Milo's Sense of Spoons

October 7, 2006

Monday, October 02, 2006 - Buddy Fred's Dock, Oriental, NC
By Tom

Ok, and welcome back. We now resume our regularly scheduled logging.

It's now T minus 2 days and counting. Our departure on Wednesday morning is looking more and more likely.

We returned from the great white north late Saturday night thanks to my brother and my dad. They were kind enough to ride with us (in their vehicles), the wickies, and 600 pounds of supplies the 450 miles back to our boat at the Buddy Fred's.

We got in around 8 pm and after we took Dad and Travis out for pizza at the Southern Palace, they decided to do a quick turn around and drive through the night to return home. Thanks a lot for the ride guys.

Sunday was spent loading our recently purchased provisions (whiskey and banana chips) into the many hidden storage locations on board Team Dream Catcher. Afterwards, I installed the third and final solar panel and then proceeded to re-wire all three panels into our 12 volt system.

We did a series of tests to confirm the panels were in working condition and after electrocuting myself four times, I can confirm that things are looking good. Later, we cut loose the wind generator and it too is still working as expected.

In the afternoon, we rode our bicycles over to Miss Pat's house to say hello. We made plans to have a goodbye celebration dinner on Tuesday at the Japanese Steak House in New Bern on Tuesday. We also made arrangements to borrow her car for this morning to head into the grocery store for last minute provisions. Thanks a lot for the loaner Miss Pat.

So this morning, after our trip to the various stores, we secured the rest of the provisions. Among other items, we bought 3 weeks worth of meat and loaded it into our new freezer. Hopefully this will be enough to get us down to our staging point for the cross over in Florida.

After the grocery storage, I fired up the sewing machine and patched our main salon screen door, made a velcro baggie for our new grill utensils and then sewed two of the three edge wraps on our spinnaker. We need about an hour to finish the remaining side and then we can call the spinnaker done.

Dinner was a taco affair and afterward Miss Pat showed up with her dog Lady for an evening drink. For those who are interested, Miss Pat had gin and Lady had water. Afterwards, Amy and I watched Finding Nemo to get us in the Caribbean spirit.

Tomorrow we tie up loose ends and make final preparations for departure.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - Buddy Fred's Dock, Oriental, NC
By Tom

Another day of boat jobs. First off, we tackled the remaining portions of the spinnaker.

We've pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that the sewing something this big is a two person job. I run the machine and smash the fabric into the fabric whacking sticher mechanism, and Amy pulls it out the other side.

We ran the three binding edges in about an hour and then spent another 30 minutes putting on leather patches at the corners before calling the job done. We then stuffed said spinnaker into the spinnaker sock and then into a mega large sail bag. We're ready!

After the spinnaker, Amy went into Buddy Fred house cleaning mode and I switched hats to finish installing our access panel hatch trim in our new floor. You can see pictures of the finished floor stage right. An hour later I was done and Amy was not, so I hung out on the boat with the ferrets in order to avoid any cleaning responsabilities. Milo and I fear dust. Remember, we are lame.

When it looked ok to go back to the Buddy Fred house, Amy and I took showers and then met up with Miss Pat to go to the Japanese Steak House - Mashuki. I had never been to a place like this before, so I didn't know what to expect.

You can imagine my surprise whe all of the food turned out to be really good! Nice. Thanks for dinner Miss Pat. Houston, all systems are go.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - Swansboro, Swansboro, NC
By Tom

And we're off!

We left the safety and tranquility of the Buddy Fred's dock after first washing down the deck and filling up the water tank. By 10 am we were out of Broad Creek and heading south.

The weather offshore has the wind coming from directly where we want to go, so opted to turn the corner at Morehead City and continue down the inside to Swansboro. We had the hook down around 5 pm after a boring day of motoring.

I completed many boat jobs while off watch, including switching in all of our stainless steel clamps on the arch, mounting our fishing down rigger and lots of other small 15 minute type things that never seem to go away.

For dinner we tested out our new grill with a tequila lime chicken breast and red pepper and garlic grilled potato medley. The grill worked very well.

Tomorrow we head to Wrightsville Beach

Thursday, October 05, 2006 - Wrightsville Beach, Wrightsville Beach, NC
By Tom

Ah !!!! Shitty death !!!

We awoke at 5 am to the sounds of our wind generator disinegrating against the fixed 12 foot concrete bridge at the head of last nights anchorage. Not the way to start out the day.

There is a strong reversing current here and although we watched the boat ride the change 3 times last night, at some point we broke loose and rode the current into the bridge. Fortunately, the outer mast shroud caught us and kept the hull from actually touching the bridge.

