M/V ILLUSIONS
YEAR 2000 CRUISE
TRIP 3 LOGS
Wilmington, NC to Annapolis, MD
April 13-23, 2000
Houston, TX to Wilmington, NC, April 13, 2000
Angela and I flew to Charlotte,
NC from Houston’s Hobby Airport, 6:30am to 12:15pm, with a stop in
Cincinnati, OH. At 4:30am in
Houston it was 60 degrees F. As we landed in Cincinnati, the pilot said it was a pleasant
39 degrees outside. I’m not
sure what he meant by that. In
Charlotte it was 45 degrees and rainy.
We drove the rental car to
Chili’s, one of my regular restaurant choices, and met my aunt Rebecca
and her husband, Gordon, for lunch, which was very nice.
Rebecca had filled the plastic container we had left there on Trip
2 with some food and a couple of chocolate candies and a small bag of
M&M’s. Then we drove the 4+ hours to Wilmington.
We bought groceries and unloaded
our gear onto the boat. It
was cold and windy, so we checked the weather, hoping for an improvement.
We ate onboard and went to sleep early, as I had an early meeting
scheduled for Friday.
Wilmington, NC to Beaufort,
NC, Friday, April 14, 2000
My meeting lasted from 8-9:30am.
Then our friend, Jim, went with me to get fuel for the rental car
and to turn the car in at the airport.
We then drove to the marina, and we showed him around the boat.
We had planned a boat ride with Jim and his family for the
afternoon, but the weather was not nice.
Walter, our mechanic at the marina, finished a few maintenance
items for us, and we pulled out of the marina just after low tide, about
12:15pm. Low tide was
significant, as we bumped the bottom going out their channel at Mile 288.
We had our video camera set for
Houston standard time, and we were unable to reset it to Eastern daylight
time. So the time on the
video was 2 hours earlier than it should have been.
Beaufort, NC (pronounced “bo
fort”) was written up in the cruise guides as a good place for cruisers,
so we planned to go there and check it out.
The big problem getting there was the bridges.
We could get under the Wrightsville Beach bascule bridge at 20’
clearance (we left our antennas down), and it’s good that we could
because it only opened on the hour. At
Mile 260.7, Surf City, a 12’ high swing bridge also opened only on the
hour; and we waited 30 minutes there.
The lady bridge tender displayed a nasty disposition on the radio
and threatened to not open the bridge at all if the winds were strong.
There were several of us waiting on the south side of the bridge.
One called her on the radio to say he was incredulous at the
thought that she would not open the bridge, because it didn’t seem that
windy. He expressed all our
sentiments, I think.
At 3pm she did open the bridge,
and a procession of 4-5 powerboats and a few sailboats went through.
A 74’ Hatteras (M/V Diamond Days) passed us and led the way to
Beaufort. We waited 15
minutes at the Onslow Beach swing bridge; no courtesy there either. 
It started raining harder, and
the overcast conditions got worse. It
was not a pretty day. We got
out of the ICW channel briefly, due to poor visibility and a long distance
between markers. I was not
able to pick up the markers on radar, either.
We went aground, but I had slowed down in my confusion, so it was
easy to get off. It was very
shallow outside the channel markers. Depths
in the large Bogue Sound, which lay between us and the barrier islands,
were 1,2,3, and occasionally 5 feet, according to the charts.
Upon arrival in Morehead City,
we decided to turn towards the ocean and enter the town docks area via
Radio Island, which was the best route, I believe.
It was 6:45pm, and the visibility was very poor.
The number of markers in and around the turning basin at Morehead
City made it very confusing. I
passed a couple of cruisers who were trying to figure out where they were.
(We heard one calling the marina as we were tying up, asking where
the marina was located. He
must not have had a chart or guidebook.) I just thought it would be dredged in the turning basin area
and so plowed on. That turned
out to be a good assumption; depths were 40-50 feet.
