A nice day in the yard

Today we spent time outside cleaning up from Tropical Storm Hanna (leaves and sticks down) and graveling the new small walkway behind the fenced-in area Barry built for Paisley. I took photos of the finished area and thought I'd share them here. Enjoy!

(click on the photo for a larger view)

New fenced-in area off sunporch Closer view from same side - new walkway bends off to the right New walkway behind fence edged with rocks from our property Area viewed from other side

Newly rerouted staircase with new landing

Side view showing lattice below and new walkway to left Just threw this one in -- rosemary and butterfly bushes on east side of house

Pretty petunias

Hanna Today, Gone Tomorrow

Sunday, August 31: We arrived at the marina this afternoon and unloaded three dock carts -- lots of stuff for six days including meals. We were delighted to see that Logos was not wet, moldy, or mildewy as we'd feared she might be. There was evidence of mud dauber infiltration in the head (nothing new) that required some cleanup, but no wasps were in the boat. After lunch in the cockpit, we got organized. We got the dodger and bimini reinstalled after having them home for cleaning and repairs. When Barry checked the bilge upon arrival, he discovered that the bilge pump was out -- a wire had burned up. That night he investigated further and realized that that the pump had totally fried and partially melted. That could have resulted in a fire or flooding of the boat, especially with all the rain since we'd been here last, so we were very lucky that nothing more than a fried pump greeted us. He got the old pump out and the bilge cleaned tonight in preparation for replacing the pump and wiring tomorrow.

Melted down bilge pump

Monday, Sept. 1 (Labor Day): An absolutely gorgeous day! Paisley woke us up bright and early at 7 am with a couple of whines from her kennel. She likes to sleep later at home and is normally reluctant to come out of her kennel much before 7:30, so that was a little surprising. We had our usual fitful first night of sleep on the boat so were hoping for a few more winks, but it was not to be. Got up and got going. We'd already decided that we wouldn't be sailing today as we had the bilge pump project to do and because, being a holiday, we figured boat traffic would be a little high. But it would have been a perfect day for a sail. A cold front blew through overnight, bringing low humidity and breezy conditions, with plenty of sunshine and highs only around 82. After a nice walk with Paisley and breakfast in the cockpit, we headed to West Marine for the bilge pump and a circuit breaker. Barry had discovered that the previous owners had wired the pump in a very unsafe manner (no fuse or circuit breaker), so he was determined to do it right. He spent most of the day working on that project, and it was a success. I did a lot of little projects: using an awl (learning as I went) to finish some final hand sewing on our canvas dodger, which I'd repaired since our last trip; putting a couple more coats of Teaqua on our coaming box covers, which had weathered more than we'd hoped since the last time we were here; repairing one of the salon curtains, and replacing broken hinges on an engine access panel.

Paisley found our new Sport-a-Seats very comfy for a nap

Tuesday, Sept. 2: Paisley woke us up nice and early (6:30 am) to celebrate her 7 month birthday. She certainly doesn't sleep in here as she does at home! Since we were up, we took our morning walk earlier than normal and enjoyed seeing the sun rise on another beautiful day here in Whortonsville. We spent the morning doing a few more quick projects: I put a couple more coats of Teaqua on the coaming box covers and buffed them out well (requiring some elbow grease!), and Barry finished up his bilge pump installation. After a lunch in the cockpit, we took all the extra dock lines off Logos that we'd put on on our last visit in case of tropical storms and went out for a sail, even though the north winds were lighter than ideal. It was good to get out on the water, though, and a very safe time to practice jibing and docking. Not only was the wind light, with it being a week day, there was no boat traffic to speak of. We had a successful sail and a great day, though a bit more wind would have been nice. Looks like we might get more of that than we bargained for by the end of the week, as Tropical Storm Hanna is forecast to come our way by Friday night. But for now, it's all Carolina blue skies and sunshine, and lower humidity than normal. Nice!

New bilge pump installed

Barry at the helm

Another nap -- with rawhide

Wednesday, Sept. 3: Paisley is getting up earlier each day. Today the wakeup call came at 6:20 at dawn's first light. We managed to ignore her soft whines for awhile, but at 6:30, she got the better of me, and I dressed and took her out. Barry joined me soon after for another pleasant early morning walk. After coffee and breakfast in the cockpit, we started on boat projects. We thought we'd make it out of the slip for some motoring drills and anchoring practice this afternoon as the wind was very light once again, but marking the anchor rode at 10' intervals and getting the anchor set up took longer than we expected, and we'd both had more sun than we needed, so we decided to take a longer trip to South River tomorrow and continue with projects today. We continue to watch the track of TS Hanna, who now seems determined to make landfall in North Carolina. It could be a wild night here on Friday. Perhaps she'll change her mind and go a different route before she gets here....

