Cool Days and Cold Nights

The last few days have been uncomfortably cold. We are wearing at least 4 layers of clothes and most mornings and evenings can see our breaths! It’s time to move south.

We spent the weekend in Elizabeth City. We now have fresh laundry, a full gas tank, lots of food and all smell nice. We checked out the Museum of the Albemarle, which showed the history of the area, as well as an exhibit on the Plott hounds, moonshine and the Coastguard. On Monday we brought the boat over to the shipyards and they lifted her out for us. It was a little nerve racking seeing her hang ,but Sal reassured me that seeing the lift was capable of 60 tons, Second Wind should be in no danger of breaking the straps. Once out of the water we took off the rudder and put it back with some washers to snug it up. We took a trace of the centerboard (in case we lose it – hopefully we don’t though) and changed the centerboard line to a stronger one. The owner had a look at the motor and showed us how to adjust the idle, but didn’t have a mechanic around. We fixed it so that it doesn’t stall while idling lower but will still need to get it serviced. We wish we knew more about engines in order to do more of the work ourselves, but I’m terrified of breaking something and then having it cost more to repair. We were done in an hour and she was placed gently back in the water. The rudder now works great! There’s less play in it then we’ve ever had it before.

Monday night we got invited out to this gentleman’s boat for dinner. We met him the first day arriving in Elizabeth City and seen him almost everywhere around town. He is fixing up a 28 foot Cape Dory that he has on land that he will be putting in the water in spring. We had a delicious spaghetti dinner and great conversation. He had a small wood stove in his boat and it was the warmest I’d been in probably 2 weeks as I sat beside it.

(Blimp factory outside of Elizabeth City, NC)

Tuesday morning, we woke up at 5am!!! We left at 6am with a few other boats and motored out of Elizabeth city and towards Albemarle Sound. We had the wind behind us for the first time in a long while. We put up the sails and were surfing down the small waves. We entered the Alligator River and had a lovely sail with sails wing on wing. We had to start the motor up at 2 or we would have never made it to our anchorage by sundown, which unfortunately is an hour early now a days. The river is protected by swamp on both sides and we had a peaceful evening aside from the military fighter planes flying around overhead. They stopped by 8pm and we had a quiet starry night.

(Moon reflecting on the calm water at dusk)