November 1, 2000 -- Underway at last We ghosted out of the anchorage at o-dark thirty this morning. At approximately 1130 GMT (6:30 AM), we were underway. As we headed out, the winds became gradually stronger. After we passed Smith Point, the wind topped out at 25, but slowly backed down to approximately 20. It was a relatively good passage, we played with the sails a little bit, and motored merrily on our way. The autopilot seemed to have a problem in a following sea, so we called Oxford Boat Yard (OBY) to have them investigate the problem. They called us back and reported that the electronics company they had install the pump believed this was the right pump for our needs, and they suggested playing with the settings for rudder, and our sea state filter. We insisted that OBY call Simrad directly to find out what the problem was. After several more discussions, OBY called us back and asked us to verify the proper voltage to the pump. They also gave us Simrad's number. We arrived in Fishing Bay, and checked the voltage. It was good. In desperation, we called Simrad directly. In about 10 minutes, they had diagnosed the problem. Our autopilot pump was undersized. Of course, we had known that almost since we rounded Smith Point. Once we had ascertained the problem, I called OBY back and they started investigating companies in Norfolk, while we called the one in Deltaville. The one we called would not be able to do the work for several days. The one that OBY called could install the pump on Friday, if we could get there. We talked directly to Seaport Electronics, and they ordered the pump. They said that if we got there tomorrow, they could probably install it tomorrow as well. Bob and Sherri on Shamaal came in to the anchorage a couple of hours after us. We had cocktails with them, and caught up with them on what we each did for the summer. As always, it was a lot of fun

November 2, 2000 -- Onward to Norfolk After listening to the weather, it sounded like it would be calm enough for us to make it to Norfolk, so off we went. We were still in a following sea, though not as bad as yesterday, so the autopilot behaved moderately better. We adjusted our course slightly so that we could hang out on a broad reach and deployed our staysail in addition to the main. For, possibly, the first time, we noticed a true increase in speed by having our sails out. We increased by almost a full knot in speed! We pulled in to Willoughby Bay and called Sea Port Electronics. They have the pump, and will try to make it out today or tomorrow. Next we called Oxford Boat Yard (OBY) to verify how the payment will be dealt with. John Davis said that OBY would not be taking responsibility for their mistake. Of course, we immediately asked for the owner's phone number. John informed us that he could not give it out, but would be happy to give him our information. At little bit later, John called us back and gave us the owner's phone number. We spoke with the owner of OBY and ran down our list of reasons why they would be taking responsibility for it. He asked if he could give us a call back, which we agreed to. He called us back and we discussed a few more details, and he agreed the Oxford Boat Yard would be sending us a refund for the pump installation as soon as they receive the pump. Now we just need to get the new pump installed. The electronics company said that they could not make it out today, but would plan to come tomorrow. We then headed in and got our mail, furling housing and the new copy of the Capn

November 3 - 5, 2000 -- Willoughby Bay and Waiting We spent the day waiting for the electronics guy to come out. We finally called him at 3:00 PM. He said that he would rather come on Saturday, in the morning. That was fine with us. We took advantage of the end of the day to run to the grocery store. When we got there, we saw a used boat parts store and took a walk through there first. We saw some really neat stuff, but decided not to get anything do to transport concerns, and the fact that we had not done our grocery shopping yet. On Saturday, November 4, we headed in to wait for the electronics guys around 9:00 AM EST. They finally showed at almost 10:00 EST. We headed out to the boat and they installed the new pump. We now have a 'lock to lock' speed of just under 12 seconds. This is much better than before! We then spent the rest of the day working on the off shore list. In the evening, we were on the radio again to get an update on Mutual Fun's position and how things were going. They are only 60 miles out of Bermuda now! We also talked with a couple of people about how to improve our SSB problem. The SSB keeps blowing out the autopilot rudder feed back when we transmit. I crawled in the Lazzerette and laid tinfoil; it didn't help. On Sunday, November 5, we got up and had a bite to eat. We then turned on the SSB to see where Bob & Mona were this morning. They were just a few miles off, in the entrance channel with very calm conditions. We were very glad to hear that, they were almost in and were under the control of Bermuda Harbor Radio. Bermuda Harbor Radio guides you in and make sure you stay in the channel and out of trouble with the reefs. Harbor radio acts just like air traffic control, as they follow & direct boats in from about 50 miles out using radar. We continued working on our offshore list. Unfortunately, we are down to the last of the stuff which is all last minute stuff! We also took some time to try to track down a noise that has been occurring for the last 4 months, intermittently. We still don't know what is causing the sound, but we think it is coming from the port side of the boat instead of the starboard side, like we had thought. In the afternoon, Reed and Mary Jane pulled in and anchored close to us. We invited them for cocktails and decided that we would have them tomorrow. We spent the rest of the day lounging, and I wrote logs

