Christmas Shopping in the OBX

A wave of warm weather lighted on the SE for a few days in early December so June and I took a little break and headed down to the NC coast for a few days.  The plan was to combine sightseeing with checking out a few boats that I found online.

Oriental

We got up early on Sunday morning and a 4 1/2 hour drive put us in Oriental before noon. Oriental's location near the mouth of the Neuse River, proximity to Pamlico Sound, and the Intra Coastal Waterway has made it the Sailing Capital of North Carolina.  

I showed June Oriental's town area and we had lunch near the town docks.  The first boat I wanted to see was a 27 O'Day docked at Sea Harbor Yacht Club.  Her owner, Bob, owns a sail shop in New Bern and we had talked back in the summer when I had looked at the 30 Irwin and wanted pricing on sail cleaning.                                      

Bob has put a lot of work into his boat.  His version has the galley on the starboard side and 2 quarter berths aft. The galley has a propane stove and oven and an electric refrigerator tucked into the stbd quarter berth.   He had just completed a major power upgrade.  A new heavy duty motor bracket supported a 2012 20 hp Honda 4 stroke outboard with electric start and tilt. He had also added a 20 gal aluminium fuel tank fabricated to fit in the port lazzerette.  Because of the new outboard, the asking price, while fair, was well above much newer 27 footers with inboard diesel engines.  June liked the boat but said that she thought something larger would be more comfortable - who am I to argue?

The 28 O'Day that we saw next was also considered 'cramped'.  It was in the process of being reclaimed from a long period of neglect so I wasn't too comfortable with its history.

As for Oriental, June said, "It may be a great place to park a boat, but it's not such a great place to park a wife"

With that, I decided the best course was to take the Minnesott/Cherry Point Ferry across the river and head down to Beaufort for the night.

Beaufort

Now we were in June's wheelhouse!  Beaufort is a beautiful little seaside town, filled with historic homes and towering oak trees.  The shops and restaurants on Front St. were calling her name.  It is not, however, a great place for sailing inland waters if you have a draft of more than 24".  You have great access to the ocean but that's not the kind of sailing and gunkholing that I want to do.

We found a friendly little B&B named the Ann St. Inn and chatted with the Inn Keeper Donna and her guests before heading off to dinner.  The Beaufort Grocery Company lived up to its recommendation.  Great food and excellent service.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast at the Inn, I called the owner of a 27 Hunter in nearby Atlantic Beach. The shops in Beaufort had yet to open so we drove over to Atlantic Beach. The fog was so thick that you couldn't see for more than a block, so while waiting for the owner's return call, we went back to Beaufort so June could check out the stores that were now open.

                             

It was 1:30 before we hooked up with the Hunter's owner.  At about half the price of Bob's 27 O'Day, the Hunter had a lot going for it.  It needed some TLC to bring it up to snuff but I enjoy that kind of work.  Again, June thought it too small.

New Bern

I had promised to show her New Bern, which we passed on the way to Oriental, so we headed back up that direction and began searching online for a nice B&B.   The breakfast menu at the Hanna House made the decision for us.  Twelve delicious items to choose from and served at your convenience.  Try it, if you're ever in New Bern.  You'll return just for a shot at a new selection from the menu.

If Beaufort captured June's fancy, New Bern really got her attention!  Nestled in the crook of the confluence of the Trent and Neuse rivers, New Bern was once the capital of colonial North Carolina. She's loaded with great restaurants and quaint shops. Locals like to brag that it is the birthplace of Pepsi Cola.

We spent the morning checking out all the shops in town and I managed to stumble across an ad for an S2 9.2C  center cockpit 30 footer.  It was out of my budget range but I wanted June to see the additional space of a 30.                         

Wow! I had no idea how much space a 30' boat could offer.  I had been considering an O'Day 32 CC with the walk-over aft cabin but this baby had a walk thru aft cabin and if you can believe it, an aft head with a tub, although it was only about large enough to wash the dog. The high center cockpit offered great visibility and plenty of room, up and down. (June's comment - "too big")  The dodger and bimini top make for comfortable cruising.  The engine had been replaced with a 16 hp Beta diesel (Kubota) and only had 600 hrs on it.

I was awed.  I have to learn more about the construction of this boat.  Its 4'11" draft is about a foot more than I want but compromise is the name of the game.  I might even consider giving up the sailing convenience of Oriental for the life style choices of New Bern.   Happy wife - happy life.  

