. The wind is predicated to be coming straight at us tomorrow, but shifting to the southwest on Wednesday for the longer leg to Manteo. The long range forecast has the wind blowing in our face the whole way back from Manteo. We may well try the Intracoastal Waterway for the return trip home if this bears out to be true. We have never been on that section.

July 3-4 (91.38 miles by knot meter, 15 hours, 2075.4 engine hours)
We emptied the holding tanks after lunch today. The engine mechanic finally showed up about 4:30 PM and after running the engine had no real clear idea why I am still losing water. He felt it was fine to run the engine at a reduced speed as long as I kept an eye on the temperature. Laurin and I had made the decision earlier to do an over night sail to Manteo if we could get out of Pecan Grove by dark. At 5:30 PM Laurin backed us out of the slip and took us out the channel to the river.

5:50PM We entered the river and engaged the autopilot The wind was light (4-6 kts) so we motored down the river.

6:50 PM We reached waypoint 2 at Gum Thicket Shoal, making 7.3 kts SOG under a cloudy sky with a light rain.

7:30 PM We have reached waypoint 3, the entrance to the Neuse River. We are making 7 kts SOG under a cloudy sky.

7:55 PM The wind picked up to 14 kts from the south, so we raised our sails and killed the engine. We were making 7.3 knots with a 10° heel.

8:12 PM The wind was up to 20 kts giving us a 15° heel, so we lowered the mizzen sail reducing our heel while maintaining an 8 kts speed.

8:48 PM Waypoint 5 reached. The wind is blowing 16 kts from the south and we are making 6.8 kts SOG. Distance covered is 22.5 miles. The sky is clearing and a full moon is out. There are over 15 shrimp boats ahead of us.
N35°07.492' W76°16.561'

10:57 PM Waypoint 6 reached. We are making 6.7 kts and have traveled 36.4 miles.

July 4th
12:30 AM I napped for about 2 hours and just took over the helm from Laurin. We are on the longest leg of the trip up the Pamlico Sound. The wind is now following us just off our starboard at 14 kts. We are running all sails in a wing & wing & wing mode doing 5 kts SOG. The sky has a light overcast, but the moon is still bright. 46.18 nm @ 12:51 AM 49°T N35° 20.169' W075° 35.907'

1:13 AM I have spotted the flash of the Cape Hatteras Light House on the horizon. According to the chart plotter it is 16 miles away. While I can not see the light itself, the glow on the horizon is easy to see.
48.7 nm traveled, N35° 21.392' W075° 52.028'

2:06 AM The light of the Cape Hatteras Light House is now visible. The chart plotter has the light house at 15.8 nm from me. It is funny to see birds flying out here at night.
52.14 nm traveled, N035° 23.949' W075° 48.177' 52°T 4.8 kts SOG

4:17 AM Waypoint 7 arrival,

5:50 AM As Laurin was starting the 4:17 entry it started raining. It was blowing from behind us and she was getting soaked. I got my foul weather jacket on and relieved her at the helm. At 4:40 AM we were passed by a line of fast moving showers. The wind shifted from our starboard stern to our port stern blowing at 22 kts. Prior to Laurin having taking the helm, I had placed the whisker pole on the Genoa. With the wind shift the Genoa backfilled. I decided it could just stay that way until the wind and rain reduced. Later after the wind reduced and the rain had quit I got the whisker pole down and reset the Genoa. We are currently about 2 miles form the entrance to Old House Channel which will lead us into the Roanoke Sound. We have about 20 miles to go to Manteo. The sky has brightened and there are some angry looking thunderstorms several miles off our starboard stern. I can see some heavy rain falling from them. I have been seeing the Bodie Island Light House for a while now.
N035° 23.949' W075° 37.650' 0°T 5.4 kts

6:20 AM Waypoint 7 has been reached (the mouth of Old House Channel). However the engine battery is too weak from having powered the running/steaming lights overnight to crank the engine without the help of the house batteries. The only problem with that is that the engine can not be run above an idle while trying to charge both sets of batteries. The alternator is too small to handle the load. I have a larger amperage alternator for the engine, but just have not gotten around to installing it yet. Rather than trying to run the 20 miles to Manteo down the channel at an idle, I have dropped the anchor and am waiting on the engine battery to charge enough to start the engine by itself. You cannot disengage batteries connect to the engine while it is running or you will fry the alternator.

