Love Odyssey

We have had some incredibly warm days for the month of January.  In fact, I can’t remember another January being this consistently warm in the thirty plus years I have lived here in the south.  An advantage of the weather  has been the ability  to keep the outside of the boat cleaner than usual this winter.  Although the water has been turned off at the docks for over a month, I can still take a pan of hot water out of our taps and clean off the bird droppings and other scum that seem to have an affinity for our decks. 

We plan to haul the boat out of the water mid-March to clean our very dirty hull and sand and paint our bottom.  Most years that project means living on the hard for at least six weeks.  Usually we start by getting the boat yard to power wash the bottom and then we work from top to bottom, scrubbing our white hull several times to get off the grime, then putting on at least two coats of wax.  This part alone can take several weekends, especially if we are unlucky enough to get a cold, rainy spell where we cannot comfortably work outside.  After we get the topsides looking decent, then we procede to the bottom.  We have to scrape off loose bottom paint, then sand and sand, since the new paint needs something rough to adhere to.  We like to put on two coats of bottom paint and the temps need to be at least 55 degrees to do this job.  Whew!  I get tired just thinking about the whole process.

So far we have ordered our bottom paint and stored it in our shed down here.  This year we are trying a new type that is ablative but much harder than what we have previously used.  It is paint used on commercial vessels and actually cheaper than what we used in the past, if $150/gallon compared to $250/gallon is cheap!!  We also bought some new silicon polish that we will try instead of wax this year.  It goes on and off faster, which should make the job go a bit easier.  I tried it yesterday in the cockpit and it made a difference with only one coat.  I figure two coats should be even slicker and shinier!  So spring time, we are ready for you!

Helen  01/29/12

Drip, Drip. Drip!  It has been raining all day.  It’s a nice gentle rain, the kind that is good for the grass and garden.  I have been in the cabin all day reading, napping, cooking, playing with Suzy.  It is the kind of day that begs for a mug of hot chocolate and a few cookies.  Sometimes a rainy day is just what the body deserves–a rest from the usual routine, a time to just sit and contemplate.

I love to listen to the sound of the rain as it hits the deck, just inches from my head.  It is a very different sound and feel from rain on the roof of our house in Cary.  It seems much closer, almost as if I am out in the rain, but instead I am in this nice cozy womb–our boat.

Helen   01/21/12

I love the concept of living on a boat–the romantic notion that one can leave town at any point and change one’s scenery at will.  But the reality is far from romantic.  Things break down at an accelerated rate in the damp, salty air.  Case in point: right now our steering system needs repair because the copper pipes have sprung a leak;  we need a new raw water pump or impeller for our generator, and last night our fresh water system sprung a leak and drained one of our two water tanks (which we cannot fill until water is turned on at the dock in March).  It seems like there is always something that is not working correctly on a boat.  For some men this is just a challenge, but for Bryce it is a personal assault on his mechanical insufficiency, which gives rise to immense frustration.

Helen  01/15/12

This is early January and the temps today got up to 65 degrees!  Not bad for North Carolina!  Suzy and I have been taking walks around Oriental to enoy this weather–and of course ending up at the Bean (neighborhood coffee house) for refreshments.  I always find the winter months to be long and a bit depressing because we don’t take the boat out and it is too cold to do much outdoors.  But it looks like so far the weather is going to be mild this year–great!  Of course just a few days ago it didn’t get out of the thirties, but that was during the work week.

 The boat needs some TLC this winter.  We need some repairs to the steering, the generator needs a new impeller, and our bottom needs to be re-painted with anti-fouling paint.  So we will probably not be taking the boat out to play before mid-April or later.  For me this is a long dry spell.  I can’t think of many things more fun then sailing a big boat under a warm, steady breeze.  So I thrive through the dry times on spectacular days like this one.

Helen  01/07/12

We came home from Key West on Friday and spent the majority of the day taking down the Christmas decorations, doing laundry, and shopping for food (I left the fridge pretty much empty when we left).  Yesterday I was able to sit back and reflect on our trip.  It was WONDERFUL!  I have so many nice memories of places we enjoyed, food we ate, and sites we saw.  We both agree that having Suzy with us made a big difference.  We could not walk a block without someone commenting on her- she is so cute, especially dressed in her frilly Key West attire and riding in her stroller!  So we got to talk to people that would not necessarily have approached us.  Such a fitting way to end the year!

