Rough but Happy

Finished the trip up on Friday. As expected, seas were 3 to 5 feet. The boat was amazing. It was a very dry ride in some pretty rough conditions. For a 32 foot boat, she handled like she was 50 feet. I had no previous experience with a Carolina Classic, but I was very, very impressed with its performance. Don't get me wrong, this boat is made for just one thing; to go fishing. The interior accommodations were very minimal. However, she delivered us 502 miles in just two and a half days without a hiccup. The owner, Chris, was beaming as he took his new boat in the Ocean City Inlet. We had her tied up at Fisherman's Marina by 11:45am and after topping her off with fuel, we headed over to Crab Alley for a great lunch. By 1:30pm I was in a rental car heading for home. My next trip begins on Sunday morning. Time to get some laundry done and repack.

32 Foot Carolina Classic to Ocean City, MD

Today I sit in Hampton, VA waiting for some better weather to move a 32-foot Carolina Class Sport Fish. We started this trip out of Ocean Isle, NC on Tuesday. The new owner, Chris, picked me up from my boat in Wrightsville Beach very early on Tuesday morning. We drove down to Ocean Isle, did a quick inspection, then set off on our trip north.



The boat, currently named Ali B IV is going to be renamed “Fishizzle” is powered by a pair of Cummins 380 QSB diesels. She cruises at 23kts (25mph) and gets about 1 mpg. It is a very solid, smooth riding boat that is pretty heavy for her size. She has a tremendous amount of bow flares which makes for a very dry ride.

We took off on Tuesday and headed south to go out Little River Inlet at the NC/SC border. Once offshore, the seas were a solid 3 to 4 feet with the wind out of the south. The ride wasn’t bad, but we decided we would be much better off and more comfortable running up the ICW. In addition, we were having some electrical issues and needed to address those before continuing our run north.

So we pulled in off the ocean at the Cape Fear River and made a quick stop at Southport Marina. We had a dead house battery which caused us to loose all of our electronics and the alternator was not connected properly which was not charging the batteries. Couple that with a generator that wouldn’t start and we had a problem that really needed to be dealt with.

Once is Southport, we diagnosed the battery problem fairly quickly. We were able to get a local mechanic to run into town and install a new battery for us. Within an hour, we were back on the ICW heading north. We ran all the way to Oriental, NC which covered 180 miles the first day. Not a bad start given the amount of traffic on the waterway and the bridges we had to wait for given our height restriction. We did lower the outriggers a few times to get under some bridges, but it was a process.

Day 2 went a little better. We left Oriental early and continued our run up the ICW. It was a bit windy, but the boat handled the waves with ease going across the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds. We had the “water-in-fuel” alarm go off two different times. Not a big deal and we simply drained off the water and kept going.

We finished day 2 after 195 miles in Hampton, VA. We are tied up at the Bluewater Yacht Center near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Today the forecast had small craft advisory and seas building to 5 to 8 feet. There are several boats here tied up traveling north and none went out today. Tomorrow the forecast is 3 to 4 feet, so we are optimistic we will finish the last 120 miles and arrive in Ocean City, MD by early afternoon.

Sorry not any great pictures this time. We had our head down moving most of the time. The SPOT (SPOT Shared Page ) has been up and running and it will be again tomorrow. However, we did see this on the ICW which was a first for me. I saw this and took a picture of it in Wrightsville Beach over the Memorial Day weekend, but we passed it again in Coinjock, NC on Wednesday.

Montauck Yacht Club

We arrived in Montauk today at 2:05. It was just an unbelievable trip. I would never have imagined that we could have run 701 miles from NC to NY in just 3 days. The weather could not have been any better. These were the best sea conditions I have ever run for an extended period.

We pulled off the dock in Cape May, NJ at 5:45am to take advantage of the seas. It was absolutely perfect this morning. There was no wind to speak of for the first 4 hours. About 10:00 as we were 110 miles into the trip and about 80 miles off-shore, the wind picked up and it started to rain hard. No thunder and lighting, but a good solid rain. Radar was my friend as visibility was very low, but the seas were only about 2 to 3 feet. By about noon time, as we got closer to Long Island, the seas started to calm down again.

John was the rock start of this trip. Guy jumped into boat ownership with both feet. He never owned a boat before and started with a 50-footer. Backed the boat into his new slip like he was doing it all his life. A "natural". I was impressed. I got the boat washed and detailed and then we headed to the bar for a well deserved beer. It never tasted so GOOD! We were both too tired to make our way to a restaurant, so we ate at the bar. Now back on the boat, we are telling stories of the trip. Again, you really get to know someone when you set one waypoint at 6:15 in the morning and don't touch a thing for over 7 hours. Another friend for life.

