Happy Thanksgiving and Greetings from Charleston!

After days of grey skies, we enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day here in Charleston today! We arrived yesterday afternoon at the Ashley Marina, and have enjoyed meeting some of the friendly liveaboards here. Today we walked along the Battery, and through part of old Historic Charleston, admiring some outstanding examples of southern architecture and the palm trees!

This evening we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with the Ishmael crew on their boat; turkey and all the trimmings. (Karen forgot to bring the shrimp we had planned for an appetizer..whoops! We have enjoyed shrimp several times recently, purchased fresh from local shrimp boats. Wow! What a difference from what one buys, frozen, at the supermarket back home.)

We will be here another couple of days, as we are having our prop repitched. A great place to be stuck; lots to do and see here!! And the weather forecast is for more sun!

More to follow; we hope all our friends and family have had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Swansboro,N.C: Another Grand Adventure

Trefoil and her crew left Morehead City at nearly mid-day on 18 Nov. We briefly deliberated the weather forcast and figured that a 50% chance of sun was equal with a 50% chance of rain. So...off we go to Swansboro. (oo, a rhyme) This was a short hike (25 statute miles) but it started somewhat ominoulsy with rain falling after about a mile of travel. Well, no worries, mate! It will get better. (and it did) So, we motor through moderate fog and moderate mist until we get to Swansboro. Everything was fine except for the uncharted red which nearly sent us out of the channel and into the Atlantic! After some words were exchanged (at an increased volume) we regained our composure and continued the last few miles to the ancorage with relative ease. Then, came the rains. Bango-our glasses were soaked, our vision otherwise obscured by the violence of the rain and our relatively good navigating besmirched by running aground by way of a too-tight turn into the anchorage. Hard aground. 3200RPM reverse aground. Rocking the boat +3200 RPM reverse aground. We finally got off the bottom and, still not being able to find the right nav aids, were able to see "Caspers Marina" . We immediately forgot our desire to anchor out and where VERY happy to tie to the dock.

Thus endith the good part and beginnith the bad part: Rain and more rain!! We had arrived somewhat soaked and then the rain got real. Five + inches of rain in 13 hours. Steady, soaking rain. Six inches in the rubber boat. Ninty-four % humidity in Trefoil. Wet dog, wet people, wet clothes. However, the good part is that it did stop this morning and only most of the docks where underwater. Not ours-almost- but not submerged. Then the sun came out, we dried off, went for a walk and all is well this evening. The thermometer on the bank we passed on the way to Piggly Wiggly for provisions said 78 degrees!! Perhaps tomorrow will be as much fun! We'll write!


Love, Dick & Karen

The "Dog Connection"

As Trefoil (mostly) motors South we have had many new acquaintances and meetings with folks that must be credited to our lab Colby. Women (young and older) wave to him as we walk down village or city streets. People stop and ask us if they may pet him. Folks just walk up to you and ask if he is a lab and might they give him a treat. The owner of one marina in N.C. said " oh! this is the dog I've heard about!! Truth to tell, Colby is the most social member of the Trefoil crew.
What brings this tale to mind occured today when we checked into a marina in Morehead City.N.C. The lady working the counter saw Colby with Karen and, after admiring Colby, related her recent story of her family's rescue lab. A customer in the area entered the conversation remarking on our dog's large paws and powerful chest. The marina owner then entered and, after petting Colby and complimenting him, brought Karen into his office to show her pictures of his Late, Great lab and a poem over the loss of his dog. The customer offered (and we accepted) king mackeral steaks just caught today off the NC coast.
Karen and I enjoyed these kind and thoughtful people and feel honored and blessed with this experience.
There are many ways to meet and enjoy folks but, the most talented of our crew at the "meet and greet" game seems to be Colby. Lucky Us.

Love to all!

Sunny and warm!

Today has been beautiful, temps in the low 70's and blue sky! The rest of the boats that have been holed up here left this morning. We elected to stay an extra day, as we learned yesterday that our friends John, Linda and Roscoe on Triton's Trumpet would be arriving today. They are super people and were wonderful to travel with last year, so we really wanted to see them again. They arrived this afternoon, and Colby and Roscoe seemed to remember each other!!

