Life on Lady

We were finally able to leave Fort McAllister Marina on Tuesday. It felt so good to finally be underway! We had a beautiful cruising day Tuesday even making it further than originally planned before finding a lovely, quiet anchorage for the night. The sun was out and temps were in the 60s so we could open up and air out the boat.

Wednesday turned out to be better than forecast and the sun came out, so we hoped to make another long run to the Jekyll Island area of Georgia. We might have done so, too, if the starboard generator hadn’t decided to not start around 2:30pm after working properly all day. Fortunately we were about a mile from our first anchoring option (the one we’d selected before deciding to get further south). So we ended up anchored off of Lanier Island next to a yacht club and a marina. Dave and Dad did some trouble shooting, called the generator company in California, and determined that it was likely a failed starter, and a blown 100A fuse (no spare on board). It was too late at that point to try to get one ashore, so they did some online research and got some local numbers to try in the morning. Dave was able to order a fuse through Amazon to have shipped to the marina.

Thursday morning, Dave and Dad made a few phone calls and were able to score a rebuilt starter to pick up later in the day, and they ordered a new one to keep on board as a spare to pick up Friday morning (because if one goes, the other is likely to do so eventually). Early afternoon they dinghied to the marina to get an Uber to the NAPA Auto Parts store to pick up the rebuilt starter and a couple of other tools they needed. It was in the low 50s, overcast and windy (15 mph). By the time the boys got back it was raining and the winds were picking up. The repair had to wait until Friday morning. The winds Thursday night were NNE and so were either aligned with the river current or directly opposed once it turned, but there was no chop. So we had a noisy night of rain and high winds at around 20-25 mph gusting to 30+, but we weren’t bouncing around. Amen!

By Friday morning the rain had stopped and the clouds thinned a little, but it was only in the 40s most of the day. The sun did come out, though, and we were able to open up the boat to air her out. The cold evening temps lead to a lot of condensation inside and many wet rags trying to mop us the dripping windows and ceilings. Dave and Dad Ubered back to NAPA to pick up the spare starter and then installed the rebuild when they got back. It remained windy in the afternoon, but was nice and sunny. We all dinghied to the marina to pick up the fuses that Amazon delivered, took showers and then headed back to the boat for dinner. 

Saturday was windy and frigid when we woke up, in the low to mid thirties, and it barely made it into the high forties during the day, but the sun did come out. It was not warm enough to open up the boat even the slightest. We had a choppy cruise across St. Simons Sound, but in the rivers it calmed down while remaining windy. It was a full foul weather gear day for anyone at the helm. We anchored for the night on the west shore of the Amelia River at the north end of Amelia Island. Nice quiet spot. We spent a couple of hours doing some route planning for the next few days.

This morning we woke to 50-degrees and sunshine with a light breeze and a beautiful sunrise (this post’s pic). It should get to the low 60s today. There was much less condensation inside. We got underway just before 8:00am to pop down to the Amelia Island Marina to pump out, fill up our water tanks and top off our diesel. We are underway to the Atlantic Beach area of Florida to anchor for the night. 

It continues to amaze me how much the weather affects our moods. Cold and rainy is the worst and out moods plummet. The boat’s interior gets really small really quickly on a day like that with four people aboard. Our tiny space heater can keep the salon/galley comfortable, but not the cabins in the hulls, so nobody can escape to their bedroom without freezing. Give us a little sunshine and even a chilly day is much more upbeat. I know I relish them!

I’m developing somewhat of a routine, which is important for my sanity. Each morning I wipe condensation off of hatches, portholes and walls. Every few days I do a  more thorough wipe down to get off the mold. Hatches get opened and damp items get hung on the lifelines when the weather permits. Since I’m still learning about living aboard and driving the boat I read cruising blogs and books and drive the boat a bit. Mom and I play a game occasionally. Fairly soon I need to start learning how to repair some of the more simple things that break onboard. I suppose at some point I’ll build to some of the more complicated stuff, but mostly I’ll just hand Dave tools when he needs them. I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand our solar electric systems. There’s so much to learn and it’s a steep learning curve for sure. On sunny, warm days like this I don’t mind it so much.  😉

 

Dave and I arrived last Saturday evening. We were pleased to see by the dim evening light that if there was mold, it wasn’t obvious; we could sleep aboard. We had dinner at the marina’s restaurant, watched a movie, and then had a good night’s rest. On Sunday (that’s a week ago) the work began and it hasn’t really stopped since.

