November 14 - 24, 2000 -- In Wrightesville Beach

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