9:00 AM I only had to wait about 15 minutes of the engine battery to charge. We made the trip up the channel with minimal problems - a few shallow areas I slowed down for. The worst part was another heavy rain storm that passed over us with 25 kt winds making it hard to see the channel markers. It lasted about 15 minutes. We came into Manteo Waterfront Marina, docked and proceeded to settle in and put stuff out to dry. We have not seen the dock master yet - hope it will not be long, we both really want to take a shower!
91.38 nm traveled, 2075.4 engine hours

July 8 (64.84 nm, 10 hours, 2097.6 engine hours
The engine key got left on in Manteo for 13.9 hours during which time the engine was not running.

0740 - 0.0 nm N35° 54.555' W075° 40.086'
It was partly cloudy this morning as I pulled out of Manteo. The wind was blowing 10 kts from the South. Laurin was still sleeping.

0813 - 2.51nm N35° 53.682' W075° 38.137'
Just passed under the Roanoke Island/Nags Head Bridge (a high rise). The water from the Manteo harbor to this bridge is not that deep - I ran fairly slowly

0855 - 7.78 nm N35° 49.459' W075° 35.772' 6.7 kts SOG 155°T wind @13 kts from the west
The channel is narrow and the wind was trying to blow the boat out of the channel, so I had to wake Laurin to shut the forward portholes due to water splashing in. She got all of them but the forward head, which got soaked.

0917 - 10.48 nm N35° 49.459' W075° 35.772' 6.5 kts SOG wind @15 kts from the west
We just pass the entrance to Walter Slough Channel

0927 - 11.65 nm N 35° 45.344' W075° 34.959' 6.7 kts SOG 212°T wind @11.0 kts from the west
We just passed the Oregon Inlet Channel

1003 - 16.0 nm 6.1 kts SOG 166°T wind @13.0 kts from the SSW
We have just exited Old House Channel into the Pamlico Sound. Our new course is more due South and has us heading into 2-3' seas (~3 seconds apart) and into the wind as well. The windshield is doing a wonderful job of keeping us dry. I have engaged the autopilot.

1100 - 22.56 nm N 35° 37.515' W075° 37.469' 6.2 kts SOG 175°T wind @14.0 kts from the south west
Deja Vu of our trip from Hatteras to Ocracoke last year. The waves are now 3' and coming about 30° off our starboard bow. The spray from the waves over the boat would have Laurin and I soaked if it were not for the windshield. As it is the starboard cockpit is wet from the spray being blown by the wind. Laurin is sleeping on the port cockpit bench. Kosh had a major panic attack due to the waves bouncing the boat. His respiratory was really fast and he was panting. I got him settled in the aft cabin with a fan blowing on him. He seems to have calmed down now and is sleeping.

1148 - 28.25 nm, N35° 32.565', W075° 37.358', 6.4 kts SOG, 226°T, wind @17 kts from the west, seas at 3-4'
We just passed Long Shoal and are heading for the Ocracoke channel entrance some 29.7 nm away. Laurin is fixing lunch. We are heading straight into the on coming waves. Our speed varies from 5.0 kts to 6.4 kts. It is totally cloudy now. Laurin took a Dramamine a few minutes ago just incase she started to get sea sick.

1300 - 39.9 nm, N35° 27.259', W075 42.779', 5.7 kts SOG, 217°T, wind @16 kts from the SW
We continue to beat through the waves. A few have come over the bow and washed the deck up to the windshield. We continue to make good speed with an estimated arrival time to Ocracoke's Big Foot Slough Channel between 1630 and 1730. The autopilot has performed outstanding as always. If only I could get it to see and dodge the crab pots!

