2025-06-08 - Norfolk for Harborfest and healing for Kris

We stayed on the free dock another night, and then on Tuesday moved to the bulkhead wall next to Deep Creek bridge where we usually stop, as there is a Food Lion, and good pizza restaurant so close.  It's not a scenic stop, but convenient.  There are doing construction on the bridge, so the area is additional rough looking with construction trailers and fencing.

Kris not feeling well at all, but went ahead and made the 1000 ft. walk from the boat to the store and back.  She made it, but had to rest 3 or 4 times during the trip.

Dean finished getting groceries, and got pizza to bring back to the boat as Kris assumed her unhappy position back in the salon.

Back pain, stomach pain - not a happy camper

Dean enjoyed his pizza for dinner, and Kris ate a couple of bites, before giving up and her stomach pains were getting worse.

Deep Creek bridge bulkhead - not scenic

We enjoy the trip up the ICW from Beaufort, NC to Norfolk, but the water is the negative.  It is not dirty water, but colored brown from all the tannins from decaying vegetation.  

Tap water on left, Dismal swamp water on right

Unfortunately, the tannins do stain the boat exterior as well, so at some point after Norfolk we will have to clean the hull to make it nice and white again.

Wednesday we got the first lock north, and went and filled up with diesel at Top Rack Marina.  They consistently have the best diesel prices we can find.  It's a weird little place, with condo's, docks, fancy restaurant and racked small boat inside storage.

Once tanks were filled, we headed north to Portsmouth/Norfolk.  We found a nice open spot to anchor, and then at 4:00 went in to see the Chiropractor.  They did a full exam, and took x-rays of Kris's full spine, as they were concerned about some possible rib breakage.   They did an adjustment after checking the x-rays - which showed no obvious breaks, but lots of spine issues.  Part of the adjustment was to "open" up Kris's pylorus sphincter, which is a "valve" between the stomach and small intestine.  It brought immediate relief for Kris's pain, as did the back adjustment.  

Thursday, back to chiropractor for another adjustment - which meant Kris actually ate a meal on Thursday and felt more like a normal person.   

Friday, we walked to the Post Office, as our new anchor light had arrived.   After that we walked up to the local WaWa gas station that has an Amazon locker, and picked up our small Amazon order and then back to the boat.  Almost 2 miles, and Kris was able to make it, although pretty exhausted at the end.  Portsmouth has a very scenic residential downtown area, and we enjoyed walking and seeing a bit of it. A few photos below of some of the scenic items.

Very cute house - well-kept

Herringbone brick sidewalks everywhere - must watch your step

Nice sandstone? Church

Nice mix of architectural features

Friday was the start of Norfolk Harbor fest.   We enjoy watching all the boat traffic, and seeing the fireworks, and wandering through the activities.  The anchorage is big enough to take quite a few boats, but of course, this year we had extremely inconsiderate people choose to anchor practically on top of us.  Then they had a friend raft up, making them even worse.  Then of all things, after the wind shifted, and they pulled a different direction, they upped anchor because they were too close to a boat behind us, and anchored even closer.  

Pictures don't do it justice, they were about 30' behind us.

Worse was they pretty much completely ignored us the entire time, not even acknowledging the situation.  We on Charm try to stay pretty low-key, non-confrontational, but these folks were sure pushing our boundaries.    Luckily there was very little wind, and although we spun around in many different directions, we never touched, and they had people onboard the entire time, so we felt we could leave our boat.  If they had all left the boat at some time - Kris might have stepped over the boundary - not a pretty sight.

Friday we saw the parade of boats - the start of Harbor fest.   Friday night was the drone show - neat to watch, but it only lasts maybe 10 minutes max.  Saturday we took the dink over the activities at Harbor fest.  Saw part of a comedy / unicycle / juggling show, and had an ice cream.  Had a great view of the Coast Guard demonstration as well. We last saw it with our friends Ed and Cathy on What If who enjoyed Harbor fest with us 2 years ago while on their boat.

