Short hop

I did all of 50 miles (nautical miles) today, which is what "Ti Moun" says is his maximum daily distance. Sounds like brother Limey !
I was up at 5, impatient to leave that anchorage where I have already lost almost 2 days. But I must wait, since I promised "Ti Moun" that I would wait for them and get through the bridge with them.
So, at 7 we are under way en route towards the bridge which I have seen offer openings to early birds going north.
As we arrived almost to touching it, it stayed closed, which is unusual for that bridge which has one of the best timing of the ICW. While I am doing a 360, the bridge tender "I am trying to open the bridge !". Did not sound encouraging, and I could already picture myself wasting another day.
Fortunately, after a few scary minutes, the bridge finally opened, and we were on our way to a routine 50 miler to Pungo Creek just outside Belhaven.
Tonight, I am having dinner on "Ti Moun" and they asked me whether I had some books in french. Shame on me, first of all, I have very few books since Diana was going to come with an eBook reader, and on the very few I have, all of them are in english. To save the day, I offered them the french DVD on Eric Tabarly, and I will try and get forgiveness with a good bottle of Bordeaux wine.
I will probably sleep well after that and won't have time to make an entry, which is why I am making an early one.

Standstill

Another day sacrificed to the great God of Northeaster ! From one boat anchored in the Little Alligator river (me) we grew to 2 then 3 then came a french cat named "Ti Moun" from Pointe a Pitre.
I spent the whole day very busy doing nothing, partly because my lower back is acting up again and I can hardly move.
Mostly I kept monitoring the weather forecast broadcast by the Coast Guard, as they probably are the ones to advise the bridge when it can restart normal operations. From what I hear, the wind is supposed to subside starting at midnight tonight, so I am planning on an early start but a short day, to stay with "Ti Moun", and then move on to Morehead City.

Standstill

Another day sacrificed to the great God of Northeaster ! From one boat anchored in the Little Alligator river (me) we grew to 2 then 3 then came a french cat named "Ti Moun" from Pointe a Pitre.
I spent the whole day very busy doing nothing, partly because my lower back is acting up again and I can hardly move.
Mostly I kept monitoring the weather forecast broadcast by the Coast Guard, as they probably are the ones to advise the bridge when it can restart normal operations. From what I hear, the wind is supposed to subside starting at midnight tonight, so I am planning on an early start but a short day, to stay with "Ti Moun", and then move on to Morehead City.

The day that was not

Miserable day today. I left Coinjock at 7:00 am with rain and strong northerly wind and a 52 degrees temperature. I was hoping that the wind would let up in the afternoon and that I would be able to get past the Alligator River bridge. Unfortunately, this was not to be and I had to anchor in the Little Alligator River creek in 10 feet of water, but using all of 80 feet of chain, to make sure as this anchorage is not protected at all from the Northeasterly wind.
The VHF in the cockpit, the best one, did not like the rain and stopped working. I tried to raise the bridge using the inside one and the hand held one, but I guess that there is no one on the bridge in these conditions. After the day lost at Coinjock, this is another day gone. At this rate, I wonder how long it will take me to reach Fort Lauderdale.
Hopefully, the weather is supposed to improve after Wednesday and I might be able to go outside most of the way.

Adrenaline alley

What a week !
First, scrambling to try and find a crew, at least for the first part of the trip. A lot of brothers and friends mobilized themselves, and thanks especially to brother Leve Taud, from the Normandie table, I now have company in the person of Jean-Francois Leroy, who will join me in Fort Lauderdale in June and stay with me at least up to Tahiti and possibly to New Caledonia. Great relief for me.
Then for the remainder of the week, I was chasing time, with the freezer, the genset and the electronics lagging behind. I still had to have the cables on the steering system changed, but that did not worry me too much as it was in the hands of Cary.
On Friday morning, I ran the genset, just to make sure, and disaster struck again. The beast was again spraying itself with water. I shut down in a hurry and called Don to come have a look. To cut the story short, it turned out that the exhaust elbow where the cooling water comes in had become totally blocked and the back pressure had made the cap of the expansion bottle (which is located way below the engine ???) pop out and it was spraying the coolant in the engine room.
Luckily, Don found a new stainless steel elbow in town and put it in place, and also relocated the expansion bottle to be level with the top of the engine. When we ran the unit, the outflow of the cooling water was at least fifty times as much as it used to be. I hope this is the end of the problems for that piece of equipment.
On the steering cables, after talking to Edson, it turned out that what was important was to change the conduits, along with the cables. So we ordered those together with new fittings and now the steering, at last, feels like I was expecting all along. I can now turn the wheel with my little finger with no efforts. The windvane and the autopilot will certainly appreciate.
On Wednesday, the brothers of the Chesapeake Bay table came to the boat to drink to my going away. Nice sent off from a group that I love dearly.
Saturday morning, some of them were at it again, to help me cast the lines. Although the boat was still in a big mess with lots of sorting out and cleaning to do, I cast off the lines at 7:44 a.m. with Mike, my riding buddy, coming along for the ride to Coinjock.
It was very important for me to get under way at the time I had said I would.
Amids showers and strong southerly winds, we arrived in Coinjock at 4:00 p.m., where Rob and Holly on Hamshire Rose were waiting for me for a last reunion. Mike's son Michael was also there and we had a very pleasant evening together. For the first time since I have been coming to Coinjock, I finally had the prime rib for which it is so famous, and I certainly was not disappointed.
I decided to stay in Coinjock on Sunday as I need to clean and sort things out before making a run for Fort Lauderdale but I will play it safe and comfortable. No ETA to comply with . . .