1405 - 42.64 nm, N35° 22.469', W075° 47.684', 6.0 kts SOG, 213°T, wind @19 kts from the SW
The waves are a good 4' and some larger. I have seen the windshield receive several washings from water that covered the deck. Sky is still cloudy with darker clouds in the south.

1500 - 47.99 nm, N35° 18.605', W075° 51.641', 6.0 kts SOG, 212°, wind @20 kts from the SW
Not much change in the last hour. We continue to beat our way through the waves. Cockpit is still dry. Laurin feels sick when she sits up, so she continues to lay/nap on the port cockpit bench. We have only 11.7 nm to the channel at Occracoke.

1600 - 54.14 nm, N35° 14.338', W075° 55.998', 5.9 kts SOG, 212°T, wind @20 kts from the SW
It has gotten rougher in the past hour. The windshield is being drenched every couple of minutes. We only have 6 nm to the channel.

1700 - 60.27 nm, N35° 10.128', W075° 00.325', 5.9 kts SOG, 229°T, wind @20.2 kts from the SW
We are just about to enter Big Foot Slough Channel.

1740 - 64.84nm, N35° 06.869', W075° 59.085', 0 kts SOG, wind @17 kts, 2097.6 engine hours
We have arrived. Laurin took the helm down Big Foot Slough Channel with no troubles. We are docked on the end of B dock at Anchorage Marina. After cleaning up and showering, it is off to the Back Porch for a good supper. Considering the swells we had today with the short time between them, we made good time with an average speed of 6.48 kts.

July 9 (44.05 nm, 5.95 hours, 2103.7 engine hours)
1115 - 0nm, N35° 06.869', W075° 59.085', winds @5kts from the west
We left Ocracoke for Oriental under hazy skies. Laurin took us out of Silver Lake and is heading us back out the channel to Pamlico Sound. It appears we will be motoring again today.

1145 - 3.66nm, 6.1 kts SOG, wind 9.1kts from the WNW
Exited Big Foot Sough Channel and activated the autopilot.

1200 - 5.06 nm, N35° 09.471', W076° 02.041', 6.8 kts SOG, wind 6.5 kts from the NW

1234 - 9.56 nm, N35° 10.344', W076° 07.079', 6.4 kts SOG, 245°T, wind 6.7 kts from the NW
Laurin is fixing lunch even though her stomach is bothering her. She had spent the last hour in the swing. Cats are napping in the cockpit.

1300 - 12.16 nm, N35° 09.417', W076° 10.130', 6.7 kts SOG, 245°T, wind 5.1 kts from the NW
We have a ferry, a sailboat and an number of shrimp trawlers in sight. The seas are 1' of less making for a smooth motoring.

1354 - 19.51 nm, N35° 07.097', W076° 17.408', 7.0 kts SOG, 266°T, wind 1.4 kts from the W
We have reached a waypoint. The sky is hazy with very light wind. Water is glassy with almost no swells at all.

1500 - 27.88 nm, N35° 06.869', W076° 26.743', 6.9 kts SOG, 265°T, wind 2.9 kts from the WNW
We are 1.6 nm from the next waypoint, the entrance to the Neuse River

1513 - 29.63 nm, N35° 06.811', W076° 28.709', 7.0 kts SOG, 227°T, wind 2.2 kts from the W
Waypoint reached

1558 - 35.39 nm, N35° 03.431', W076° 33.549', 7.1 kts SOG, 248°T, wind 6.1kts from the West
Waypoint reached and we are now heading for the entrance to Oriental Harbor. A short time ago I exchanged radio greetings with my next slip neighbor at Pecan Grove Marina, the NC Marine Patrol Boat Roanoke. They were headed out into the Pamlico to check on shrimp boats.

1654 - 42.84 nm, N35° 00.923', W076° 41.292'
Final waypoint reached and Laurin is bringing us in the channel.

1710 - 44.05 nm, N35° 01.121', W076° 42.429' 2103.7 engine hours
We have docked. Laurin brought us all the way in and docked us as well. She did a good job.