Parade of boats - starts with fire boats spraying water

Tall ships always in parade of boats

Juggling/Unicycle/Comedy show

Glad diving has progressed past this

Watching Coast Guard demonstration

Saturday night was the fireworks show.   It is an impressive party because you are so close to it, but it is a decent show even from further away.

Photos taken with our little Olympus waterproof camera from the bow, no zoom.

Fireworks and lights of downtown Norfolk in the background

We were fortunate the wind was blowing the smoke from the fireworks just to the south of us, right up until the grand finale - at which point the wind shifted over our way.

Sunday morning, we awoke to a very dirty deck.  Luckily, rain forecast, so Dean got out and scrubbed the deck using salt and the brush just as the rain started, and it got a nice fresh rinse.

Dean out scrubbing in the rain

We have decided to stay a bit here in Norfolk, continuing Kris's back treatments for a while to get her healed up before moving north.

2025-06-01 Into the Dismal Swamp

The dinghy is patched and still not leaking air, not sure how many times it has been glued but this time, knock on wood, it is holding.

We left Sojourns dock and motored o Belhaven,  Stayed in Belhaven for two days due to winds out of the east and rainy weather.  Did not get off the boat.

Rainy days in Bellhaven

Our view from the Salon windows.

 After Bellhaven we motored up to the south end of Alligator River with light winds and no rain, some long straight stretches.

In the Alligator river - Pungo river canal

It was a cold day, but relaxing

 

 Had a great sail from the south end of Alligator River up to Elizabeth City.   The new main sail did a great job. 

 

Even Dean is wearing a jacket

Took the free dock at Jennette Brothers food distribution.  You can dock for free as long as you dine out locally.

Charm at Jeanette Bros free dock

 

Thursday we did a almost 5 -mile round trip walk, up to the UPS store, Harbor Freight tools and the Food Lion.  The city has some interesting old buildings and a nice brick road.

Nice brick home

Looks like they just put pavement over the brick road

Back at the dock, did some work on the main sail cover and helped a couple of other boaters dock.  The last folks to dock were Paul and Colleen off TrianaMarie.  We had met them a couple of years ago in the Bahamas, and it was nice to get caught up on where they have been and what they are doing.

Usually we will go to Big Boss Burrito for lunch, but they were closed for AC work.  Ended up at Elizabeth City Pizza, ok but not what we had been planning on. 

Elizabeth City Pizza

 

 

Elizabeth City sunrise 

Next morning Kris woke up with bad back pain and breastbone pain.  Then further symptoms that left her system empty of food.  So instead of leaving we decided to stay a bit to let Kris heal up.  

Friday was no better, so she did go see a Chiropractor in town, which seemed to help a bit.   She was able to eat a banana Friday night without it coming back up.  We decided one more day was prudent to stay. Saturday was better, but new symptoms arose, but at least she could eat.

We left Elizabeth City on Sunday, today, and motored with 4 other boats up to the Dismal Swamp.  Usually there is maybe 1 other boat on the trip, but today we had a monohull, two catamarans, and two power boats.  That made docking/staying at the free Dismal Swamp Visitor Center dock not really an option.  Adjusting our plan, we made it a few more miles to the Douglas free dock.  A bit smaller, but we are the only ones here.   We said we motored, but mostly Dean motored and Kris laid on her back inside and groaned a bit off and on.

Douglas Free Dock 

Well, not to be left out, Dean decided to join Kris in misery.  Dean thought that an overhead branch was taller than it was.  After docking tonight had the pleasure of going to the top of the mast and straighten the lighting rod, straighten the windex, taking down the electronic windex, and taking down the tricolor light.  Tomorrow will be ordering some new parts.  You know, we do need some project to keep us busy.  Thank goodness the tree branch took out the two most expensive items to replace, and not those cheap ones. 😄

It is always good to replace parts sometimes just for the heck of it

 

 should be a bit straighter

 

Had a back-up blogger fill in this week, hopefully the "normal" one is back for next week. 