Marking the anchor rode Installing the anchor Anchor on board Today was a hot one!

Thursday, Sept. 4: We had a great trip to South River today, after our usual early morning walk with Paisley and breakfast in the cockpit. The morning dawned clear once again, and with nearly non-existent wind, we decided to motor to our destination and hoped that we'd get to sail back. The distance was such that we needed to motor one way to be back to the slip in time for dinner anyway, so it worked out perfectly. We set our course and motored in glassy waters on the Neuse; the flattest we've ever seen the river. At that point it was impossible to imagine that TS Hanna would be changing the conditions completely in such a short time. There was a slightly tricky entrance to the South River, though since it was well marked as well as explained in detail in our Cruising Guide to the Carolinas, we did just fine, and made it to the wider part of the river in which we'd attempt our first anchoring without an instructor on board calling the shots.

Paisley watching the water on the trip over Navigating is hard work! Glassy waters of the Neuse on the trip out -- and no traffic! Motoring over to South River

The trip over took right around two hours. The anchorage where we planned to drop anchor and eat lunch was completely deserted, much to our delight. Setting the anchor was a little challenging with such light wind and fighting the prop walk while backing, but we were able to get the anchor to set fairly quickly in the muddy, ten-foot depth of the river. We then had fun preparing and eating a simple lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and carrot sticks in the cockpit. We didn't dawdle for long after lunch as we knew we had a long way back if we were able to sail, so we weighed anchor (which took a few attempts as we figured out the technique) and headed back the way we'd come. As we got closer to the entrance to the Neuse, we realized that then wind had picked up significantly since we'd entered South River, and had also shifted from the west to the northeast -- just the heading we needed to travel to return to Broad Creek! So, we put up the sails and proceeded to tack our way back in the two to three foot waves and wind that had increased to 12-15 knots in speed. We were sailing fast and heeling a bit (not Paisley's favorite part of the day), but it was the most fun sailing we've had in some time.

Lunch at the South River anchorage

At anchor, all by our lonesomes! Sailing on the way back to our marina in a nice breeze No more glassy water Heeling while sailing at a good clip!

It took much longer to get back than motoring over, but we finally got back to the marina around 5:45 pm. I was a goofball docking (as usual), and while attempting to grab a line to help us into our slip, managed to drop one of our two boat hooks into the creek, where it promptly sank, never to be seen again in the murky, tannin-stained waters. I still don't know how it happened, exactly, as things happen pretty fast and furious while docking, and I was tired from the long day, so my brain checked out. When we looked around the docks, we realized that there were quite a few more folks here than earlier in the day or the previous couple of days. T.S. Hanna is the reason, and the conscientious sailor prepares his boat with extra docklines, removing canvas and sometimes sails, and tying down anything that might flap around. We'll be doing all that ourselves tomorrow as Hanna isn't expected to hit until very early Saturday morning, but we'll probably start feeling the effects Friday night. Funny how just one year ago, this same weekend we had a tropical storm forecast. Barry and I had come down to the marina to prepare for it, cursing our poor luck since we'd only owned Logos for a week at the time! Not many other folks came to prepare their boats that time (much to our surprise), and perhaps they were clairvoyant as TS Gabrielle turned out to be a non-event here, delivering a glancing blow to the Outer Banks, but nothing to speak of further inland, where we are. We don't think Hanna will be so gentle with us, but we're hoping that we, and Logos, will weather the storm unscathed. Friday, Sept. 5: We awoke to an ominously cloudy sky and very humid air but we were able to get our morning walk with Paisley in and begin our storm preparations without getting wet. In between the first bands of Hanna's rains, we took down our genoa and stored it in our car, took down our canvas dodger and bimini, added extra docklines, fenders, and fender board, wrapped our mainsail with extra lines to help it weather the winds, and secured items inside the boat. As I write this at 5:30 pm, the winds have shifted to the Southeast and are starting to gust. Predictions call for gusts to 60-70 mph by early tomorrow morning when Hanna comes onshore. Those wind speeds are difficult to imagine given the amount of wind we are already getting -- probably only around 25 mph. It is already getting challenging to pull Logos over to the finger dock on our south side.

