May 9th to June 5th, 2005

Monday, May 9, 2005
Location: Harbour Village Marina, Hampstead N.C.
Destination: Swansboro anchorage, Swansboro, N.C.

We depart early at 6:00 a.m. to catch the 7:00 a.m. Surf City Bridge opening, then on to the 10:00 a.m. opening of the Onslow Swing Bridge. Today we’re fortunate as we manage to catch the bridge schedules perfectly. We pass through the Camp Lajeune Firing Range, which is remarkably quiet today. By noon, we reach our anchorage and enjoy a relaxing afternoon on the hook.

Anchor Notes: Anchored in position N 34 41.121, W 077 07.111 in 15.5 feet water at high tide. We put out 85 ft. chain. Small island to land dogs on SE-side of anchorage area. There is also a public landing on the NW-side to go into town.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Location: Swansboro anchorage, Swansboro, N.C.
Destination: Staying put

We’re enjoying this quiet anchorage so we decide to stay another day to catch up on some R & R. All around us are the busy signs of Spring.
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Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Location: Swansboro anchorage, Swansboro, N.C.
Destination: Oriental Marina, Oriental, N.C.

We depart the anchorage at 6:00 a.m. under partly cloudy skies and winds NE at 10 kts. For the most part we have an uneventful trip until we reach Guthrie Pt. where we suddenly lose our position fix for a few minutes. This has happened a few times before and seems to always happen in the vicinity of a military base. This last time we suspect that it may have something to do with Cherry Point Air base which is close by.

Originally, our plan was to stop in Morehead City today but we decided to bypass this stop since we spent an extra day in Swansboro. Instead we head for Oriental Marina and arrive at 12:45. After refueling, we get settled in our slip and take a nice walk around town to get acquainted with the area. We stop at M&M’s for a nice lunch.

Oriental, NC is a quaint, little seaside community with a fleet of shrimpers and fishing trawlers. Already I feel totally relaxed here and suggest to Dave that we stay for two nights instead of one so we have a chance to really enjoy and explore the town. __________________________________________________

Thursday, May 12, 2005 to Tuesday, May 24,2005
Location: Oriental Marina, Oriental, N.C.
Destination: Staying put

Thursday, we enjoy the day walking around town and visiting the various little shops. Across the street from the marina is a great little coffee shop, along with a provisioning store and a few shops and boutiques on the waterfront. Everyone is so friendly and many folks stop to chat with us as we walk the dogs.

Around 5:00 p.m. Dave and I head over to the marina restaurant to enjoy an early dinner when suddenly the skies open up with torrential rain, thunder, and lightning. Dave is a little nervous as we watch the lightning strikes crashing down all around the marina and particularly close to our boat.

Friday morning we prepare to depart the marina. When Dave brings up the chart plotters to display our routes, he notices that we have a problem right away. We no longer have any chart/radar (HSB) communication between the main chart plotter at the Nav station and the chart plotter in the cockpit. He further investigates and finds that we also don’t have any HSB communication between the PC and the main chartplotter. HSB is the link across which radar and route information is transferred. We begin to suspect that we took a lightning strike during the storm. We immediately shut down the engine and begin testing out the rest of the equipment on the boat. It appears that only the chart plotters were affected. Dave gets on the phone with Raymarine and they tell us that we have to send the equipment back to the factory for analysis and repair. They suspect it will take about a week to return the equipment to us. Fortunately, the marina says they can accommodate us. We get to work removing and packing up the equipment for shipment and lug it all to the local post office. Of course everything is further complicated by the fact that our cell phones don’t work at this location so every call has to be made at the pay phone using a phone card (Thank you Mike and Michele for all those minutes). I then get on the phone with the insurance company to report the incident in case this disaster turns into an expensive insurance claim.

Since we expect to be here for at least another week, we decide to rent a car. I call Enterprise in New Bern and they agree to pick us up at the marina on Monday. Having a set of wheels in a sleepy little town really helps.

In New Bern we manage to pick up a local, pay-as-you-go cell phone at the WalMart. It uses Simple Freedom as the carrier and gives great coverage for this area. At least we can now communicate with Raymarine and concerned family members and friends.

We spend the remainder of the week working on a multitude of projects around the boat. In particular, Dave gets out his SailRite sewing machine and makes some really nice canvas covers for the fuel gerry cans and the dingy gas tank. I work on my special knitting project. We also take a few nice long drives around the local towns. We can’t believe how beautiful it is here with so many open fields, farms, and fresh, clean air.

