Way behind updating…

Yes, once again I have fallen almost hopelessly far behind in the updates of our adventures…and our misadventures on Moorahme.  I think I will start with our present status, and as time permits, work my way back to our departure from Brunswick Georgia back awhile ago.

We are currently at Cape Fear Marina, which is located at Bennett Bros Yachts in Wilmington, NC.  It is not a large marina, has wooden floating docks, and is located just far enough away from the downtown area to make it too far to walk, which is inconvenient.  Not having a car changes how you shop, when you shop and what you shop for.  Basically, you shop when you can get a ride….that’s the bottom line.

The Gang’s all here

This marina has a large liveaboard prescence, and each and everyone of them here are really nice people.  There are quite a few younger sailors here that live year round on their boats, some install carpeting, some work at landscaping, and some are not so young, like Butch, who is 76 years old, is an engineer, and still actively working.  Wow!

There is a nice verandah area here at the office, and there is a great charcoal barbeque, and the charcoal and starter are supplied.  Talk about heaven.  Charcoal barbeque!  So much nicer to use than gas.  There is a rather large tidal surge here, and the water is filled with silt and weeds…our air conditioner cooling water header plugs up every other day with the dead weeds, a rather large inconvenience in the 90+ heat here.  Having to shut the air down and tear the water header apart for cleaning is not fun.  At dusk, the biting flies, mosquitoes and no seeums pour out of the swampy shorelines seeking nourishment, ie fresh human blood.  There is also a bridge very close to the marina with steel grating, so the noise from it is quite noticeable as well.

So, why are we still here you muse?  Well, our buddy boat Remora is having some major issues, and was hauled out of the water today to have an engine replacement, ensure the keel bolts are in good condition, and a ton of instrumentation work to be completed due to a lightning strike she suffered 4 days after we arrived here.

When boats fly….

John is bunking with us to manage/oversee the projects on Remora to completion.  Once Remora is good to go and John has verified that with a few shakedown runs, Beth and I will head back down to Brunswick Georgia and the Brunswick Landing marina, keeping a vigilant eye to the weather, weather which at this time of year can get nasty due to hurricanes.  Thank goodness for the NOAA hurricane site.

We have some boat issues ourselves to deal with.  Our radar died, the motherboard fried and we had to replace it.  Now, our old radar was analog, and our new radar is digital..so we also had to replace the chartplotter, as the old one would not accept digital technology.  I am hoping that we can complete that, with our dock neighbour’s assistance, tomorrow.  It is no small task in this heat, projected to be banging off 100F.

Bu- bye old radar

Gabe and Randy setting up the new radar

We have also replaced all of our mast head lights with LED bulbs, further reducing our power consumption, and also replaced a good number of the old bulbs in the salon area.  Today I removed all the old radar wiring, the old chartplotter, and adjusted the steering cables on Moorahme.   Her stainless on deck is sparkling now.  Beth and I ran out all of our anchor chain and marked it off in 50 foot segments which makes it much easier to know how much chain we have let out when anchoring.  We also ordered new dock lines today, a total of six dock lines, three quarter of an inch by 40 feet long with an 18 inch loop on one end, and both ends whipped and set up as fine as the hair on a frog’s ass.  That’s pretty fine by the way.  With hurricane season upon us, we wanted to be sure that all of our dock lines are in the best shape possible.

Storm rolling into Wilmington

Ooo, that’s ugly

As you can see, it does not end with jobs/projects on the boat.  I am not ever without something to do, which is a good thing.

Wilmington, NC is a very nice city of about 200,000.

The Shuckin’ Shack

Historic Downtown Wilmington 4

Historic Downtown Wilmington 3

Very well kept homes, a beautiful, old downtown area with a ton of restaurants and nice shops to browse.  There are the usual big box stores as well, there if you need them.  One of the liveaboards told us of a fish market just across the river and down the road about a mile.  We bought 5 lbs of shrimp at $4 a lb for nice sized, fresh shrimp.  They were great the past few days, having done them up on the barbeque using Aaron’s crab recipe for basting.

So, that’s long winded enough for now, I’ll work at getting the updates backdated , and with Beth’s usual great photo opportunities, we’ll try not to put you to sleep right away.

Keep your stick on the ice.