Sail 4D

After spending 3 days on the barrier island called South Core Banks, we were ready to head southward. Unfortunately, the favorable NE wind from the day before had turned into a strong SW with a forecast for 20 mph winds, gusting to 30. We took one more long walk on the beach, packed up and stowed our stuff, got into our foul weather gear and headed out.

Day 4 Path, 16 Miles

After bumping a few times in the shallows near the duck blinds, we made it into the channel and started slogging our way upwind. We had some vague hope of possibly making it to Shackelford Banks with the help of a favorable wind shift, but after four hours of pounding into the steep chop, we turned around and headed back north, intending to anchor in Oyster Creek, just north of Davis. I was very proud of how well Cream Cheese had done, but we we weren't racing and Oyster Creek seemed like a nice place to investigate.

On our way, we beached the boat at the Davis Ferry terminal and took a walk around, stopping at a little tourist shop to wash up and have some coffee.

Beached and sheltered
(the halyard was loose because we
were in the process of lowering the sail)

Back to the small beach near the ferry terminal we lowered the mast and lashed it on deck. The entrance to Oyster Creek is spanned by a 10' clearance highway bridge, so we knew we would have to lower the mast sometime. We powered out into the channel, made our way to the mouth of the creek (sometimes surfing with the breaking waves) and scooted under the bridge. The water in Oyster Creek is 1 to 2 ft but we were near high tide so we followed crab pots deep into the creek and nosed into the bank of a levee. On the windward side of the levee, the wind was howling and on the leeward side the waves were frothing up just yards from our stern, but it was snug and calm in the wind shadow of the levee.

Snug and dry

Picture taken from the levee road.

The shores of the Core Sound are carved up by hundreds of uniform, straight canals. In Louisiana, we call canals like these trenasse and they are usually cut by duck hunters or oil companies. There were a number of trenasse near the levee. The levee encloses an irregular pond of about one square mile that borders the creek. The canals are cut outside of this area except where they seem to pierce it (below). I would love to know more about these structures and their purpose. Perhaps the pond is/was some sort of fish farm? Maybe the canals are for flood control, but if so, why does their shape pierce the pond? Are there submerged pipes? Maybe the pond was built after the canals and the small bunches of grass (dots on the picture) are just left over spoil? No one I asked could tell me.

Our Anchorage, levee road, trenasses

After setting up our tent, we took a long walk on the levee road, had a quiet meal and settled down for the night. All week we had been reading aloud to each other the book Persuasion, by Jane Austin and this night we finally finished it. (Spoiler alert) The heroine marries well, and all difficulties are resolved.

After being boarded on the first night by Racoon 139, I decided it would be best to move the boat away from the bank a bit, so I used the second anchor to draw is into the canal a bit.

Evening in Oyster Creek

Breakfast in Oyster Creek

The next morning, we got up early to beat the low tide but almost missed our window. We just barely got out of there by sliding Cream Cheese along the mud and polling with our oars. After passing back under the highway bridge, we stopped at a well maintained boat ramp to raise the mast, make tea and have breakfast.

Breakfast at the bridge

Our plan for the day was to return to Harkers Island Fishing Center so that we could drive home to Pennsylvania the next day. We had a lovely sail in much more variable wind conditions. We started the day with one reef but added a second reef a few hours later. Then the wind dropped to almost nothing so we shook out both reefs. Later the wind picked up to 15 mph and shifted to the south so we went back to two reefs on an upwind beat, still very comfortable. Each time we reefed, it took 10 to 15 minutes to get going again and we usually lost a lot of headway as we drifted downwind. Much of the time was spent dealing with the snotter, downhaul and lacing. I've got plans to change things to make reefs go faster.

At around 4:00pm, we sailed into the marina, retrieved and cleaned the boat and took long hot showers.

Cream Cheese in front of
Room 3, Harkers Island Fishing Center

That evening, we visited with John, a retired relative of the marina owner. He helps out with the business and lives in his fifth wheel RV which he keeps parked right at the edge of the shore overlooking the sound. It was a fun time - learning about his life growing up on Harkers Island and his life in the oil business. If we return to the area, we will try to get in touch with him again.

The next morning on our way home we stopped at B and B Yacht Designs to talk to Grahame Byrnes about his small boat designs. We had a fun and interesting visit with Grahame. He gave us a tour of a big power catamaran that he is building (around 40 ft) and we saw his Core Sound 20 and his Everglades Challenge 22, Southern Skimmer. He demonstrated his precision cut panel kits and showed us the drawings for a new update to the CS 20 with cuddy, self draining cockpit and water ballast. He later sent me an email indicating that work on hull #1 is already in progress. I'm seriously thinking about building this boat.