We called the Tow Boat U.S. dude and he showed up ten minutes later and quickly pulled us to safety. Our ship's outboard were not powerful enough to get us away from the bridge by themselves, hence the need for Tow Boat dude.

It turns out our anchor rode wrapped around both keels at least twice. This in turn prevented the anchor from resetting when the current shifted. Once we got away to a near by dock, Tow Boat dude and I returned in his boat to reclaim our anchor and chain. Glad we have that towing insurance.

Nothing gets the blood pumping like an early morning near death experience, so we decide to press on to Wrightsville Beach. We stopped midway there for fuel and a six pack of imported beer. The boat needed the gas and I needed a drink. Around 2 pm or so, we both stopped shaking and we made it into the anchorage without any more problems.

We stayed aboard this evening, made tacos for dinner, watched the sun go down and then watched Reign of Fire before retiring. For the record, neither ferret woke up or offered to help during our early morning bridge rendezvous.

Friday, October 06, 2006 - Wrightsville Beach, Wrightsville Beach, NC
By Tom

We decided to take a day down and go ashore to stretch our legs a bit. For breakfast, Mila and I made Ham, Egg and Cheese biscuits while Amy and Milo slept in. Unbeknownst to the late risers, Mila personally inspected (read licked) each piece of the breakfast feast. Mmmm, good.

After breakfast, we assembled the dinghy and powered our way ashore. We went to the little coffee shop near the water front to use their wi-fi connection, but it was down and the two imbeciles working behind the counter were too busy being ass munches to reboot the damn router. What is it with high school boys working at coffee shops? What ever happened to working construction or mowing lawns?

We returned to the boat and dropped off our computers before dinghying back to shore and walking the 2 miles out to West Marine. We got several small items, like nuts and bolts and we also purchased a tiller extension for the dinghy engine.

Back on the boat, I donned my wet suit and dove in to install new zincs on both our outboards. I also lubricated the pivots that allow our engines to swing up out of the water when not in use as they had been getting a little sticky lately.

In the afternoon, we went back into town to the local sports bar and split an order of buffalo wings (medium spicy) and a few beers. Amy stopped at the little corner grocery on the way home to get milk.

Around 6 pm or so, I fixed steamed crab legs and potato wedges for dinner. As I was finishing up, the couple on the cruising boat next to us came by with their two daughters. While I was talking to them, Milo made an appearance and we discovered that the daughters each had a ferret on board as well.

Tentative plans have been made to have their ferrets join our on board here for playtime tomorrow. I'd tell you the couple's names, but I can't remember. The boat's name was Odyssey and the people seemed very nice.

After dinner I was sitting out on deck watching the weather come in when we saw Free Bird pull into the anchorage. Free Bird is the home of Jon and Joann and their son, my volleyball partner, Jack. We haven't seen them since Georgetown in April, so it was a nice surprise.

We spoke briefly on the VHF and I imagine we'll get together in the next couple of days

Saturday, October 07, 2006 - Pipeline Canal, Southport, NC
By Tom

We awoke to a wet and very cold anchorage. The radio said it was only 52 this morning! Run away! Run away!

Seriously, this is too damn cold for someone who no longer owns socks or any clothes with long legs. We gotta get out of here. Full speed ahead Mr. Sulu.

Speaking of Mr Sulu, did you know that he and Captain Kirk are openly gay? Hmm, I guess they weren't kidding when they said "to boldly go where no man has gone before". I only mention it because Mr. Sulu made a really big deal about it a recent Fryer's Club roast of Captain Kirk. I wonder what Mr. Spock thought about that? Oh well, to each his own.

We bundled up with all of the clothes we own and set out from Wrightsville Beach this morning around 9 or so. We cut through Snow's Cut and into the Cape Fear river where we picked up a 4 knot push. At those speeds, we quickly reached Pipeline Canal, our destination for the day.

We had the hook down by 1:30 pm. We could have gone farther today, but the cold kind of sucked our will to live so instead we hid inside the main cabin and read books until around dinner time. I braved the cold to make some BBQ ribs and Amy contributed a side salad and brownies.

She said made the brownies because I'm special, but I know secretly she just wanted to heat up the cabin. In either case I think I'm making out ok.

Thanks to those of you who have written in and offered moral support about Steve's mom. Glad to know I'm not the only one who thought it was kind of lame. By the way, shown at right is one of the new "Who is Steve's Mom?" t-shirts that will soon be available in our gift shop section.

The weather is supposed to get ugly over night, so I'm not sure if we will move on tomorrow or not. I imagine unless it's super mega weather of death we will move on. Stay tuned, more to follow.

P.S. - Milo was caught in the act stealing this spoon. I think he may be keeping it for Steve so that he can eat Milo's ass. He's a pretty funny ferret.