Fall 2024: Family Gatherings

And in the blink of an eye, three months has passed!! Since my last post, we've traversed many miles and visited lots of folks.

We actually left Starry Night for a record three weeks this fall while she was still on the ground in the Deltaville Boatyard. We traveled by car to Connecticut to visit Steve's brother and his wife, Victoria.  While we were there, we enjoyed the fall colors and crisp air. I also had an opportunity to practice speaking Spanish with Victoria's parents, which improved my skills immensely!  (It also highlighted how far I still have to go 😏)

Fall Colors in New Milford, CT

Enjoying an Indian Summer Afternoon with Family

Never ones to sit idle, Steve spent some time cutting down some fallen trees on David's property.  I helped haul the logs to the splitting station. After Steve split the wood, I also helped stack it.  The weather during our visit was fantastic and it felt great to be outside. 

Maintaining Physical Fitness - Northern style

Steve's brother, David, loves to grow things and had a bumper crop of tomatillos this year. He told me that he had been planning to make salsa verde with them, so one day decided to take on that project.

Roasted Tomatillos

  

(LOTS of) Salsa Verde

Another highlight of our visit in Connecticut was the evolving relationship between David and Victoria's dog, Coco, and our buddy, Jake. 

Coco has always been a bit protective and not necessarily friendly with dogs other than his "brother", Gonzo, who passed away a year ago, so we weren't sure how he and Jake would get along. Victoria brought Coco outside to meet Jake as soon as we arrived and, after a few introductory sniffs, seemed to accept Jake's presence. I put Jake's bed in the living room next to Gonzo's bed, but ever the contrarian, Jake decided that he wanted to lay down on Gonzo's bed. To our surprise, Gonzo didn't seem to mind! He did, however, reclaim his bed anytime Jake got up for some reason. 🤣

Steve and David Relax and Oversee Reluctant Companions, Jake and Coco

As our visit continued, Jake and Coco developed their own routine. After each of them had eaten their dinner, they meandered to the other's dish to check for any morsel that may have been left behind (although neither of them found anything other than a bowl that had been fastidiously licked clean). Nevertheless, they then each returned to their own dish to check again, just to be sure. 

Coco also adopted a protective stance toward Jake. Jake, who is 15 years old now, is rapidly losing strength in his hind legs and struggled on the rocky, hilly terrain in David's yard. Coco began coming out with Jake and keeping watch while Jake took care of business.

By the end of our visit, the two of them were best buds.

Fast Friends:  Coco and Jake 

We returned to Deltaville at the end of October and had about a week's worth of work remaining before our planned launch on November 7th. 

 

Freshly painted and waxed, Starry Night is launched 

Once we were back in the water, we were anxious to start our southbound journey since we wanted to make it back to Florida in time for Thanksgiving with our parents. We had hoped to be able sail for most of our return trip and to take the ocean route to Cape Lookout, but - as with previous attempts - weather conditions were not conducive, and we ended up motoring most of the way and spent a lot of time in the Intracoastal Waterway.

The good news was that our freshly sanded and painted hull improved our speed by about a knot and a half and so we averaged over 6 kts for most of the trip even without wind.

Our route from Deltaville to Swansboro was a familiar one and we stayed at many of the anchorages we have used before:

• Deltaville to Portsmouth
• Portsmouth to Bucks Island
• Bucks Island to Pungo River
• Pungo River to Broad Creek
• Broad Creek to Swansboro 

I was pleasantly surprised that - even though we had spent three months without sailing or operating the boat - my skills were intact, and Steve and I operated as a very efficient team. The years of experience were finally evident, and I felt great! My newfound confidence was dampened once we reached Swansboro, though. 

At our last stop in Swansboro, we had docked flawlessly in front of an audience of patrons at the restaurant overlooking the city dock. This time, our reservation was on a face dock and so I expected that it would be even easier since we wouldn't have to back-in to a narrow, u-shaped slip. 