We plan to head out first thing in the morning, down the Pamlico River and the Neuse River, to anchor just north of Oriental, North Carolina. Today we washed all the portlights and put the screens back in!! After days of being closed in, it is so nice to open up the boat. Tomorrow the forecast is for more sunny skies! It will be good to be underway again.

We love everyone's comments and appreciate email; hearing from our friends is always a bright spot in our day!

Hunkered down in Belhaven, NC

As the remnants of Hurricane Ida pass off the coast and the high from the West blows through to meet the low, we are experiencing winds of 40 knots or more. We are at a dock, but getting on and off the boat and then walking down the dock can be very tricky. It has rained about 10 inches in the past 24 hours, and our dingy is full of water. Oh, and there is occasional thunder and lightening! Winds may begin to subside somewhat this afternoon. Colby is bored; he gets off the boat 2 or 3 times a day to do the necessary things, but it is raining so hard he doesn't want to stay out long! And when we get back from a "shoreside excursion," we are all soaking wet. The creaking and groaning of our mooring lines on pilings (no floating docks here) sounds like the soundtrack of a 1950's pirate movie! The noise of the wind and the fenders slapping against the side of the boat, as well as the motion of the boat being pushed around in the slip, are all very alarming to the senses. There is no real danger, but the noise is tiring.

The upside is that we are not alone! There are six other boats here sitting out this storm, and there is a very nice clubhouse, where we all gathered for a potluck dinner and adult beverages last evening. Ishmael is here, a British couple who crossed the Atlantic in their 39' catamaran, a couple on a trawler, another couple on a Hunter 33, a Canadian couple on a C&C 33, and a young family with 3 small children on a 29' sailboat. Also, there is a courtesy car, so some of us may go into town to do some errands when the wind subsides a bit. The are also hot showers, which helps to improve the attitude!

To back up a few days, we had very fair weather for the trip from Norfolk to here! We left Norfolk Saturday morning, and entered the Dismal Swamp Canal shortly after. This is a fairly narrow, shallow, somewhat overgrown and dark canal with occasional logs near the surface and also on the bottom which wake one up in a hurry! The canal connects the Elizabeth River to the Abermarle Sound. The North Carolina Welcome Center, about halfway through the canal, has a free dock, and we were rafted up there with 14 other boats that evening! It was a bit crazy, but a calm and well protected spot, so it worked. The next day, we continued on to Elizabeth City, a very welcoming town which offers free dockage for up to 48 hours for cruisers. There we were greeted by Pete Taggett, who has a sailboat at Van Slooten Harbour Marina on Lake Champlain; Pete spends his winters in Elizabeth City. He took us to the grocery store, the hardware store, the post office, and helped us get diesel and kerosene! A big thank you to Pete. That evening, we burned kerosene in our heater for the first time, and the result was very little soot. This was very good news! We are also ordering an upgrade kit, which should help us to control the burn more easily.

We would have loved to stay another day in Elizabeth City, but this weather was forecast, so we decided to move, and we are very glad we did. We left Monday morning, and had a very calm passage across the Abermarle Sound. This is one day we were glad to motor, as the Abermarle has a reputation for becoming treacherous in a hurry. We anchored near the mouth of the Alligator River that evening, along with Ishmael. A very quiet, peaceful spot; the only problem was that there was no good spot to get the dogs ashore. Colby and Kooper had to climb out of their dingies, over a mass of interwoven tree roots, and find a bit of marsh grass to take care of business! A repeat performance at 6:15 the next morning, and underway shortly after. The 20+ miles in the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal made a very pleasant day; sunny, with a light breeze, mid 70's! This was a 55 mile day. We arrived at Dowry Creek Marina about 3:15, glad to be here, in a good place for the approaching storm.....

Wahoo!!! We're in Norfolk!!

