Adventures at Anchor

What an educational trip to Logos we had this time around. We anchored out overnight for the first time - twice! Also spent some time at the dock doing typical boat chores. Mosquitos were out in full force after all the spring rain, so we really couldn't take long walks, but we all survived. At home I had sewed curtains out of Sunbrella to cover part of the shelves behind each settee in the salon. They hide much of our clutter, and I like the pop of the bright red color:

starboard shelves before

and after port shelves before and after

Barry got his completed companionway doors installed and added latches both inside and outside the cabin. What a huge improvement these are over the original three hatchboards as they let in tons of light. He made three interchangeable slide-in panels: screens, plexiglass (for rain or cold weather), and solid. A random sleeping Paisley photo for good measure!

Before we left the dock to sail to our first anchorage, we spent the first day aboard Logos doing boat chores, including deep-cleaning the cockpit and applying Island Girl sealer. That afternoon, a sudden squall blew up, sweeping a bucket we'd left on deck filled with water and two cleaning brushes overboard. Our marina neighbors informed us that their wind gauge showed a 37 knot gust took the bucket. Barry was able to retrieve one of our brushes with a boat hook, but the bucket and the second brush were out of reach. We watched them drift down Coffee Creek, and I figured we'd be buying replacements soon. Barry was pretty insistent that we not give up so easily. Finally we realized that we might be able to retrieve the other items from a dock on the other side of the creek, so we hopped in the Element and drove over. We had taken walks over there many times so knew exactly where to go. I knocked on the door of the house with the dock behind it, and was given friendly permission to attempt retrieval from their dock. Alas, we didn't make it in time, though Barry did retrieve the second brush from the creek bank. We then ran down to the next dock on the creek on a vacant lot for sale, but the bucket was just out of reach. Barry was determined not to let the red bucket become so much offal along the creek's bank, and bravely dove into the sometimes jellyfish-infested, tannin-stained waters of Coffee Creek to retrieve it. I ran back to the car and quickly drove back around to the marina parking lot, where Barry was already out of the water, proudly displaying the errant bucket, and ready to hop into the shower. A successful rescue indeed!

Red bucket drifting down Coffee Creek - look closely! Our marina in the background... Getting closer but still out of reach

When we got back to Logos, a second storm was approaching and looked pretty scary. Fortunately, it ended up being mostly just rain, and not as much wind or thunder/lightning as the earlier storm that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Yikes! Scary looking clouds - thank goodness their bark was worse than their bite! Don't worry, be happy!

The following day we left the dock and got moving down to South River to anchor out for the night. The winds were pretty light sailing over, and aft, so we sailed wing on wing most of the way. Finally the winds died completely, so we fired up the iron genny and made our way into the South River and to the anchorage, which we shared with only one other boat. It was a very peaceful environment, and anchoring went smoothly.

Sailing wing-on-wing -- our new genoa is much nicer than our old mainsail, no? At anchor Captain Bear Taking a bearing Other sailboat in anchorage, far away Looks like another storm coming our way tonight...uh oh! Our newly constructed cockpit shower worked out great! Plenty of hot water in the sprayer tank...

We barely got our showers in before the squall hit. It was intense. Logos was rocking and rolling, the water turned white, the air turned white, the wind howled, and there was absolutely no visibility to the tree-lined river banks. It reminded us of the tropical storm/minimal hurricane we rode out at the dock last fall. In other words, kinda scary! Fortunately, it was over in a half-hour, and the anchor held. Thank goodness for North Carolina mud (aka muck!)

Visibility was near zero

The reward after the storm passed -- a beautiful rainbow. Too bad we don't have our dinghy down at the boat yet; we could have gone looking for the pot of gold!

Lovely sunset at anchor and no more storms

The next day we took our time piddling around in the morning and weighing anchor. We finally got on our way and motored out of the river. After leaving South River and entering the much-wider Neuse River, we raised sails. It was another light wind day, though every now and then the wind would pipe up and we'd get a bit of speed on. We decided to anchor close to the mouth of Broad Creek, so we'd be very close to our marina the next morning since we had many chores to do before leaving for home later that day.

Paisley learned to use mats on the bow to do her business, despite some initial skepticism. She'd already "seasoned" these at home in her fenced area first.

Leaving South River Paisley is so relaxed on the boat now, since we got her started so young. At anchor in Broad Creek Relaxing at anchor

After dinner in the cockpit, we enjoyed watching a sailboat and many fishing boats out in the mouth of the creek. The number of fishing boats grew to 15 or so as darkness fell; must be a traditional Sunday night gathering of fishing boaters who live off the various creeks nearby.

All those dots are fishing boats!

Beautiful sunset over Broad Creek

Until next time...