Breeze On

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we don’t have our Coast Guard vessel documentation on board. It appears the renewal somehow slipped through the cracks last spring. We cannot enter the Bahamas without it so we will not be traveling to the Bahamas for now. We will instead head south along the coast of the US, destination Georgia or Florida. George has applied online to have the documentation reinstated but we have no idea how long it will take to get it.  This morning we went to our favorite coffee place for breakfast, then walked through town and along the waterfront. After returning to the boat we worked on trying to improve the waterproofing of the bimini. We discovered quite a few leaks when we had a day of rain last week. We also put new routes into the chart plotter for the next phase of our trip. We plan to leave either tonight—if we have the energy—or early tomorrow morning.  We enjoy walking through Beaufort and seeing the quaint houses and pretty flower beds. ...

The weather forecasts for the next week are highly uncertain so we aren’t sure when we will be departing Beaufort. It could be as early as Monday or as late as the following Monday. In the meantime, we are continuing to chip away at our chores list and walk through town when the weather allows. Yesterday we worked on a few small chores, did one load of laundry, and borrowed the courtesy car to visit the hardware  and grocery stores. This morning we walked to the farmers market and did another load of laundry. I went through the galley and rearranged some things. We are always working on maximizing the valuable real estate on the boat.  George is currently working on the Bahamas Click2Clear process. Since last year clearing Bahamas customs is done online. Last year it took George a full day to get it done. This year he expects to get it done within a few hours. Well, strike that last remark. In the process of completing Click2Clear George discovered we don’t have our Coast Guar...

This morning we started working on our list of chores. The first item on the list was replacing the backup battery in the bilge alarm. As George was cooking breakfast this morning an ear-piercing alarm sounded throughout the boat. I was frantically looking around trying to figure out what it was. Fortunately, George knew it was our bilge alarm. The bilge was dry so we turned off the alarm and ate our breakfast. The alarm is hard-wired into our 12 volt system but, like household smoke alarms, it has a backup battery. Apparently the alarm will blare off the battery needs replacing. George replaced the battery and added that to the list of things to do before we head out in the Fall.   The next chore was to replace a snap on the aft starboard enclosure panel. We lean against that panel when we are sitting at the helm and the added pressure caused one of the snaps to rip out. I patched the panel then added a snap attached to elastic for some added give. I decided to do the sewing in th...

We arrived in Beaufort, NC shortly before 8:30 this morning after a 46 hour passage from the Chesapeake Bay. We purposely slowed our speed to enable us to arrive in Beaufort during daylight hours and after the Homer Smith’s Docks & Marina opened for the day. As George said, we were practically dragging our feet in the water.   The passage went well, lots of motoring and motor sailing but enough wind to just sail for about five hours. We found it interesting that we passed the Chesapeake Bridge/Tunnel with two other boats from our little Cambridge Creek—Sweet Dreams III and Big T.  Small world.    George and I each slept (separately) in the aft cabin during the passage, right next to what I am calling my 55 hp white noise machine. Since I often have trouble getting to sleep during passages George has jokingly suggested that we run the engine whenever I am trying to sleep—even if we just leave it in neutral. Not a bad idea! The marina’s new office/clubhouse is open...

Our measly one-to-two bars of cell service was not adequate for receiving Chris Parker’s weather forecast this morning. So George texted our friend, Jean, and asked if she would listen in and report to us any advice on leaving the Chesapeake and rounding Cape Hatteras in the near future. Not only did she listen in but she recorded it and sent the recording to us. In the meantime, George tried tuning into the broadcast using our portable SSB radio. Before cell service and the internet were widely available, SSB radio was how cruisers received their weather broadcasts and communicated with each other when they were not close enough to talk on the VHF radio.  Many boats have a built-in SSB radio system. They are complicated and expensive so we opted not to add one to Breeze On. We instead chose a satellite phone for emergencies as well as the portable SSB radio. There are times, like this morning, when we are at a disadvantage by not having a built-in SSB radio.  The weather fore...

I know I have used that title for a blog post before but I couldn’t think of a better one for today’s post. Yesterday’s lovely weather—albeit without any wind—gave way to gloomy, rainy weather today—with plenty of wind, though.  We raised the anchor before sunrise and made our way out of Solomons, dodging the boats anchored in the channel. We raised the mainsail before entering the bay and stopped it at the second reef point due to the forecast for winds up to 30 knots. The winds were definitely over 20 most of the time but we were happy not to see 30 knots. We had a fast sail down the bay and decided to bypass our intended destination and sail an additional 25 miles to Fishing Bay, on the backside of Deltaville. We were hoping to find better cell phone service to enable us to get Chris Parker’s forecast in the morning but are disappointed to have just two bars. Fingers crossed it will be enough to get the broadcast.  Sail with two reefs. For the non-sailing readers that means...

We left home this morning at 9:30 am. Our departure was delayed by about a half hour because we had to go out in search of WiFi. We disconnect our WiFi router and mail it back to Xfinity each fall before we leave. Xfinity does offer a plan to pause service, but for only three months. Yesterday George disconnected our router and mailed it to Xfinity. This morning we wanted to listen to the forecast of our weather guru, Chris Parker, before we left home. George had planned to ask Chris about the best day to go offshore around Cape Hatteras during the question period at the end of Chris’s broadcast. When George tried to use his phone to connect to Chris’s website, it wouldn’t connect. We tried to sign in with my phone and had the same problem. So we hopped in the car and drove a few hundred yards to use the library’s WiFi. The library was closed so we sat in the car. The forecast was running long and we wanted to go back home to finish getting ready so we skipped the question period and h...

We are finishing up our preparations for another trip to the Bahamas and hope to leave tomorrow morning. Earlier this week we loaded a winter’s worth of food into Breeze On. After five years of adjusting the quantities of food to enable us to take just enough and not to too much, I started following a personalized nutrition program this summer which led me to make big changes in my eating habits. That caused me to completely redo our menus and provisioning list for the Bahamas. Because I am guessing how much of everything we will need, we are taking more food than usual. It seems as if every square inch of the boat is packed. Once we return next spring—with lots of leftover food, no doubt—I will be able to adjust the quantities to reflect what we actually need.  Yesterday I cooked some casseroles, soup, and vegetables. Today we packed up the clothes we will need for the winter—everything from bathing suits to long underwear (for the first part of the trip.) I went through our medic...