Back to Wrightsville Beach on Friday for our Yacht Club's kick off to summer party and then another trip on Tuesday from Ocean Isle, NC up to Ocean City, MD on a 32-foot Carolina Classic. More to come...

Last edited by Capt Keith; Today at 08:59 AM.

Coinjock to Cape May

The boat delivery Gods continue to smile down upon us. We had another beautiful day. Light winds, calm seas and all the bridges opened on schedule. We ran all the way from Coinjock, NC today to Cape May, NJ; 237 miles. We came up through Norfolk on the ICW and then turned outside and ran from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to Cape May. We didn't need fuel, but stopped in Ocean City, MD to top off since the marina in Cape May would be closed by the time we got in and we wanted to get an early start in the morning.

John is loving the boat and did a great job docking tonight. We had a lot of company this morning going through Norfolk. We were in line with 7 other large boats heading north. Again, not a lot of pictures since we were running off-shore most of the day. We did manage to pull into Tidewater Marina at 11:00am and pick up some fluid for the trim tabs and get those squared away before we headed out. The reservoir was empty and we wanted to be able to trim the boat while running outside.

Looks like we will make Montauk tomorrow weather permitting. They are calling for showers and seas 3 to 4 feet. A little bumpy, but not too bad.

Calm, Open Water

The first day went very well. I picked John up at the airport at 9:00am. We stopped at West Marine for a few last minute things. We also stopped for some coffee as well. By 9:30 we were on the boat and stowing gear. We made a quick stop to pump out as the boat was full, and finally got underway at 10:00.

We ran out the Masonboro Inlet and up to Beaufort; a quick 70 mile ocean run. Seas were about a 2 foot swell, but about 12 seconds apart. Just a beautiful day. We would have loved to run up to Virginia Beach on the outside, but it would have been over 300 miles and we would not have gotten in until 10:00pm. So we opted to come in at Beaufort and run up the Pamlico Sound to Coinjock. It was a good decision as the sound was calm and we had almost no traffic. We covered 235 miles today in just over 9 hours. We got in at 7:15pm which provided just enough time to fuel and wash the boat before we lost daylight.

John got a good feel for the boat today and we had no issues. Tomorrow we will run past Norfolk on the inside (ICW) and then turn and go out the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (weather permitting) and see if we can run all the way to Cape May, NJ. We might detour at Ocean City, MD if we run out of time/daylight, but I think we have a good chance to make it all the way to NJ. Then we will have a short run to Montauk on Thursday if all goes as planned. We will see how it goes tomorrow.





Lots of open water today, so not many pictures. I'll try and take a few more tomorrow.

On to Montauk, NY - About Time

After a few days at home, I am off again. This time I will be taking a 2005 48-foot Silverton Convertible from Wilmington, NC to Montauk, NY. The owner John will be aboard and he is looking forward to getting the boat home for Memorial Day weekend. This is John's first boat so there will be a pretty big learning curve on this voyage. About Time is powered with twin Volvo-Penta D12-715hp engines. John will fly into Wilmington in the morning and as soon as we get him and his luggage aboard, we will cast off the lines and start moving north. We hope to reach Montauk on Friday afternoon. The weather forecast looks good for the week, so we are hopeful for a smooth ride up to NY. As always you are welcome to follow along on the SPOT.

SPOT Shared Page

Got'er Done

Got’er Done

Our final day aboard Wired IV could not have been any nicer. We pulled out of Leland Harbor at 6:00am and had beautiful weather all day across Lake Michigan. It was dead calm flat out there for our entire 9 hour and 220 mile journey to Port St Joe.

Once we cleared the entrance to the Leland Harbor, we set the throttles and did not touch them all day. She cruised happily at 25mph and we didn’t see any ice all day. Daryl said a flat day like this on Lake Michigan is very rare. We paid our dues the previous day, so we deserved a nice day to finish our trip. We arrived at Daryl’s home marina, Pier 1000 at 3:15pm.

From the time we left Staten Island, NY on Saturday, May 3rd, we covered 1,416 miles in 8 days. Crossed 4 out of the 5 Great Lakes, went through 38 locks and burned 2,037 gallons of fuel. We did not have one weather delay on the entire trip. That by itself is an amazing feat. We put a total of 84 hours on the boat during the voyage averaging 10.5 hours per day of running. We had two days that were 14 hours.