The ship channel markers had
different numbers from our charts, but we were able to see landmarks that
enabled cross-checking of the buoys.
The service at the town docks was excellent, and they even had a
portable meter on a cart for fuel. They
literally brought the fuel to your boat, which saved having to tie up at
the fuel dock and then moving to a slip for the night.
That service was not cheap, it turned out.
They charged $1.40 per foot per night, including electricity,
water, and cable tv service. Fuel
was high, too-$1.35 per gallon plus sales tax, which brought it up to
$1.43 per gallon.
It was Friday night, and the
first restaurant they recommended to us had a one-hour wait (Beaufort
Grocery Restaurant, which would take reservations).
So, we walked to The Net House Restaurant, which did not take
reservations. It was good,
not excellent, but good. The
people in that area were so nice. We
shopped for nautical books later, but Angela wouldn’t let me buy any
fudge or T-shirts.
It rained lightly all evening, and we wore jackets for the cool
temperatures.
Beaufort, NC to Belhaven, NC,
Saturday, April 15, 2000
On the day we usually have to
pay our income taxes (in the year 2000 the deadline was on the 17th,
since the 15th was a Saturday), I woke to cool (65) and
overcast conditions. By the
time I had finished breakfast, it was raining steadily.
The canvas we had waterproofed in Ft Lauderdale was leaking badly;
the guy who did the work either took us for a ride or didn’t know what
he was doing. Angela was
catching up on her sleep as I tried to change our plans for the day.
The weather forecast was the
same for the next few days, so we pulled out at 10:30am.
This time I followed the directions in the Waterways Guide and went
north through the bascule bridge to the Gallant Channel.
The markers were confusing, and just before we reached the ICW at
marker 35 we went aground. We
seemed to be in soft mud and could plow our way off with the power of the
engines.
A couple of guys in a small
center console boat with the words “Diving Service” painted on the
side came by and told us we needed a tow.
By coincidence the tow service, Sea Tow, was listening in and
quickly agreed to come pull us some 50 yards across the bar into the ICW.
I told them I was not interested in the tow; I just wanted to know
where the channel was. The
two guys left the scene without helping us at all.
We eventually figured out we could go south to the 65’ bridge and
join the ICW there. If those
two guys had wanted to help, they could have told us that, but they
didn’t. I think they were
just looking for towing jobs for Sea Tow.
We now believe the Gallant
Channel cannot be used by cruising yachts; others have told us the channel
was closed. An alternate
channel appeared to be the Russell Slough Channel (see chart), which could
possibly be used when leaving Beaufort to go north.
By 2pm we were in Pamlico Sound,
with whitecaps, high winds, fog, and heavy rain.
There were tornado warnings on the weather forecast.
The caulking job done for us in Ft Lauderdale did not stop the
water from coming into the aft head and getting the new rugs and towels
wet. We wore slicker suits and tried to keep the instruments dry
on the flying bridge. At 4pm
we were tied up at River Forest Marina in Belhaven, NC. The captain of M/V MARY
ANN, a
42 or 43’ sportfisherman, told us the winds had been very strong there
about 3pm.
We had enough vibration to know
our props had been damaged by the groundings, so we inquired about a diver
to change to our spares. They
quoted us $250, which we thought was high, so we declined.
We did laundry at the marina laundromat, although Angela was
dissatisfied with the machines because they did not get the soap out of
the clothes.
Dinner at the “world-famous”
River Forest Manor was a disappointment.
The  100-year-old house was interesting, but not in excellent
condition. The well-advertised “smorgasbord” was a buffet of only
average offerings. The marina
docks had been ripped out by hurricanes several times in the last few
years (hurricanes Floyd, Dennis, etc), and they were still recovering.
The dock master was very helpful and courteous.
The slip cost $1 per foot plus $5 for electricity; fuel was $1.359
and no sales tax.