Yesterday was a long day, but we arrived at the Waterside Marina in Norfolk at sunset! NOAA had a gale warning out, starting at 6:00 PM, so we were just minutes from that. Winds were forecast to gust to 40 knots, so we opted for a marina, rather than anchoring out. This is a well-protected spot, and right in downtown Norfolk, with lots to do. We caught up on some housekeeping chores today, and plan to visit Nauticus and the Naval museum tomorrow morning before heading south down the ICW. This is a real high point for us to be here! It is a busy city, with lots of big ships and naval traffic, unlike anywhere else we have been.

Our trip from Solomon's to Reedville was certainly interesting. There is a Navy firing range south of Solomon's. We starting hearing the Navy contacting boats that were underway, asking them to alter course to move out of target range. We were not contacted, but we heard 5 or 6 calls to other boats. Then, KABOOM!!! there was definitely some heavy artillery being tested. Four times the charges went off! Rather awesome, to say the least. Colby didn't like it at all. Just when we got him calmed down from one charge, the next one went off! We spent the night on the dock at a small marina in Reedville. Unfortunately, the restaurant at the dock was closed, but we enjoyed wine and snacks in Ishmael's cockpit, while Ben was working hard to fish for crabs!

The next day was a short travel day, to Deltaville. We went in on the north side, off the Rappahannock River, and stayed at Walden's Marina, for $.75/foot for the night. Definitely the least expensive marina we have stayed in! Only problem was that we ran aground 3 times exiting the channel the next morning! Good thing it was just mud.....We were underway at 6:45AM, as we knew it would be a long way to Norfolk.

And a long way it was. We started out with good winds, about 15 knots and we actually sailed with no motor for a while, making 6.2 knots. Lovely!!! Then the wind started to decrease and so did our speed, so we motorsailed. After a while we rolled up the jib, as it wasn't helping, but we had some help from the main most of the day. Once we got to the Norfolk area, it took 3 hours to get to our destination. With the current we slowed to 3.2 knots for a while, until we entered the Elizabeth River, then we were suddenly up to 6.2 knots. Colby was VERY happy to get ashore after a 10.5 hour travel day!!

We continue to average about 10 nautical miles or more per gallon, so fuel is not a big expense. So far we have traveled 640 nautical miles (736 statute miles).

We have added a galley strap for cooking underway, as we often want a hot lunch while traveling on cold days. Dick does most of the driving, and sometimes by the end of the day he can't feel his fingers anymore! Karen does the navigating and provides those hot lunches, as well as an occasional break for the helmsman. Colby sleeps a lot, and springs to life as soon as we are at a dock or anchored. He is a wonderful companion, and makes lots of friends where ever we go. While he can't wait to get off the boat at the end of the day, he is always in a hurry to get back on as well! Our mailman, Steve, sends us our mail when we call him with an address, and provides moral support as well!

A year ago today.......

A year ago today, we traveled from Haverstraw to Jersey City. Today we are at Solomon's, two days south of Annapolis, and three days from Norfolk! We are really looking forward to getting into the ICW!

We have been here for two days, sitting out some heavy rain and brisk winds. We were anchored in Back Creek for two nights, and were able to provision and visit West Marine. We used our diesel heater, and were glad for the warmth and the dry heat. This afternoon we moved to Calvert Marina (only $1 per foot) so we could take showers, recharge the batteries, fill our water tanks, and clean up the boat. At that time we realized how BLACK the deck was from the soot from the diesel heater. This is a real problem; the heat is wonderful, but the soot is incredible. Obviously we need to resolve this problem. We would like to be able to anchor out as much as possible, but we don't want to destroy all the new non-skid. We usually use L.A. Awesome (or as we call it, Larry's Awesome) to clean the decks, but it isn't even making a dent in this problem. A young man at the dock tonight suggested Greased Lightening, so we'll try that. We will try kerosene for fuel instead of diesel when we can find some.

Here at Solomon's we have seen three other boats (Ishmael included) that we had seen at Cape May. We all left Cape May at different times. Interesting how paths cross and re-cross.

We plan to head out tomorrow AM for Reedville, on the way to Norfolk!