It is time to move on, we’re getting bottom growth on our feet. We have been here since June 24th. Today being the 10th of August, it really is time to hoist the sails and get moving once again. Why have we been here this long you might ask? Well, here is the story, in a somewhat condensed version.
Our buddy boat Remora needed a new engine, and John and Marcia had decided to have the work done here at Bennett Bros. Yachts . The factory installed Westerbeke had quite a few issues, which is surprising given the fact it had less than 600 hours of running time. This was further complicated when Remora was struck by lightning 3 days after our arrival. Well, Remora is just about ready to go back in the water, but..a week ago last Saturday the yard dropped a 10 month old Horizon 60 power catamaran.
ouch – on the ground is no place for a boat
keel sliced right through the tarping and into the ground
Nothing has moved into or out of the water since, for a variety of reasons. Hopefully the yard gets the ok, and new straps, this week to get the written off Catamaran out of the way so that other boats can be lifted in or out. The purchase price on that cat was in the $5 million dollar range, a huge loss. We had anticipated a 2 week retro fit for Remora, and we had offered to stay at this marina so that John and Marcia would not have to drive 2 hours each way every day to their summer home in Oriental while Remora was out of the water. Well, the retro fit has taken considerably longer, and with the cat sitting in the way and no one able to say when it could be moved, we have made the decision to move on. The people here are great, and we will miss most of them.
Wilmington is a beautiful city, wonderful architecture downtown, and the old homes and mansions are very unique and very well kept. We have enjoyed a few local establishments, some that we have visited are Island Taco…where tacos, fully loaded tacos, are 99 cents each after 5 p.m. every day https://www.facebook.com/IslandsFreshMexGrill and they are delicious, Fat Tony’s Pizza, pretty good pizza http://www.yelp.com/biz/fat-tonys-italian-pub-wilmington and The Basic, a trendy restaurant located downtown as well http://thebasicswilmington.com/ and of course our favourite seafood place, Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar http://www.pleasureislandoysterbar.com. OK…enough about food…
What have we done to Moorahme since we’ve been here? Our radar died, so we had to purchase a new chartplotter and radar. Unfortunately, the brand new chartplotter died, and has been returned to Raymarine for repairs. We are still waiting for it’s return, patience is a virtue they say. We have converted all of the mast lights to LED lighting to help conserve power, the wind indicating instrument at the top of the mast was replaced, as it was cracked and ready to fail, some fittings for the SSB radio had to be replaced as well, as corrosion had taken it’s toll and they had fell apart. Good old salt! We have also had to replace the a/c cooling water pump. The water here in the Cape Fear river is very dirty, weeds, floating islands of grass and debris, junk…..our thru hull header had become plugged with debris, and cut off the flow of water to the pump. I had cleared the header, a job which had to be done every other day….and opened the thru hull valve to allow water into the system again. The pump was still very hot, and the water hitting the impellor broke the vanes and rendered the pump useless. Not nice, and $300 expensive. One of the full time live aboards here generously offered to loan us a stand up household air conditioner until we had repairs completed…thank goodness. It is hot and muggy here. Our stainless steel on deck is shiny clean, we replaced a bad battery used to start the generator, I installed the AIS system but we apparently have some antennae issues to deal with. I also installed a new set of handrails at the top of the companionway for safer access below deck. We have also purchased new dock lines for Moorahme from theropedope.com. http://theropedope.com/ Frank offers awesome pricing and great quality ropes. Check him out!
Moorahme 