November 6, 2000 -- Weather Window Tomorrow Well, it looks like our weather window will show tomorrow. In preparation for that, we headed off to the grocery store, and to the post office to mail back the small hydraulic pump. While we were there, we stopped by the used boat parts store again to take a second look at the sound insulation they had. After hitting the store, we returned to the boat to complete our off shore list. So, we stowed the dinghy, ran the jack lines and basically made sure the boat was ready to go. It did take a little bit to remember how we run our jack lines. You would think that we could remember that after only four months. Alas, we reran them no less than 4 times! Once we made sure everything outside was done; we shifted to the inside. We pulled out our warm clothes in preparation for the trip and then went through the rest of the boat making sure that everything has been packed appropriately. Reed and Mary Jane came over for cocktails around 4:30 PM or so. As always, we had a lot of fun spending time with them. Unfortunately, we never did get a chance to get together with Don and Becky on Andante. It was either way to windy, or way to busy. Fortunately, we know that we will see them south!

November 7-8, 2000 -- I am not getting rained on! At 1125 GMT (6:25 AM EST), we raised anchor and headed out of Willoughby Bay. At 1228 GMT, we were clear of any shoals, so we tuned the auto pilot for the new pump before turning out towards the ocean. We left with variable winds of five knots or less. The seas were essentially flat. We had a one foot swell coming from the North East. As soon as we cleared the Chesapeake Bay, I headed below to fire up the water maker. I was unable to get the high pressure pump to start. After reporting this to Mike, who was at the helm, I headed below to take a closer look at the system. I wound up opening the start switch housing. After studying it, I was able to get the pump started just as Mike came down and suggested that I not do anything because of concerns about electrical shock. At 1505 GMT, Mike did his flipper call. It's definitely an off shore trip. During the trip, we have had several birds visiting us. It's about 10 nautical miles to land, so we don't know how long they will stay. At 0513 GMT, the dolphins finally responded to Mike's call. They dived through the boat wake even with the fly bridge. At 1227 GMT, November 8, we saw a big fish, about two feet long, jump out of the water. At 1300 GMT, after watching the weather window shrink and fog and rain move in, we decided to stop. So, we pulled up the course to Cape Lookout Bight and headed there. We dropped anchor at 1627 GMT. As we were completing cleaning everything up from the trip, Pat and Ron on Home Free stopped by to say hello. They gave us the low down on the area before heading back to their boat

November 9-12, 2000 -- Cape Lookout Bight On Thursday, November 9, Michael was working on the logs PC. While trying to figure out how to do something that he had not done in over a year, he selected the help feature on the start bar. At this point, the computer had a small psychotic episode and ceased to function. We checked a bunch of different things, and could not find any problems. We assumed that somehow the explorer shell had become corrupted. We reloaded the operating system and still had the problem. At this point, we were pretty sure that there was corruption in one of the registries. On Friday, November 10, we continued working on rebuilding the PC. After hiding various registries, and reinstalling the operating system, we had to wipe the OS and reinstall it. We did manage to preserve our data files without having to reload them at least. In the evening, the wind kicked up into the upper 20's with gusts into the low 30's. The boat was stern into it, riding like it should but backwards. We got worried that the chain had somehow wrapped around the prop and we were anchored from the prop. After checking the angle on the chain, we decided that that was not it. As it turns out the current is so strong here that it takes 30 plus knots of wind to turn the boat against it. On Saturday, November 11, we started reloading programs. On Sunday, November 12, we completed reloading the PC, then watched a movie. We were both burnt out from fixing the PC for 4 days between both of us. All I can say is thanks Bill Gates for killing competition and keeping better products from coming on the market