We were greeted by the whole extended family when we arrive in Benton Harbor. It was great to meet Daryl’s family and put faces to names of all the people we talked about during our trip. You really get to know a person when you spend that much time together on a boat. I am glad to call Daryl a friend and look forward to hearing about his adventures this summer on his new boat.

Here are the last of the pictures from the trip dating back to our run across Lake Erie, up through Detroit, across Lake Huron and the ice.

Payback

Payback

What the lake giveth; the lake taketh away…

We started this morning at 6:00am from Harrisville trying to make it as far as we could again today.  The wind was west at 20kts with a small craft advisory until 11:00am in the morning.  The first two hours were perfect.  Daryl and I hugged the shore line and with seas about 2 feet we were able to cruise at our normal 25mph as we headed north.

However, once we turned at Presque Isle Harbor and headed more north west, the seas built to 4 to 6 feet and we got clobbered.  We slowed the boat down to 12.5mph and did our best to continue to make way.  We were taking waves and spray over the top of the boat, but we hung in there.  We found a few leaks we didn’t know we had and did our best to keep things dry.  What made matters a bit worse was the skies were completely overcast and the temps were around 40.  With the wind chill, the temperature was easily in the low 30’s.  We were freezing cold.

We tried to turn the cockpit heat on, but with the water temperature at 35 degrees, it was too cold for the reverse cycle heat to be effective.  So we put on more layers of clothes and kept making our way to the top of Lake Huron and Mackinaw City. 

After 5 hours of very slow and wet passage, we arrive at Mackinaw City at 1:00pm.  We pulled into the harbor to take on some fuel and check the weather conditions on Lake Michigan.  We have been reading all week that there is still a good bit of ice on Lake Michigan.  After taking on the fuel and trying to get some information from the locals on the ice, we came up empty.  No one at the dock had any real idea about the ice, where it was or even if it was still on the lake.

So Daryl and I did what any two guys do who want to get home, they cast off the lines and head out onto Lake Michigan.  We passed under the Mackinaw Bridge and the skies cleared a bit and the sun came out.  The seas also calmed a bit and thought we might get lucky and have a good afternoon run.  Not to be.

We had a good run for about 30 minutes.  When Beaver Island came into sight, so did the ice pack.  Hear are some words you never want to hear as a captain, “Hey Cap, I think we have an ice problem.”  Sure enough, we have a big ice problem.  There are two good sized ice flows on the lake.  We are able to skirt the edge of the first ice flow and think we have it beat.  No.

After another 3 miles, more ice comes into view.  We pick our way through the ice and find some clear water.  However the ice is on both sides of us and we are running down the middle.  After another mile or so, we come to a dead end.  A big horseshoe of ice.  So we turn around, find a small break in the ice and try and cut through to the other side.  We make it through and now start running toward the shore line to get around the ice. 

We make it again.  We find some more clear water and turn south again down Lake Michigan.  After another 5 mile run, we find more ice.  At this point we are starting to run out of real estate.  We are getting closer and closer to the shore line and now don’t know if we will be able to get around the ice as we are getting closer to some shallow water and some shoals.  Somehow we find our way through and finally clear the ice at the very southern end of Travers Bay. 

By this time, we are flat worn out.  We check our charts and find the closest marina.  We head for Leland Harbor which is about an hour away.  We finally tied up in Leland at 5:30 pm after a 212 miles day and 11 hours of tough sledding on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

We have about 260 miles left to get to Port St Joe and if the seas and ice cooperate tomorrow, we are going to do our best to finish this trip on Sunday and get Daryl’s boat to its home port.  This has definitely been a trip to remember.

That's a lot of Miles

We used up all the available daylight today. We covered 319 miles today on the water. Traveled from Mentor, OH on Lake Erie to Harrisville, MI on Lake Huron. The winds and seas were favorable so we departed at 5:45am this morning and ran until 8:00pm tonight. A very long day, but you have to take what you can get and make the most out of days that give you good sea conditions to run. Seas were mostly 2 feet today. We left Ohio with temps in the 70's this morning and got on Lake Huron this afternoon with water temps of 35 degrees F. The air temp was in the 40's on the water. I'm not complaining, but it was a big temperature swing during the day.

A big thank you to Ray Batt for providing some very helpful information this morning as we were running up through the Detroit area.

We will depart early again tomorrow, but may end up battling some ice on Lake Michigan around Travers City. Seas are not as favorable tomorrow with west wind guesting to 25kts. No pictures again today as we ran in open water most of the day. I'll try and post a few pictures tomorrow. Thanks for everyone who is following along and all the well wishes for our safe trip.

