Chart the course for Bubba Gump !

Charleston SC here we come. June 16th, 7:07 AM 622 hours.
We head out of port mindful that we hadn’t tested the repair yet. Everything felt fine and we wound em up. Perfect ! Mary E’s booboo is no more. Of course no day is complete unless we have our obligatory rain shower. We cleared the showers and had a beautiful warm 200 mile cruise to Charleston S.C. As usual just as were fixing to head into the harbor more rain decides to rain on our parade. We slowed our forward progress to a crawl as we watched several cloud to water lighting strikes three miles ahead. Radar showed the storm directly over the port entrance. We had made excellent time getting here and were looking forward to kicking back and relax a bit but nothing doing. The storm very slowly transformed into a larger storm and slowly slid away. An hour later we finally got a window to get into port since another storm was headed our way. We made a dash for it and just as we got within site of the marina, the skies opened up again with torrential rain and wind. But we felt a bit safer now because there were bigger sticks in the water than us. Docking the boat was a bit of an adventure but Cap stuck it in there and we tied down safely. We relaxed with a bottle of wine and waited for the storm to pass.
We stayed at the Charleston City Marina Megadock. This dock is 1/4 mile long and they use golf carts to service it.
Restrooms and showers were at the far end from us. Needless to say we used the facilities on the boat.
Later that evening we hailed a taxi and headed for Bubba Gump.
I know Bubba is a chain, but last year when we were heading to Boston on Gary S's boat, Bobby and I got lost there one afternoon as we ate bucket after bucket of peel and eat shrimp. Gary S. had to send out a search party to find us. We had our shrimp but somehow it was good but not as great. I suspect it was the excessive amount of grog last time that made it so good.
While in this port, we saw one of the world' largest yachts. The Pangaea, 184 feet long !

The name Pangaea probably derives from the Pangaea theory which surmises that all continents were once connected into one super continent. This boat certainly fits that name. Here is a link. Pangaea
Tomorrow St. Augustine.

Mutiny on the Mary E !

Captain Gina was too cheap to hire a purser so we ran out of Rum !

June 15th we stayed in port to check damage and get repairs. The diver showed up at 7:30 AM and checked the running gear and boat bottom. Great news ! Only damage a minor blade deflection on the starboard prop. He quickly pulled it and brought it to the prop shop. Later that morning he told us we’ll get it back and installed later in the afternoon. We were thinking of running to Southport SC but since it was going to be so late we stayed in port and tried to get a few things done like blog, chart, wash the boat, fuel up and empty the head. It was a really great day 85 and sunny. Around noon we decided since were stuck lets break out the rumrunners after all it’s five o’clock somewhere. Later that afternoon the dive guy showed up with the shiny fixed prop. He installed it quickly and lightened Bobby’s wallet by $310. We were shocked how quickly it got done and how inexpensively. If that were up north, we probably would have been layed up for a week and had to part with a grand. So we slid the boat over for a pumpout.. what a headache. We just could not get enuf suction power. After struggling with the caca sucker for an hour we managed to get a little out at least so we could use the head that eve. The dock guy said you know what, once you get out there tomorrow throw the switch. Good idea.
We slid the boat back to the slip and made another rumrunner. Since our meal the night before was really just ok we decided to make Kielbasa, Tenderloin and Beans for dinner. Then more rumrunners till we ran out of rum. A nice warm evening out on the back deck, a bunch of idle conversation and bed.

Captain Gina is recruiting for a new crew !