2025-05-25 Week of more packages and work

We had a great nights sleep on Sunday night, so Monday we upped anchor and headed out.  We wanted to go to the free dock in Oriental, we checked the webcam they have, and saw two spots open.  On our way there, one other sailboat pulled out in front of us and headed the same direction, and about 15 minutes before arrival a powerboat passed us and headed in.   So - we missed out, they took the last two spots, change of plans, and we headed up to our friend's dock near Oriental.  Our friends Karen and Duane on Sojourn have a dock on a creek near Oriental, and let us anchor or use the dock short term.  We usually do a lot of buying stuff in order to have a shipping address so we can get packages.   

Pretty spot on the creek at our friend's dock

Tight fit for us alongside two other Mantas - What If and Sojourn

We spent Monday doing some cleaning, and making sure there was nothing else we needed to order and have shipped in.   We also talked to our friend Tracy on Phoenix Rising.   Tracy is our friend who lost her boat in hurricane Beryl, and how now purchased a new to her Manta 42 catamaran. She is busy working on fixing up the boat and doing improvements as she plans to live on it full-time and return to the Caribbean.   

Tuesday, Tracy picked us up, and we went to her boat for the day to help her with her projects.  Kris worked on re-wiring the electrical cabinet to allow her to use the inverter to power the hot water tank.  Dean and Tracy worked on fixing the bilge and shower pump on the port side to work.  We are slow workers, so the next day we went up again and tried to help with the generator and water maker, both of which were not functioning correctly.  One final trip for only 1/2 day on Wednesday to tackle the windlass.  We had fun visiting with Tracy, and working on her boat.  Plus, Tracy took us out for lunch each day - so bonus there.  Wednesday afternoon Tracy came to our boat and hung out and visited but also helped us with our projects.

Kris getting ready to work on electrical as Tracy supervises.

We got some of our packages on Wednesday - one item was a new Lenovo android tablet to replace our failing Windows Surface Pro 7.   We use a program called Coastal Explorer - and it was now available for android, so we decided to go that route.  That was a failure - although the tablet was very nice, and we got the program loaded, we found that we could not migrate all of our stored charts to the android tablet - guess we did not think that through enough.   So 4 hours of fiddling with that - lesson learned.

Thursday was more packages - and one very important one.  Everyone who knows us well, knows we have a serious cheese addition to one particular cheese.

We were able to order in 7 of the 2 lbs. blocks of cheese and get free shipping, making it economical.  Each block is $15.  You can get them in at Costco for less, but then have to have someone box and ship them, so this time we ordered direct from Tillamook.   14 lbs. of cheese should last us a couple of months. 😄

Thursday, Kris spent all day working on modifying our sail cover.  The new sail has more track slides, so sits much higher on the mast. Our old sail cover was not tall enough, or big enough around, to cover the main.   About 3 years ago, Kris had found a like new small sail cover in the same material and color as ours at a used shop, and picked it up for cheap.    She cut that apart to patch onto our existing cover, and ordered a few yards of new material to finish it off.   With many test fits and patching of old and new together, she spent all day Thursday and 1/2 day Friday - and still has at least one more full day of work before it is done.

You can see that our main is quite high now, Dean can't quite reach the top

Dean worked on patching our dinghy.  You might recall that our dinghy was accidentally shot, and we had patched it in Puerto Rico almost 1.5 years ago.  That patch has held great, but for some reason recently started leaking.  So Dean has been working on patching the dink again, and again, and again- yes it is not going well.  Hopefully this last try will work.

Grinding off the old glue getting ready for new

Dean also worked on painting our anchor which had some rust on it.   He sanded it down and put several coats of Galvanizing paint on it.

We will see how long the paint lasts.

Dean also mowed our friends yard while we were here.

Saturday our friends Jerry and Donna on Bluejacket picked us up, and we went to lunch with them.  Had a wonderful lunch, and great visit.   We left the boat at 11:30 and did not get back until 3:30.  A wonderful 4 hours.  We had not seen them for a couple years - so lots to catch up on.   Sorry, forgot to take a photo.

Today we move north, timing our travels with the weather.

