At the end of May we left Charleston for an overnight sail to Beaufort NC; it had taken time to convince Louise that it warranted sailing overnight, a pastime that she tries to unilaterally forbid. Shame then that it turned out to be two nights a sea partly due to a light wind and partly due the US Navy.
Ghosting along we unfortunately came across an aircraft carrier and half a dozen frigates and destroyers conducting extensive exercises between Cape Fear and Beaufort effectively blocking our passage. Ok… so we had got quite close, Mark was not on watch at the time, in fact close enough that they called us to demand that we maintain a 3 mile clearance from them when we were about a mile away – all pretty straight forward until the ‘Battle Group’ changes course every 15 minutes and rushed around at 25 knots so every time we tacked away making about 6 knots from one warship we wandered into another!
There was a momentary flash-back for Mark to his days ‘afore the mast’ when he was trying to drive a RN ship about only to find endless yachties getting in the way and generally being a pain. None the less it is difficult to tell a nuclear powered aircraft carrier that they are infact the 'overtaking vessel' and therefore in accordance with International Regulations the obligation was for them to keep clear of us! Mark however, was very happy as he benefited from his own air show as jets and other bits of military flying kit got flung off the front of the carrier!
Once safely anchored in Beaufort – (Named after the Duke of B, not quite sure why) Mark set about the long planned task of fixing the generator or, as it has become known among our fellow cruisers, Jem’s Scrapheap Challenge. Undaunted by these unkind words the engine room was stripped out to give access to the geny. The geny was removed from its mountings and stripped down, head removed, bottom off, all pistons out etc all completed within the space of a shower cubicle. Mark getting pretty pleased with himself until it came to the point of putting it back together. The new piston rings bought at enormous expense and hand carried by Nick & Margot to Cuba were too big, just didn’t fit. Louise retired to a room with a lock on the door while Mark ranted and raved, threw stuff about feeling generally pretty unhappy.
The short story is that it transpires that our generator is a bodged up ‘cut and shut’ with electrical end belonging to one type and the engine end another – no notes to say what is what. UPS turned up trumps with new rings overnight and the job completed. 5 solid days of the hard work rewarded Mark with a generator that still doesn’t work. May be it is getting close the float test!
The good thing about Beaufort was the purchase of a bicycle for Louise. Having asked around about second hand bikes a number of people mentioned that we should go and see Hippie Steve with the added advice that it might be better to go early in the day rather than later. Directions consisted only of it's a red house on a corner with lots of bikes outside. Sure enough; red house, lots of bikes and a hippie - head band, ponytail, beard, alternative clothing. Bikes are either rusting in racks or piled up rusting.
'Hi, you must be Steve'; 'yea man'; 'You were easier to find than I thought, the house is certainly red'; 'shure is, but sometimes it's blue.....' The conversation continues in a wonderfully mellow way and eventually the subject of buying bicycles comes up. 'Yea man I got lots' 'I can see that' I reply 'but do any of them actually work?' ‘Well u’know they could do but work is a bit of spectator sport and a man needs incentivising – hey do you need a beer?’ Steve’s home brew is produced and the conversation wanders off into his new mail order bride coming from the Philippines – he’s very excited!
The next issue is whether you are a person that he would like to sell a bike to. This is established by Lacey his dog, fortunately we passed the test and it was then that Steve explained the negotiating process. ‘Now look I’m not from ‘round here but a damned Yankee from up north so you see when I mention a price you’ve got to knock me down OK?’
So we have a new crew member - Louise's pink 'Silver Canyon' mountain
bike purchased for £15 with saddle bag thrown in. Steve was so pleased with the accessories we selected, a lock and a rack for the back – fitted free – that he couldn’t come to terms with the fact that we might actually ride the bike so he slung it into his car and drove us back to the boat!
As time was moving on we set off again up the ICW, the wind as ever blowing in the wrong direction for us to sail, so we meandered through more beautiful countryside, (still no ‘gators spotted in Alligator River!) We were very excited to arrive in Virginia and find a free dock to tie up alongside, so much so that we stayed 2 nights and used our bikes to explore the area. We bumped into Caroline & Lars from ‘Makai’ a Norwegian boat that we first met in Cuba, so sailed with them to Mobjack River and had a jolly bbq in a beautiful setting. We stopped in briefly to the Chesapeake Bay to visit a boat yard, where we will leave the boat in October. We are now on our way to New York for a bit of city time!
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