2305 - What a bummer of an evening. I decided to figure out why the Smart Alternator Regulator (SAR) for the Genie was not coming on. After verifying the wiring I started the Genie and climbed into the engine compartment. The On signal was present at the SAR. A few seconds later I heard the Genie load down. I sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what I had done - and nothing was the answer. I then crawled out of the engine compartment and noticed that lights I had on were now off. The 100A battery breaker had also tripped. I killed the Genie and reset the battery breaker. Still no lights. I tried some lights that were not previously on and they worked. I had a really bad feeling about this. I went to the cockpit and checked the instruments there and they were now all off - and would not come back on. I went back down and turned off all the loads, and started the Genie back up. With my DVM on the batteries, I watched as after 15 seconds the alternator loaded down and 15 seconds after that the battery breaker tripped. The voltage on the batteries had risen slightly when the Genie's alternator started putting out voltage. I killed the Genie and wrote an email to the dealer form whom I purchased the Ample Power equipment.

July 10
1000 - I decided that an over voltage condition was what would have fried everything last night, so with the batteries off, all loads off, I started the Genie with my DVM across the positive and negative distribution points. When the Genie's alternator started up there was 62.4 volts present on what was suppose to be a 12 v circuit.

2100 - As I drove home today, I analyzed what had happened and when I spoke with my Ample Power dealer he confirmed my thoughts. According to the gospel of Ample Power, you should set up a positive distribution point (bus bar) and a negative distribution point (another bus bar). All sources of power and loads should go the the distribution points and such was how I wired the boat. I replaced the standard Off-1-Both-2 battery switch with a panel that had an on/Off switch for the engine battery and a 100 Amp breaker for the house batteries. The panel also included a switch that would tie the two batteries together in case of an emergency. The battery breaker was between the house batteries and the positive distribution point. The Genie is capable of delivering 175 amps, and apparently was delivering more than 100 amps to the house batteries thus tripping the 100 amp breaker. This left a minimal load on the Genie's alternator. I did not realize it until later, but an unloaded alternator will put out much more than 12v. Thus the breaker protected the batteries, but not the circuits of the boat. I called my insurance company, BoatUS and reported my claim. After taking down what had happened the agent told me that since it was a wiring problem I created they probably would not pay for any damages. Typical insurance company line - give us your money, but do not count on getting any back. Anyway they assigned a marine surveyor to the case who is scheduled to go take pictures of the boat. Tommy Sluggs called me later in the day to discuss the situation. He was more hopeful that BoatUS would pay for the damage. A sent the Tommy a statement as to what happened and a list of the equipment damaged. He expects to get to the boat this weekend or early next week. Until he submits his report it is just a game of waiting.

July 16-20 (On the Hobie 16 estimated 70 miles)
This is my annual week vacation with my family at the beach. It is also the first year at the beach since Ann's passing. Keeping with the tradition of the past 9 years, I have bought the Hobie with me. I broke a shroud last summer taking it out a channel to the ocean. On Monday I drove to Wilmington and picked up new shrouds, trapeze wires and bridle. If one had gone, the others would probably not be far behind. After getting the new equipment on, Laurin and her friend Christina and I went on a sail out to a cargo ship that was anchored 3.4 miles off the coast of Holden Beach. I had my Magellan Map 410 GPS with me - the first time since I had sent it off for repairs last year after water got in it. I built a case for it over the winter that would only had the front open and spray does not hit there. After Monday, I sailed most of the week solo. I had lots of good wind in the afternoons with relatively flat seas. I would typically sail out to the buoy on the east end of the island and back - a round trip of 6.4 miles. My highest speed recorded was 16.1 knots. Average speed would run in the 12-14 kts range. On Friday Justin arrived, having just come back from his 39 day tour of Europe. We enjoy sailing together and tend to push the boat to the edge of our abilities. Trapezing together we hit 18.2 kts, and managed to dump 4 times in a single outing - both records for us! Following one dumping, the GPS quit working. I do not think that the Map 410 is waterproof as Magellan claims - this is the 3 unit I have had died. They were pretty explicit about not replacing this one if it happened again.

