Life on Land

Layla is “on the hard” in Beaufort while we work on projects and wait for the end of hurricane season.

So, how is that going?  CHAOS.  Between trying to complete the growing list of “to dos” on the boat and at the house, we have chaos.

Chaos has taken over every square foot of Layla, as we replaced all the settee cushions with parts and tools and boxes of stuff.

The settee cushions are now piled up on our living room floor waiting to be cleaned.

It was not long after setting foot on land that we had “project piles” in various stages of incompletion scattered around the house, porch, yard, shed and boat. As no task is as simple as it first appears, we have been distressed to see project piles grow in size and number as completing projects has been hampered by waiting for a repair, new parts, new design ideas, cooler/dryer weather or, sometimes, having sufficient enthusiasm to overcome procrastination.

Model building of the autopilot linear drive took over our reading room floor.

Canvas measurements for our butterfly hatch cover took over our dining room floor.

Striping the salon table took over the only shady spot in the yard.

Varnishing the salon table took over the shed.

And drying fresh coats of varnish took over the back porch on sunny days or the entrance to our kitchen on rainy days.

It is typical to lose track of the progress on some tasks, such as when we have conflicting trouble-shooting recommendations from equipment user manuals obviously written in Norwegian (autopilot), Japanese (engine, transmission, and many others), or other languages which are then translated, poorly, into English. Conflicting recommendations also come from the “experts”, and there are thousands of generous “old salts”, arm-chair sailors, boat yard workers, technicians, friends and sales people, all eager to give advice on solving our problem. All progress slows as we attempt to sort through it all, try some recommendations, or just throw up our hands and walk away until another day.  

Our biggest frustration, one that is constantly recurring, is losing stuff. Things just disappear. How many times can we lose the same thing over and over again? Or lose something else, that thing I just had in my hand, while I was looking for that lost bag of disassembled hardware needed to re-install the single side band radio we just got back from the manufacturer (who, by the way, said there was nothing really wrong with it)?   Of course when there are two of us involved with losing stuff, it makes great entertainment (sometime later).

Here is an except from one of our conversations:

He said, “Do you know where that bag of screws went? It was right here at the Nav station. I see you moved some things around here… Why are you looking under that pile of stuff that obviously hasn’t been touched in days? No one would have put it under the pile.”

She said, “Are you sure you are not confusing this bag of screws with another bag of screws? You know we have another bag of screws that looks sort of like that.”

He said, “Oh crap, now where did that bolt to tiller arm disappear? I thought it was safely here in this tray in the Nav station.”

About 10 minutes later he said, “I found the tiller arm bolt.”

She said, “Great! Where did you find it?”

He said, “I found it in the cup holder in the truck.”

She said, “I thought you said you put it right here in the Nav station?”

He said, “Never mind. Let’s look for that bag of hardware.”

We found the bag of hardware for the SSB under that pile of stuff that obviously hadn’t been touched in days…..

Where In The World Is Layla

View Larger Map

To help everyone keep track of where Layla takes us, we have embedded a Google Earth map into our blog site.  If you don't have the Google Earth Plugin on your computer, you will need to download and install it in order to view our map.  Let us know if you have any problems viewing our map.  We will keep this map on the upper right hand side of our blog page to make it easy to find with future posts.

Our trip south down the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is highlighted in blue, and our trip north up the ICW is highlighted in green.  Layla's past positions are marked by the blue sailboat, and her current position is marked by the yellow sun.  We will update Layla's position as she takes us to far-away places.   

The Marathon from Marathon: Part 9

The Home Stretch

As with any long road trip, there are sections of the trip that fly by, and other sections where time stands still or even goes backward.  Probably the hardest stretch was the last hundred miles or so.  We were so ready to be home and catch up on some very needed sleep.  We celebrated as we passed through our last swing bridge in Jacksonville, NC, and picked up anchor at our last anchorage in Swansboro, NC.