2025-05-18 524 miles from Vero Beach, FL to Oriental, NC

We left Vero Beach on Monday, just as soon as our last package arrived in the mail, and started motoring up the ICW.  The package was supposed to get there 2 days earlier, so we had to sit and wait for it, but at least they included some Swag with the parts - so not a complete waste.

Nice tote bag, key ring and pen

We motored up the ICW, spent the night near Cocoa Beach, and got up at 11:30 to watch the Falcon 9 rocket launch, which was postponed until 1:30 a.m.   Could not drag ourselves out of bed for that one, but we heard it.   Next day motored up to Daytona Beach, anchored for the night, and early next morning completed the trip up to St. Augustine, FL, where we got a mooring ball for the next two days.

We saw a couple of nice boats on the way up, and normal scenery along the Intercostal.   Did have some excitement when Kris got too close to the green marker and ran aground - even though she was still in the channel.  Backed off and got going again - the only damage was to her pride.

This pretty boat passed us twice on the 2.5 day motor trip up the ICW

Looks tight, but there was plenty of room for both of us

We had stopped in St. Augustine to go to a store called Sailor's Exchange to get new anchor chain.  We had not completely worked out how we would haul our old chain in, and the new chain back, when our friends Ed and Cathy on What If said they would drive the one hour to St. Augustine and help us out.  How great is that.   We had our old chain loaded in the dinghy, and they parked near the dinghy dock.  We were able to load the old chain in the truck and take it in and get the new chain with a minimum of fuss.   Huge thank you to Ed and Cathy.  We went with them on the errands they had for the day, and their errands were perfect for us as well.  Stopping at Home Depot, Staples, West Marine, Goodwill, and Sailors Exchange.   Of course, we went out for lunch, and had a delicious lunch, followed by Ice Cream later on.  Lots of good visiting and errands made the day fly by.

Ed, Cathy, Dean and Kris 

We were back to the boat by 4:00 p.m. or so, and got the new chain in place and anchor attached.  Then we looked at the weather and decided it looked good with South winds to head offshore to Beaufort, NC.  So we left.

Had good sailing Thursday night, but a bit lumpy, and then Friday and Saturday were fairly pleasant with light south winds.   Our new mainsail did just great.  

Quite the difference between the old jib, on left and new main on right

Saturday night the winds started building, and we put in one reef, then two, then Kris looked at the timing and decided we needed to slow down as we were arriving too early and would have an outgoing current with incoming swell on approach to Beaufort inlet - which we did not want.  So we dropped the mainsail, and sailed with jib alone, but were still doing 6 to 7 knots, so dropped the jib as well, and "sailed" with bare poles dead downwind at 3 to 4 knots until the wind died a bit and moved west.  Had to motor the last 4 hours, keeping the speed down to 3 knots to time the entrance for favorable currents.   We sailed 372 miles averaging 5.8 knots, which was good considering we slowed way down to kill 6 hours waiting on tide changes.  Had several military boats out doing "stuff" while we slowly motored in.

One of the military vessels out and about

Since we got into Beaufort inlet around 9 in the morning, we decided to keep going, and motored until around noon, where we dropped the hook in Cedar Creek, about 7 miles south of Oriental, North Carolina.   Tonight will be the first night of full sleep for the last 3 nights - Looking forward to it.

2025-05-11 A Busy Week in Vero Beach

A short motor up the 12 miles to Vero Beach, and we got a mooring ball for the week.  We had many projects to do, and packages to receive.  Monday we took the bus into town and got groceries, and then Dean went further in to Home Depot for some parts, and Kris went to the chiropractor.

Back to boat, and gathered our first round of package arrivals.

It's just like Christmas - but we don't get near this much at Christmas

 

Unpacked and ready to put away - not all projects, some fun stuff.

Not all the packages are boat parts for projects, some just fun stuff.  New cutting boards, new shirt for Kris, new sauté pan, new rug for boat entry, vitamins, Instapot, food, cover for Kobo reader, footstool, pizza pan, bread pans, water hose, sunglasses and some other miscellaneous small stuff.  

Also boat stuff, but more was stuff for us that we "needed".   