Hello Readers!

 

Google's Blogspot is a great tool for creating your own blog on the cheap. I'm having fun rambling on about sailing to anyone out there in the ether who'll take the time to log in.

Blogspot also offers some nice stats that give me an idea of how many page views my site is getting and where my readers are coming from.

Since I have only had one page view so far today,  I would like to give a shout out to that reader from Germany who is using a Firefiox browser on a Windows operating system.   Hey! (we say 'hey' rather than 'hi' in North Carolina)  I hope you're finding something worth returning for.  Please take the time to comment on the blogs you like.  I'd appreciate the feedback.

I've also had readers from the United Kingdom and France.  Not many, but it's a start.

I just started the blog about two weeks ago and the first entry dates back to 2010 when I decided to buy my first sailboat.  I've been following the timeline since then and just caught up to my current hunt for a new boat.

It appears that now that winter has arrived, not many new sailboat ads are being posted.  It may be late winter or early spring before the activity begins to pick up again.

In the meantime,  I intend to just keep ruminating.  Not familiar with the word?  Look it up.  It'll give you something more constructive to do than reading my blog.

Thanks for stopping by,

Paul

Deja Vu

It's seems strange now, coming down my drive through the woods and not seeing at least one sailboat sitting idly under a tarp, waiting patiently for its next misadventure.  For 9 months, when I was out of compliance with June's one boat at a time rule, there had been the beginning of a small fleet.

Seanility and Guppy are both gone now, but the absence of boats in our yard, doesn't guarantee complete harmony on the home front. Aspirations for a larger boat keep the tensions just below the surface.

June's parents lived well into their 90's and I'm confident she will too.  For that reason, she's rightly concerned about making our nest egg last for the duration - whatever that may prove to be. I, on the other hand, have parents that didn't survive their 70's and had little to cheer about the last 10+ years of their lives.

As a consequence, I've always been a live for the moment kind of guy and June is a plan for the future type. After forty seven years of marriage, we're arrived at an uneasy truce. I've learned to be more frugal and she in turn has learned to enjoy splurging on the rare occasion.

Buying a larger boat might be easier if June shared my love for being on the water.  The fact that she doesn't, makes it all seem a bit selfish on my part. And, I understand that it is. But, still I want to find a boat that she might enjoy occasionally.

Boy, that last statement has a deja vu written all over it.  I remember buying a 24' SeaRay Weekender years ago with that same thought in mind.  It had a cabin with a v-berth, alcohol stove, refrigerator and a head.  All the comforts of home, sort of.  Heading out Lighthouse Point inlet, June's first question would be, "When are we coming back?"  It took me nearly 10 years to learn that she wasn't interested, no matter what boat I had.  Therefore, my last power boat was a 20' Boston Whaler Outrage center console open fisherman.

With the sailboat, however, my personal requirements don't differ that much from what I imagine might be more appealing to her. A roomy, stable boat that's easy to single hand, and comfortable to overnight on for a few days at a time. I confess that I harbor no illusions that the overnight on for a few days a time requirement is at all important to June.

Please excuse my little exercise in self-justification here.  I'm just practicing.

32' O'Day Center Cockpit

One of the concerns that I mentioned previously was the placement of the head in most boats in the 28'-30' range.  The proximity of the boat's head and the heads of the occupants of the v-berth is often less than 2 feet.  Not ideal when there's more than one person aboard for the evening.

I stumbled across an ad for a 32' O'Day Center Cockpit that has a head located aft, on the port side of the companionway.  It also has a walk over aft cabin that has a head and a sink.  Privacy for the aft cabin head, however, is nonexistent.  Not much room to build a enclosed head in that small space.

This CC O'Day had a centerboard keel that draws 3' 4" up and 7' 1" down.  Reviewers rave about her ability to sail to windward and how stable she is in rough seas.

                                       

The photos showed it to be in reasonably good condition and it was within my price range.  One drawback was that it was located in Cape May, NJ.

I spoke with the owner, who lives 90 minutes away from the boat, in Philly.  He had a local party interested in the boat and was scheduled to show it on the weekend.  He promised to take pictures of the things that I wanted more info on when he showed the boat.

I started thinking about how I would go about getting the boat from Cape May, NJ to Oriental.  I don't have enough experience or chutzpah to try to take an unfamiliar boat offshore from Cape May to the Outer Banks or even as far south as Norfolk, Va, where I could take the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) south.