On Monday our equipment is returned to us. According to Raymarine they found a problem in the secondary chart plotter and replaced the chip set and power supply. We install the equipment with a sense of hope; however, we soon find that we still have the exact same problem. Dave gets on the phone with the Raymarine technician and they discuss the issues. Although initially disappointed, we decide to go out to dinner and discuss our plan of attack. After several phone calls to local electronics outfits that happen to no longer service Raymarine equipment, we decide not to delay our trip any longer. Since our cockpit chart plotter works, albeit without radar, and we can view radar down below at the Nav station, we decide to continue on our trek north and have the HSB problem corrected when we get back to Rhode Island.

Tuesday, we prepare the boat to depart our beloved Oriental the following morning. We both agree that we will miss this place. If you have to be stuck somewhere, this sure is a great place to stay. Tomorrow we’re headed for Dowry Creek Marina in Belhaven. We expect to be in the Norfolk, VA area by Memorial Day weekend.

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Wednesday, May 25th, 2005 to Sunday, June 5,2005
Location: Oriental Marina, Oriental, N.C.

The Saga continues….

Wednesday morning we get underway at 8:30 a.m. and head out into the choppy waters of the Neuse River. Everything seems fine until about 40 minutes later when Sandy yells down that the chart plotter has lost position and is now continually rebooting. I immediately get that sinking feeling that we’ve got big troubles. After a brief but spirited consultation, we decide that we better go back to our slip in Oriental to decide what we should do next. With approximately 700 miles to go to get home we decide that sans electronics is just too risky. Even though we both know how to navigate by compass and charts, it feels a bit too daunting to face the prospect of navigating our way through the inevitable fog, shipping traffic, uncharted shoals, and severe Spring thunderstorms.

After consulting with Raymarine, we agree to ship all of the equipment back to them for further testing. In the meantime we hear on the radio that our friends Greg and Suzie of Alohalani have made it back home to New Bern. We make plans to get together. On Friday, Greg and Suzie pick us up and take us to dinner in New Bern. The following day they again drive out and take us and the dogs to the Fossil Festival in Aurora. Greg and Suzie show us a great time and we feel so fortunate to have met this wonderful couple who repeatedly demonstrate the meaning of true Southern hospitality.

While our equipment is back at Raymarine, Sandy and I continue to explore. After one particularly strong storm, the streets of Oriental are flooded, but that doesn’t prevent the locals from wading through the knee deep water to visit the coffee shop. A young boy keeps a cautious eye out for the water moccasins that he says become active after a flood. Sure enough, Sandy and I spot one crossing the marina and coming close to taking refuge in our dinghy. We decide to take a walk to the local boatyard called Deaton’s to enquire about getting some help with our electronics. While there, we decide to schedule to have our boat hauled out for its annual spring bottom painting, hull waxing, and prop servicing. They also tell us that if we need it they can help us with our Raymarine electronics. We leave there with a sense of hope that we may actually get these issues resolved after all.

The next day, a couple, Tom and Joyce Russell, stop by to ask us some questions about our boat. They just recently retired and moved to Oriental and bought a previously owned IP 420. After a pleasant chat, they left to get coffee and then returned and invited us to their home that evening for dinner. Later that evening, we enjoyed a wonderful meal and visit at the Russell’s house.

Finally on Friday, we get our equipment back from Raymarine. This time, they fixed the HSB connectors on the back of the chartplotters. For my part, to simplify things, I decide to bypass the PC connection and carefully connect the cable directly to the chartplotters. Upon startup everything is again working properly and we head to the Toucan Grill to celebrate. Upon our return a few hours later we find that the HSB connection has failed once more. Although HSB stands for High-Speed Bus, I’m getting pretty creative coming up with new definitions. What has been a pleasant, if necessary, visit up to now is starting to feel like a frustrating nightmare. We spend the rest of the evening trying to decide what to do next. By morning I have a plan. If the HSB cable is damaged, maybe it could be causing the chartplotters to reboot. Before Sandy has even tasted her coffee, I coerce her into helping me disconnect the HSB cable from both chartplotters and set the units up so that one is a dedicated radar display and the other one serves independently as the chartplotter. We then start them up and watch them anxiously operate successfully for several hours. With newfound hope, we then rush out to the local West Marine and order a new 10 meter HSB cable.

Elvis has left the building….

Saturday, Greg and Suzie pick us up at the marina to take us to the big local shindig in New Bern. Off we head to the Shriner’s hall and take in a wild evening of music from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s performed by Mark Reno, a master impressionist whose specialty is Elvis. What a great time!

Sunday we spend the day finishing up on last minute chores in preparation for our trip over to Deaton’s Boatyard tomorrow. With any luck, we’ll get all our issues resolved in the coming week so we can depart Oriental and resume our northbound trek home. We have our fingers crossed.

Till then, stay tuned …..

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Total accumulated miles traveled: 3,302 statute miles _____________________________________________