Almonds in the Bilge

On January 19, I decided to start a new habit: write every day. Initially, my goal was to write 2,000 words a day. But, while I seem to get to 1,000 words pretty easily, 2,000 has been too ambitious. Being the practical person I am, I changed the goal to "write for an hour or 1,000 words, unless I'm really on a roll then I can write for longer." I have missed a couple of days, but feel pretty good about keeping with the program. Dave is my chief encourager. He reminds me to take the time to write. Life is good when you have a partner who supports your priorities.

I have fallen into the habit of starting my writing with a recap of what is happening on Aevitas which has turned out to be a very handy way to keep up with the blog... I may be posting blogs more often with the new habit and having more interesting things to share since we are now on the move.

Here is the latest about happenings on Aevitas from the last week, plus a couple of days:

February 6: Nothing new going today as far as cruising life goes. We are still in the Jarrett Bay Marina near Beaufort. The wind is cold and has been steady between 15 and 20 kts. It is supposed to decrease in a couple of days and then we will make our next jump.

Today I am making bread; trying a new recipe for white bread and baking it in the Ninja cooker gadget. I have one loaf pan and the recipe makes two loaves. Guess, I'll have to make cinnamon rolls as well (gosh darn, that is a shame). I’m going to cook the cinnamon rolls in the muffin tin and add raisins. We will see how it goes. We could use a store run, but that would require an Uber and we aren't that desperate.

Follow-up note: bread and cinnamon rolls were yummy, the recipe is a keeper.

The plan is still to hop out to the Atlantic and make a straight shot to Southport. I’m nervous about the coastal piece, but we have to do it sometime and it may actually be easier on the dog. It looks like a 15 hour passage and we will do it overnight when she will be sleeping anyway. She will do her business before we leave and then after we dock. We are trying to get her to understand “Potty” as a command so she will go on her grass on the boat. But, I’m not sure we are getting anywhere.

February 8: We have decided to "go big or go home" and do a 30 hour passage to

Charleston instead of the shorter one to Southport. The timing works better with the overnight passage to go further than Southport and the next Safe Harbor Marina is at Charleston. I did a tarot reading about the success of a trip to Charleston and it was a 3 yes /2 no split - so a maybe, but leaning towards a yes. We saw dolphins shortly after starting out. Dolphins are supposed to be good luck. I'm taking that as a good sign. We had one near catastrophe. The 65 foot bridge was not at 65 feet when we approached. Thank goodness, Dave had me check the water level sign on the side of the bridge - we almost went through and it was at 62.5 feet - a foot lower than our mast height! We did circles as the tide went out and then went under when it was close to 64 feet. It was very close. I decided that was the "maybe" part of the Tarot reading - it could have ended really badly under a bridge in Beaufort.

The journey so far, other than the bridge, has been good. The weather is cold, but the sun was out most of the day. Big "Thank You" to my mom for the electric handwarmers! We are getting broadsided with some pretty decent waves. My cold weather sailing uniform consists of my warmest p.j.'s, sweats, another sweatshirt, ski jacket, and my alien hat. I added a blanket for good measure. We are bobbing to and fro, sometimes with great enthusiasm.

The dog is on drugs and sort of maintaining. She is still not peeing on the boat. We know she can go 24 hours. So maybe I won’t worry until tomorrow morning. She has sniffed her pee grass and shown some interest in it. I sure hope she goes on it, or the pee pad in the bathroom, at some point before we get to Charleston. She definitely prefers marinas and land to ocean voyages. I am hoping she gets better at it.

We've had light winds (thankfully) and are making 7 kts most of the time. There have been only a couple of other boats out here. It is very quiet. I knocked on wood after I wrote that. 

We are doing a 5,4,3 watch schedule (on for 5 hours/off for 5 hours, then 4, then 3). It is hard to sleep when off watch, at least so far. I think I’ll sleep on my next off watch because it will be like 1 a.m. We switched our sleeping arrangements to the aft cabin to be closer to the cockpit in case we need to be roused quickly. It is noisy with the engine running.

We are still leaking fresh water from somewhere, the lower bilge has water in it and the pump goes off on occasion. Although it is much better than before, it is perplexing.

Times up! I need to go do my watch.

February 9: We completed our first overnight passage and have almost completed our first passage in the ocean. I am thankful to the Goddess of the Universe that we have had light winds and manageable swells. We saw dolphins this morning. I’m going to take this as a harbinger of good luck that the remainder of our journey will be OK (I knocked on wood, again).  First sunrise on the Atlantic...

The dog peed in the cabin (second time) - right after I had taken her pee outside. She goes by the companion way. I think that means she knows she needs to go outside. I think I need to walk her to the bow and if she doesn’t go, leave her outside. I hope we figure this out soon.

Today is not as pretty as yesterday as the blue skies have been replaced by clouds. It is supposed to be warmer. I’m hoping that is the case. 