I first describe the work and ongoing issues of our propulsion systems that Dave has been addressing, followed by what I’ve been doing this whole time plus my folks’ arrival. So scroll to the parts in which you’re most interested.

Here’s what Dave’s been up to:

Dave’s first task was to lift the starboard generator to remove the punctured oil pan and bring it to be welded. A lag bolt that attaches the generator platform to the hull was a little too close to the bottom of the oil pan and after bouncing around for a couple of years, really badly during that ill-fated offshore trip this past November, the bolt finally punctured the oil pan. Fortunately, the port pan was fine. Now we have a newly intact starboard oil pan and both generators are resting on shims that keep their oil pans safely above those lag bolts.

He then installed the battery interface boxes (BIBs) into which he had installed the new circuit boards while at home. With those plus fresh oil in the generators we had two functioning motors. Yay! But the story doesn’t end there, nor does the work. 

Then the generator capacitor circuits arrived here at the marina and Dave installed those. These are intended to intercept and bleed down any large voltage spikes that tend to fry the diode and fuse in the generator controllers and BIBs.

Somewhere in all this, Dave discovered that our solar controllers had failed since he was here the first week of December, because they were functioning then. We do not know why they failed. Several diagnostic tests and phone calls later and we had two replacements overnighted to us. We shipped the failed ones back for diagnostics to determine if the failures qualify for a warranty claim, in which case they will refund us for the replacements. Dave installed the new solar controllers and tested the systems. He tested the starboard system by running the motors to drain the batteries a bit to verify that solar and generator would charge them. They did- yay! However, when he started the port system the BIB burned out its fuses- three times (three attempts). So he sent another email to the Swedish battery company, but it was Friday afternoon and their weekend had already started, so we knew we wouldn’t hear from them until Monday. Dave didn’t want to wait that long. He suspected the failure was due to an issue with the re-startup sequence. He will know for sure when he gets a response to his email, but his test this morning was successful and now our port system is functioning- hooray!

We’ve also learned that our current generator controllers cannot be be wired to the 12V system and are awaiting upgrades. Those will allow us to start the generators and run the motors should the BIBs ever fail again in the future. However, we can travel without them for now. Neither of our graphic interfaces reports state of battery charge and one does not report incoming solar, but we can work around that for now until the company can update their firmware.

Although it was a long, frustrating week for him, as of now both our systems are running and Dave is quite a happy camper. So we will likely depart the marina Tuesday or Wednesday.

Here’s what Lisa’s been up to:

My list is less impressive, but equally as frustrating initially and equally rewarding when it was done. I have spent 7 of the past 8 days cleaning, unpacking, (re)organizing and shopping. In the midst of organizing our provisions I had to unload one of our under seat storage areas in the salon to clean up the 1/3” of water in it (and Dave found and stopped the leak causing it). Then back in it all went. I did a lot of ordering from Amazon as well, for things I couldn’t find locally.

I also had to solve our sandfly problem. They were a problem because all our screens keep out mosquitoes and larger, but not insects that are sandfly/noseeum size and those are quite prevalent here. There was no place in the area to purchase noseeum screen or netting and no way to order it online and have it arrive in time to be useful. Fortunately, another cruiser I follow had posted about this very issue and included a hack- using tulle (bridal veil material) wrapped around existing screens. So I bought a bunch of tulle. A single layer did not work because the holes were still too large. So I cut two pieces per hatch and porthole, half in one direction of the fabric and half in the other. That way when I layered them the holes created an irregular pattern and were ultimately smaller. The tulle sticks to the velcro we use to adhere the screens to the hatches, but it can also be easily pulled off and stowed when we don’t need it (they do cut down airflow a bit). Works great! 