That left a long voyage, up the Delaware River to the C and D Canal, through to the Chesapeake and then down to Norfolk, before taking the Dismal Swap Canal south to Albemarle Sound.  The whole trip might take two weeks.

Unfortunately, the boat was sold before I even had a chance to see it.  Fortunately, the boat was sold to someone other than me before Super Storm Hurricane Sandy pounded the hell out of the Jersey shore a week later.  

These are pretty rare boats, particularly with the centerboard keel and usually demand more money than I can afford to spend.  I'll keep my eyes peeled for another one.

Selling Guppy - The Line Forms Here

Selling Guppy couldn't have been easier.  She was in great condition and well appointed for gunkholing.

I  bought her at a fire sale price and was only looking to get back that investment and the cost of the long list of the improvements I made to her.

                                              

Advertised on Craig's list for $3200, her sail inventory included a roller furling jib (with new jib sock), a bright red drifter and a main sail  - all in good condition. 

•  Bow and stern rails with stainless steel boarding ladder. 
•  Outboard bracket with a 2001 Mercury 4 stroke 4 hp outboard
•  bimini top
•  new VHF radio with stern rail mounted antenna
•  new porta potti
•  framed companionway and forward hatch screens
•  6 round opening ports with screens
•  new 12 volt battery
•  new automatic bilge pump
•  new AC shore power plug with power strip
•  phone charging outlet
•  new bottom paint
•  10# danforth anchor with 150' of rode
•  modified centerboard trunk and pivot bolt
•  galvanized single axle, break-away trailer with new winch, new spare tire - all wheels galvanized, new  trailer lights

They were lining up to buy her.  I had immediate calls from three potential buyers - all wanting first shot at her.

She went to a nice Delta Airline pilot, named Jeff, who lived the closest and was persistent about being the first to see her. He didn't hesitate to take her at asking price as soon as he laid eyes on her.  I had to call the other two guys and break the news that she had been sold.

I was happy to be able to turn Guppy over to someone who would really appreciate her.  I gave Jeff a lesson on how to step the mast and rig the sails.  He also extracted a promise from me to be available by phone to answer any questions he might have.

We both enjoyed the transaction and have kept in touch.  Maybe we'll even go for a sail.

Solo Gunkholing on the Neuse

I thought I owed it to Guppy to see how we'd fare on our own.  Just the two of us dinking around on the Neuse for a few days, exploring creeks and coves.  She was now set up nicely for single handing and Joe had given me the confidence to try it on my own.  

Day One - Gunkholing

I put in at the ramp in Oriental again.  It didn't take much longer solo that it had for two of us.  I had become pretty adept at stepping the mast by myself.  I had also learned from our last trip that less is better so I left a lot of the 'stuff' at home.

There was a nice breeze coming out of the SE, so I sailed up river for several miles, came about near the ferry crossing at Minnesott Beach and worked my way back down to Adams Creek where I planned to spend the night

There's a nice little cove off Adams Creek, just south of where it meets the Neuse.  I dropped the hook and settled back with a cool rum and tonic to enjoy the sunset.  It was a quiet, bug free, evening.

It had been a long day, so I turned in early, choosing to try out the larger port side quarterberth.  You can't sleep on your back in these quarterberths because there isn't enough vertical clearance for your feet and I only have size 9 feet.  The manufacturer addressed this problem by raising the cockpit, the year after Guppy was built.  I spent a restless night trying to find a comfortable position.

Day Two - Up the Creek

I awoke at dawn to another beautiful day, fired up my little single burner butane stove and made coffee.  It was a such a peaceful anchorage that I was in no hurry to leave.  I ate a simple breakfast, checked the weather forecast on the VHF radio and stretched out in the cockpit to read for a while, waiting for a breeze to blow away the morning calm.

Today's plan was to check out the dock on Baird's Creek.  I had seen it from the shore side but I wanted to see how long it would take to motor to it from the mouth of the river. The owner had warned me that the entrance to the creek tended to shoal up and a 4' draft was about the most it would accommodate. Guppy wouldn't be a problem but a larger boat might be challenged.

When I reached the Neuse, the wind was building from the same direction as the day before, making my trip up river an pleasurable one.  It was about a 20 mile journey to reach the dock on Baird's Creek from the previous night's anchorage.

