Back from Hatteras

We are back on the boat at Salt Ponds Marina after spending a week in a beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The house is located at the south end of Hatteras Island right across from the Ocracoke Island ferry terminal and the U.S. Coast Guard station. Sandy's brother, two sisters and their spouses were all there. The ocean beach was beautiful with soft clean sand. The surf was up most of the days as the wind was blowing 15-20 every day. We mainly swam in the pool at the house but did long walks on the beach. We ate lots of seafood at Dinky's and Teach's restaurants. On the nights we didn't go out to dinner each couple cooked the meal for all the others. Needless to say we ate really good. The house has a karaoke machine so we had a karaoke night. It was pretty wild. We all agreed that what happens at Hatteras stays at Hatteras.

There are historical markers along the island drive. One of them at the south end of Hatteras is about the U.S.S Monitor, the Union Civil War iron clad boat. It sunk in a storm just 16 miles off the coast from where we were staying. We wanted to learn more about the Monitor so when we returned to Hampton we went to the Mariners Museum in Newport News where the remains of the Monitor are being saved. The Monitor's resting place was discovered in 1974, 112 years after it's sinking in 1862 on New Years Eve. It was not salvaged until 2002. The ship was upside down on the bottom in 250 feet of water. The gun turret was the largest piece salvaged and is resting in a bath of solution to keep it from rusting anymore than it is. Both of the guns were recovered, the anchor and some chain, 100's of other smaller items, the steam engine and the remains of two sailors. We spent almost 4 hours just touring the Monitor section of the museum. You walk thru a timeline from when the Monitor was first designed and constructed, the battle of Hampton Roads where she battles the Confederate iron clad the Virginia, thru the sinking, the discovery of her resting place and the recovery. There was much more to see but we didn't spend a lot of time on the other areas.

Here are some photos of the house on Hatteras.

Boat Chores

We have been in Hampton Virginia at the Salt Ponds Marina for about five weeks now. It seems like all we have done is boat chores. It is almost like we went back to work. So far this is what we have accomplished:

Refinished all the exterior wood. We had to take some down to bare wood and reapply the Cetol Natural Teak finish. Other parts we just cleaned and recoated. We now have four coats on all of the wood surfaces.

Oiled the interior wood. The interior of the boat is mostly teak wood. Over time it dries out so we had to apply teak oil. It looks much better now. Just like new.

Replaced six house batteries. Our Lifeline AGM batteries were almost nine years old. We got plenty of use out of them but it was time to change them because they were not holding the charge. We replaced with six new Lifeline AGM group 27 100 amp hour batteries. Those suckers are heavy so we used the spare main halyard and a winch to lift them out onto the dock. We took the old ones to a auto parts store and they will dispose of them.

The light bulbs in both cockpit lazerettes were burned out so they got replaced.

The lug cover on the alternator had melted during our overheating do to the corrosion on the lug. We replaced the rubber cover. While I was doing this I accidentally touch one of the battery leads to a ground and it blew a 150 amp fuse. It took me two hours to find where the fuse was, behind the house battery switch, which had to be unscrewed and removed to see it.

My SSB radio was not transmitting as well as I would have liked so I added additional ground plane.

My anchor roller, which is made of a hard rubber, was split open. I ordered a new one and installed it.

My main anchor chain has painted marks so I can gauge how much chain is put out. The paint was coming off so we repainted it.

The fan in the head gave up so it was replaced.

I replaced the topping lift on the whisker pole with a larger line. The previous line was too small for proper handling.

We made a support to mount to the port forward stanchions in order to strap fuel jugs to. When we go over to the Bahamas we will carry additional gasoline and diesel fuel.

My Garmin chart platter accepts SD cards that have additional chart information and photos. I had two of them, one for the Florida and Bahamas area and one for Georgia to New Jersey. The Florida/Bahamas SD card was not working properly. I sent them both back to Garmin and will receive free updates for both.

Our list of work items is slowly getting whittled down. Next week we are taking off from boat life and spending the week in a beachfront house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. When we get back we will be taking the boat up to Zimmerman Marine in Cardinal Virginia, about 24 miles north to get help with a hydraulic leak on my W-H auto pilot. I know the service manager there and have a lot of confidence that they can find the leak.

We did take a few days off from work when the temperature outside was really hot. It has reached 100 degrees with the THI up around 108. We went to tour some of the historical sites in the area. We have been to Historic Jamestowne, where the first colonists landed in 1607 and to Yorktown and the Yorktown battlefield where George Washington and the American and French armies defeated the British which was the end of colonialism. In the weeks to come we will be returning to the retirement life and be doing more touring. Although living on a boat and cruising is just fixing boat things in exotic places.