New Batteries and Soapy Ferrets

September 1, 2005

Friday, August 26, 2005 - Taylor Creek, Beaufort, NC
By Tom

We continue to get back into the cruising swing of things. I spent the entire morning rebuilding the carburetor off of the dinghy engine. It has been running rough of late and I suspect that the jets have become clogged again.

While I was slaving away with the dinghy outboard, someone else was kayaking around what ever island we are parked behind. I am told there was lots of wild life including horses, big birds and little birds. I can neither confirm nor deny this as I was working.

Actually, all kidding aside, my job was probably easier as Amy got stuck with scrubbing the kitchen. I think my job for tomorrow involves changing the oil in our two ship engines, so she may still have the last laugh.

In the afternoon, we strolled in to town to continue our quest for the perfect ice cream cone. Today's contestant wasn't it and as such the search must continue.

In other news, the ferrets have resumed their normal routine of eating, sleeping and pooping. They seem to have adapted fully to their floating home.

And lastly, let the record show that I am now officially worried about our battery. We have one, very large 8D AGM battery on board that powers our entire operation. Lately, it has been taking less and less of a charge and it seems to be giving up more amps than usual. It may soon need replacing.

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - Taylor Creek, Beaufort, NC
By Amy

It seems that a dolphin has escaped from Sea World and taken up residence in Beaufort, NC! We had no idea until last evening, when we were lounging about after dinner and saw a large dolphin body flying through the air maybe a hundred feet from us. It was a beautiful evening and the waterfront bars were packed. Apparently, this dolphin loves an audience. The more people cheered, the more he jumped. He kept up the acrobatics for about five minutes, then--with no fish treats forthcoming--he took his dolphin groupies and headed out. Cool--and we didn't even have to pay admission.

Nothing that happened today has matched that excitement. We got up and did our respective boat jobs (boat cleaning and engine oiling). We then rewarded ourselves by doing a whole lot of nothing: drinking coffee, reading, playing with ferrets, and computing. Thomas got bored by 2:30, so we headed to town (i.e., the bar).

An early evening game of Kuub on the beach resulted in a devastating defeat for me. Thomas jumped and yipped and offered to burn the Kuub pieces so I wouldn't have to get trounced like that anymore. I guess we must allow men these little ego trips, or what else would they have?

Still glowing with victory, Thomas grilled a couple of hot dogs while listening to the NASCAR race on the radio. The only thing that brought him down was that Jeff Gordan made it into the top ten in points and might now make it into this year's championship showdown. I headed to bed, and I have to admit I didn't lose a wink of sleep over this news

Sunday, August 28, 2005 - Taylor Creek, Beaufort, NC
By Tom

I am a crabbing god once more! Crabs will fear and respect my crab whacking prowess!

Today's crab specimen is a new one for us. He is a Rock Crab according to our identification guide and he was caught in 9 feet of water using steak scraps as bait. Apparently, they only bite on the higher end baits.

He was a single crab unit and as such was cooked alone and served up as an appetizer prior to the main course. Notice the extra wide profile of the body. One of these bad boys was a meal for one person. Also for those who are interested, we think he tasted more like lobster than crab.

In other news, our main house battery gave up the ghost last night. It will no longer hold a charge and as such will have to be replaced. Shitty death!

I mentioned to Sally from Dimsan in an email about our battery woes and she phoned us from Sam's Club where they had 6 volt golf cart batteries on sale. Presto chango we now have 4 new batteries waiting for us at Steve and Sally's. We will probably sail up there tomorrow and spend a few days swapping out the batteries.

With the battery problems solved, we retired to Finz to watch professional beach volleyball which oddly enough was being held in Boulder, Colorado. Is it just me or does anyone else wonder how you play beach volleyball in a place that is 1500 miles from the ocean?

Dinner was a mega chef salad, preceeded by the afore-mentioned crab unit appetizer.

Monday, August 29, 2005 - Steve and Sally Dock, Oriental, NC
By Amy

It wasn't a great morning for Team DreamCatcher. Our bottle of clothes detergent exploded last night and after cleaning up the mess, I deposited it in a trash bag in the galley sink so we could dinghy it to shore in the morning. That seemed like a good plan at the time. Alas, the ferrets got up before me and found this treasure--and let's just say they made the most of their discovery. I emerged from bed to find two soapy monsters and one pissed off captain. Oops.