Belhaven, NC to Edenton, NC,
Sunday, April 16, 2000
At 7:30am, there was fog over
the water. We pulled out after MARY ANN and TWILLIGHT TIME, which two
boats seemed to be traveling together, about 9:30am.
MARY ANN was in the lead, and the captain said on the radio
he had been aground before
in the Pungo River-Alligator River Canal, so he went slowly for almost an
hour. If they had not slowed
down, we would not have caught up with them; they ran at 23-26 knots,
while we usually run at 16-17 knots.
MARY ANN went slowly at the south end of the canal; after we passed
the Danger-Shoal sign on the starboard (east) bank, he planed off and ran
away from us.
About noon the port engine began
making sounds of fuel starvation, so we bid our fellow travelers good-bye
and ran on only the starboard engine.
I went below and changed the Racor filter and we went back to
planning speed again. We were
in the upper reaches of the Alligator River at that point, and I found the
area to be very attractive. The
weather was certainly better than Saturday’s.
Approaching a major swing bridge
at Mile 85,we heard MARY ANN on the radio saying they were waiting for the
bridge. We contacted them and
the bridge tender on the radio. She
opened the bridge a few minutes late to allow us all to go through
together. We then followed
MARY ANN through a particularly scary part of the ICW channel, with shoals
on both sides.
After Mile 80, we were in
Albemarle Sound, and we went left, or west, to Edenton.
The other boats went east to Manteo, NC, which is near the barrier
islands and towns such as Nags Head, Hatteras, etc.
The Sound was smooth as glass, and we skimmed across the water,
even with our slight vibration. We
pulled into the Edenton Marina at 3:30pm.
The reason for our visit to
Edenton was to attend a back-yard dinner party at the home of our friends,
Thomas and Donna. Thomas picked us up at 5:30pm and took us for a
walking tour
of Edenton. The small town
contains some of the oldest buildings in the state, such as the oldest
courthouse, for example. Quite
a few structures exist there which were built in the 1700’s.
Thomas’ house was built about 1820.
Donna’s family made up most of
the guest list at the dinner party of 16 or so, and a lovely party it was.
The food was excellent and varied, the group spanned three
generations, and the weather was cool and nice.
The tall trees and four-story homes were certainly different from
Houston.
Edenton, NC to Chesapeake,
VA, Monday, April 17, 2000
We left Edenton at 6:45 or 7am and ran at a good speed over smooth
water in Albermarle Sound. We
made good time and turned in to the North Landing River by mid-morning.
About noon we heard a noise like we had hit something in the water,
but not quite like that. The
RPMs on the port engine dropped quickly.
The temperature seemed all right, but the oil pressure dropped and
stayed low. I shut down the
port engine, and Angela drove us ahead on the starboard engine only.
What I found in the engine room was about three gallons of oil
missing from the port engine. It
holds 26 quarts, so it was not all gone, but it was about half gone.
I replaced it and went back to the bridge.
After conferring with some mechanics on the phone, we started up
the engine and observed good oil pressure again.
The mechanic had predicted the turbocharger was out, and he said we
would not be able to plane off if that was our problem.
Sure enough, the RPM would not go above 1600, but oil and
temperature were okay. We ran
along for a few minutes with both engines at 1600 RPM.
I went below for some reason, and when I came back up there was a
fog of white smoke behind the boat. We
presumed it came from the port engine, although the instruments were okay.
I went
below to check the oil again, thinking it might be a water problem.
The oil level was fine, but I thought the oil was a milky
consistency. Having read
about water getting into the oil, I was concerned enough to leave the
engine shut down until a qualified mechanic could make the determination.
We fell in
behind a cruiser who had been at the Belhaven docks with us.
We had passed him twice, and then he had passed us.
He had a single engine Kady Krogen; we could keep up with him with
one of our engines. We both
were bound for Atlantic Yacht Basin, so we ran together and chatted on the
radio.
