Desperately Seeking Warm Weather

16 January 2014, Thursday

Awoke early in Coinjock, North Carolina, to depart for a 54 mile journey to our anchorage for the night.  But I would be remiss if I do not include a little tidbit from last night.  At the Coinjock Marina, the dock goon had placed a set of stairs up next to the boat to assist us in getting on and off, as it was about four feet from the deck to the dock. Well, one member of the crew, who will remain unnamed till you see his picture later in this section, slipped and fell off of the stairs onto the dock, narrowly avoiding slipping between the dock and boat and into the chilly drink.  (P.S. he was mostly uninjured, except for his pride)


Our First Bald Headed Eagle Sighting of This Year!



Our Second Bald Headed Eagle Sighting of This Year!

The First Dolphin (Porpoise) Sighting of This Year!

Joe, napping again
 



We needed to stop and get fuel during this segment and we wanted to stop at the Alligator River Marina, where we had stopped on the way north last June.  The wind was blowing 30 mph, waves were 2-3 feet, and temperature was mid 30s.  We pulled into the marina, which is also a gas station for land vehicles, and Joe noted that it looked closed.  We tied up to the dock and I called on the radio and telephone, but no answer.  Joe walked up to the building and reported that it had a "Closed" sign on the door.  Vastly irritated, (Me), we untied and headed back out into the river, when Cruella de Ville (not her real name, but you get the drift) called me on the radio and asked if we needed anything.  I told her I wanted fuel and she said to come back.  We got fuel, but it was not fun.

 



During this phase of the journey, Beth was determined to make new curtains for the aft cabin.  She had brought material from home and she had procured a "free" sewing machine from Ocean Marine Marina in Portsmouth.  It was labeled "free, needs work".  She worked a couple of hours on the machine and got it working fine.

Beth's Bargain



Beth's materials all laid out

We arrived at the anchorage and were successful in getting our spare anchor to dig in. Our primary anchor did not want to work, so we will have to practice with it some more.  It was a very calm and clear night, full moon and all.  I set an anchor drift alarm and prepared myself for a sleepless night.  But, when I awoke, it was morning and we had not drifted.

 

17 January 2014, Friday

 

We set out for our 36 mile trip to Belhaven, North Carolina.  The reason for such a short distance today, is that 22 miles of this section is through the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal, which is very narrow and lined with cypress stumps and submerged trees. Luckily, we did not encounter any tows that we needed to pass.  Stay tuned, more later.

A Return To The Journey

13 January 2014

We returned to Portsmouth on Monday 13 January to renew our journey.  We spent Tuesday grocery shopping and getting last minute maintenance items procured and adding to our to do list.

The Norfolk Waterfront on our last night there



A Navy Destroyer Being Herded Out to Sea

A Navy Destroyer Being Herded Out to Sea

We departed the Marina about 0730 on Wednesday, 15 January, headed to Coinjock, North Carolina.  We had stopped there on the way up the east coast in June and there were many mega-yachts docked there for the night, this time there were two small sailboats. 
Here is Joe, hard at work at the only lock we will go through till we get to middle Florida.


About halfway to Coinjock, the water settled down and was mirror like.  Beth's photos, truly awesome.

Which Way is Up?



Sunset at Coinjock



Sunset at Coinjock

Sunset at Coinjock

A Losing Toss of The Dice!

3 January 2014

Well, we left Maggie Mae at Ocean Marine Marina in Portsmouth, Virginia on the 19th of December, with the intention to return on or about 13 January to resume the journey.  Weather conditions were predicted to be above 32 degrees between 19 December and our return on 13 January.  I lost my bet to not winterize the boat and 13-14 degree nights were predicted for the Portsmouth area on 6-8 January.  So, I bought a high dollar airline ticket to fly back to Portsmouth and winterize the critical systems on the boat prior to freezing weather getting there.  Arrived on the afternoon of 3 January with two bags of parts and spent the next day and a half winterizing and modernizing the boat.  Returned home on the 5th.  It was a trip well worth the time as the temperatures really did go to 14 degrees for a lengthy period of time.

