Contents
South River
Shakedown Cruise
Memorial Day Weekend Cruise
Slow Boat Cruise
Long Summer Cruise
Ocracoke
Big Sweep & Co-op Charting-Cape Lookout
The Pirate Cruise
Trip to New Bern and Duck Creek Boatyard
Introduction
So far things are going pretty well for Questeria and her crew in 2008. We spent most of the winter working on the outside teak to stop deck leaks. We are starting to feel like our to-do list is getting shorter, rather than longer and we are taking the boat on some cruises.
Projects
We continued to make repairs and improvements in 2008. Here are some of the projects we tackled:
- New Garmin Chart Plotter
4108 with sounder
- New flat screen HD TV
- Teak plank walls in main
salon
- New
head sink with pullout shower
Before
After
- Brightwork finished with Cetol
- Replaced some interior
shelves with starboard
- New propane tank and
locker
- Toe rails replaced
Cruises
We have had better luck with cruises in 2008.
This is the first RSPS cruise of the year. Its main purpose is to make sure your boat is ready before heading out on one of the longer cruises. The cruise is supposed to be two days, but we take Friday off and extend the weekend. Harry joins Fran and Ron again and we plan to spend Friday night in Oriental and Saturday night rafted up in South River.
25-Apr-08 – We get up early on Friday and drive to NW Creek marina. We leave the marina at 1325. At first the winds are light, but then they pick up to 20 knots. We turn off the engine and make 6 knots. But then the jib falls down. Harry and Fran get it before it hits the water. This was the first trial of the new roller furler and the clamp on the pendant gave out.
After that we are not paying attention and we run aground. We try to pull off using the anchor, but we end up calling Sea Tow. We enter Oriental Harbor Village Marina in the dark and tie up at 2115.
26-Apr-08 – We eat breakfast, talk to Emory and Jo and get a tour of their boat, Josephine. Then Ron hauls Harry up the mast and we fix the jib. We leave the marina, hoist the sails and shut off the engine for a leisurely sail on a broad reach We are only make 2-3 knots when suddenly the wind picks up just before we get to South River. We start the engine and take down the sails right before we enter the channel. We locate the RSPS groups and raft up, putting out our anchor along with Suefin’s anchor. We drop our anchor at 1607 and have a great night of eating, drinking and socializing.
27-Apr-08 – Fran and Ron wake up before sunrise, but it is too cloudy to get a good view. We start to leave at 0903, but our anchor rode is twisted around Suefin’s. We race home to avoid storms. We make it to the marina without incident. A great time was had by all.
Raleigh Sail and Power Squadron will again raft up in Cape Lookout bight for Memorial Day. We take Friday and Tuesday off to extend the 3-day weekend into a 5-day weekend. We plan to anchor in Cedar Creek anchorage, in Adam’s Creek on Friday and Monday nights and in Cape Lookout bight Saturday and Sunday nights.
23-May-08 – We leave NW Creek Marina at 0900 after filling water tanks and pumping up the dinghy. After about 10 minutes, the engine starts to overheat. Bud comes out and tows us back into our slip. We pull out a chewed up impellor, go into town and get a new one (after several hours) and replace it. Everything seems to be fine, but we decide to wait until early the next morning to take off.
24-May-08 – We set the alarm for 0500, but it doesn’t go off. We wake up at 0600. Weather calls for rain until1300. We put up the jib and motor sail. It rains on and off until about 1200. Things clear up once we enter Adam’s Creek. We make contact with New Horizon and Starboard Home. Starboard Home turns back because of a smoking engine. We also make contact with Josephine. Everyone is going to Morehead City Yacht Basin because of the weather. We tie up at 1500. New Horizon and Fresh Breeze are already there. Josephine goes straight to Cape Lookout.
25-May-08 – We leave Morehead City Yacht Basin at 1100 and motored out of Beaufort Inlet. Once out of the channel, we put up the sails and turn off the engine. We tack back and forth, along with Fresh Breeze and New Horizon until 1400. We took down the sails and rafted up to Josephine, Fresh Breeze, New Horizon and Magoo at 1530. Later we joined by Sally’s Ride, Classic Cleavage and EZ Days. We have a great time eating, drinking and laughing until late.