Kris did engine maintenance, changing the oil and filters, fuel filters, and replacing the port raw water pump with a rebuilt one.  Dean helped rebuild the pump.   She has an irritating oil leak on the starboard engine, but needs parts and time to fix that one, so ordered the parts in, specifying they had to arrive by Friday, which she was told was no problem - remember that.

Another major project was removing our starboard forward salon window, which leaked a tiny bit in heavy downpours - we are talking less than a teaspoon - but it irritated us.  So nearly a day to remove the well sealed in window - clean, reseal and re-install the window. 

Kris working on removing the sealant from inside the window.  She had the easier part, Dean spent about an hour slowly pounding a putty knife in the gap to loosen the sealant

We got it out in one piece, no damage.

Cleaning up all the old sealant and loose material around the window frame before installing the window again.  Umbrella for sun protection

Tuesday we went out to dinner with our friends Scott and Tina who used to own Sangaris, a Manta 42.  We met them in the Bahamas over 10 years ago, and see them every time we come through Vero Beach.  It was great to catch up.

Thanks to Scott for the photo

Dean tried out our new bread pans, they work great, much less sticky than the old ones, and prettier too.

Dean made poppy seed bread that he has for breakfast

 The new sail arrived - YEAH 😀.    Dean is happy, he has wanted one for several years.  

Dean happy about the new sail arrival

We removed the old sail, all the battens and hardware, and folded the old one up.  Then put the new track sliders on the new sail - short one slider - oh well, ordered that, it will function minus one slider, as we had added 6 more sliders than the old sail had.  Then put the battens in - but of course they would not fit correctly with the new hardware, so had to modify the ends of all the battens, then cut them to a new length and install them.   Finally, new sail installed, but too windy to raise it while on the mooring, so will have to wait on that.  

Unfortunately, with more sliders the sail rests higher up on the mast, and the old sail cover won't fit, so now we have to modify the sail cover.

The new sail sits up higher on the mast.  Kris can't reach to attach the halyard, so we will leave that on all the time now, and will have to figure out a new method of storing it.  Will also have to figure out how to modify and install the sail cover because it goes up higher now.

Our new helm seat arrived, so installed that, should have been simple, but no.  We live on a boat, so that means every project must be more difficult.    The mounting holes did not line up, so had to drill new holes.  Then the seat was too high, as the old seat was much less padded, so had to cut down the mounting post.   

Old seat on right, new one on left.  Quite the difference.  We had painted the old one, and Kris made new cushions for it a couple of years ago, but the paint is wearing away, and the cushion foam is worn out, so finally splurged for a new seat.

Dean removed the sling seat, took out all the old rusty grommets, and foam that was slowly disintegrating, and put in new grommets and foam and re-installed.

It doesn't look any different from a distance, but no rusty grommets, no foam falling out, and nice and comfy again.

We did 4 loads of laundry up at the laundry room, and got eaten by no-see ums.

Kris took the dinghy over to the chiropractor whose office was near a dock she could use, and got her back worked on a couple of times - doing better, but still not completely healed up.

We also made another trip to the Home Depot for miscellaneous stuff - it is about an hour bus ride away, but the bus is free.   Had time for lunch out while waiting for the bus.

Fine curb dining

We also took the bus on the shorter route to the UPS store to do some Amazon returns that did not work.  One return was our new (refurbished) Surface Pro we wanted to use for navigation to replace our old one.   Going cheap did not work, as it would not hold a charge, so returned that.  Also got some more groceries.  Our friends Scott and Tina offered use of the car for our errands, but we hate to impose, and the free bus works really well - and gives us a bit of a relaxation break from boat work.  Plus, people watching is always interesting.

Our last package was due to arrive on Friday, so we planned on leaving Saturday.  Those engine parts that were going to arrive on Friday - will thank USPS, now arriving Monday, so we will hang out a couple more days, and as soon as the package arrives, will head north to St. Augustine.

In the meantime we will work on the dinghy - which has a leak somewhere - probably the patch we did when it was shot needs to be redone or something new.   The fun continues 😖