Today, we went from Lookout Bight to Wrightsville beach. We left Cape Lookout at 1115 GMT (6:15 AM EST) in variable winds and calm seas. Within an hour, the wind stabilized out of the WNW and we were able to put our sails out. At 1232 GMT, as is customary, Mike made his Flipper call, and surprisingly, dolphins showed up three minutes later! By 1500 GMT, the wind was directly on our nose, so we no longer received a boost. But, fortunately, it kept backing until it was out of the SW and we again put our sails out! At 1905 GMT, we saw an enormous jelly fish. It must have been 2 feet across! We anchored at 2022 GMT. As we were putting our dinghy down, Ron on Wonya pulled into the anchorage. He is the netmanager for the Cruisehiemer's net. After everyone had settled in, we invited Ron to join us for Pizza. Ron and I headed in to get the Pizza, then returned for an evening of fun, food and talk

On November 14, we dropped the dinghy, then went to the market. We got wet on the way back as it rained. The rain is the leading edge of a cold front that is coming in. We may wait for it to pass completely before we head out again. It is going to get to the lower 30's at night and that is awfully cold at night outside when you are offshore! In the afternoon, we called Yvonne since the main portion of the front had passed. Of course, just as we were about to leave, the wind kicked up again so Mike opted to stay on the boat and sent me to Yvonne's with our computer. November 15: It's my birthday! So, we called Yvonne to do some running around. We went to Office Depot, Office Max and Circuit City in search of something to back up the computer on. Our tape drive quit working a little bit ago, and we are not going to get hit without a backup again. We also wound up buying the newest version of Windows (Which made our PC more unstable!), and a portable hard drive that connects to the USB port on our system. Not the best way to back a computer up, but it works and is fast. Yvonne arranged to have a sitter for the evening, so we headed out for dinner to celebrate. On November 16, taking advantage of the fact that we had run the generator all night, I started equalizing half of the batteries on our inverter bank. We stopped the equalize approximately half way through so we could head back to Yvonne's. On the way, we stopped by Circuit City to pick up an additional 64 megabytes of ram for her computer, then installed it. Her system runs much better now! Instead of having everyone out to the boat, due to the cold weather, we fixed enchiladas at Yvonne's. On November 17, we had a relaxing day. We went wandering around a little bit and found a pharmacy where we dropped off Mike's prescriptions. Then we stopped at Taco Bell for lunch. On our way back to the boat, we tried to buy a boom chair (hammock chair that we can attach to the boom). Unfortunately, the frame is too large to store so we decided not to buy one. Finally, we came back to the boat and spent a quiet afternoon. On November 18, we headed back into town to get Mike's prescriptions. We had tentative plans with Bob and JoAnne (S/V Timonee); unfortunately, Bob had to work late, and they were unable to make it. Instead, we went over to Yvonne's for dinner instead. On November 19, we made our first go/no go decision. It's cold and wet out! We were hoping to leave tomorrow, but with it going into the mid 30's at night we are going to hold off. It looks to be warmer in about 5 days or so, so we will wait. It's just too cold to be moving offshore. We watched a couple of movies today, and took it easy. On November 20, we had high winds so we deployed a second anchor to pull us further off a lee shore (and dock that was about 100 feet behind us). We spent the rest of the day on the boat quietly. On November 21, we replaced the outlet on the port side that had gone half bad, one of the two outlet had quit working. In the evening we were lounging, when, all of a sudden, we heard what sounded like the anchor chain running out. We ran outside, in the freezing cold, and discovered the chain was not running out, but running in. The windless was bringing in the chain on its own accord. The chain jammed up on the hauz-holes because we had the holes plugged to keep out the cold air. We fiddled with the controls until the windless stopped. We checked it to make sure that there was no load on the windless, and then took out the fuse, until we can look at it. We tested the fuse and discovered it was blown from the chain jam. We will pick up a breaker for it tomorrow, since we only have one fuse left. We believe the problem is with the control outlet; it is badly corroded on the outside, and we suspect on the inside as well. We will replace it tomorrow. We knew that sooner or later it would go, so we have been ready with a new one. It is hard to keep the outlet corrosion free since it is on the bow, and gets hit with salt water a lot. On November 22, we called Yvonne after the Net and she came and picked us up. We stopped by West Marine to get a 100 AMP breaker, so we could get rid of the big in line fuse that we only had one spare left of. We did not want to use that, and have no way of getting a new one. It is a European fuse and finding one in the US would be hard at best. We spent a good portion of the day there just hanging out. On November 23, we repaired the windlass then spun the boat around to untangle the anchors. We stowed one of the anchors, then changed the oil on Ling Ling. Next we dropped the trash off in preparation for leaving. We returned, stowed the dinghy, then set about fixing a scaled down thanksgiving dinner. In the evening, we discovered that we would not be heading out tomorrow. The weather moved in much faster than anyone was expecting or forecasting. With sustained winds between moderate (20-25 knots) and gale force (34 knots), we opted not to leave. Been there, done that, don't want to do it again! On November 24, we dropped the dinghy, then called Yvonne. After getting gas for the dinghy, we headed ashore. We ran by West Marine and returned the 100 amp breaker. We found out our wire size is too large for the breaker so we are going to need to keep our eyes open for a breaker as we move down the coast. Then we went to the hardware store to pick up a new chain hook. Finally, we spent the day with Yvonne