Once the mess was cleared, we weighed anchor and headed back toward Broad Creek. It was a rainy day of motoring with nothing of interest to report.

We arrived back at the Buddy Fred's at about 2 PM. Now that we're all moved aboard, I didn't want to open up the house again. Steve & Sally were nice enough to let us stay at their dock, which has electric (Buddy Fred's doesn't). We are now plugged in and the ferrets are enjoying a nap in one-half air conditioning.

The other half our air conditioning is not currently working. (We have one small unit for each tube, rather than a single large one). Bad water pump. Thomas has the misfortune of being the mechanically inclined member of Team DreamCatcher, so he is crawling around the salon now.

Once he finishes up, we're headed to Steve & Sally's, where we will see various other friends. Quite a homecoming, and we haven't been gone two weeks. We are quickly becoming re-immersed in the Beaulah Point culture. I wonder if it will be tougher to leave the second time

Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - Steve and Sally Dock, Oriental, NC
By Tom

Today was spent engaged in battle with the port side air conditioner. I lost.

While we have access to electricity I was hoping to be able to run the air conditioners inside the boat to keep the temperature tolerable. Well, the starboard side ac unit is happily spewing out cold air while the port side sits idle.

The raw water cirulation pump died a while ago and knowing this I picked up a replacement from the Anti-Christ (no, not my mother in law) better known as West Marine. The new replacement pump was exactly 4 weeks old, yet when I installed him he failed to do anything other than shake and gurgle.

Ok, maybe I got a bad pump right? Wrong. I took this one back all the way into New Bern in a borrowed car to get another new replacement. When I installed him, same problem. West Marine strikes again. Burn in hell Antichrist.

I tested the new, new pump and it was unable to even lift water 1 whole foot out of a bucket. How lame is that? Stay away from Dometic AC pumps as they may be the Prince of Darkness.

I gave up on West Marine and ordered a real pump over the internet that should arrive on Friday. I guess we'll limp along on one pump til then.

In other news, I have gathered photographic evidence of what we refer to as the ferret scrum. Those of you not familiar with the way ferrets play have probably never seen this, but what happens is one ferret will kick the other in the head and this is the signal to begin the wild melee. Usually the action is so fast you have a hard time keep score. I have diagramed the last picture to allow for better understanding and an actual accounting of individual ferret parts.

As you can see, these moves should only be used by experienced professionals.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - Steve and Sally Dock, Oriental, NC
By Amy

Today Thomas made his second trip to New Bern in as many day, this time with me in tow. We wanted to get a replacement camp stove so we can cook in the cockpit again, thus keeping the cockpit cool on miserably hot days like today. While at Wal-Mart, I was accosted by the largest coffee perk pot in the history of the world, which demanded to come home with me. I can now make enough coffee to swim in!

The ferrets were allowed free range while we were gone. They enjoyed this a great deal and only messed up half of our stuff before falling asleep in front of the one functioning air conditioner. I guess they're not as stupid as they usually act.

Evening drinks at Steve & Sally's. Dinner was a pork loin roast cooked in the pressure cooker on our new camp stove. We listened to our new Tori Amos CD and I gazed lovingly at my new coffee pot. Sometimes shopping is cool.

Thursday, September 01, 2005 - Steve and Sally Dock, Oriental, NC
By Tom

I tackled re-bedding the sinks this morning as a warm up to swapping out our batteries. I was hoping to make such good time that I would be done my boat chores before the heat of the day.

The sink project went smoothly and I think we may have finally stopped the slow seepage we get under the sinks when Amy does the dishes. Of course if she'd keep the damn water in the sink where it is suppose to be, we wouldn't have this problem, but she says I am missing the point.

I moved onto the battery projects and was both shocked and amazed when the four golf cart batteries slipped perfectly into my sealed battery box. I had to make two short stubby cables to bridge the 6 volt batteries into groups of 2 in order to make 12 volts, but other than that there were no problems.

The project went fine and it turned out that it actually took longer to recalibrate my charging and monitoring equipment than it did to install the new batteries. I finished up the installation by running the 6 hour equalization process. Hopefully we have seen the end of our battery woes.

This evening we had the obligatory happy hour drinks with Steve and Sally while watching the nightly news. Afterwords, I cooked Johnsonville Brat's on the grill. The weather man says only one more day of heat