Our last draw/swing bridge in Jacksonville, NC area.  We don't know why, but we were blessed by the 'bridge' gods on our last two bridges, one with very restricted openings on the top of the hour only.  Despite the guidebook note that "boats should be waiting at the bridge before opening", the bridge operator for the Surf City Swing Bridge held up traffic for four extra minutes to let us through, and this bridge operator at the Onslow Beach Bridge held up traffic for over fifteen minutes let us through.

We knew we were getting close to home when we saw the armored vehicles used for gun target practice at the Marine Corp Base at Camp Lejeune, NC.  Less than forty miles to go….

Finally home.  Our last Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) mile marker about one mile south of the Beaufort Marine Center, where Layla was taken out of the water for the hurricane season.  Marathon, FL is located at mile marker 1163.

Home Again

We are now back in our house in Morehead City with Layla in the Beaufort Marine Center boatyard ("on the hard").  Despite being on land, we still are linked to Layla.  After about one week on land, Bud woke me up in the middle of the night to find out how much water was under us.  I cleverly replied 8 feet (as our house is about eight feet above sea level).  Little did I know that he was still half asleep, and that this information would haunt him all night long. 

We are happy to report that we didn’t break down on the trip north.  However, after six months of cruising, we have had an opportunity to find out what works and what doesn’t work well.  This has given us a nice long list of 'To Do's", which is keeping us out of trouble on land.  We will share those projects with you as they unfold.

Layla moving to her new temporary home "on the hard" at the Beaufort Marine Center.

 

The Marathon from Marathon: Part 8

The Stops Along the Way

This is installment part 8 of our trip from Marathon, FL north to Beaufort, NC.

To keep our sanity, we stopped a couple of times to recuperate.  After motoring 10-12 hours for 5 days, we needed breaks.  The nice part about heading north compared to our travel south was that WE chose the places to stop rather than having Layla choose.  We revisited some of the places we stayed previously, and looked at them differently.  We were no longer trapped in these places waiting on a part or a repair, and it made all the difference.  We still had our chores to do including restocking the pantry, refueling, refilling water and, getting Bud’s hair cut in Beaufort, SC.  When we weren't satisfying Layla's needs, we caught up with old acquaintances, met other cruisers, and locals. 

One of our favorite stops was Beaufort, SC (pronounced Bu-fort, not to be confused with Beaufort, NC, pronounced Bo-fort, Layla's hailing port).  These towns share, in addition to their similarly spelled names, quaint charm and authentic southern hospitality of these small coastal communities.  Below are selected pictures to give you a feel for the week we spent in Beaufort, SC.

Walking back from the grocery store in Beaufort, SC.

Bud got a much needed haircut, military style (not his favorite, and much shorter than his normal cut), at the barber shop in Beaufort, SC.

We were in watermelon country over the Fourth of July.  This is one of the many 'watermelon' buses (converted school buses with the windows removed) used to transport watermelons from the farms.

There are many cemeteries as peaceful as this along the walk to the grocery store.

 
The Locals

We were re-acquainted with the iconic southern hospitality when we were offered a lift back to the marina after shopping at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Beaufort, SC.  A woman in a beat-up pickup truck told us to hop in the back while she ran into the store for a minute.  As we climbed in, we noticed grocery bags filled with canned goods from other stores in the bed of the truck.  She explained the grocery stores had damaged goods for sale on Monday, and that she only eats whatever is on sale.  After she dropped us off at the marina, we thanked her for going out of her way.  She explained she had been a cruiser for ten years, and she knew how challenging it can be.  As we walked down the dock to our dinghy, she called us.  We though we had left some groceries, but she just wanted to tell us to look her up in the phone book if we needed anything.  She slapped her knee and said, “Pat me on the pink knee…..That is how you will remember my name, Pat Pinckney”.  We thanked her again, and I cried.  Pat was clearly getting by on more modest means than we were, and yet she insisted on more giving.  I recalled that we were offered a lift when we passed through Beaufort previously on the trip south.  Laden with far too many grocery bags (again) walking back from the store, a woman pulled off the road and insisted on giving us a ride.  “That’s what we do in Beaufort.”, she said proudly.  The pace of cruising on Layla rewards us with deeper interactions not typically available otherwise.

In the back of Pat Pinckney's old pick-up truck.