It was an awesome trip. The boat did well under challenging conditions. We had lots of adventures yet plenty of time to relax and when we arrived back home we were tired and happy.

go to Part 1

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A Sharpie in Core Sound - Part 3 - Sailing

go to Part 1

We had some great sailing. Sometimes it was too rough to capture video, but I did manage to get some footage in more moderate conditions.

go to Part 1

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A Sharpie in Core Sound - Part 2

go to Part 1

In March, our kids were scheduled to go on a week long service trip. Julie and I haven't been on an extended vacation on our own in a very long time, so we planned to go camping or dinghy cruising somewhere in the south, weather depending. I wrote about our preparations in Part 1. In February we had selected a few possible destinations including the Everglades, North Carolina and Virginia. As we approached our March 23 departure date, the weather was looking promising in the Core Sound of North Carolina's outer banks so off we went.

I contacted Steve Earley, whose blog has a lot of great information about dinghy cruising in the area. He recommended charts to use and possible launching sites. On March 23, we drove from Coatesville, PA to Harkers Island, NC, stopping on the way to pick up a Suzuki 2.5 HP engine at Eds Marine Superstore in Ashland, VA.

Good prices on Suzuki outboard moters - you must pay cash

Our little sailboat looked totally out of place in the parking lot faced off against dozens of high end bass boats and sport fishing rigs.

When we got to Harkers Island, we checked in to the Harkers Island Fishing Center, a boat storage warehouse, marina and no frills hotel right on the water. The marina and boat storage business was still closed for the season, but the motel was open. The rooms have painted cinder block walls and linoleum floors, but you can see the boat ramp from the window and they are very friendly people. The whole place was pretty empty and this characterized our whole time in NC. We were lucky to have good weather before everyone else arrived. We were told that last year in March, the weather was freezing, wet and stormy. During our trip we had lots of wind and a little bit of rain but the temperatures never got below 44 degrees at night or 58 during the day and most of the time we had afternoons in the 70's.

The forecast for the next two days called for high SE winds, thunder and lightning so we decided to wait to begin our trip, instead visiting the maritime museum in Beaufort and doing other touristy things. On Sunday, there was a weather window between storm systems so we took the opportunity and at about 11:00 am we departed with a 15-20 mph south easterly.

Harkers Island Marina launch

We sailed downwind for three or four hours with two reefs tied in, often in less that 12" of water. The boat draws only 6" so we were able to ignore lots of navigational aides and even sailed across some shoals at low tide. All of my modifications to Cream Cheese worked like a charm.

Love that bimini

Sailing through the shallows. Anchor lashed on deck on top
of a door mat. New spar rails for the oars
worked great!

Unpacking for the night. Clothes, bedding,
food and kitchen are all securely stowed.

More storms were predicted for the evening so we stopped early at the ruins of an abandoned hunt club. Distance 16 miles. This was a nice place to stop because it has an access road through the marshes linking the sound to the ocean beaches.

As evening approached, we unstowed our gear and relaxed under the bimini and a small tarp. We took a long walk on the deserted atlantic side bach and made some dinner. For this trip, we brought a bunch of ready made indian food and rice dishes in sealed pouches. These meals were very easy to prepare and clean up and they tasted pretty good!

Light tarp over bimini. We later added a larger one for
the coming storm.

In the process of moving gear from cabin to
cockpit.

Abandoned dock was still useful for
holding our second anchor

Empty beach

Sun, sea and shells

Before going to bed, we tied on a more complete tarp to act as a tent. The tide went out, leaving the boat dry on the beach. We were awoken at about 10:30 pm by a racoon scratching around in the cockpit trying to get into our food bin. He wore a collar with a big yellow tag with the number 139 in large print. I looked at 139, he looked at me. I shone my flashlight at him, he looked at me. He wasn't afraid. I yelled at him for a while and he finally stauntered away. He came back one more time and hopped in through the oar port, but I shooed him away again. After that, the storm system came in and we didn't see 139 again. We had a very wet and windy night at anchor, but the cabin stayed dry. A wind shift from SE to NW meant adjusting the anchor arrangement twice (I had two anchors rigged). For a while there were 30+ mph winds from the East, blowing right into the anchorage, but Cream Cheese did fine and we slept well in between anchor adjustments.

Our Army surplus mosquito net was much
needed and appreciated

We decided to stay another day and had several great walks on the seaward side of the island. There were miles and miles of empty shore with nothing but terns, gannets, gulls, black skimmers, sand pipers, plovers, pelicans, cormorants. We had a beautiful evening with N winds at 10 mph.

On the third day, my back was hurting so despite a favorable northerly wind 15 to 20 mph that would have taken us to interesting anchorages at Shackelford Island, we took it easy and relaxed while I could recuperate.