The screen door for the slider was another problem. We have one of those things people hang on the doorways to their decks or patios, the kind that “zip” up magnetically once you pass through. This is also only good for mosquitoes or larger. I didn’t want to permanently attach tulle to that because of airflow reduction. Instead I sought out Picaridin insect repellent (which is not carried everywhere consistently). It’s safe for fabrics (unlike Deet). So I spray the screen with the Picaridin repellent and then hang it up. Nice!

How did we not go completely crazy with all this work?

We worked all day last Sunday, a mistake we swore not to make again because it left us not only exhausted, but also incredibly grumpy. So every afternoon from then on we stopped our work for an hour around 4:00/4:30, trotted up the dock to the outdoor section of the restaurant and had snacks and fancy drinks. It was a delight and our saving grace! 

My folks arrived Wednesday evening. That gave Dave a helper for his projects and me help for all the errands and cleaning I needed to do. They were more than willing to join us for our afternoon jaunt to the restaurant also. Yesterday (Saturday), was a beautiful sunny day, so we opted to skip working entirely and see some of Savannah. We drove to the historic section, parked the car and bought tickets for one of the hop on/hop off all day trolleys. We got a great narrated tour, had lunch at a restaurant down near the river, popped into the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist for a quick look and did a little walking around some of the squares before heading back to the boat for a late dinner aboard.

So it hasn’t been all work and no play, but it’s been far more work than anything else, which has been frustrating. It’s warmer here than in NH, but several cool nights have resulted in wet walls and ceilings that need drying each morning. I am quite ready to head south to warmer climes! I hope that the next time I post it will be from a fully functioning boat somewhere in a warm part of Florida.

I’m trying to live more “in the moment.” As I’m learning, that’s an important frame of mind for the cruising life, but for a planner like me it’s a bit of a challenge. So I’m enjoying my time at home and the ability to see friends and family, but not knowing when parts will arrive and therefore when we can return to Indigo Lady is trying at times. We can’t really plan anything more than a week out, so when someone asks if we can get together “soon”, soon has to be within the next seven days. On the flip side, our uncertain schedule means our calendars aren’t booked, so when a friend asks if we want to have dinner “this weekend” we can. I’m not sure how much time I have to complete all the things on my to do list for being on the boat/(eventually) leaving the US for the Bahamas, most of which must be done before we leave home. My solution has been to tick off at least one item each day. So far, so good; the list is getting shorter and we’re still here so there’s time to complete the list.

This unplanned extended time at home has afforded me and Dave the opportunity to take the Junior Navigator course through our boating club. Dave took the course in the 90s, so it’s a refresh for him, first time for me. The focus is on knowing one’s location offshore away from landmarks by using sun sights. A good skill in case one’s electronics fail. We won’t be able to finish the 14-week course before we leave, but I’m sure with Dave’s tutelage I can complete it onboard and then I will work with our instructor (who is a boating club friend) to finish the requisite field work and exam once we’re home again in the fall. 

This extended January stay at home also provided the opportunity to head north for some cross-country skiing and a stay at Carter Notch Inn. This year my cousins Bob & Jolene joined us. We enjoyed two gorgeous, sunny days XC skiing at Great Glen Trails and Jackson XC. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a clear view of Mt. Washington from Great Glen. When we got off the trails we spontaneously decided to take the Snow Coach up the mountain (winter trips go to just shy of 4300 feet). It was certainly clear, but the winds had started gusting to 20-25 mph and the windchill clocked in at about -23oF! We spent about 5 minutes outside of the Snow Coach capturing some really quick photos then retreated to the van from which the views were equally as lovely and warm. We’ve been doing this XC weekend for the past nine years, the last five at Carter Notch Inn (once we found them, we stopped trying new inns). In future years we hope to NOT be home in January, so we may move this trip to the fall and do some hiking instead. If you’re ever looking for a great B&B in the White Mountains, we highly recommend Carter Notch Inn in Jackson, NH. Inn keepers Danny and Donna are wonderful people with a beautiful, cozy inn. Tell them we sent you!