A couple of
bridges had to open for us, and it was a bit windy. With only the starboard engine operating, I could not back to
the right, so we had difficulties trying to stay still in the wind.
We asked for and received special treatment at the last bridge in
the form of an early opening instead of a long wait.
We turned left in a 180-degree turn at AYB to tie up alongside
their dock. Their mechanics
came and started diagnosis of our problems, but soon decided it was a job
for the Caterpillar dealer.
By prior
arrangement, we met with my former college roommate, Ed Nettles, who lived
there in Chesapeake. He drove
us to a fine restaurant in Virginia Beach, where we had a great meal.
Lay Days for Repairs, Chesapeake, VA, Tuesday and Wednesday, April
18-19, 2000
Carter CAT sent Chris Castka out
to work on the port engine. By
noon he had removed the turbocharger and aftercooler, plus two breathers
and air cleaner filters to take to the shop and clean.
He, and the AYB mechanics, thought there was no problem with the
oil in the engine; it looked fine to them.
I had been overly cautious in not running the engine.
In the afternoon we quick-hauled
the boat and put the spare props on.  I had ordered the Spurs rebuild kit, which arrived overnight from
FL: and the AYB mechanics rebuilt the spurs and also installed three new
shaft zincs. While it was up
in the air, the boat got a good cleaning and checking out.
It looked pretty good.
The weather was foul - rainy,
cold, and windy. Late in the afternoon Ed picked us up and drove us out to his
house, after which we went out to eat.
Angela and I were already tired of the mess associated with two
sets of mechanics working on the boat.
Ed showed us around Virginia Beach, including some really beautiful
areas. The azaleas were in
full bloom, and we loved seeing the dogwoods, too.
Chris came back at 9am again on
Wednesday. He thought he could finish that day, but he later changed his
mind. He did get the new
turbocharger installed, along with the cleaned and repainted aftercooler.
He ran the engine and checked the injectors.
He bore scoped the engine. He
removed all the injectors. He
tuned the engine and checked the oil pressure with another gauge.
He removed the oil filter and replaced it, cutting open the old
filter to look for signs of metal shavings in the oil.
He replaced the fuel filter that was damaged when changing the oil filter.
He replaced the sacrificial zincs in both
engines.
In the evening we ate dinner
with Ed and with my other college roommate, Gary Colehamer, and his wife,
Ella. It was great to see
them again. The last time had
been five years earlier at a college reunion at Virginia Tech, where the
three of us had gone to school (Ella had gone to near-by Radford College).
After that we moved Ed’s cars around so he could ride up the
Chesapeake Bay with us and collect his car at the airport rental office on
Sunday.
Chesapeake, VA to Gloucester
Point, VA, Thursday, April 20, 2000
Chris arrived at 9am again, and we took the boat for a test ride
down the Albermarle and Chesapeake Canal.
It seemed to perform fine, just as it did before the turbo went
out. He had changed an oil sender unit, which didn’t work well,
so he changed it back. After
some final adjustments, he pronounced us healed and took his leave of us.
We
had developed some other problems by that time, and the AYB mechanics went
to work on swapping out some bilge pumps and float switches.
The reconditioned props arrived and were reinstalled in the boxes
on the boat. Also, all the
rain had caused some serious problems with the shore power cables, and we
were having some new ends installed and some new pigtail adapters made.
The bill was paid by 1:45pm, and
we barely made the 2pm opening of Great Bridge and the lock just beyond
it. That was important
because there was a bridge further up the canal with a 1.5-hour curfew
from 3:30-5pm. We wanted to
get through the “steel bridge” before 3:30, and we did.
Ed had lived his entire life in that area and had not ever gone through
that lock, so we were able to show him something new in his own back yard.
We fell in with some other
cruisers and delivery captains who were waiting at Great Bridge.
We followed them to Mile 0.0 on the ICW and pulled into Tidewater
Yacht Agency for the lowest price on diesel fuel in the area.