Coinjock N.C. to Beaufort N.C. 10:00 AM 614 hours
Since our trip down to Beaufort was a relatively short one compared to what we had just been thru, we left at a leisurely 10 AM after securing our booty from the coinjock office. We wanted to go the course of the Pungo River where the water is as black as coffee but we opted to go the way of Pamlico sound since the weather was fair and the time would be much shorter. We never experienced anything like this, the deepest point was 20 or so feet and most was around 14 feet for as far as you could see in any direction for hours on end at 22 knots cruising. The other crazy thing was the water temperature was 87 degrees in the begining of June ! So the course across Pamlico was fairly straightforward despite the numerous very shallow areas that abound. Unlike Pamlico, the Jersey coast tossed stuff all about the cabins and Captain Gina was afforded the luxury of recovering from the disaster in the forward state room after our high sea adventure there.
Several hours later we finally crossed the sound and entered the channel to head down to Beaufort roughly 35 miles away. Much of this trip was uneventful except for the nasty rainshower we picked up on radar and decided to slow down until it passed. Once it cleared we steamed full speed ahead for Beaufort. Following our trusty brandy new Maptech charting software on our computer we changed our course to head directly towards Beaufort. Something wasn't right and in the blink of an eye the Mary E came to an abrupt stop. We ran aground. Bothh engines stalled ! Dazed and confused we assessed our situation. Looking around we're wondering how can this be ? We're following the course we had so carefully plotted that morning. Furthermore we had just passed a red green marker and had made our way to port as we intended by our route. Yet, we were fast aground. Right around that time we noticed a tow boat u.s. milling about in front of us.I checked to see if I had my card and I did so we hailed him on the radio. He assisted us in pulling us off the bar. We limped to port a very dejected crew only to discover sometime later that this is a regular occurrence. Let me explain, After we landed at Beaufort docks, tow boat guy says .."oh, that happens all the time !" "that channel has been non existent for years but hasn't been removed from the charts." Hmmm. Licking our wounds we head to the dockmasters office to check in. While waiting we happened to notice a chart on the wall ... guess what that channel is not recomended it has been silted in for years, anyone going north would know this but anyone coming south .. well let's just say they should at least remove the red green marker and leave it at that. Seems rather funny that tow boat should have happened to be in the area and the dive master as well as the prop shop were alll ready to cure our disaster. We never made a phone call. Like we mentioned before this is a regular occurrence. Fortunately the tow boat charges $658 was fully covered by Tow Boat coverage. How much damage and the cost for the running gear is a painful but sobering thought. Just about 9:30 at night we barely secured dinner and had a couple of rum drinks to melt our worries away.

June 13

A sign along the way...



Evening at Ocean City docks...



Ocean City, Md. to Coinjock N.C. 9:00 Am, 603 hours.
For the first time on our trip we were able to lose the two coats and jeans that we donned to stay warm in favor of shorts and tees.
Quite unexpectedly, Bob and I emerged from the cabin with the same color tees and shorts. Captain Gina nodded approvingly.
Heading out to our first leg, took us out the breakwater to sea in a balmy 77 degrees or so. We headed down the coast 70 or so nautical miles in beautiful calm cruising waters to Chesapeake Bay inlet. However no trip would be complete without our daily deluge and so it happened just as we made our turn toward the inlet. We could see the storm on the radar and we tried to go around it but nothing doing. The storm chased us down and it rained so hard we couldn't see 40 feet in front of the boat. About ten minutes later, we broke free and headed toward the Chesapeake Bay bridge. This is a rather interesting bridge in that it travels along the top of the water and ducks down into a tunnel in two places so that ships cruising in and out of Norfolk don't have to deal with height restrictions. You can barely make out the bridge since it is only a few feet off the water as shown in this pic.
Anyway, we cruised thru this very interesting port marveling at the plethora of Naval and commercial ships. This is one very very busy port.