Jack Rabbit

Jack Rabbit

Almost hit the lottery today. We depart Port Dalhousie Yacht Club (DYC) this morning at 6:15 am, and headed over to the Welland Canal to pick up our line handler, Roger. The canal requires you to have 3 people on board when transiting the canal “up bound”, so we needed to pick up a third person to transit the canal.

Roger jumped on board at 6:40 and we were in the first lock at 6:45. We went into the lock with another pleasure boat that actually started with us from Staten Island. He has been following us the entire trip however, we have stayed at different marinas most nights since Staten Island.

Anyway, we flew through the first 7 locks. We came out of lock 7 at 10:00am and thought we had hit the lottery since the average time to complete the canal passage is 10 to 12 hours. Well, we completed 7 locks, but had just one problem… there are 8 locks to transit.

We got stuck behind a freighter at this point and he had to wait for “down bound” traffic to clear before he could proceed into lock 8. Then we had to wait for him to clear the lock and another boat down bound to come into lock 8 and go through before we could continue.

Long story short, we finally go into Lock 8 at 1:30pm and exited lock 8 at 2:00pm. We still did a lot better than we ever expected. When we got out onto Lake Erie at 2:15, the lake was dead flat calm. We passed a ton of ice just east of the canal exit, but we were clear the rest of the trip.

We dropped the throttles and cruised until we just about lost day light. We made it all the way to Mentor, OH. We covered 165 miles today, most of it from 2:15 to 8:00pm.

Daryl and I are getting along really well and we both are enjoying the trip. Here are a few more pictures from the trip.

First of Four Lake

We had another great day on the water.  We departed Brewerton, NY this morning at 6:30 sharp and make our way to our final lock on the Erie Canal.  We have now transited 30 locks in total and have a few more to go.  Our last lock on the Erie was to open at 7:00am, but when we arrived at 6:50, the lockmaster was there and ready for us.  BONUS!  We got through before 7:00 and were on our way towards Three Rivers.  Three Rivers is a junction where the Erie Canal continues west toward Buffalo, NY and the Oswego Canal turns north towards Lake Ontario.  We took the Oswego Canal north and went through another 7 locks.  We arrived in Oswego and got onto Lake Ontario at 10:30, a good 30 minutes ahead of schedule.


Once on Lake Ontario it was almost flat to start.  The seas built to about 3 feet, but the wind was out of the north east at 15kts and directly on our stern, which made for a pleasant ride.  We got into Port Dalhousie tonight around 4:15 and took on fuel.  So we are already for the long day on the Welland Canal tomorrow.  We are staying at the Dalhousie Yacht Club tonight and had a nice meal in the clubhouse at the bar.  It was much needed after a good long day on the water.  So we have now completed the first of four of the great lakes we cross during our trip to Michigan.


Sorry no pictures tonight, too tired to upload and post.  Hope to have some for you tomorrow after we transit the canal.

Slow & Steady

Slow & Steady

All aboard Wired IV had another good day on the water. Daryl and I started bright and early at 5:45am. We checked the weather, had a good breakfast and prepared for a long slow day on the water. We had a 10 mph speed limit all day until we got onto Lake Oneida. So the first 60 miles today were all slow. The last 20 miles across Lake Oneida we were able to cruise, but the steady 2-3 foot chop with the wind out of the west made for a little bit of a bumpy ride.

We hit the first lock right at 7:00am and all the locks were ready for us the rest of the day. The only snag we hit was a dredge barge anchored in the middle of the canal about mid-day. It took them a good 20 minutes to get the dredge pipe disconnected and the barge pushed out of the way. Other than that, it was a near perfect day.

Daryl did most of the driving again. He is getting a really good feel for the boat. He captained in all the locks today and did a great job. He had a little hiccup when it came to docking tonight, but no big deal. He had just a bit more wind and current than expected, but no harm, no foul and we are tied up safely at the Brewerton Boatyard in Brewerton, NY.

We went as far as we could go today. We sit just east of Lock 23 and the Oswego Canal which will not open until tomorrow due to the recent rains. However, they are scheduled to be open tomorrow morning and we expect to be out onto Lake Ontario before noon. We will then turn west on Lake Ontario and make about 150 mile run to the entrance to the Welland Canal.

The forecast tomorrow is just about perfect for our trip on the lake with wind 5 to 15 out of the east and seas 1 to 2 foot are forecast. We will have a long day, but we will be right where we need to be.

I’m still a bit under the weather, but feeling better than yesterday. The pharmacy close by last night was a big help. Below are some pictures from the last two days.