Swansboro can be especially tricky because, at max flow, the current rips. We arrived at max flow, but Steve expertly "parallel parked" Starry Night in our assigned slot. I tossed the lines to some helpful captains from the other boats docked there and thought we were home free.  Then we realized that our stern extended beyond the end of the dock and that we wouldn't be able to get off of the boat. This meant that we needed to turn Starry Night around so that the dock was on our port side and our stern would be adjacent to the dock, with our bow extending past the end of the dock.  Another boat was also docked on the face dock and so we were going to have to back into the spot with the current pushing us towards the other boat. It also meant that Steve would not be able to see the dock since our helm is on the starboard side. We've gotten pretty good with docking, even on Steve's blind side, ever since we got our headsets which allow us to communicate clearly during the process, so we weren't especially worried. 

Steve steered Starry Night in a circle to turn her around while I moved fenders and lines from the starboard side to the port side. We made our approach, and I tossed the lines to our three helpers. I then quickly learned why a boat can only have one captain. Steve had a plan in mind to bring the boat close to the dock, which involved spring lines to use as pivot points and also to provide an axial fixity to prevent Starry Night from being pushed by the current into the boat parked at our stern. Each of the three people holding lines had their own ideas about how the docking should be done and were all talking simultaneously and tightening and letting loose lines without coordinating with me. So, there we were...Starry Night three or four feet off the dock, with a current too strong for the assistants to pull us in using the lines and me totally unable to give directions because the boundary conditions keep changing as each individual let a line off of a cleat or tied onto one. 

One of the gentlemen kept (angrily) telling me that he has thirty years of experience, implying that if we would just do what he said that we would easily be docked. Unfortunately, none of the three assistants have a catamaran (which behaves completely differently from a monohull, a trawler, or a cabin cruiser), and what they didn't know what that Steve was already doing the things that they suggested but that our rudder was overpowered and the approach that they were suggesting wouldn't work. Eventually, the guy with thirty years of experience got so frustrated that he left and went back to his boat. Steve came over to the port side to discuss the approach with the other helpers and we were finally able to finish docking.  

The experience was quite upsetting to me, since I felt that it was my job to direct the people on the dock appropriately.  Steve was able to assess the situation less emotionally and said that it was impossible for me to do so with so many cooks in the kitchen. As usual, we conducted a "lessons-learned" session afterwards and my main take-away was that I need to firmly direct others accordingly, rather than allow others to take over the reins. Growth is a never-ending process!

The next day, we departed Swansboro with our sights set on Carolina Beach. Unfortunately, we forgot to check the bridge schedules before leaving and spent 2.5 hours waiting on an opening at a bridge that was undergoing maintenance. Some lessons need to be learned more than once. 😢 That evening we stopped at Top Sail and then proceeded to Carolina Beach the next day. 

We normally stay at the Carolina Beach Mooring Field when we are there, but this time there were no free balls. We were planning to just anchor nearby but heavy winds were expected and the dockmaster recommended that we see if we could stay at a dock in the Carolina Beach State Park. We had looked into this dock before and been told that they could only accommodate 40 ft. long boats, but we decided to call anyway just in case. As luck would have it, the State Park was able to accommodate us on their day dock. It was quite shallow, but we decided to give it a try since we only draw 3'8". 

We stayed for two days to wait out the weather and really enjoyed this spot. They had laundry facilities, showers, a small gift shop, hiking trails, and groceries and restaurants nearby. It was also super-cheap - even less than the mooring balls, which do not come with access to any amenities.

After the storm passed, we finally had a window of calm seas and light winds and decided to do a 48+ hour ocean trip from Carolina Beach to St. Augustine. We were hoping to be able to sail at least half of the time.

The seas were indeed calm, but the winds were a little too light.  We were only able to sail about six hours out of the total travel time of 50 hours.  It was still lovely, though, and we saved several days (~180 NM) by going offshore as compared to taking the ICW route. 

Calm Transit from Cape Fear to St. Augustine

We spent a couple of days in St. Augustine and then finished the journey with day trips from St. Augustine to South Daytona, South Daytona to Cocoa Village, and Cocoa Village to Indian Harbor Beach. 

We arrived a few days before Thanksgiving and enjoyed the holiday with Steve's parents and sister, my parents, and our great-nephew, Jacob.

Thanksgiving 2024

As in previous years, we're spending the Christmas holidays in Florida to celebrate with our families and then plan to return to the Bahamas for another winter/spring season of water fun! 

Happy Holidays to you all!