2025-10-26 - Woohoo – we are on the move

Sunday we were working on Tracy’s boat Phoenix Rising.  Last project was to install new cams in the Spinlock clutches.  Manta catamarans did not do a good job here, the nuts you need to grab on to are underneath the headliner, with no great way to get to them.  We thought about taking down Tracy’s headliner, but it was glued up, so instead she cut an access area.  Always nerve racking to cut into a boat, even if it is just the headliner.   Bolts accessed, we finished the last of the projects (jinx), and made plans to leave on Tuesday morning.

Monday, Tracy let us borrow her car for a provisioning run.  Hit a few stores for some groceries.

Of course right before leaving, Kris found salt water in the V-berth, but we just sidelined it for a while, anxious to get off the dock.

Tuesday we left New Bern and headed south.  Motored to Beaufort, spent the night, and then the next two days on the ICW getting to Carolina Beach on Thursday.  

At Carolina Beach, we went out to eat dinner at Flaming Amy’s – a Mexican restaurant we enjoy, that was closing on Oct 31, so our last chance.  Great food, and we enjoyed the salsa bar thoroughly.  Tracy, and her friend and crew for the week Annette joined us.  It was nice getting to know Annette.   We stopped at the hardware store and grocery store as well, so a nice full evening.

After dinner Dean worked on the salt water in the V-berth mystery, and found our wash down pump had a leak, so he worked on that, replacing it with an old pump we had, but that did not work, so we will capture the small leak for now until we get a new pump.

Friday, we planned to head offshore, and sure enough, Wednesday morning Kris found a coolant leak on the starboard engine.  So she worked on getting that fixed, which was time-consuming, but not difficult, until she broke a fitting, but luckily had a back-up plug to use, so will properly fix that later as well, as parts are needed.

We left Friday, to head offshore, and Phoenix Rising continued down the ICW.   We had a nice, but chilly overnight sail for most of the trip, but winds lighter than expected, and we were not sure if we would get in and anchored to our planned spot by dark the next day, so we cut in early to Charleston, SC entrance.  Then motored south on the ICW to Toogoodoo Creek.  Gotta love the name – mixed information online of the name's origination.

Overnight was chilly, Kris had multiple layers on to stay warm outside in the wind.  It is getting below 60 at night - that is why we are hurrying south - to stay warm.   

Always interesting sites while motoring the ICW

Looks like that they purposely tipped this boat to do some work on it.

Longest walk to the dock where the boat is kept, pretty common in the marshy areas

We will head to Beaufort, SC today, and if the weather forecast holds, will be making a jump to Florida later in the week.