Sail Felix

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is . - Anonymous We left Broad Creek on the North River two days ago and made the slog straight into North winds up the Currituck Sound. The passage was fairly smooth because the winds were light, and we were looking forward to a peaceful night in Pungo Ferry to prepare for the 5 draw bridges and one lock on the way through Norfolk. Unfortunately, there are no good anchorages in Pungo Ferry, and the Marina is now closed. I think there were once anchorages in Pungo , because the NOAA charts show several deep areas and Skipper Bob's Guide mentions a couple of places. We tried them all. Same old story that we've seen up and down the waterway. Places that are charted at 10 or 16 feet of water have less than 6 and we end up hard reversing to get ourselves back out. We must have tried 4 or 5 places around there that looked good on the charts but had no water, and finally ended up hanging our butt...

A Human Being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - Robert Heinlein Yesterday's sail up the Alligator River and across the Albermarle Sound was a glorious one. Captain Clyde would have been proud; as soon as we entered into the Alligator we shut down the engine and left it off all day except for the short transit through the Alligator River Swing Bridge. Through the morning we made 6-7 knots while we had a good wind forward of the beam, falling off to 4-5 when we turned off of the wind and it started to lighten. I have some great video of Felix under sail that I was planning to post today, but thanks to the 'new and improved'...

I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves. - Jerry Garcia First, thanks to everyone for the comments and emails about deadheads. Partially submerged logs, and the 20 mile long Pungo -Alligator River canal was littered with them. We passed through there this afternoon and saw 3 of them like in this photo that were smack in the middle of the channel, and another 4 or 5 off to the side of the channel. Fortunately when you're travelling at 6 mph these things are easy to spot. Now I need to back up. Yesterday we had a great sail and motorsail from Oriental up the Neuse River and Pamlico River to Belhaven . Belhaven is becoming one of our favorite places. We had stopped there 14 years ago and loved it, this time we learned to love it even more. To begin with the harbor is excellent with a deep well marked channel leading into a huge, well protected...

Currently, North Carolina is the only state on the U.S. Atlantic coast that allows shrimp trawling to take place in its estuarine waters . - NCSU . edu "The Sailing Capital of North Carolina" is written across the flags flying along every street here in the town of Oriental. Friendly people, well stocked and accessible marine store, public dinghy dock, all of the things that cruisers love. The temperature has been great, it finally cooled off to a comfortable 85 degrees, and I'm not going to complain about the heat anymore, I'm embracing it! It's 115 in Baghdad today, so I know how good we've got it! Today we went ashore and explored the town because we've always heard so many positive things from other cruisers about Oriental. We were offered bikes to use to ride to the grocery and hardware store, which we gladly accepted, but then I ended up pushing one of them back after the tire blew out. No fat boy jokes!! We were a little surprised by the size of t...

I've always found it very sanitary to be broke . - Orson Welles The Sanitary is a Morehead City waterfront landmark, established in 1938 as a fish market and restaurant and still churning out a large menu of mostly fried seafood to tourists and locals alike. They also have a rough dock with no electric or water, but $10 a night to tie up. 14 years ago when we came through on Moria we tied up here for $5, and had decided on this trip that we would just anchor. We're not going to stop there this time, no way, no how, besides it was a Saturday afternoon and there won't be an open spot. Well, the anchorage was jam packed and there just happened to be a nice hole at the dock for Felix , so we went ahead and tried to repeat the past and stopped once again at the Sanitary. It turned out to be a nice respite, we ate dinner ashore, Chief watered the fire hydrant, and we got to once again be the local tourist attraction. As soon as I'm done writing this we'll be taking of...

Felix is Hot! - Paris Hilton Apparently Paris is a big fan of the blog. She is right, Felix is smoking hot today, it's about 95 degrees in the shade here in Swansboro , NC where we are anchored right out in front of this quaint little waterside town . The Marines blocked off the anchorage at Mile Hammock Bay for training exercises, so we had to push on yesterday and make a 56 mile run up to Swansboro . We didn't argue with them, I know when we're out gunned. We had fairly good luck with the 3 draw bridges and current, and were able to keep the jib up for most of the way. The town here is a welcome relief from the waterway down south. Restaurants on the water where you can get a reasonably priced lunch, free public dinghy dock, commercial fishing/shrimp dock, and also a cool touristy type atmosphere with all the standard trinket shops. Swansboro has yet to be invaded by the hi-rise condos, megayacht attitudes, and the $4 bottle of beer. It's good to see some of the ...