Barry securing extra dock lines Obligatory cute Paisley picture

The local fire department just drove around the area with loudspeakers announcing a voluntary evacuation of this area, and shelters have been set up all over eastern NC. When determining whether to stick it out here with the boat or to leave for home, we talked to one of the old salts here, who also happens to be a liveaboard, and he said he'd stayed with his boat for up to 100 mph winds, so we felt that it was safe to stay so long as we'd adequately prepared the boat, and we have, so we think all will be well, though getting a good night's sleep tonight will probably prove impossible. We also ran to the grocery today in Oriental and stocked up on a few additional supplies in case we aren't able to leave tomorrow, but from the weather reports we're watching, it sounds like things should be fine around here by afternoon -- sunny and windy, but the storm will be up in Virginia by then, and winds will be dying down.

Hopefully these lines will hold -- this is looking southeast towards the approaching storm Fire department announcing voluntary evacuations of area Barry added two new LED lights to our night time reading area on the starboard settee Paisley the opportunist

After dinner cuddles

Sunday, Sept. 7: What a ride! We are home safely after riding out Hanna on Logos. It was an exciting, if a bit scary, experience. The tropical storm force winds started up at around 10-11 pm Friday night and didn't slack off until lunchtime on Saturday, since Hanna was such a large storm. Being back on the shallow waters of the creeks off the Neuse River where our marina is, and dealing with southeast to south winds, where we are less protected, the waters became very choppy, which rocked and rolled the boats in the marina all night long. Between the howling, screaming wind, fast wave action and loud, tinny halyards slapping on other boats' masts (ours, of course, were tied away from the mast and didn't slap!) all night long, we got very little sleep. Paisley was safe in her crate and did fine; nothing seems to faze her! Fortunately, our extra docklines all held, and in the light of morning, Logos was just fine. The other boats in the marina appeared to be unscathed as well. Only four other boats in the small marina were manned during the storm -- most of the others who came to prepare headed for home before Hanna's wrath hit. We had very little rain as most rain fell west of Hanna's center, and we were on her east side. We did bear the brunt of her winds, though. Without a wind gauge, we don't know for sure, but sustained winds were on the order of 40-50 mph, with higher gusts. I hope never to go through a storm like that again on a boat, but it was a good learning experience and comforting to know just how much abuse the boat and docklines can take.

The morning after...rough waters, but the lines held! A small dock was floating down the creek -- the water was high as well This did give new meaning to the term "floating dock"... Choppy waters provided much rocking and rolling onboard in the marina Paisley and I staying out of the wind

The most challenging thing about yesterday was getting on and off the boat as the wind direction pushed us away from the finger dock to the south side of the boat. It took the two of us plus the dockmaster pulling on lines in the morning to get us over close enough to hop off to take Paisley to the grass to relieve herself. By lunchtime Barry and I could pull ourselves over with just the two of us working on it (normally it only takes one of us). The wind finally shifted to the west as Hanna moved north, and that enabled us to get our belongings off the boat and our genoa back on (we'll reinstall it the next trip down; for now it is stored inside the cabin). Whortonsville, the tiny burg our marina is located in, lost power at 9:30 in the morning and had not gotten it back by the time we left (~3 pm). We left Logos prepared for another storm, and now we are even more confident that she will come through without a problem, should another storm come through. Surprisingly, when we got home to Efland, we had had over five inches of rain from Hanna here, much more than at the coast!

Sailing again at last!

We journeyed down to the boat again for Fourth of July week. This time, after completing our transmission shifter cable replacement and having our new genoa (headsail) installed, we were actually able to take Logos out sailing for the first time since Thanksgiving! Hard to believe it's been that long. We had a great time, and Paisley, at five months, did well too. Fortunately winds were light, making for restful sails, nothing too frisky, and very little heeling. Perfect for Paisley's first exposures to sailing. She slept through most of it! We took three day sails, remembered more of our skills each time, and focused specifically on leaving and re-entering the slip, which is always an adventure. Barry took the helm around the dock and was much more relaxed about the whole thing than when I drive, so I think we'll stick with this. Normally I love being at the helm, but not when docking. We did various other small projects, ate many meals in the cockpit, had good conversations with marina friends, took daily walks, and just enjoyed being on the water. It has a way of changing our perspectives on a lot of things...it's great "recharge" time, and I think we both feel more alive there than anywhere else. Paisley seems content just to be with us, wherever we are; a very adaptable girl indeed.

Here's a slideshow of some of the photos from our trip -- enjoy!