Dave has been working with the three companies involved with the failed parts of our solar-electric systems. The battery company just completed new circuit boards for our two battery interface boxes (BIBs). They will be shipping them as soon as they get paid or establish if the warranty still applies. Although the BIBs didn’t cause the system failures- we’re still not sure what caused the voltage spikes that caused the failures- they are the reason we cannot get our systems functioning again. When the BIBs shut down the batteries to protect them from voltage spikes, it fried the BIBs, and without those we lost access to the entire system until they are replaced (they are currently not repairable). The upgraded circuit boards we will be getting include fuses that will blow in the event of future voltage spikes. So rather than waiting for an $800 BIB to arrive from Sweden, we can replace the inexpensive fuses ourselves and be back online in minutes rather than weeks. 

The generator company is working on engineering the parts necessary for the generator controller to operate on the 12V battery system rather than on the 48V Lithium-iron-phosphate battery system- the one that shut down on us. In the event of future BIB failures, we would still be able to run the generators to power the electric motors directly. We’re still waiting on an answer to the question about what happens if the batteries are shut down and there’s no load on the generator, for example when we shift to neutral to anchor. That would also be a bad time for our systems to fail. The company is also incorporating two additional modifications to reduce voltage spikes.

The startup and shutdown of the generators are two sources of potential voltage spikes that are being addressed by these upgrades. Potential because they don’t always happen at start up or shut down, depending on what else is going on in the system at that moment. We don’t know if there are additional sources of voltage spikes or if these upgrades would mitigate their impact. At least we shouldn’t become completely disabled again. 

At any rate, once we have parts in hand, we will return to the boat to install them and then continue our trek south. Perhaps the next time I post it will be from Indigo Lady. Until then, there are many moments here at home to live in.

No kidding, the USCG really did rescue us. They towed us actually, from about 75-80 nm offshore of Georgia. How did we get that far offshore and why did we need towing? Settle in and I will tell you.

Our “crew”, my Dad and his two cousins, Richard and Bob, arrived in Beaufort on Saturday the 16th. The weekend storm passed as predicted and things were calmer Monday morning. The marine and weather forecasts indicated a good weather window for our offshore cruise to Florida, so the five of us set out as planned. We planned to head south-southwest until we were 50 nm offshore, then turn southwest and from there pretty much parallel the coastline to our destination. We wanted to catch the countercurrent of the gulf stream, which would be running in our favor. 

• • Monday 11/18: We cruised at about 5 kts until around 7:30pm when the port motor shut down. Dave believed it was due to some of the canbus* connectors, but he had to wait until the morning when we could safely do an all-stop so he could get down into the engine room to check. We continued through the night on the starboard motor at a slightly slower speed. (*Canbus- this is the “brain” of each of our solar electric systems that allows communication between all the parts- motor, battery bank, solar panels, generator. We have two such systems independent of each other, one port and one starboard.)
  • Tuesday 11/19: Dave fixed the canbus connections on the port motor and we had two working motors throughout the day and night. However, Tuesday afternoon the weather conditions changed fro what was predicted. The 25-35 kt west winds and 8+ foot seas from the west and north were against us. We were unable to make our turn southwest into those conditions and ended up having to continue more southeast and further offshore. Partway through the night watches, we turned our stern to the wind and waves and ran our motors at 1 KW each in reverse to minimize our progress in the wrong direction. We still ended up about 75-90 nm offshore.
  • Wednesday 11/20: We were moving slowly, 1.5-2.5 kts, very likely blown into the gulf stream overnight. In the morning we decided to hand steer (autopilot off) more into the seas and winds in an attempt to return to our original course. Later that morning the starboard battery control box failed, cascading into the whole starboard system shutting down and unable to be restarted (a repeat of the failure in July). When we had this problem over the summer, Dave was able to cross wire the starboard motor to the port system, which he attempted again. This time it didn’t work (the wire overheated). So we continued with the port motor only, making slow progress back toward our original course line. Winds and seas calmed a little in the afternoon and we made a better angle toward our original course line at 3-4 kts. That night the port system started acting up, but Dave kept it running with some finagling.
  • Thursday 11/21: The sun was out, the seas calmed to gentle rollers and the winds died down to 5-10 kts. We were making progress toward our original courseline. We had breakfast and revisited our travel plan and alternatives. Then around 8:30am the port battery control box failed, cascading into that whole system shutting down. After 20 minutes, Dave concluded it had suffered the same fatal failure as starboard. We were adrift and it was time to call for help. We hailed a passing cargo ship we saw on AIS. They relayed messages between us, Tow BoatUS and the Coast Guard, and stayed within hailing distance until they knew the USCG had dispatched a boat. A USCG cutter arrived around 4pm and commenced an 8-hour, 65(ish) nm tow to the entrance buoy of the Savannah river. From there, Tow BoatUS took over towing us up the Wilmington River to Thunderbolt Marina, where they deposited us around 4am Friday morning on the fuel dock- the only open space we could see in the dark.
  • Friday 11/22: Tow BoatUS returned late morning to move us off the fuel dock. We had established that Thunderbolt couldn’t house us for 7+ weeks, nor could they help facilitate our repairs. After a little searching through cruising guides, posting in Facebook cruising groups, and talking with the owner of the TowBoat, we settled on being towed to a marina west of Savannah in the Ogeechee River. We arrived around 5pm. 

