Besides the sink project (see soon-to-be-posted blog entry), my final couple of weeks in Oriental have been spent mostly relaxing and having fun.
One serious thing I did was to have a Coast Guard Auxiliary safety inspection performed on my boat, so I could get the little sticker to put on my mast. While there is no legal requirement for this, most of the marinas at military bases require it, and since I’m at least going to be spending a night at Norfolk Navy Base’s marina, I thought I would take advantage of my down time here to get the local Auxiliarist, Hank Steinfeld, to knock out an inspection on Serendipity. (She passed with flying colors.)
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The neighbor to my right, Keith, is new to sailing and recently purchased a beautiful 44′ Brewer ketch named Gratitude which he plans to sail to the South Pacific. While his daughter, Abby, and her boyfriend, Jourdan were visiting, Keith decided to have an official ceremony for his boat, sort of a modified boat-naming ceremony/general sacrifice to the four winds and gods of the seas, etc. He was very serious about it, sending out formal invitations and everything!
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For those unfamiliar with such ceremonies, they involve multiple formal, scripted toasts to various nautical entities to ensure safe passages in the future. (Really, just excuses to drink!) For example, Keith’s ceremony required 12 toasts! He also provided pirate costumes for everyone.
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Although he, himself, decided to dress up as Nemo.
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The party began on Keith’s boat at 5 pm, and the toasts began immediately thereafter. It proved to be a good jump-start to a fun and very late night, with visits to various bars around town, followed by
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tours on each others’ boats. We finally finished up around 3 am!
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Of course, there was always at least one (more typically, especially when Abby and Jourdan were here) sunset beers and snacks around the campfire per week.
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The day before they left, Keith, Abby, Jourdan, Jonathan, and I sailed Gratitude to a nearby anchorage (South River) to hang out, swim, and explore.
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It was a beautiful area, and we had pretty much the entire river to ourselves all day. The the water temperature was wonderful.
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However, the ride back to Oriental turned out to be a bit more adventurous than we expected. Not long after we had started the engine and weighed anchor, we heard a screeching from the engine compartment. Examination revealed that the alternator wasn’t spinning; the screeching was the belt moving around its pulley, but not turning it. Closer inspection showed that the belt was loose so Jonathan and I adjusted the alternator to tighten the belt, and that seemed to solve the problem! We continued on to Oriental.
After we departed South River and entered the much larger Neuse river, we decided to hoist the Genoa and sail back to Oriental. That went well until a large thunderstorm formed right over Oriental, moving our way. As it got closer, we decided to douse the sail and just motor until we were through the gusty weather. As it happened, the cell dissipated right before reaching us, leaving us with calm winds, so we continued motoring.
Then, suddenly, the engine started squealing again. We shut it down, and Jonathan went below to check it out. He came back a minute later holding the belt in his hand. One of the pulleys had fallen off the engine and into the bilge! We would not be motoring any further; we would have to get a tow.
Luckily, there is a Towboat U.S. office in Oriental. While I made the appropriate phone calls (because Keith didn’t have a Boat U.S. membership), Jonathan sailed us closer to Oriental. With everything arranged, we dropped anchor off the main channel into Oriental and waited on the towboat, which arrived about 30 minutes later, just before dark.
And let me tell you, this guy was good! He helped us weigh anchor, quickly set up a tow line, and took us into the harbor.
He slowed down as we entered the marina, and I wondered how he was going to get our 30,000 lb boat into Keith’s slip yet stopped without ramming anything. (Sailboats don’t have brakes!) He ended up executing an amazing maneuver to maintain control on Gratitude all the way into the slip.
What he did was lengthen the towline a bit as we very slowly approached Keith’s slip, then directed us to swing around his stern and into the slip. At the same time, he executed a tight 180-degree turn, heading away from the slip, back the way we had come. Our momentum carried us toward the slip, but the tow line, now leading back towards our quarter and controlled by his deft throttle controls, acted as a turning and decelerating lever. There were friends waiting on the dock to receive lines, so the whole maneuver turned into a non-event. It was really excellently executed. Keith was very relieved. Since he did not have Boat U.S., he had to cough up $600 for the tow, but luckily his boat insurance reimbursed him for it all.
All in all, a long and exciting last day for Abby and Jourdan!
Abby and Jourdan had visited Keith for a week from Chicago. They became very enamored with the cruising lifestyle, and went back home trying to figure out a way to make it happen for them. Last I heard, they had signed up for sailing lessons in Chicago! Great first step! Maybe I’ll see them out there someday.