Beginning To Catch You All Up

Monday, 9 December 2013

We departed Kansas City, headed for Grasonville, Maryland to begin the process of moving Maggie Mae to warmer waters.  We arrived at Baltimore Washington Airport and my son, Jason, picked us up and took us to the marina.  The first thing we did was to turn on the heaters as it was cold, cold, cold.  On Tuesday, we began to make the changes/additions to Maggie Mae that would allow her to make the long cruise, i.e. addition of state of the art electronics, fixing a bunch of minor glitches and cleaning.  We continued on Wednesday to fix and update and clean.  Now, for the disclaimer.  We had not, up to this point, driven this boat, and I was relying on the highly paid Surveyors report to determine the seaworthiness of this boat.  For example, he reported that the engines had excessive crankcase blow-by and was leaving a minor oil slick out one of the exhausts.  Thursday, we finalized preparations to move on down the Chesapeake to Portsmouth, Virginia. (across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk).  Friday morning, we fired up the engines and headed across the narrows to fuel up and pump out.  Finishing that project, we headed on down the bay, using just one engine, to minimize fuel use and stop our oil slick.

Preparing to Leave, It is COLD.

Nice Sunny Day For A Cruise



Container Ship coming from Baltimore

We did not go far on this day as we got a late start and the daylight hours are short, we stopped at Mear's Marina in Annapolis, Maryland for the night. Performing our maintenance, we discovered that in running the port engine for three hours, we had disappeared 3 quarts of oil.  Worrisome!

Nice Photo

On Saturday, we departed early and arrived later in the day at Herrington Harbor Marina, a very nice place, but what we would discover, all the other boaters were already in Florida, and most of the marinas that we would stop at were partially shut down for the winter.

Note the ice on deck!

Sunday, 15 December, we continued on down the Bay, stopping for the night at Ingram Bay Marina, once again, nearly deserted.

Light House in Chesapeake Bay

Monday, 16 December, we arrive at Ocean Marine, in Portsmouth, Virginia.  Now began the thinking about our maintenance issues regarding the port engine and its oil usage. 

Arriving at and passing Norfolk Navy Base



Tanker trying to delay us, It did not work.

We decided that maybe the motor was sucking oil through the valve guides, and all we needed to do was have a valve job done on the heads.  So off to my favorite store, Harbor Freight.  We bought a compression tester kit and all of the heavy duty tools needed to pull the heads for a valve job.  Alas, the compression test indicated that we had no leakage past the piston rings or past the valve lips.  Also, the spark plugs had no indication of oil burning, which would have shown up base on the amount of oil we were using.  After much research, we discovered that the engine oil cooler was leaking oil into the raw water stream.  So after a $90.00 oil cooler replacement, we have an engine that uses no oil and the EPA would approve our emissions.
Now, it was back home to Kansas to do some work, enjoy the holidays and buy more stuff.  But wait, the marina where we had bought Maggie Mae called me and said that we had to return two of the fenders that we left the marina with, so, my plan was to deflate the fenders and put them in our large suitcase to take home and reship to Maryland.  We also needed to overhaul the carburetors from the boat so I removed them, drained them and put them in the suticase with the fenders.  On Thursday, 19 December we left for the Norfolk airport with our suitcase.  We checked in and were just past the security screening when I heard Beths' name being paged to report to a airline counter, as there was a problem with her luggage.  (I had cleverly checked the big suitcase under her name)  I checked at the counter and they said we could not have carburetors in our luggage. what to do, what to do? At first they said they would hold the bag till we got back in three weeks, then changed their mind and said they did not have space and we would have to have someone come pick it up.  I explained that there was no one in Norfolk that we knew.  I could see that the bag would soon be in some dumpster.  So, I called out taxi company who provides service to the area marinas and asked if they could come back to the airport, pick up the bag, and take it back to the marina.  They said they would be delighted to accomodate us for a fee.  Well, problem solved, and I chastised Beth for trying such a stunt.