We spent Saturday and Sunday morning, cleaning Indigo Lady, diagnosing the failed solar electric systems, and buttoning her up so we could all travel home for the holidays. We piled into our rental car yesterday (Sunday) after lunch, arriving home around 9:30 this morning, Monday. We will return to Lady in January to start on repairs and spend some time exploring the Savannah area by land. We are hopeful that the issues that have dogged those systems repeatedly will finally be resolved and that we can continue our trek south to Florida and on to the Bahamas. 

This has been a humbling experience.  We made mistakes that I do not intend to repeat. First, I need to be more involved in the planning of our trips and more assertive about my needs and wishes. I will also insist on having a satellite phone on board for offshore travel. I was terrified Tuesday night when the seas and winds were raging against us and blowing us further off course. My fear was about relying on hailing commercial traffic should we need assistance. Having a satellite phone would have greatly reduced my stress level. I also plan to stay closer to shore when it’s not necessary to be further off, making it easier to adjust to changes in weather and seas, and to get assistance if necessary. Finally, knowing that forecasts can change unexpectedly, I need to learn how to read the weather and seas in real-time in order to make course changes for safety.

We owe a debt of gratitude to those who helped get us to safety. It’s unlikely any of them will read this post, but I want to publicly thank them here anyway. We will be sending them letters as well.

• • Thank you to the captain of the Maersk Vallvik, the cargo ship that responded to our hail and liased between us, the USCG and TowBoat US. They stayed within sight and hailing range until they knew the Coast Guard had dispatched a boat. We know this cost them dearly in lost time, about 3-4 hours. 
  • Thank you to the captain & crew of the USCG cutter Pompano out of Tybee Island, GA. They towed us for 8 hours about 65 nm to the entrance to the Savannah River and remained until TowBoat US had us on their tow lines. We have been long-time supporters of the USCG, but they will be getting a little something extra in their Christmas stocking this year.
  • Thank you to Dana (and his wife & sons) of Savannah Marine Towing & Recovery, Inc. They were the boat dispatched by TowBoat US. The sons delivered us from the Savannah River entrance buoy to Thunderbolt Marina in the wee hours of the morning. Dana helped us Friday morning by calling some potential marinas and also convincing Tow BoatUS of the need to ultimately tow us 3-hours to the selected marina. Dana’s wife served as his first mate for this final tow.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our US family, friends, and followers. We certainly have much to be thankful for! 

Thanks to the advice of a couple of the folks we met on the Dismal Swamp, we chose to push it a couple of days to avoid some nasty winds. The first push was 47 miles on Monday from Elizabeth City to the south end of the Alligator River, followed by a normal 30 mile journey through the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal on Tuesday anchoring in Upper Dowry Creek just before Belhaven, NC that night to ride out the first wind event. (I believe I’ve mentioned before how much I love our new Rocna.) This early-week push allowed us to land at Town Creek Marina in Beaufort, NC a day ahead of schedule and while they still had dockage available. This turned out to be a very good thing, because as I type there is a nastier storm blowing through. It started last night and continues through tomorrow night with rain and, as of today, sustained winds of 25-35 mph gusting up to 50-60 mph! 