It was $1.079 per gallon, compared to $1.19-$1.30 elsewhere.
(On the phone they told us $0.89 two days earlier, and other
captains had been told the same thing.
The marina operator said the price had just been increased by their
supplier.)
Norfolk was very attractive from
the water. We saw Waterside Marina, which was like Miamarina in Miami (a
marina surrounded with restaurants and shops near downtown).
Tidewater Yacht Agency was in Portsmouth, VA, across the river from
Norfolk. As we moved north to
the entrance to Chesapeake, we passed a large number of naval ships,
probably over 50 in all. The
larger vessels, the aircraft carriers, were closer to the bay and the
international port facility. It
was a very large and impressive complex of ships, shipbuilding, ports, and
support services. The Corps
of Engineers had a 4-5-story building along the starboard side as we were
going north.
Once we passed Newport News on
the left and Ft Wool on the right, we were in the Chesapeake Bay, and it
felt like we had gone out into the ocean.
We had swells, waves, whitecaps, winds, and hazy conditions.
We approached and could barely see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
as we turned north and put the SE wind behind us.
Ed had worked on the construction of the bridge-tunnel, and he was
able to tell us a lot about what we were seeing in the area.
We wanted to get some distance
made on that day and be out of the busy port area.
As darkness approached we turned west and ran up the York River to
Gloucester Point, where we found a place to stay and had a good meal and
retired for the night.
Gloucester Point, VA to
Annapolis, MD, Friday, April 21, 2000
We left at 7am and ran down the
river in poor visibility. We
reached into the Bay and turned up to the north, again getting strong SE
winds on our stern quarter. Angela
and I both steered the boat and found the going very rough if we let it
get to 25 or more degrees off north.
(The autopilot was useless in conditions like those.
It would swing through 40-50 degrees and make us all sick.
So, it was better to manually steer the boat.)
The problem was the waves would grab the boat and take it almost
sideways and down the face of the wave, and the helmsman was unable to get
the rudder to turn the boat. Of
course, it would eventually respond, and we would go north again.
But while on that 30-degree course we would be tilted on a forward
angle, and we felt out of control. The
further north we got, the less we felt the wave actions.
It was important to have charts
and to use them. Our GPS
chart plotter helped, too. The
bay has some serious shallow spots in it, and the ship channel markers
were few and far between. It
was a dreary day, with overcast, gray sky, rain, and cold temperatures.
We took very few pictures because there wasn’t much we could see.
The time was 4pm plus when we
pulled up to the Annapolis City Marina on Spa Creek and fueled up.
Their price was $1.309 per gallon and no sales tax. Their slips
were $1.50 per foot, but they were full.
We could have the fuel dock if we would be gone the next morning by
9am. We gave it a miss. They
were remodeling, putting down new carpet in their small store.
They didn’t answer the phone or the radio.
Next door was the Yacht Basin,
who did answer the phone and the radio.
They wanted $1.75 per foot for an overnight slip.
Their fuel dock was being rebuilt.
They had no laundromat. We
gave them a miss. We called a
few others with laundry facilities shown in the guidebook.
One wanted $1.85 per foot, but they only had 30-amp power.
We settled on Bert Jabin’s Yacht Yard on Back Creek for $1.50 per
foot and one each washer and dryer-no quarters available.
No help at the tie-up, either.
It was 5pm and raining, on an Easter weekend; it was pretty quiet
on that dreary afternoon.
We cooked onboard, which was
when we discovered several essential parts to our gas grill were missing,
probably jarred loose in the rough water somewhere.
We washed the rugs and wet towels again and walked around the
marina a bit. There were
500-600 boats at Bert Jabin’s, and hundreds more in a dozen or more
marinas in the area. The area
was so full of boats that some sailboats were anchored in the channels
because they had no place else to go.
