Wow! An Interlude and Off Again

After both coming down with bad cases of RSV, (I cannot tell a lie, I infected the Admiral), she and I abandoned our plans to explore the lower reaches of Chesapeake Bay and headed back to Charleston where friend and owner of Carolina Coastal Yacht Sails (CCYS), Craig Tallberg, offered us dock space while he and his team readied our new to us Sabre 45. We spent a few days in Charleston resting and recovering from the RSV and then went to Pittsburgh for Easter with daughter Elizabeth and her family.

By then, we were feeling well enough to really enjoy being with two of our three grandkids (Charlie had gone home by the time we got there) and we had a ball playing with them, getting them up, finding them snacks, and even changing diapers. Of course, it was great to see Elizabeth and John too.

Then it was back to Charleston and the waiting game for the new boat began (it was in Marsh Harbor where it was painted, had full service on the engines, pod drives, and generator, and had a Freedom Lift installed for the dinghy. Naturally, the boat arrived a couple of days later than expected which seriously compressed our final punch list and move in time. In the meantime, we did things like go to Beach Walker Park on Kiawa,

Going to the Charleston Aquarium, Exploring the International African American Museum, and eating too much good food from Charleston's great restaurants--think

Magnolia's, The Establishment, Slightly North of Broad, and the Thoroughbred Club (can you tell we're in the South?)

Finally, the new boat came charging into the harbor where it docked next to our now beloved Back Cove 41.

The expected (but unexpected) bugs began immediately. We plugged the shore power cord into the pedestal--nada. Tried the other side of the pedestal, another pedestal, nada, nada. What had worked for the seller the day before in Hilton Head no longer worked. CCYS relatively quickly determined that it was the automatic switch that shifts between shore power and the boat's generator power that had failed. 48 hours later, it was fixed.

Next, StarLink needed to be installed; it keeps us in touch with the world. Whammo, we learned that boat did not have an inverter (even though it appeared to have a breaker and switch for one). This clever device converts DC power from your batteries into AC power so that you can do things like use StarLink, make coffee, microwave soup, etc., while you're underway and not running the generator or attached to shore power Again, CCYS and their exclusive contractor, Jeffrey Collier rose to the challenge but it took time to locate and receive parts. I now had to call my good friend, Admiral Joe Dyer, my traveling companion for this leg of the trip, and tell him our departure for the trip north would be delayed for a day or two. Also, between installing StarLink and the inverter, the team had the boat pretty well torn apart for three days making it more challenging to move all of our stuff from one to the other.

But these big problems weren't the only ones. Turns out the Air Conditioning in the salon didn't work. The AC repairman came and, hours of work later late on the evening before departure, he had that fixed. The TV in the Master Berth wouldn't turn on. The CCYS owner, herself, fixed that. The halyard that was supposed to be installed on the mast for international quarantine and courtesy flags hadn't been done. We got that taken care of. These things were all on top of the stuff that was expected--installing NEBO, updating the chartplotter, getting our new MMSI number and boat name on the VHF and AIS, installing the EPIRB, mounting the ship's bell, etc, etc..

I could go on with more minor things but, you get the point, there was a lot of bird dogging and managing.

And then, we had to move what was probably an easy ton plus of stuff from one boat to the other. Anchors, chains, stuff from the engine room, safety gear, kitchen wares, food from one fridge and two freezers, extensive first aid and medical supplies, clothes, dive gear, bathroom kit--you get the idea. We were both sore.

But finally, we were almost ready. Jackie had flown home on Saturday. She'll spend May in Maine while Joe and I take the boat to the Hudson. Monday evening, with the inverter and freezer techs still at the boat, I went to CHS, returned the rental car and met Joe. By the time the two of us got back to the boat, things , though dirty, were pretty well picked up. The inverter guy came back at 6:30 our morning of departure to orient me to the system--good thing too as while we were going over things, he realized he had forgotten to install a critical ground wire.

We waved and said goodbye to our neighbor and former vessel, the first Katahdin, and cast off.

The first hop was a short one--several hundred yards to the fuel dock at the next marina down river. But, the first time casting off and docking again challenged me--2-3 knots of river current in the biggest boat I've ever owned. She handled like a dream and though I treated her a bit jerkily, when push came to shove, she kissed the dock. I passed that test.

Since then, Joe and I have had two great offshore passages. The first, a 155 mile offshore passage from Charleston, SC, to Southport, NC, and the second, a 130 mile passage from Southport to Beaufort. The boat ran like a dream (except the most critical windshield wiper failed) and I think she'll be a wonderful vessel for the rest of the Loop and years beyond that. After long days for Geezers, we enjoyed a great meal at the Edgewater 123 in Southport (no wives to say don't, we chose the fried seafood platter thank you very much) and a much healthier and more upscale meal at the Blue Moon Bistro in Beaufort.

More to come, Katahdin is back on the go!