It was a beautiful morning and the wind was cooperating. I was moving along at a nice clip, listening to music and taking in the scenery.  Scattered troups of yellow butterflies were flitting low over the surface of the river working their way to the distant shore.

Comic Relief

I was watching the Minnesott-Havelock ferries pass a half mile ahead of me when suddenly the calm was shattered by the sight of the mast toppling backward toward the cockpit, dragging the sails with it. Deja vu all over again.

I had never replaced that damn quick release clevis pin, in the headstay shackle, like I planned to!  All the work I had done to the boat and I had forgotten that one small but obviously important detail.

Thankfully, nothing was damaged but my pride.  I corralled the mast, boom and sails and closed the newly repaired companionway hatch that had miraculously escaped further damage.  I lowered the outboard, cranked it up and headed slowly for the point on the north shore just below the ferry terminal.

I drove Guppy up onto a sandy beach and began to figure out a plan of action.  I couldn't raise that mast by myself with the main and jib attached so the first task was to remove the main sail and then try to furl the jib.  I went forward and jumped over the bow rail onto the beach.

Instantly, I was assaulted by dozens of horse flies. There was no escaping them.  I beat at them with my hat as I fought to remove the sails.  Even though I was trying to hurry, progress was slowed by having to respond to the constant biting.  I removed the headstay from the mast, layed it out on the beach and furled the jib, swearing profusely and beating constantly at the flies.  I got the boom and the main sail off of the mast and stored them in the cockpit.  

Still battling the ravenous horse flies, I reattached the headstay to the top of mast, rigged my control line and quickly stepped the mast - all while flailing away at my tormentors.  Visions of Bogart and Hepburn battling swarms of mosquitos in the movie, African Queen ran through my mind.

This time, I wrapped wire around the headstay shackle to keep the quick release pin from coming loose again. I couldn't stand the flies a moment longer so I pushed off the beach and headed out into the the river.  At least a dozen airborne hitch hikers tagged along, reluctant to end their feast.

I continued beating at the hungry horse flies with my cap as I re-rigged the main and unfurled jib.  I was soon under way again and leaving behind the majority of the swarming carnivores.  

Guppy was none the worse for wear and I had given the ferry boat passengers a funny story to tell their friends.

Baird's Creek still lay about 5 miles away and by the time I reached it's entrance, I had managed to kill the last of those blood sucking little bastards that followed me onto the river.

Baird's Creek

The mouth of Baird's Creek is pretty wide but you have to keep to the winding channel on the east side if you don't want to run aground.   I followed the creek back about a mile before I found the small ten slip 'marina' that had been built to accommodate the interior lots of Baird's Creek Point.  Timing is everything and this developer had missed the mark.  Not many of the waterfront lots had sold much less the interior lots.  He was anxious to get whatever revenue he could out of the property.  It took about 25 minutes motoring to get back out to the river and begin the sail back down toward Oriental.

After the run in with the horse flies, I realized how lucky I had been in the previous night's anchorage on Adam's Creek.  I decided to see if my luck would hold for a second night there.

The winds were now pretty much in my face as I made my way slowly down river.  I began tacking back and forth across the river, pointing as high into the wind as Guppy would allow.  After about an hour, I had gone maybe a half a mile.  It seemed that every other tack brought me back to about the same place.  

That's what they make auxiliary power for.  I cranked up the 4 hp Mercury and pushed through the chop.  We weren't setting any speed records but at least we were making headway.

I arrived back at the Adams Creek anchorage at dusk and it took me three tries to get the anchor to hold this time.  I temporarily rigged the new LED anchor light from Fiji under the bimini top and used it as a reading light as I settled back with a book and cool rum and tonic.  I turned it fairly early again.  All the fresh air and excitement had drained me.

Tsunami

I woke up about midnight to the growing sound of waves crashing against the nearby shore.  Before my addled brain could begin to process what it was, Guppy began swaying violently.  Gear began flying all over the cabin as she swung, laterally, through an arc of what seemed like nearly 180 degrees.  As soon as she began to settle, I heard a new round of waves begin to pound the shore and we were lifted on another roller coaster crest and trough.

It was pitch black outside.  I couldn't see anything.  All I could figure was that a large fishing trawler had been in a big hurry on the ICW.  The captain obviously had no regard for the havoc his wake created.