Annapolis, MD to Severna
Park, MD, Saturday, April 22, 2000
We slept late, as I had thought
we would. The previous day’s run had been tiring. When the forward head stopped up, I thought we were in big
trouble. I had never
disassembled one of those heads and was not looking forward to that first
experience. Getting an
experienced mechanic on Saturday of Easter weekend was not very likely,
either. Ed and I worked with
it for a while and eventually got it to flush, which was a big relief.
After a big breakfast we pulled
out and headed into the bay. We
saw the cadets from the Naval academy sailing their sailboats at the
confluence of the Severn River and the bay.
Their blue and gold sails were very pretty.
Several ships were anchored there, too, which was somewhat
surprising to me since the ocean was so far away.
The high temperature was 56 F, but the skies were occasionally
clear and dry. The wind was
light and cold.
We cruised under the Bay Bridge,
which was quite impressive, and photographed a couple of lighthouses on
the left bank.  Then we turned
left, or west, into the Magothy River.
I found that river to be delightful.
It was about 6 miles long and one-half mile or so wide-a lot like
Clear Lake, TX. The banks
were higher, though, about 15-20 feet above the water.
The area was mostly residential, although there were a few
marinas-old, with smaller power and sailboats. 
We stopped and went into Magothy
Marina. We met some nice people and saw the cleanest and nicest
restrooms, showers, and laundry room I believe I’ve ever seen.
But they could not take a boat over 40 feet long and had only
30-amp power. So we cruised a
few feet farther to Cypress Marine, where I had reserved a slip by phone
earlier in the week. That
marina was smaller, but had a big enough slip and the right power for our
boat. Rental was $8 per foot
per month. The restrooms,
showers, and laundry room were about as bad as I have ever seen. 
Annapolis was calling, so we
taxied about 8 miles into town ($1.20 per mile in the cab), walked around
in the rain, and looked at the water, marinas, etc from the land instead
of from the water. Annapolis
was not a large town. All the
stuff we wanted was located near the City Dock.
We shopped a while and after dark ate at a Phillips Restaurant.
The crab cakes there were wonderful; it was a nice place that I
would recommend. We taxied
back to the marina and packed our bags.
Annapolis, MD area to
Houston, TX, Sunday, April 23, 2000
On Sunday morning we tried to
eat or otherwise dispose of some food that would not keep.
Ed was going to be driving a rental car home, so he could take
some. Our friend, Jeff Ralston, who
offered to take us to the airport, could certainly take some vegetables.
We ate a big breakfast, adjusted
lines on the boat and closed it up, and moved our luggage to the car. Fifteen miles away was BWI Airport, and we had an easy trip
home.
Home was 80 degrees during the
day, and 60 in the mornings, and slightly humid, but had been experiencing
nice weather while we were away. The
Weather Channel said the area we had been in was experiencing unusually
cool temperatures and generally dreary weather, which was unusual for the
end of April. The Great Lakes were experiencing their worst drought in
recorded history, with lake levels down some 39 inches; and for us it
rained every day. There was
no drought in the Chesapeake Bay region!
Statistics for Trip 3
530
miles
43 running hours
844 gallons of diesel
Average price of diesel was $1.31
Average gallons per mile was 1.6
Average gallons per hour was 20.6
Average fuel price per mile was $1.82
Average speed was 14.8 mph
Changed the Racor filter and the fuel filter on the port engine once.
Changed the oil filter on the port engine twice.
Statistics for Year 2000 Cruise, Trips 1,2, & 3:
1845
miles
141 running hours
2911 gallons of fuel
Average fuel price was $1.40 (high in Bahamas)
Average gallons per mile was1.58
Average gallons per hour was 20.6
Average fuel price per mile was $2.20
Average speed was 13.1 mph
For
all three trips, changed both main engine Racor filters twice and the port
engine Racor once, plus five changes of the Racor and the fuel filters on
the generator, plus one complete oil and filter change for all three
engines, plus changed the oil filter twice and the fuel filter once on the
port engine only during replacement of the turbocharger.
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