The next morning we leave at 1100. We motor-sail most of the way to Cedar Creek where we anchor for the night. We head home the next morning.
This RSPS cruise is like the 2007 Long Summer Cruise. It will start out at Dowry Creek, then to Manteo, Engelhard and Ocracoke. We will take Friday off and anchor in South River on Friday night. The last time out we realized that the prop was badly in need of cleaning. So, on 7-Jun-08 Ron cleans the prop and bottom, changes the zinc and gets the center board to drop.
13-Jun-08 – We leave the marina at 1125 and head to South River. We notice a big improvement after cleaning the prop. We anchor in South River at 1658.
The next morning we get up at 0600 and head for Dowry Creek Marina. There is very little usable wind so we motor all day. We get to the marina at 1500. Tommy Dunn, Ralph Daniels (Fresh Breeze), Burt and Margaret Pearson (Opportunity) are already there. Ralph, Tommy and Ron make a trip to Food Lion to pick up some groceries. Then we have a fine wine and cheese in the club house followed by gourmet hamburgers from Chef Ralph.
On Sunday Burt does some vessel safety checks and then we are joined by Jane and Crowell Bowers on Dream Chaser and Bob Belvin on Wind Dance. We have another fine wine and cheese in the clubhouse. Next Rose and Bobby Glover arrive on EZ Days and treat us all to a fine dinner of pork loin, mashed potatoes, string beans and carrots. We say goodbye to Burt and Margaret because the sail boaters will be leaving before dawn and Opportunity will be returning to her home port.
16-Jun-08 – We leave Dowry Creek Marina before 0530 and hear a Coast Guard report about smoke causing visibility problems around Alligator Swing Bridge. The smoke gets thick after that. Around 1000 we hear EZ Days call the Coast Guard. After that we hear another boat call the Coast Guard and report that they are helping the crew of EZ Days evacuate. Next the Coast Guard issues a couple of broadcasts asking for anyone to assist EZ Days and that the crew of EZ Days is safe. Wind Dancer calls and says he will go back to assist them.
We enter the Albemarle Sound and the smoke starts to clear. But then we encounter a storm with rain, hail, lightning and 50 knot winds. It lasts about 30 minutes and then the weather and smoke clears up. Fresh Breeze makes it into Manteo at 1700, followed by Questeria and Dream Chaser. We hear that Wind Dancer had caught up with Bobby and Rose and that they were okay. Bobby and Rose had been taken back on Wind Dancer and EZ Days had been raised and taken to Belhaven. We are sad to hear that Bobby and Rose and Bob would not be able to continue on with us.
I had told Tommy that I thought that Manteo had been a bit far to be included as a destination on a slow boat cruise. He said he agreed, except for the fact that it is a great place and is worth the long trip. I found out that he was right. We met and talked to many people. Everyone was great, but especially Kim, Kim and their daughter Haley on Dalliance II and Carl Jordan, the dock master. On Tuesday night Carl drove the six of us to Stripers for dinner in Kim’s Suburban.
18-Jun-08 – We leave Manteo at 0700 and follow Fresh Breeze. We have jib up most of the time and make between 5 and 7.2 knots most of the way. We dock in Engelhard at 1333. The people of Engelhard must have heard about how well we were treated in Manteo and did not want to be out done. We have a fine meal of fried shrimp and flounder at the Big Trout Marina and Café, prepared by “Hot Dog” and his wife Edna. After that, the congregation of the Far Creek Baptist Church moves their Wednesday night bible study to the restaurant so that they can welcome us into Engelhard. Some of the highlights of the evening were Miss Mattie’s home made cornbread cake and a tour of the Far Creek Baptist Church by “Preacher Charlie”.
The next morning we had a great breakfast at the Big Trout Marina and Café. “Preacher Charlie” stops by and gives us crosses made by Miss Mattie.