Fearing that my anchor had torn loose and not wanting to experience another tsunami,  I weighed anchor and moved further up the creek.  Hopefully out of harm's way and not into a waiting horde of insects.

The rest of the night passed fitfully.  I never could seem to find a comfortable sleeping position.

Day Three - A New Day is Dawning

The new dawn brought a lightly overcast sky and a freshening breeze.  The coffee helped swab the cobwebs from my head.  I'd arrived at a decision sometime during the long night.  Rather than keep Guppy at a dock here on the Neuse, I was going to take her back home and put her on the market while there was still some good sailing weather left for a new owner to enjoy.  

Following a leisurely breakfast, I cranked up the engine and began the trip against the wind back to the ramp in Oriental.

This trip had convinced me that I needed a larger boat.  One with a hull design that would allow me to sail to windward rather than motor.  A more spacious cabin with a galley and head and a saloon (or is it salon?) that has room for four people to kick back and enjoy a meal or a few drinks.  Most importantly, a comfortable berth that afforded you a good night's sleep.

The market for 28' - 30' sailboats with the specs I was looking for was reasonable when compared to power boats.  It was time to find Guppy a good home and begin the search for a new boat.  And, since I would need June's buy in to spend more money on that larger boat, I would dutifully adhere to the one boat at a time rule.

Tinkering with Guppy

I don't know how long it'll take to figure out what kind of boat I want or to find it when I do.

There was some nice fall sailing weather ahead so I was playing with the idea of finding a reasonably priced slip and leaving Guppy in the water on the Neuse for a few months.

Before I could do that, she needed to have her bottom painted and I had to figure out the best way to protect the jib on the roller furler.

Bottom

I purchased a gallon of 'red' (more like a rust brown) ablative bottom paint from Jamestown Distributors online.  Ablative paint sluffs off microscopic layers when the boat is underway - keeping the hull free of marine growth. So they say.

Painting the bottom of the Sanibel on its trailer was a lot tricker than painting the Mariner had been.  

The Mariner's trailer had center rollers that supported the keel of the boat and bore the majority of its weight. Four vertical bunk boards about 16" long provided lateral support.  All I had to do was sand and paint all of the areas that weren't obstructed by the rollers or bunks and when the paint was dry, move the hull back 6" and get the bare spots.

Guppy's trailer had four long 2" x 8" horizontal bunks that bore the entire weight of the boat.  The keel was not supported at all.  It was necessary to jack up the keel until the hull cleared the bunks and then remove them while supporting the boat laterally.  It was tricky using a small floor jack but it worked.  I even dropped and painted the centerboard as well as the interior of the trunk.

Jib Sock

Generally, you have a strip of sacrificial canvas sewn to the leech and foot of the headsail to protect it from the sun when it's furled.  The local sail repair shop wanted $275 to do that.  I found another alternative called a jib sock while exploring online.  It's a tube made from canvass and velcro that you can use to cover the sail when docked.  I ordered some green canvass and velcro and June was kind enough to make me not only a jib sock but a tiller cover as well.  Cost - about $35 and all of the  'Honey do's' that June could think of for the next two weeks.

                                              

Slip

I found a slip, with power and water, for $80 monthly, no contract. It was located in Baird's Creek about half-way between New Bern and Oriental.  I plan to check it out on my next trip.

Checking out a 30' Irwin

I came across a 30' Irwin that was located in New Bern.  The elderly owners hadn't used it in a couple of years and were getting tired of paying for the slip.  It obviously needed some work but the price made it worth considering.

It ticked off many of the boxes that I had on my wish list.

• shoal draft keel with centerboard that drew just under 4'
• wheel steering 
• diesel inboard
• 135% genny on a roller furler

She was docked at Blackbeard's Sailing Club across the Neuse River from New Bern. I decided to check her out.

The Irwin had seen many years of neglect.  Several of the lifeline stanchions had been pulled loose from the deck, allowing water to seep into the cabin.  The stanchions were fastened to the deck with screws because their location was too far outboard to use backing plates.  The hatches were past the point of being repairable.  The interior was in rough condition but there wasn't as much water damage as I would have expected. 

The standing rigging looked okay but the running rigging was shot.  Raising the sails would be a challenge.  The sails were stuffed into the v-berth.  They had limited life expectancy.

The engine, an 10 hp Yanmar diesel, started up easily.  We spent nearly a 1/2 hour removing redundant layers of old stiff mooring lines that had been put on prior to the previous year's hurricane scare.