We took full advantage of Thursday afternoon’s fine weather to avail ourselves of the marina’s laundry facility, and courtesy car to provision for the next leg of our journey offshore. Friday’s weather wasn’t all that bad, so we borrowed the courtesy car again to pick up some items we forgot on Thursday, cleaned the boat’s interior, made up the other cabins for our on-coming crew, and Dave did some “boat stuff” including installing new thermostats in our fridge and freezer and working on our single sideband radio (sadly still not functioning properly despite his efforts).

The wind picked up overnight. I awoke at 2:15am to the sound of one of our fenders banging against our hull. It had been keeping me on the edge of sleep all night and I couldn’t take it anymore. I went on deck to straighten it out (fortunately not raining) and it was so much quieter after that; I could finally sleep! 

 

I am so much more tuned into sounds since we started living aboard more often. I’m also tuned into smells more. A few days ago, underway, I was in mid-sentence talking to Dave when I stopped and said, “I smell smoke!” After a quick scamper through the boat to determine there was no smoke or flame on board, we grabbed the binoculars and saw that someone was burning something on shore. Phew!  

If all goes well, our crew (Dad and his two cousins) will arrive at the New Bern airport around noon today and Dave will safely retrieve them in these big winds. (Huge thanks to Town Creek Marina for letting us use the courtesy car for this extra distance!) Indigo Lady is no small boat, but she’s about to feel a lot smaller for the next 48 hours with 5 adults stuck inside her salon. Ah, but it is good company 🙂 . 

Hopefully the storm winds down as predicted and we will be able to head out Monday mid-morning for our offshore trek to Florida. Dave loves long offshore transits. I find them tiresome, partly because the scenery doesn’t change much and also because I’m not a fan of standing watch; it messed up my already tenuous sleep pattern. At least with five on board, watches will be short. During the day I will busy myself with sewing (for pleasure, not boat sewing) and reading, and inevitable socializing with five people on board. I am certainly looking forward to temperatures warming as we progress south. I knew temperatures in North Carolina could range widely in November, but there have been far too many mornings with frost and daytime highs only in the 40s, and low dew points. Lady’s interior is dripping with condensation each morning, and our windows have been foggy for two days now since we’ve had to keep her closed up with this storm. 

At the moment it looks like a good weather window from Monday through Friday, which is the time we need to get to our destination. With any luck, I’ll be posting from Florida next weekend Fingers crossed! 

“The Dismal” I’m referring to is the Great Dismal Swamp (GDS), but let me back up a bit before I get into that. Oh, and you might want to grab a cup of coffee or tea, or a snack. You may be reading for a bit.

I arrived in Chesapeake, VA Monday evening and spent Tuesday opening up Indigo Lady, turning on her systems (they came on, yay!), and then cleaning mold for 5 hours. Sounds fun, right? I picked Dave up at the airport that evening (he flew in from a 4-day STEM guitar build & conference in Colorado), had a late dinner, and collapsed in exhaustion at the hotel. We spent Wednesday preparing the boat for departure. This means Dave did a bunch of fixing/installing/other boat stuff I can’t do, while I provisioned, did laundry, did more cleaning, and unpacked stuff. We had another late dinner and collapsed in exhaustion, again, at the hotel. 

That was the tedious, un-fun part, and since I prefer to provide you with the bright and moldy sides of living aboard, that was important for you to read. It gets much more fun, though, so keep reading. I promise I will get to the Dismal Swamp part soon.

Thursday morning we headed back north towards Portsmouth to have Lady hauled for a much-needed bottom cleaning. After clearing the Great Bridge Lock we had to slow down for a deer crossing. Yes, I said deer crossing, and yes, we are actually on a boat. The young buck was swimming across the river and we were on a collision course, so we stopped to let him pass. He finished his crossing, scrambled ashore and scampered off into the woods. We continued on reaching the boat yard a little early. Lady was hauled and her hulls scrubbed. Yay! We met a lovely couple having work done to their boat (hello Greg & Mary if you’re reading this!) and had them aboard for happy hour, which turned into an impromptu spaghetti dinner. 