19-Jun-08 – We leave Engelhard at 0840 heading for Ocracoke. It is smoky when we get up and gets smokier until about 1100, then the smoke starts to clear. We have good winds and calm seas. We motor-sail, with the jib, doing 6.5 to 7.0 knots. We dock in Park Service at 1300.
We have a great time in Ocracoke. The activities include eating, a trip to the beach, eating, taking sextant readings, eating, a walk to the light house, eating, shopping and eating.
21-Jun-08 – We leave the dock at 0710, going out Nine-foot slough. We put up sails and shut off the engine. It started raining about 1130. We drop the main and start the engine. The wind picks up and then we roll in the jib. The wind and rain gets heavy and we hear that Dream Chaser lost their engine. When the rain lets up we spot Dream Chaser heaving-to. We circled them and then they get their engine going. We anchor in South River at 1430.
22-Jun-08 – We pull the anchor and leave South River at 0650. We have a 15 knot wind on the nose so we motor all the back. We get to NW Creek marina at 1130.
This was a great trip for us. Questeria did exactly what we asked of her and we gained a lot of experience and confidence in Questeria and our abilities.
The full cruise is from July 3-13, Going from Morehead City to Myrtle Beach. We won’t make the whole trip, but plan to meet up with the group at Cape Lookout on July 4th. We are trying to get Greg to join us, but Greg talks us into going to N. Myrtle Beach instead.
We will take off some extra days before Labor Day to cruise to Ocracoke with RSPS. As we are short of vacation time, we decide to go to Cape Lookout instead. We plan to meet Bruce and Linda, on New Horizon. On Saturday we wake up at 0500 and leave the dock at 0742. When we get out into the Neuse River the engine starts to overheat whenever we try to go over 4.5 knots. We turn around and head back into our slip. We get back at 1010. The problem appears to be a clogged heat exchanger, but the transmission is now leaking really bad. We have the transmission repaired.
Big Sweep & Chart Co-op Charting-Cape Lookout
We plan to participate in this service-oriented cruise in September, but transmission is not fixed yet so we are stuck at the dock.
The final RSPS cruise of 2008 will be to dress as a pirate and anchor in South River. Friday is looking gorgeous so we take an extra vacation day and head to Oriental. On the way there we are passed by Burt and Glenn on Opportunity. We dock at Oriental Harbor Marina at 1609.
On Saturday we take Ralph and Griffin as crew, since Ralphs boat is not running. We depart at 1217. The wind is blowing us against the dock so we use a spring line to get the stern away. This works fine, except that the bow sprit gets hung up on the pile. Oh well, we wanted a new bow sprit anyway. We make it to South River at 1509. We have a great time with Liberty, Opportunity, Wings on the Wind, Fresh Breeze, New Horizon and Dunlap’s boat.
On Sunday we leave South River at 1100. We head into the wind most of the way. We get back to Northwest Creek Marina at 1641.
Trip to New Bern and Duck Creek Boatyard
28-Dec-2008 - We are planning on taking Questeria to Duck Creek boatyard tomorrow to have the bow sprit replaced. Since it is such a nice day we decide to take Questeria to New Bern Grand Marina and visit with Ben and Dolores. We leave NWC and arrive at New Bern Grand marina. The trip is uneventful. Once in the slip, with floating docks and full length finger piers, we remark how we will be spoiled from now on.
29-Dec-2008 - The weather prediction for today is rainy and cold. Tomorrow’s weather looks much better. We call Duck Creek and postpone our haul out schedule by one day and we extend our stay at New Bern Grand.
30-Dec-2008 - We leave NBG. Ben is with us. The water is low, but we don’t really notice it next to the floating docks. The trip is uneventful, except for a squealing belt, which Ben quiets with a bar of soap. We arrive at Duck Creek. Nobody is expecting us because they think we would not be able to make it with the water so low.
Questeria is hauled out and her bottom is pressure washed. The bottom paint from two years earlier is still holding up pretty well. After a while, they put her in the yard and start removing the old bow sprit. We talk to Terry about sanding the bottom. Next time we should probably sand down to the gel coat.