Under power, she handled adequately in calm waters but given the boat's displacement, she wouldn't be capable of making good headway in a chop or against an opposing tide. Boats this size generally have 18 to 30 hp engines.

The owner dropped the asking price to $5500 but I figured it would cost me several thousand dollars to haul her out, clean and paint the bottom, and put her back into shape. I was prepared to do much of the work myself but the 'to do' list was long and expensive.  When finished, I'd still be left with a under powered engine.

The right boat was out there waiting for me.  It would just take time and patience.  In the meantime, I still had  Guppy.

Exploring the Options

I looked at a couple of trailerable boats like a 23 O'Day but decided that if I'm not prepared to drag the boat back and forth, why not look at something larger. 

One of the primary things I need to consider is draft.  If I really want to spend most of my time gunkholing rather than off-shore sailing, I need to limit the draft to 4' or less.  For the most part, that leaves shoal draft, centerboard and wing keels.

Boats with wing keels offer a shallower draft but they're generally more tender.  When you run around, as you invariably will in the Outer Banks, the wing makes it difficult to get the keel loose.

I want a stiff boat that doesn't heel much in moderate winds   I still have hopes of getting June to join me on board.

I've had it with leaning over the transom to raise, lower, start and shift gears on outboards.  I'm ready for an inboard and diesels are more dependable and fuel efficient.

As far as steering is concerned, a tiller gives you a better feel for what the boat is doing but wheel steering  generally offers more usable cockpit space and better placement of navigation instruments.  I could be comfortable with either but I'm leaning toward wheel steering.

I've been considering an O'Day 27.  They have a great reputation as both a cruiser and a racer.  The 27 has an encapsulated fin keel that draws 4' and is reputed to be a stiff handling boat.  I talked to a sailmaker in New Bern who raved about his O'Day 27.  He and his girl like to spend several days at a time on his boat.  He told me that he would opt for a 28 or 30' just to get the convenience of a shower.

                                    

Unlike the 27', both the 28' and 30' O'Days were made with shoal draft and centerboard keels. The centerboard version draws 3'3" and the shoal draft 3'8".  Both are reported to be stiff handling boats.  I'm not sure which will point higher into the wind.

A roller furler with a 135 -150 percent genoa would be a plus.  

Most boats in this size range have a head just aft of the v-berth in the bow.  At best, it offers minimum privacy for the occupants of the v-berth and head. At a certain age, most of us can't make it through the night without at least one trip to the loo.  

I've seen a few boats with heads located aft near the companionway but they all seem to be on boats with wing keels like the O'Day 280 and 302. Whatever arrangement I end up with it will be better than the porta-potti stored under the companionway in the Sanibel.

Time to look at few boats and see what the marketplace has to offer.

Size Does Matter

Life is all about compromises.  So is finding the right boat.

The Sanibel is a great little boat.  She's easy to trailer.  Stepping the mast single-handed doesn't require the strength of a weight lifter.   Her shallow draft allows you to go places that other sailboats can only dream about.  The offset centerboard gives you an unobstructed cabin.  The list goes on.

I was also getting a first hand view of the drawbacks to a 17' boat.

ELBOW ROOM is key.  Two people with gear and provisions for a few days of gunkholing are a tight fit in a Sanibel.  Sure, people are doing it - but are they doing it comfortably?

Her bulbous hull shape helps her accommodate more 'stuff' but it makes sailing to windward less than satisfactory.

Sailing in the Outer Banks had also spoiled me for lake sailing.  I like having a destination - even if I can't get there on the first try (like Ocracoke).   I don't like the prospect of dragging the boat back and forth at 60 mph.  The hour plus spent stepping/unstepping the mast and launching/retrieving the boat is tiresome.

Getting a larger trailerable boat would get me back into the old problem of owning a large vehicle capable of towing it safely, not to mention a longer, heaver mast to step.

I needed to give some serious thought to what I wanted to do with a sailboat. How much could I afford to spend and what kind of boat would that money buy?

 June informed me that a 45' catamaran was out of the question.   I'd have to explore other options.

Fixing the Leaky Centerboard

I had a relatively long list of items to attend to after our Outer Banks trip.  The most important one being to resolve the issue of the leaking centerboard pivot bolt once and for all.