A very wet week on the dry

Monday morning, as planned, Papy Jovial was hauled out at Portsmouth Boating Center. Of course, as soon as she got on the dry, the skies opened up and we were in for three days of continuous thunderstorms and showers !

The plan is to give it two coats of anti-fouling check out again the steering system and install a grease fitting for the rudder post. As Papy Jovial came out, I noticed that the zinc anode on the shaft had disappeared. Then, looking closer, it appeared that the cutlass bearing was nowhere to be seen.

So, we took out the rudder, then the prop, then the shaft to recover the cutlass bearing which had found its way up the shaft. Then, we found out that the shaft itself showed signs of heavy wear and tear at the location of the packing in the stuffing box.

So, we ended up changing the shaft, putting new clamps and a new stuffing box. The grease fitting works fine and I know that with 50 strokes of the grease gun, I can practically fill the whole tube around the rudder post with fresh teflon 

based grease. The steering was already working fine, with no further problem w

ith the autopilot and the windvane working well without having to disconnect the piston from the electric auto pilot.

Meanwhile, I checked out and marked the chain, keeping 160 feet of chain. Besides, I have to anchor rodes with a short length of chain each and 200 feet of rope. I also changed the line on the roller furler, and I will use the old one for an anchor marker.

The freezer problem turned out to be a loose connection which caused the voltage to drop almost a full volt. Easy to fix.

I installed a third solar panel (125 watts) and even with freezer and refrigerator on all day, leaving the control entirely to the thermostats, I gained electricity during the day. I probably won't have to charge the batteries very often, since on long crossing, there will be no autopilot but the wind vane.

I also had a handle installed above the chart table, as I know that in very choppy waters, I tend to look for something to grip when I come down from the cockpit to the chart table.

And the computer came back, and within less than one evening, I had almost everything reinstalled and running.

So far, nothing on the horizon as far as finding a crew for the first part of the trip. I am not very happy at the prospect of going solo all the way to Tahiti, but that is what it looks like right now.

Less than a week to go, but fortunately, not much to do on Papy Jovial. This week, we will change the cables on the steering system, replace the hose which goes from the top of the valves cover to the air filter in the engine (PCV system), and do most of the provisionning. I will also check out the new water catchment that I had made by Mike and which will cover the whole of the front part of the boat.

I almost forgot one important piece of information. If you want to follow Papy Jovial on the map, go to the left of the page, scroll down a little and click on the link "Where is Papy Jovial ?". This will open up  world map showing all the sailboats being monitored by Purple Link. If you want to only see Papy Jovial, click on "asset map" and go down to pull down menu until you find Papy Jovial. You can click on the boat to get more info. You can also zoom on the map and see more details on the weather I am having.

Still, a busy week ahead . .  . .

Setback

The week had started very well, with all the work on the sails and the rigging completed, most of the work on the genset and electric wiring done, the transponder installed and working and almost half of the electronic done.

What is left is to change the "bird" up the mast, as the wind direction sensor was bent in July in the storm we went through with more than 60 knots of wind. I also want them to check thoroughly the SSB.

The list being well shorted , together with Eric, I took time to help Stew take his boat out of the water which was done on Friday. Meanwhile, Stew and Diana moved most of tthe stuff that they will need for the next two years on Papy Jovial.

Saturday morning, while I was cleaning car and boat, I was told that Stew had broken his leg. I went to his boat, and there he was, lying on the ground, with a right leg that looked that it was broken very close beneath the knee. While the medics took him to the hospital, and thereafter, all we could do was wait until we could find out how serious it was.

This morning, the truth is plain and painful. Stew is out of commission for 6 to 9 months, if not more, and their coming along with me is no longer possible.

All that will take some time to digest and for everyone, but mostly Stew and Diana, to readjust to the new reality. Having their boat on the dry, and Stew being unable to go up or down stairs, they are for all practical purposes, homeless, with Stew having quit his job two days ago. Not a very happy situation. Hopefully, the situation will sort itself out, somehow also with the help of the brotherhood.

As for the trip, I will have now to scramble to find a crew to go with me. I could probably do it alone, but there is not much fun that way. I have done it before, on much shorter trips, and it feels like making a delivery, not like cruising for fun. So, I have made a few phone calls, and now I can only wait and hope. . . .