We’d hoped to start our trek south on Friday, but the brutal 25+ knot winds and temps in the low 40s (colder with the wind chill) kept us put. That actually gave us more time to get stuff done on the boat, and it was a beautifully sunny day, so we worked merrily along until dinner and retired somewhat early.

Saturday we started our trek south. It was sunny, warmer, and no wind. We cleared the final bridge out of Portsmouth, VA and turned right toward The Dismal Swamp (see, I told you I’d get to it). Early settlers in this area called swamps ‘dismals.’ Doesn’t that make the name ‘Dismal Swamp’ redundant. It’s like naming it ‘Swamp Swamp.’ But I digress…

We cued up for the Deep Creek Lock (north end of the GDS) with about 5 other boats and headed through on the 11:00am opening. We had been warned about how thick the duckweed can get, especially after a big wind like the day before, but we were encouraged by experienced ICWers in the ICW Cruising Guide by Bob423 Facebook group (thanks to all who weighed in on my post there!). The big issue with the duckweed is that it can clog strainers and intakes for engines, or in our case the generators that we sometimes need to charge our batteries. Fortunately we had a sunny forecast and topped off batteries by the time we got to the GDS and we made it to the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center without needing to run the generators (they ran before we got to the Swamp). We spent the night there tied up to their dock. There were 8 boats tied up for the night in all, the 5 of us from the 11:00am lock opening, and three that came through on the 1:30pm lock opening. 

We met some great folks with whom we got to chat a bit before the sun set and it turned frigid, and were able to have slightly longer conversations in the morning before we all got underway for the 11:00am lock opening at South Mills Lock on the south end of the Swamp. We shamelessly handed out our boating cards, so if any of you are reading this- Hello to Cacique, Done Dreamin’, Don’t Wake Me, Wildly Intrepid, Northern Wind, and Idle Queen! May our paths cross again soon 🙂  

 The Visitor Center had mostly surface duckweed well above the level of our intakes, so we topped off our batteries this morning (Sunday) before setting off. We left early because we didn’t know how thick the duckweed would be in this last 5 miles, nor its potential impact on our speed. We arrived much more quickly than anticipated, which worked to our advantage. We sat for 90 minutes in the sun before the lock opened, and our batteries were almost topped off again by then. We made it through the lock and the copious amount of duckweed on the other side of it that stretched for several miles, reaching clear water before the generators ever kicked in again. Phew!

We are SOOOOOO glad we took the Dismal Swamp route!!! It was amazingly gorgeous (even the duckweed parts). There was still some autumn color on the leaves. It’s a quiet and scenic route. My words can’t do it justice, so I’ll direct you to my Life on Lady Facebook page (click the FB icon on the right), and let the pictures speak for themselves. The river beyond the GDS was also quite scenic, so I’ve thrown in some of those pictures as well. The GDS canal is about 22 miles, followed by another 18 miles of river to Elizabeth City, largely wilderness; we saw very few houses along that entire route. It was delightful!

We are overnighting at Elizabeth City. We unfortunately do not have time to explore this very welcoming town. We did at least get to enjoy some fun conversation at a local brewery, and yummy seafood at a local eatery. Alas, we will be off by 8:00am tomorrow morning to continue our trek along the ICW to Beaufort where we will pick up additional crew and then continue our trek along the coast or offshore, rather than on the ICW.

Start to finish, this leg of our journey to the West Palm Beach area of Florida is about 800 miles, traveling by water at about 5 kts (about 5.75 mph) and only during daylight hours in November. Throw in the potential need to wait out bad weather (which we’ve already done once, Tuesday isn’t looking too good either) and factor in the uncertainty of being able to do some multi-day offshore travel after Beaufort vs. short day hops along the coastline, and we’re looking at anywhere from 12-21+ travel days. If I don’t get to it sooner, I’ll post from Beaufort.