I hope all Sanibel owners are aware of the invaluable resource they have online with Chris Councill's Trailer Sailor Site - widgetsailor.com.  Chris uses his site to track current owners of Sanibels as well as share project details and photos submitted to him by those owners.

I've 'borrowed' many ideas from that site since purchasing Guppy and it's the first place I went to find the answer to this problem.

Dropping the centerboard while the boat is on the trailer wasn't as hard as I had imagined.  Since the centerboard is offset to the port side, all I had to do was to loosen the interior bunk board on that side and slide it away from the trunk opening.  After removing the pivot bolt, I only had to jack the boat up a couple of inches for the board to clear the trailer frame.

I followed the instructions submitted by Ron, the previous owner of Adagio, a 1988 Sanibel.  

The sidewalls of the centerboard trunk are very thin, making it easy for the bolt holes to become egg shaped.  It may also promote an oil canning effect that creates leaks.   Rather than build up the wall with fiberglass as Ron had done, I found a plastic clip board that was about 1/8" thick and cut four 3" squares from it.  I glued 2 pieces together with 3M 5200 silicone adhesive. Tv That gave me two 3" squares 1/4" thick.  

I drilled a hole in the center for the 1/2" diameter stainless steel pivot bolt and beveled the outside edges to seat the 1/16" thick 0-ring.

I glued the plastic squares to the outside of the centerboard trunk using the pivot bolt to hold them in place until the adhesive set.

I was afraid that it would be difficult to get the pivot bolt hole in the centerboard lined up properly with the trunk hole.  But, as soon as I reattached the pennant rope to the bottom of the centerboard and pulled the bottom of the board into place, the front jumped right into position.

The old pivot bolt had been 3/8" diameter and carbon steel.  I used 2" diameter stainless washers on each side with the O-rings between the washers and the trunk.  I tightened the nut lightly and I was done.

This problem had been plaguing me since my first sail on Guppy.  I crossed my fingers.

Outer Banks Saga - Memorial Weekend

This would be Guppy's first trip to the Outer Banks and my chance to try 'gunkholing'.  Using Google Maps, I discovered a boat ramp in Oriental, NC on the Neuse River, just up river from where it flows into Pamlico Sound.  The Neuse has the widest river mouth in the Continental U.S. - more than 6 miles wide.

Day One - Oriental

Old Salt

One of the people that came to look at Seanility was a retired Eastern Airline pilot named Joe Parrott.  His dream was to find a small pocket cruiser (more like Guppy) and spend time cruising the Florida Keys and Florida Bay, while he still could.  He had grown up with sailboats and had sailed for many years with sail power only. Even though the Mariner didn't fit his wish list, we had a good time swapping stories.

A few weeks later, I called Joe to ask him if he would like to go sailing on Lake Norman with me.  The invitation had a selfish motive.  I had little experience and he had a lot.

Joe accepted my invitation and met me at Blythe Landing on the south end of the lake.  Joe gave me my first lesson right from the dock.  He showed me how to backwind the sail to get the boat out of the slip and we sailed away without firing up the outboard.  A first for me.

Being a long time power boater, I was still skittish about letting the boat heel over too far on a reach.  Every time it started to go over, I would roundup into the wind and level her out.  Joe showed me that when she got to a certain point, the sail would dump the wind and bring her back on her own.  The sphincter muscles began to relax.

It soon became obvious that I often tried to make the boat go where the wind didn't want it to go.  I'd have the tiller pushed all the way to the starboard gunnel making little or no headway.  "Where are you going?" he'd say. "You're making the tiller act like a brake. Come off the wind and build up some speed.  Then maybe you can head that way a little."

Within a couple of hours, Joe had me turning smoothly through tacks and I was feeling much more in control of the boat.

We began talking about the prospect of taking Guppy to the Outer Banks for a few days.  I was eager to go but didn't feel confident enough in my abilities to try it on my own.  Joe was game.

G'bye Seanility

Now that spring was upon us, it was time to start making a serious effort to thin out the fleet.  The O'Day Mariner, Seanility, had to find a new home.

As the weather grew warmer (80 degrees in April) I updated all of my ads for Seanility, pulled off the tarp and began to clean her up for sale.

One mistake that I made, when I repainted the hull, was to use sanded deck paint on the entire topside as well as the cockpit.  I figured that it would be a good hedge against slipping and falling on a wet deck.  It made it harder to keep the topsides looking clean, but a little beach and a scrub brush brought her back looking like new.

