Bureau of Waits and Measures

As grateful as we are to have been kept safe at the marina in New Bern, we nevertheless were very eager to get back out on the water. Our days at the marina were been fairly productive and we got to the tasks that would otherwise have stayed low on the to do list.

Ellen modified the mainsail cover so the spinnaker bail can stick out even when the cover is zipped. (Landlubbers: sailors who fly true spinnakers use the bail, a stainless steel ring permanently fixed to the mast, to attach a spinnaker pole to the spinnaker sail because spinnakers need a pole to act kind of like a boom. We do not fly a spinnaker because downwind we fly our asymmetrical sail which does not require a pole.* (We actually sold the pole this spring…it’s a 14’ aluminum tube that telescopes to around 20’ long. Takes up tons of space on the deck and is a great object on which to stub a toe.)) We use the bail on the mast as an attachment point for our laundry line which also serves as an anti-foul line – keeps the multitude of lines from snagging on the hatch or on Mr. Flowerpot when we are underway.

Our little short wave buddy.

Yesterday I started messing with the short wave radio. We are not really in a place where we need the weather broadcasts yet, but it makes sense to re-familiarize ourselves with the care and feeding of the radio. So this morning I got up at 6:30 to catch the weather and the cruise net checkins. We picked up some chatter from at least as far away as Florida.

What we learned, aside from the welcome news that this week’s crop of Atlantic storms will not be impacting the East Coast in a meaningful way, is that the ICW is closed for much of northern South Carolina. We also learned that winds predicted for Monday and Tuesday look promising for the overnight sail south.

So our plan to sail offshore has become a necessity. We are glad it was our choice first and only became a requirement after we committed. I’m guessing there are a lot of snowbirds up in New England and the Chesapeake and Norfolk who are panicking. Lots of those guys really do not like to venture out into the ocean.

It remains to be seen if we will get the swimming we crave at Cape Lookout. Our pal Matthew told us what he read about the nastiness that has been washing out to sea as the floodwaters make their way down the rivers and out into the Atlantic. Then we saw this beautiful/horrifying satellite photo from September 19.  

We are pinning our hopes for a cool cabin on this little devil.

Our departure from New Bern today was dependent on another UPS delivery. We decided to place an order for two new cabin fans and a bilge blower. When we run the engine for longer than 15 minutes or so, the Westerbeke puts an incredible amount of heat into the cabin. The last thing we need is more heat around here, so the bilge blower will suck all the engine heat out and exhaust it through a vent at the stern. There was a blower in the bilge when we bought the boat, but it never worked well because its bearings were shot. So all the ducting and wiring is in place and the installation should be a piece of cake. 

UPS made the delivery before 12:30 so we filled up the water tanks and headed down to Oriental this afternoon. We are now tied up at the Oriental Town Dock. Once again, if you are reading this between September 26 and September 28 you can see Cupcake at the dock. https://towndock.net/harborcam 

At sea once again (ok, just the Neuse River, but still…)

While that page is loading for you let me explain the title of today’s post. “Waits” because we have been waiting for storms to pass, waiting for deliveries to arrive, waiting to get back on the move. Northwest Creek Marina is a pleasant place, but it’s not near anything. As soon as we got to Oriental, we went for a walk in town. (And this town got beat up by Florence. There’s a smell throughout town that’s a mixture of wet insulation and shrimp boat. It’s not offensive or oppressive, but I will forever associate this pre-mildew odor with hurricanes.)

The “Measures” part of the title has to do with what I learned when I filled the water tanks this morning. We already knew that our stern and our bow tanks are about the same size because we regularly pump the full stern tank forward to the empty bow tank. (Remember that the water maker only fills the stern tank, we generally draw water from the bow tank. When the bow tank is empty we transfer water from stern to bow and then fill the stern tank using the water maker.)

Today was the first time the stern tank was empty and I had to fill it with jerry cans instead of directly from a hose. (The marina only had water available at A and B docks, too far for our hose to reach. So I trundled jug after jug to the boat and filled the tanks that way.) Figured that it would make sense to mark on my tank gauge where the water level was at 15, 25, 35, 45 gallons since I knew how much I was putting in.

To my astonishment, although Pearson advertised the boat as holding 100 gallons of fresh water, the stern tank was overflowing at just under 35 gallons! Our 110 gallon capacity (counting both tanks and the two jerry cans we keep full on deck) just shrank to less than 80 gallons. This piece of information changes our water consumption not one bit. But really, how does a manufacturer make a 30 gallon mistake? Tomorrow we are measuring the boat to make sure she really is 36’ long.

More sailboat math: If a boat that travels at an average speed of 5 knots must travel 20 miles to reach its destination in Oriental and prefers to tied up to the dock by 5pm, what time is the latest she can depart the dock in New Bern?

*The asymmetrical sail is Ellen’s favorite piece of sailing equipment. We fly it when winds are below about 15 knots and we are heading more or less downwind. The sail is beautiful, the boat behaves predictably and calmly and smoothly with it up. Generally if the asymmetrical is flying, we are having a very relaxed time and are pretty proud of our saltiness. 

Alternatively, downwind sailing without the asymmetrical is slow and sloppy and frustrating. Sailing with a true spinnaker is a frustrating, hands-on, high-stress proposition. A spinnaker may be faster than the asymmetrical, but the tradeoff is not worth it to us.

Nothing goes to waste on Cupcake. A cooler full of ice water invited some dunking…

some dumping…

and some dripping.

Also: sailboat gear tidbit. I got two of these fantastic little siphons for maybe ten bucks apiece. We use one for fresh water, the other for diesel and other petroleum products. They aren’t much more than a tube connected to a brass fitting with a marble inside. Put the marble end in the jug of liquid, shake the tube up and down until there’s fluid in the tube, and you’ve got a siphon.

Years of getting a mouthful of gasoline every time I tried to siphon gas into one empty old car or another and all I needed was one of these marvels. Go get two. They are excellent.