After the first rough night, we had nothing but comfortable and pleasant sleeps. The tarp tent, aside from being, ugly, awkward to set up and a bit noisy, worked out very well and I am eager to fashion a real fitted tent out of good materials. During our stay at this anchorage, we only saw two people (from a distance) and three or four boats.

go to Part 1

Sunday, April 8, 2012

A Sharpie in Core Sound - Part 1 Preparation

In March, our kids were scheduled to go on a week long service trip. Julie and I haven't been on an extended vacation on our own in a very long time, so we planned to go camping or dinghy cruising somewhere in the south, weather depending. In preparation, I started making long awaited improvements to Cream Cheese. The short list included:

cabin floorboard for sleeping aboard
on-deck cargo rails for lashing spars
cockpit thwarts for more comfort
tiller hiking stick
second bower anchor
motor mount and motor
camping tent
new mainsheet arrangement

Floorboards

In past cruises, we have always brought tents and camped ashore but this trip I wanted to try sleeping aboard. Because of the steep rocker of the hull, floorboards are necessary to keep your head above your feet. There is 7' clearance from cockpit bulkhead to the stem, but the main obstacle to sleeping two people in comfort is the mast. When sleeping aboard, we stow the mast on deck (on the spar rails) and move all of the cargo to the cockpit. This leaves a comfy cabin about the size of a backpacker's tent. For floorboard material, I used old 7/8" boards that came from my sister's 90 year old house in Philadelphia. They are probably old growth yellow pine, but they may be fir. The hardest part was stripping off the thick layers of old paint. The floorboards are finished with three or four coats of Watco Teak Oil.

Note the plug over the
mast step. No bumps
when sleeping!

Spar Rails
I've always kept the oars lashed to cargo rails in the cabin, but for extending camping, the cabin is full of gear so the oars need to be stowed outside. Norm Wolfe stores his oars on deck on his Michalak Normsboat. I mounted unfinished ash strips with 3/8" holes to the deck using silicon bronze screws and 3M 5200 adhesive sealant.

Mast, boom and oars on deck

Thwarts

For 12 years, we've sailed Cream Cheese without any seating per Jim Michalak's plans. For the first few trips I had cockpit benches port and starboard, but they were too high and in the way of practically anything you would want to do so I removed them. We would sit on life jackets and I used a small cooler as a rowing seat. For this trip, we would be spending lots of time in the cockpit and it would be pants and jacket weather and so I added transverse thwarts. The forward thwart is set down low so that it is in the optimal rowing position. The wood is from the same 90 year old cabinets as the floorboards, finished with Watco Teak Oil. I spaced out six 3/8 holes near the thwart edges for lashing cargo and for the new mainsheet combination block/cleat. Both thwarts work great with the bimini too.

Second anchor
My primary anchor is an aluminum fortress Danforth style with six feet of chain and 150' of 3/8" nylon rode. In any kind of wind, Cream Cheese sails around at anchor like a chihuahua on a leash. I've wanted a second anchor for quite a while so I added a 4.4 lb Lewmar claw anchor with 15' of chain and 200' of 3/8" nylon rode.

Second bower (left) and best bower (right)

Cargo carabiners
I've always had cargo rails in the cabin, but lashing things to them involved tedious lacing of lines. Hanging aluminum carabiners made stowing cargo much easier.

Tiller stowed on port side in dufjel ready for the highway

Motor and motor mount

Till now I've avoided a motor for Cream Cheese, but for this trip, I opted to pollute my transom with a motor mount. It was only used twice, but both times it was a nice convenience. I still I had to beef up the transom, since the boat is not designed for a motor. Because the AF3 is so light, has so much hull rocker and has such a narrow transom a motor just isn't a good fit. The weight of a motor that far aft can really pull the stern down. For cruising however, we would have lots of cargo in the cuddy to counter balance the motor. Even so, I chose a Suzuki 2.5 because at 30 lbs it is the lightest water cooled four stroke engine that you can get. I decided against a Honda 2 (27 lbs) because it is air cooled which makes it quite noisy. I bought an adapter plate so that I can remove the motor mount when I don't want a motor.

The motor mount slides
into an adapter plate
so that it is easily
removable.

Tiller extension
I've had a home made tiller extension, and was reluctant to shell out the money required for a manufactured one when I could build my own. I had one on my Drascombe longboat and loved it. This one from Forespar was one of the best $80 I've ever spent. The instant length adjustment and quick release install/removal are key and hard to replicate in wood.

Tiller extension, old mainsheet arrangement.

Camping tent
I intended to sew a good camping tent out of the same sunbrella acrylic fabric that I used for my bimini , but I ran out of time and made a "pattern" tent out of heavy duty gray polytarp. In retrospect, this was a good idea because I was able to see the design in many conditions including heavy rain and 20 to 30 mph winds and can now make a real one from that knowledge.

Mainsheet

Before

After

The plans for AF3 show the mainsheet led aft to the tiller. This had two problems.

You don't get any mechanical advantage. When you are heading upwind in 20 mph, even with a double reef, your hands will get sore.
There is no convenient way to have one hand on the tiller and one on the mainsheet. This is crucial in gusty conditions.

The new scheme works great. I laced a single block about 1.5 feet from the end of the boom and run the main sheet from the rudder post through that block down to a racelite block/cleat combination (from the great folks at Duckworks) that is laced to the forward thwart.

This gives me a 2:1 mechanical advantage and makes it easy to sail with one hand on the tiller and the other on the sheet.

Racelite Block/Cleat Combination

In a separate post, I'll describe how all of these changes worked out during our trip to the Core Sound of North Carolina's outer banks.