I had started out by advertising the package - boat, motor and trailer for $3000. That had gotten little response over the winter so I decided to advertise the boat at  $1500 with the motor and trailer available separately.

That approach generated more calls but I was getting people that wanted a 'project boat' or Seanility at a project boat price - wasn't going to happen.

I finally got a call from a fellow in Asheville, NC who wanted a Mariner but didn't want to have to work on it.  He and his wife drove down to look at her and we arrived a mutually agreeable price.  They drove back to the mountains with Seanlity trailing behind them.  I was in compliance with June's one boat rule.

Charlotte Harbor

When personal computer use started to take hold in the early '80's, I bought an Apple IIC and learned how to use it to make my job as a sales manager easier and more productive.  Along the way, I somehow morphed into a technical writer for a web hosting company in Ft. Lauderdale.  It appealed to my technical side as well as my love for the written word.

After we finished building our lake house in Concord, NC in 2003, I began picking up contract work, as a technical writer, primarily for Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) in Charlotte.  I enjoyed the work and the variety of assignments.  By 2011, the economy was in tatters and the banks weren't doing much hiring.

Now that it looked like retirement was more of a reality than an option, we could start acting more like retirees.  It was time to start planning a winter sailing vacation in Florida.

Our first stop was to visit our good friends Doug and Kelly Young in Coconut Creek, Florida, where we lived for 25 years, raised 2 kids and made many wonderful friends.

I had looked at a O'Day 192, when we visiting our friends, Bob and Marcia, in Ft. Meyers the previous winter.  The boat was located in Bokeelia on the north end of  Pine Island, just north of Ft. Meyers. The owner told me what great a place it was to sail.  You had all of the protected water of Charlotte Harbor (270 sq miles) and all of the barrier islands to explore.

We booked a two bedroom condo for the month of February in a place called Burnt Store Marina on Charlotte Harbor.  I rented dock space right behind the condo and we were allowed to bring our dog, Buddy.

My long-time friend, Mike McNulty and his wife Marilyn, flew out from California to spend the second week with us. June and Marilyn  swapped stores about grandchildren and Mike and I explored Charlotte Harbor, Cayo Costa Island and Boca Grande Pass.

Mike and I have been sharing adventures for more than 40 years and it was a pleasure to have them join us. Just  four months earlier, I had flown to LA to join Mike on a 2 week, 3900 mile road trip to hunt upland game birds in Montana. As Mike liked to tell the locals, we were good for the economy and the ecology because we spent a lot of money and didn't kill much.

The highlight of the month was when June and Buddy spent the whole day on boat with me as we sailed more than 25 miles round trip to Cabbage Key (Jimmy Buffet's inspiration for 'Cheese Burger in Paradise') for lunch.

We enjoyed our stay at Burnt Store Marina.  It's situated right between Cape Coral and Punta Gorda. It offers great access to Charlotte Harbor. Although it's isolated, it beats the hell out of the crowds and traffic on Ft. Meyers Beach. The condo was nice and the people were friendly.

Loren Beaudreau, the owner of a 23 Precision, docked next to Guppy, gave me a lot of sailing tips and advice.  The Precision was fast and Loren gave me a taste of burying the rail in the water.  He even set me up to crew on a friend's 28' Catalina during the weekly yacht club sailboat race.  That proved to be anticlimactic when the wind was a no show.  It took 20 minutes to make the last 100 yards to the finish line.



Our son, Patrick, daughter-in-law, Melissa and our two grandsons Jackson and Peter drove over from Ft. Lauderdale to go sailing with us. Four adults, two children and all the unnecessary gear I had stored on board, proved to be too much pressure on Guppy's centerboard pivot bolt.  When we returned to the dock, I discovered that the kids had inadvertently turned off bilge pump switch and we had taken on perhaps 50 gallons of water. We were riding pretty low in the water, but I guess an extra 1500 pounds of people, gear and water on a 17' boat will do that.

The homemade roller furler worked great and I was learning how to sail Guppy.  I had been looking forward to the opportunity to spend a couple days onboard just gunkholing, but that would have to wait for another time.  June had no interest in spending the night aboard Guppy. 

We were missing the warmest winter on record in North Carolina and Seanility was still sitting under a tarp waiting for a new owner.  Sadly it was time to begin the 13 hour drive North dragging Guppy behind us.