David's boat was due in today. So when we woke up this morning and saw that it was rainy and generally icky, we decided to stay on the boat. Instead, we invited them over for dinner. The Parade of Lights is scheduled for tonight and it worked out well last year. Because of this, everyone arrived around 2:00 PM. Around 4:30 PM, squall lines hit, so we stood an anchor watch. Due to the number of boats anchored around us, we stayed outside where we could see. About the time dinner was ready, the storms departed after only moderate winds & no lightening, thankfully. Dinner was a smashing success. We finished in time for the parade of Lights and Fireworks. After everything was over, we dropped everyone off at the dinghy dock, came back and fell asleep. On November 26, we decided to spend a quiet day on the boat in preparation for leaving Monday. We did the customary last run to the market, and then went through the boat to make sure that things were ready for us to leave. We listened to the radio and it turned out that the weather window that we thought was there wasn't. We settled down for an afternoon of writing logs and relaxing. On Monday, November 27, since we didn't leave, we arranged to have lunch with David and Yvonne. Since that wasn't until after noon, we took advantage of the dinghy dock and dropped the trash off. We took a quick ride down to the inlet to check things out. Things looked relatively smooth out there. We came back to the boat and looked around for another dinghy dock (the town started repairs on the dock & closed it during the day) to meet David and Yvonne; unfortunately, there isn't a closer one except for the Bridge Tender Marina. This is a long (15 minute) no wake trip, down the channel or a quick trip through the marsh. After they called to let us know they were headed out, we headed over to meet David and Yvonne. In an effort to save some time, we cut through the marsh as we have done countless times. Mike ran us aground, twice! Not only did he run us aground, he ran us aground at 20 miles an hour both times. The first time, we were able to get off using just the paddles. The second time, we were so hard aground that the engine had partially risen! After several attempts with the paddles, I finally got out and pushed us to deeper water. We must have been having an extremely low tide! I volunteered since I am heavier and the dinghy will float higher if I am not in it. (Mike wants to note here that he normally gets the short end of the stick, since he is the smaller one. This means that he normally gets to crawl outboard of the engines, when something needs to be done on the side I can't get too) After that, needless to say, we were a tad bit late meeting David and Yvonne. Lunch was a lot of fun. After that, we came back to the boat, loaded the dinghy on deck and settled down for the evening. The weather sounds right on for us to leave tomorrow