Now as I sit here on New Years Day I am wondering what will await us this year.  I hope that we can do more Love Odyssey Cruises.  I would love for my practice, Cary Speech Services, to do well and my therapists to have full case-loads.  I hope that Cary Counseling Center, Bryce’s practice, will expand with more employees.  I hope that we will both enjoy good health and continue to have fun together.  I would like our boat, Dragon Lady, to need minimal repairs (because boat repairs are VERY expensive).  And I would love to be able to enjoy more trips with my captain, Bryce!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Helen  01/01/12

Last night was a special Christmas party on the dock that had magical feeling about it.  We decked the boat with lights as did our friends Jim and Kaye on the boat next to ours.  We put speakers on deck and played classical Christmas Pops with chorus and instrumentals.  Brass lanterns were put aflame on both boats.  A big pot of Chili was slow cooked and numerous dips, cheeses, fondue and other goodies were placed above deck and below.

 The real action occurred on the dock as Bryce burned sugar with brandy into a big pot of steaming Glogg.  Glogg is the Swedish word for “burnt” because the smoky burned flavor gives the hot spicy drink a most wonderful character.

 Of course the best of all was having good friends to share in the good times.  Even Suzy had her good friends Sammy and Sophie come to visit.  They kept each other warm in the little enclosed carriage they shared above deck.  Geoff came with his flask of Aquivit that is just about impossible to obtain in North Carolina.  He “assisted” Bryce with it as Bryce labored over the Glogg.

 All in all this party had a wonderful magical feel to it.  Maybe we should make it a tradition.

 Here’s the recipe for Glogg if anyone out there feels adventurous:

                                                                    Glogg

A:

½ Gal. Vodka

½ Gal. Burgundy

½ Gal. Claret (or Pinot Noir)

One fifth of port wine

One fifth sweet vermouth

B:

Couple large packs raisins

Large bag of slivered almonds

C:

1 orange rind (scrape white material off of rind first)

3 large cinnamon sticks

30 whole cloves

Crushed cardomon seeds (1/4 cup) (slightly less if ground cardomon powder)

D:

4 cups sugar + brandy

Mix wines together and ½ of vodka.  Reserve other half of vodka.  Put in raisins and almonds.  Place cloves, cinnamon, cardomon seed (crushed) and orange rind into cheese cloth bag.  Place in to pot with wines.  Heat until hot but do not boil.

Stew hot for 30 minutes.

Burn sugar ½ cup at a time by pouring brandy on the sugar in a metal sieve.  Sieve the sugar into the mixture after it is singed.  Add rest of vodka.

When serving, put raisins and almonds in bottom of small glass and serve hot!

We have been trying to get to Ocracoke for the past month but weather and other commitments have always foiled our attempts.  But this weekend we hit the jackpot!  Friday morning we left Oriental at 7:30 under clear, sunny skies with mild temps and little wind.  Now we are a sailboat and we do like wind, but not the kind that blows so hard in your face that you can barely breathe.  We can deal with calm- we might not be able to put up the sails, but our engine works well and pushes us along at a respectable six to seven knots.  So Friday morning we untied the dock lines and headed north to one of my favorite places-Ocracoke.

Our friends, Jim and Kaye, came along for the ride.  Jim had been with us on a Love Odyssey in June and had the fun of seeing the island during the height of tourist season.  But Kaye had only been there in January two years ago and had experienced a very different atmosphere–a very quiet, sleepy island with all the shops shuttered for the winter months.  So this time we got to enjoy the best of both seasons–shops and many restaurants were still open but the tourists were few.  The temps were in the mid-70′s in the afternoon, very pleasant for long walks from one end of the town to the other (about two miles).  Many of the shops had deep discounts, not because it was Black Friday, but because they planned to shut down at the end of the weekend. 

 Friday afternoon we enjoyed a beer on the porch at Zillie’s, a gourmet shop with over a hundred brands of brew.  Saturday morning we walked to the Ocracoke Coffee Company after breakfast and enjoyed some nice java drinks while relaxing on the Adirondack’s  chairs on the front lawn.  I must mention that we got a lot of attention wherever we went because of our three little dogs in three strollers.  Kaye and Jim have two pomeranians, Jack and Ginger, who are Suzy’s best buds. 