Upon leaving Holding Beach on Sunday, Justin followed me up the coast to Oriental. We spent the night there, taking the opportunity to remove all the Raytheon instruments that were damaged on July 9th's mishap. I shipped the instruments off to RayMarine once I returned to Burlington. No word from the insurance company yet.

August 16

The past few weeks have been with good news and not so good news. First BoatUS insurance has agreed to pay for damages I suffered on July 9th to my electronics - less the deductible of course. RayMarine has declined to repair my electronics under warranty. The cost of having the units repair varies from $100 to $450. I received the first batch back today.

On another not so food note, the primary diesel engine continues to overheat. I had the thermostat changed with no change. I ended up taking all the cooling system parts off the engine, cleaned, checked, and repainted them. The only problem I could find was a blockage of old impeller parts in the intake of the raw water pump. I also replaced the rubber seals between the heat exchanger and the expansion tank. The old units had split. The engine idled at 130°F but would climb to 230°F at 2800 RPM under load. The local diesel mechanic had suggested some weeks ago that the problem was either a blown head gasket, or a cracked cylinder head. Having tried to look for every other possible solution, I called another engine repair company who agreed that the head gasket or cylinder head are at fault. I went ahead and started tearing down the head to where only the rockers were left. The local mechanic is scheduled to finish taking the head off and determine the fault.

August 27

I arrived back in Oriental yesterday. I remounted the radar dome in the cool of the late afternoon - only to have it not work! Not a pleasing moment. I finished mounting the other instruments this morning and they all worked without a problem. I called Raytheon tech support for help on the radar. After explaining the situation, he had me run a single test and pronounced he knew the problem. There is a small connector inside the radar dome that all the signal wires travel in. A white wire on the right end of the connector is the video out from the dome. It seems that this wire has a tendency to break at the connector. Sure enough this was my problem. A simple matter to fix. I took timing measurements off the windlass detection circuit last night. I got a really clean (no bounce) 20 ms pulse every 200 ms. This works out to a speed of 75 feet/minute. The windlass is rated at 80 feet/minute, so it is pretty close. I plan on making a new forward strap for the dingy tomorrow and then fit the dinghy cover on the davits. It really feels good to be back in Oriental and on the boat.

September 15

All the instruments are back in and working great. The log was reset, so I need to add 671.6 NM to current log to get actual total miles traveled. I have an old laptop computer sitting on the nav station connected to the SeaTalk data bus Running RayTech software, the laptop displays the output from all the instruments (except the radar). The engine has continued to overheat, and after getting a second opinion (which agreed my local diesel mechanic) the verdict was I either had a blown head gasket, or a cracked cylinder head. I removed almost everything from the cylinder in preparation to take it off and made arrangements for my local mechanic to take the head off and check for cracks. As it turned out the gasket had not yet blown through and the head was not cracked. The head was warped 8 thousands of an inch and was sent off to be machined flat. The internal tubes for cooling water are also being replaced as they were corroded and some what clogged. The internal water pump is being replaced since the impeller seemed to be too far from the wall to pump effectively. And lastly, the heat exchanger failed a pressure test, so it too is being replaced. Hopefully the combination of all these things will resolve my overheating once and for all. In late August I was sitting in the cockpit of my boat watching a thunderstorm roll in. The lighting was flashing all around, when there was suddenly one bolt that the thunder occurred at the same time as the lighting. A couple of seconds later debris was raining down on me. It seems that the bolt struck the mast of a sailboat just 2 boats down from mine (a 43 foot Hunter named Rainy Day). It removed the mast mounted VHF antenna and destroyed all the instruments on the boat. For once something has happened and I did not have any damage from it.

I was hoping to make the October Annapolis boat show, but it turns out to be the first weekend of the month. I want to have my deck finished before I go, and that does not afford me enough time to finish my work. At this point I hope to make it in late October.

Work on the windlass DRO (digital read out) goes well. All the hardware has been built, and I have started on the 1st program - I hope to make great progress this coming two weeks while at the boat. I am returning to the boat on Sept 16th.

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