We woke up this morning to the weather buoy reports saying that there was 26 knots of wind out of the west at the buoy by Frying Pan Shoals with seas of 7 feet! This was certainly not what was predicted last night even as late midnight when I went to bed. We hemmed and hawed and listened to the weather again an hour later. The winds were reported at 21 knots and seas of 6 feet. Things seemed to be getting better. The next report had the winds at 17 knots and seas of 5 feet, still not what we wanted but it was getting better. At 1230 GMT (07:30 AM EST), I looked at Mike and said, "You know, we are being stupid. The winds and seas are dropping the later in the day it gets and it's 5 hours until we get to the buoy, why don't we go and we can turn around if we want to." We raised anchor at 1252 GMT with the understanding that we would listen to the weather hourly when the buoy reports were updated. If things started to get worse we would turn back. As time marched on, the winds diminished, though the seas did not drop as fast. At 1330 GMT, we received a call on the Cruisehiemers net from Brit and Elana on Wyndom. We caught up with them briefly and told them about the inlet at Wrightville Beach since they are planning on stopping there.. We continued on. At 1437, Mike did his flipper call. It is definitely an ocean passage. He also did a Shamu call, for which I snarled at him. I had absolutely no desire to see a whale and have to dodge one in four to five foot seas. By 1600, the winds had stabilized. Unfortunately, they stabilized in the south west. We hoped that this was due to land effect since we would be beating into the wind and seas once we rounded Frying Pan Shoals. We did quickly fall into our offshore routine, though this time our schedule was a little longer on watch than previously. At 1800, we rounded Frying Pan shoals. Unfortunately, the wind did not swing as well. As the wind swung on the nose, our stay sail snagged our upper radar and caused it to blow it's fuse. The fuse itself is easy to replace. However, the fuse location is difficult to reach and we will not be able to replace it until we get in at Port Royal. Thankfully we have twin radars for just this reason. At 1828, shortly after rounding Frying Pan shoals, we saw a playful family of dolphins swimming towards our boat. There must have been 10 of them! At 2003 GMT, Mike saw another pair of dolphins that hung out off of the pilot house so Mike could watch them. At 2007 GMT, Mike saw another 8 dolphins. Yup, that's what we do, scan the radars and horizon for other boats then scan the seas for dolphins. There were many more dolphins than boats, and we prefer it that way, at least the dolphins know what they are doing! The wind would stay out of our sail area blowing from the west south west until 0600 GMT on November 29 when it shifted to the west / west north west. It hung out there until 1200 GMT when the wind went variable. I learned something this trip. Variable means that the wind may change directions at any time, usually when the boat changes direction. In fact, it changed directions each time we did so that it would stay on our nose for the rest of the trip. On November 29 at 1600 GMT, shortly after we made our turn to head into the Port Royal Sound, we saw a bunch of dolphins swimming around lazily. We dropped anchor at 1844 just below Beaufort. I noticed at that point that it appears that one of the guy wires on the radar guards appears to have snapped or disconnected from vibration, and that could have been the cause of our sail hitting the radar causing problems! Overall, I thought the trip was pretty fun, if a bit on the cold side. Mike thought it was lumpy pounding into the sea's all day & night and far to cold for the spray that would hit him every now and then. Still, we both feel the best, and are the most rested that we have been of any trip thus far

First thing this morning, Mike went up the mast to check out the radar guard problem that we developed. As it turns out, the screws pulled out of the bracket for the guy wire, which is probably what caused us to loose the radar. The only question we still have is why the bracket came loose. They could have pulled out, or they could have vibrated out over time. During the trip, I noticed water dripping from Ling Ling's raw water intake vented loop. It wasn't leaking badly at the time, and I knew that we would be shutting her off shortly, so I left it at the time. Today, we checked the vented loops on Ling Ling. The vent caps on both the intake and exhaust were extremely loose. We tightened them down, and we will check it out the next time we run her. After that, we put the flash light hanger up on the fly bridge. We have only been wanting to do that since we left the Chesapeake Bay! When we are traveling over night, we have a flashlight that we keep on the fly bridge for making our log entries and to check sail shape and things like that. We originally kept the flash light by the compass, but discovered that the metal of the flash light alters the compass reading! We have kept the flash light in various places since then, all of which are wildly unsecure. We found a spare flashlight holder last week and put it to good use. After dealing with a veritable flood from water seeping through the seams of our fly bridge console, we finished caulking the front of the console on the fly bridge. It wasn't a pretty job, but we were able to caulk under the port radar. The starboard one will have to wait until the next time we remove the upper GPS. Our last task was to move the water maker to BUS 1. It had been sharing a leg with our water heaters which put an extremely heavy load on one leg of our generators. While we were at it, we decided to move things around and invert the few remaining outlets on the boat. We now have 8 things on our port bank, 8 things on our starboard bank and 11 things that are generator / shore powered only, not including the 220 V stuff. After the regular work was over, we still had some maintenance work to do. We changed the primary raycors on the engines at the same time we checked the oil on the engines. As it turns out, this was a wise decision since the filters were gunked up! Finally, it was play time. We dropped the dinghy and discovered that the battery was dead! The light switch got hit when we were putting it away in Wrightesville Beach. This really sucked since we forgot to put the plug in the dinghy and it started filling with water the instant I got in. Mike tried to warn me, but I had already stepped into six inches of water! I was forced to reach, almost to the shoulder, in cold water to put the plug in! We pulled out the charger, goosed the battery, and emptied the bilge. We then started a trip in to town. As soon as we discovered that it was no wake all the way into town, we turned around and headed back to the boat. On the way, we stopped to admire a schooner rigged 60 foot Morgan. It is headed out in the next few days to travel to West Palm Beach. At 10:00 PM EST, we got to see the space shuttle launch! It was way cool. We even got to see the booster rockets detach and fall off