 Saturday afternoon we strolled to Howard’s Pub at the other end of town (minus dogs) and enjoyed a brew on the screened-in porch.  Reluctantly this morning we left our island paradise to return to our dock in Oriental, but the weather continued to give us a spectacularly warm and mostly sunny day.  Thank you, Mother Nature, for your early Christmas present!

Helen   11/27/11+

We were supposed to do a “short haul” of the boat yesterday in order to change the sacrificial zincs.  It was supposed to be out of the water a maximum of two hours. Three weeks ago we had sailed to New Bern for the weekend and when we returned to our dock in Oriental we noticed that the bilge pump was coming on a lot.  Bryce greased the gland that prevents water from coming into the stuffing box (around the shaft) but that didn’t seem to stop the influx of water into our bilge.  Since the stuffing box had not been re-packed in several years, we decided to get the boat yard to make a “house call” and do it while she was at our dock.  To our chagrin that was not the magic fix we had hoped for.  So we figured the stuffing box just needed some further tightening and it would be a minor fix while the boat was up in the travel lift–NOT!!  The fellows from the boat yard searched down our leak and found that the stuffing box was not the culprit.  We had a leak around a bolt that holds the strut around the shaft (to which the prop is attached).  OK- we will just leave it a bit longer on the travel lift and the bolt can be taken out and re-beded with epoxy.  Nope!  First the gromet around the bolt broke and they had to fabricate one, then it did not bed correctly, and when they took off the other three bolts to re-bed (as preventative), they leaked too.  Now the water was gushing into the bilge.  Ok.  We will spend the night in the travel lift (and climb up and down a 12 foot ladder) and the yard will fix it on Satuday morning and we can return to our slip in our marina.  Nope!  This morning they felt that they needed more time to completely fix those bolts correctly, so we are now out of the travel lift and officially “on the hard” with jack stands until they get around to fixing her next week.  Oh, and by the way, what was supposed to cost about $500 is now about four times that amount.  And in addition we need to haul the boat out of the water for two months in the spring so we can clean and wax the hull and paint the bottom with anti-fouling paint.  That should cost another couple of thousand.  Yes, best laid plans of mice and mean sometimes go astray.

Helen  11/19/11

I love sailing to Ocracoke-  it has to be my favorite destination with our boat.  We had planned to sail there last weekend but of course the wind would not cooperate, so we went to New Bern.  Then earlier this week it looked like Ocracoke would be possible this weekend.  Ha!  No way!  The wind has been blowing out of the north for two days now and the water level in the marina here is very, very high.  Just in case my non-sailer readers don’t know, Ocracoke is north of here in the Pamlico Sound.  It has been blowing 25-35 knots all weekend and that would be on our boat’s bow.  Ideal wind is 10-15 knots from the south or 5-10 from the west.  The sound is also very shallow, so waves from the north would be steep  and the boat would crash down several times a minute–hard on the boat and on human bodies.  So once again we have been foiled!  But I do want to make that trip before the end of the year—so we shall see!

Helen  11/05/11

Two weeks ago we had planned to sail to Ocracoke with our friends and their guests this weekend.  But the weather man did not cooperate.  When we looked at the forecast Thursday night it was not good.  They were calling for winds 20 to 30 knots from the north with a 70% chance of rain.  The boat can certainly take strong winds and rough sea conditions since she was built to sail across oceans, but the human occupants bodies are not so reslient, especially as they age.  So we decided to go with “plan B”, sail to New Bern.

I was anxious to get the boat out of our slip and into the river.  We had stayed put since Hurricane Irene the end of August because of fears of hitting submerged floatsom dredged up by the storm.  So yesterday morning we untied the dock lines and took off up the Neuse River for New Bern.  I have always enjoyed this lovely little colonial town at the juncture of the Trent and Neuse rivers.  It is a walker’s town, streets downtown laid out in a nice checkerboard grid with lovely little mom and pop shops that are friendly and inviting.  Three hours after slipping the dock lines we were tying up at the Hilton Marina between enormous power boats, floating luxury palaces with everything a very nice house would contain.  We walked into town pushing Suzy in her stroller and relaxed at our favorite coffee shop for a hot mocha latte and the Raleigh newspaper.  Not bad for “plan B”.

Helen  10/29/11