The 5,4,3 watch schedule worked well. We both were able to get some sleep. Overnighters might be easier on the dog since she is used to sleeping all night. 

I listened to an audiobook, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, during my helm time. It is a great story. I love how the separate pieces of the story are told and eventually weave together. It starts at what I'm pretty sure will be the end and then goes to the beginning and works forward. It is well done. The characters are great. The author is very good at saying just enough, but not too much, so your imagination can fill in the blanks. I would love to write like that.

February 9: We arrived safely in Charleston and are parked on the Mega Dock in front of a Mega Boat. We were wiped out yesterday and didn't do anything other than go out to dinner, walk the dog a few times, and go to bed early. We had moved our bedding to the aft bunk so we would be closer to the cockpit for watches and in case we were needed when we were on watch. We were so tired, we didn't even change our bedding back to the forward cabin.

February 10: We slept late and had so many chores to do. The boat was filthy and had a ton of wash to do: the rugs the dog peed on, our sheets, towels, clothes. We really needed showers and the dog insisted on lots of walks. Dave cleaned up our teak. I'm adding "Teak Master" to his titles. Plus, we had almonds in our bilge. The almond container tipped over in all the rocking and rolling in the Atlantic. When I picked it up, the top came off and all the almonds spilled. The container was in a cupboard that had a cutout to lift a panel to access some hoses. Below the panel is a channel that leads to the bilge. We ended up using a slotted spoon to reach the almonds and fish them out of the bilge that still has water in it. Damn the mystery leak!

The sunrise dog walk was lovely and there are dolphins in the river. I think I'll like Charleston.

February 11: Today feels much better. The boat isn’t disgusting. The dog is more settled. We moved our bedding back to the master cabin and it was nice to sleep in our own bunk. The dog liked it too. We took the Brown Boating Dog on a long wander around Charleston. What a great city! There are really cool skinny houses, tons of interesting shops and restaurants. There is even a Brown Dog Deli.

The skinny houses are fascinating. They are called "Single Houses" because they are a single room wide. According to the Oracle (A.K.A. Google), the front door is in the middle and there is a room on either side. There is a porch and balcony running the length of the houses and all the windows and doors lead to it. Apparently, this helps with keeping the house cooler by allowing for good air circulation. From the street, you go through a door to enter the porch. The actual house front door is in the middle of the porch.

Today was "Second Sunday," an event that closes down King Street so pedestrians can stroll around and merchants can have sidewalk sales. It was very busy and there were lots of dogs. Sofie tried to greet everyone for a little bit, then gave up and mellowed out. We met some folks from Nevada. They wanted to pet the dog and we got to chatting. How weird to meet folks from Nevada - northern Nevada even (some place near Wells) all the way across the country.

February 12: It was cold and raining and we were in the boat all day, except for dog walks and showers. We played Scrabble (Dave won), did taxes, and took naps. Taxes are pretty simple when you have very little income.  We did spend a good couple of hours looking at weather, waves, distances, marinas, etc. to plan our next couple of destinations. That always takes a while because we explore a lot of “what if” scenarios about when and where to go. 

February 13: Today will be a busy day. We are getting prepared to leave very early (like 4:00 a.m.). On the agenda: laundry, groceries, fuel, getting the lines organized so we can sail, and going to Indaco for dinner. As it turned out, we couldn't get reservations for Indaco, so we ate at the Charleston Crab House. I had some of the best shrimp ever. It was perfectly cooked. We are turning in early. Let's see if we can get out on time. 4 a.m. is a little ambitions for us...

February 14: I am writing this at 5:24 a.m. as we are making our way south in the Atlantic towards today's destination: Port Royal. This morning, we left Charleston at 3:50 a.m. Our goal was to leave by 4:00. This is the first time, ever, that we have left on time. The weather is very cooperative so far. Very light winds, few waves, clear skies. Dave did a great job navigating us in the dark down the channel and out to sea. We encountered one nerve wracking situation in one of the narrower parts of the channel. A tug was pulling a barge on the port side of the channel and us moving to the starboard side as a big container ship passed between us, in the dark.

It is a very dark night and there are a billion stars out. Gorgeous.

It is now about 6 a.m., it is just starting to get light and it is my turn to person the helm and give Captain Dave a break. And for your viewing pleasure, sunrise on the North Atlantic, somewhere off the South Carolina coast.

Since the wind was light and coming mostly behind us, Dave put out the genoa and rigged the whisker pole to hold the jib out to the other side, giving us more sail surface area to catch the wind. Another first - using the whisker pole for sailing instead of hammock holding!

Oh, and, Happy Valentines Day to those who celebrate. Happy Wednesday to those who do not.

February 15: We're staying at the Port Royal Landing Marina again tonight. Tomorrow we will head a few miles up the river to Beaufort for a couple of nights. This marina is very nice. But, it is a journey to take the dog to land. The tide here is seven feet! It is a long way to solid ground.