In a little while, we came upon the first bridge of the several that we'll have to negotiate to continue our trip southward. Had the bridge attendant opened this bridge 5 minutes earlier we would have made the next bridge which opens only on the hour. This bridge.. So we arrived at the next bridge 5 minutes late, they had just closed the bridge, and now we're left with several more bridge openings we'll have to make in order to reach Coinjock 70 or so miles away. The time is 4:05 PM and we have to wait till 5 PM for the opening and then make the last bridge in this leg before the last opening at 7 PM. So what's a crew to do... why polish off a bottle of wine while we're waiting. ;) At five PM on the dot, the bridge opens and we continue our journey down the twisty narrow byways to the only lock we'll encounter in this trip. Much to our chagrin we see a tugboat just entering the locks from the other direction with several work barges attached. For what seemed like an anxious eternity we waited for the tug to safely negotiate the locks. We cleared the locks and once again headed south for Coinjock.
Fortunately, we didn't encounter much boat traffic so we were able to make good speed and even made the 6:30 opening at the last bridge before Coinjock. Arriving in Coinjock around 7 PM we fueled up and then just had to open another bottle of wine before heading up to the restaurant for our 32 ounce prime ribs. We had steamed shrimp, awesome, and rumrunners w/o grenandine, awesome and our magnificent slabs of beef. Yes we ate the whole damn thing ! Well, the restaurant was trying to close but Bob convinced them to get us a "roady" rumrunner to take back to the boat. Well, I don't know if she was the owner who made that one but she sure did pour it like she hated the owner. They handed us styrofoam cups, turned their backs and we made the drinks dissappear. A wonderful nitecap to a great day. BTW for anyone thinking Coinjock has the best deal on fuel prices make sure you figure in the 6.75 N.C. fuel tax which is counted seperately. Ocean City Fishermans Marina beat their price by 11 cents a gallon.

Whew, long day yesterday.

Yesterday, June 12, we left Huntington N.Y. at 6:48 AM with 591 hours on the engines. The weather was cold, foggy and raining. We arrived in downtown Manhattan at around 9:15 AM after a pretty uneventful trip thru the east river. By the time we neared the end of Manhattan the fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The GPS was totally screwed up with all the electronic junk in the air in NY. We got it to work sporadically enuf to hunt and peck our way thru with the radar and an occasional position. Let me tell you that was an experience.Those ferry boats don't slow down in the fog ! And barges were anchored all over the place. Good thing we had a great radar image. We took a picture of the Statue of Liberty. Nice pic huh?

Our next encouter was the Verazzano mystery bridge. We saw it on radar and the GPS charts but we passed under it and never saw it. As we pulled away we caught a short glimpse of it to our stern. Very scary. Talk about flying by instruments. So now we headed out to sea from NY. We eventually broke free from the fog and then we encountered very rough seas and had to go slow to prevent constant slamming. After a few hours of that the seas calmed down a little. Right about this time we encountered a monstrous rain storm. The cloud formations were so thick and low it looked like a land mass. Shortly after breaking free from that the seas really calmed down and we saw our first rainbow. Moving along toward Ocean City, Maryland we encountered a huge heard of dolphins with young ones, there litteraly had to be several hundred of them. Right after that we saw another rainbow and port was not to far away. We ducked in and fueled up 12 hours later from when we left Long island. We were all exhausted and decided to barbecue and have several glasses of wine to wind down. As I write this we just left the last bridge in Va and are almost at Coinjock N.C. I'll write more about today's advetures and post a bunch of pics later.

From the bridge of the MV Mary E.

We set this morn at a chipper 6:30. 578 hours on the engines and who knows what to go. 202 miles and 11 hours later we made port in Huntington, LI,NY. Captain, Navigator and Bob arrived safely thru thick fog but fair seas and winds to our backs. Still waiting for the booty. 6:00 AM is going to come early since our next leg is another 200 miles of open water, hopefully not in fog and rain as predicted.

Arriving at Willis Marine in Huntington we were greeted by Mike. A true gentleman and knowledgeable boater who unselfishly shared his experiences with us. It was truly a slow fuel fill... slow enuf that the navigator almost completed our next leg.

We had a great dinner in Gina's home port at Tutto Pazzo. Then we stopped by for a cocktail at Prime steakhouse. Wow !!! The decor in this place is more than outstanding... and we heard the food is A1. Have to make this a stop on another cruise. We'll it is now 12:15 and these pirates are ready for rrrrrrr nitecap.

I think the Mary E is on Caribbean time already ! We're still in port. We still had a few things to do such as fuel and provisioning which would have made too late a departure for our first stop. So we're now scheduled for a 6 AM departure tomorrow morning and that will give us enough time to get to our first port, Hunnington, L.I. We'll probably hit some heavy rain tomorrow but after that our weather looks better.
Our first two ports at first look over our routes seem to be the longest runs we'll encounter. We expect to be in Ocean City, Maryland by night 2. I'll spend a bunch of time charting today to firm things up.