You can't teach people to be lazy, either they have it or they dont . - Dagwood Bumstead Herb & Laura, you left a day too early. After admirably toughing out the oppressive heat for 4 days, yesterday's overcast sky's , 15-20 knot winds, and drizzling rain kept temperatures down to sub-sweating levels as we pushed on up to Wrightsville Beach. We were up at 4:30 A M to get an early start at twilight, and then just as we were about to cast off the lines a classic 'Duh' moment. We realized the Sunset Beach pontoon bridge which is 8 miles away only opens on the hour, so we hung out a few more minutes and then slowly motored up to the bridge, delaying any chance for a good, early head start . Otherwise the morning was uneven tful , until we reached the entrance to the Cape Fear river where we had decided earlier that we had to enter the river before 1 pm to catch the flood tide to carry us upriver for the 12 or so miles. Any later than 1 pm and the tide would have t...

I think he'll be to Rome as is the Osprey to the fish, who takes it by sovereignty of nature. - Shakespeare, Act 4 scene 5 of Coriolanus The last few days have been marked by beautifully calm anchorages and great times with our visiting friends Herb and Laura. The fates were cooperating and every night we watched magnificent thunderstorms roll by while the sky seemed to part and clear over Felix each night. We made 50-60 miles every day and stayed dry until the very end, when the Heavens finally parted and dumped torrents of water just as we were approaching the Marina in Coquina Harbour, north of Myrtle Beach. That's the way we like to come into new places. After hundreds of miles of travelling through marsh flats all the way north from Fernandina, Florida, the change in scenery on the Waccamaw River came as a welcome surprise. Shores lined with Cyprus trees and Ospreys nested on almost every channel marker made for a spectacular morning yesterday. Our crew members have ...

Always stand clear of the ladder Boss!- Capt. Ron We left the dock this morning just after 9 so that we could catch the 9:30 opening of the Ladies Island bridge. Hot, hot, hot!! We raised the vertical awning for about an hour and watched it flap lazily before finally admitting to ourselves that there was just not enough wind. We tried to make some of our own, but 37 horses can't push this ' ol girl fast enough for that. Our new crew members Herb and Laura got a taste of the idle life motoring up the ditch today. So sad, nothing exciting (read scary!) happened today and we were anchored by 3:30 here on the South Edisto River 30 miles north of Beaufort. The plan is for an early 5:45 departure tomorrow so that we can get past Charleston. Great place, but we've been in the 'city' too long now, and we want to stick to anchorages like this one, where we are the only boat and there is no house, town, or sign of life about us. Of course, we still have internet access, ...

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?- Albert Einstein While still killing time here in Beaufort before we leave next week, I thought I'd share some of our recent history and our life before Felix. Because we must be rich, living on a sailboat and not working and all, this is a good chance to show future dreamers our fool proof path to wealth and happiness. ;-) It was 2003 and everybody it seemed was making money on the housing bubble that was blowing up around us. We were living in West Palm Beach, FL spending a ridiculous amount of money on rent while saving nothing, and thought it might be a good idea to buy a place to live that might make us some money in the future. We knew that with $15,000 of life savings we weren't going to be able to buy anything in South Florida, so we started looking north in the state. Looking at the map we saw a town in north-central FL named ' Chiefland ', and if you've read much of this blog you...

In my own experience, such knowledge as I possess was acquired with difficulty, involving the expenditure of considerable time and effort that was often hard to justify. But in the final analysis, the pleasures that I have derived from the practice of these skills more than compensate for the endeavour. - from 'The Arts of the Sailor- knotting, splicing, and ropework ' by Hervey Garrett Smith This is one of those jobs that I think only the unemployed would tackle. Nothing like spending a day on decoration. Now I'm sure that some great, big maintenance item that I've forgotten will come back to bite me as soon as we take off again next week. This picture of Toots reminded me of our friends old steering wheel, and that I've been needing to cover ours. It has a couple of purposes besides just looking cool. On those freezing cold days, which we hope to see as few of as possible, even wearing gloves doesn't cut the chill from holding on to that frozen piece of meta...

"The only way to get a good crew is to marry on e." - Eric Hiscock Since we invited a couple of friends to go sailing with us next week when we head north from Beaufort, we decided that it would be a good idea to try and come up with a list of crew suggestions. Just a few things to help prepare them or future guests for the way things work aboard Felix and to help the transition to life aboard a cruising sailboat. This is a list in progress, so please help us out and feel free to add suggestions in the comment section below. Packing: We recommend that you bring foul weather gear. When the afternoon thunderstorm rolls through and reduces visibility to nothing with lightening crashing all around the boat, we're going down below to curl up in the fetal position and leaving you at the helm to drive the boat. Safety: Safety always comes first aboard Felix, unless we are in a hurry or tired. Water Usage: Don't use any! We carry a limited amount of water on board. Water is ...