Big Nasty!

We did it - we finished the new, longer course in the Big Nasty Mud Run x4!  It was my second and Mark's first.  Instead of rambling on about it, I'm just going to give you guys a photo play by play - Mark did a great job of shooting pics on the sly.  Enjoy!

The gang headed in for our wave

Still clean and smiling  :)

Our wave - getting ready to go!

Just the beginning...

Not so smiley anymore

Over, under, over, under

That's a big wall... (way over there on the right.)

Sizing up the wall

Mark lost one of his soles

Particularly stinky tunnel water

 

Getting a little pooped at this point

Mark lost his second sole.  He's officially soul-less

We made it!

Only one person on the team had to complete this - so I skipped it the first go round.  We went back so I could do it at the end.  It was tough!  (lot's of grunting going on with this one...)

Here's the mudhole Mark lost his second sole in.  He wanted to go for round two.

Rinsing off at the bottom of the slide.  The only way to get remotely clean.

Team Luna Sea survived!  But we're not getting off the couch anytime soon.  Wonder who can deliver us some dinner...

Impromtu Sail

Our delivery captain contacted me yesterday. He said - right after the delivery - that he wanted to take us out one more time for another lesson.  That was at the end of June.  We've been going out on our own since then.  He's also a charter captain, so his days off are pretty much opposite from ours. (who am I kidding - I'm pretty much "off" everyday - they were opposite from Mark's)  He had a last minute charter cancellation for today, so we took him up on his offer for a sail this afternoon.

Thanks to the Tammy Ann for getting a good shot of us under sail!

We went out for a sail - we decided (he decided) we should go into the wind and practice our tacking.  We've been tacking - but we haven't really known how to use our tale-tails/wools and now we do!  So cool to figure out the actual hands-on use of those suckers.  I've read about the theory, but things just don't make sense to me until I get hands-on.  And today we did.  We took turns at the wheel and handling the lines - and we learned a few things.  The winds were light and the sun was out - so even though we didn't get above 5 knots, it was a gorgeous few hours on the water.

Then it was time to dock.  We've gotten better at docking. But this time I was feeling a little pressure - the captain was on the boat, and instead of following my gut like I normally do, I was listening to him and second guessing myself.  It took two tries (and apparently the mishap on the first go round was not my fault) but we got her back to the dock safe and sound.  All in all it was an educational day and we feel like we got some more good time on the water. I'm getting better with heeling.  Still makes my stomach flip a little, but it's becoming more like a roller coaster and less like my "house" is going to roll.

Tomorrow morning team Luna Sea it hitting the Big Nasty Mud Run Walk.  I love the obstacles!  I detest the running...  And after that it's off to the boat to head up the bosun for the first time - to hit some rust and hang some cd's (the birds are the current bane of my existence) and to hang the netting on the life lines.  I'd hate to have a wiener splash down during a sail just because we never got around to hanging the safety net.  I think there are a few more chores on the list.  But it should be a fun weekend -somehow we always manage to squeak in a good bit of fun ;)

What are you guys up to?

Change of Scenery

It's been quiet on the blogging front.  But we've been humming right along, like busy little bees.

Thursday I headed over to Luna Sea and grabbed our raincoats and a few other things, swapped out the A/C power cord for the shore power, turned off the solar panels, checked on the bilge again (it seems to be holding a little water, but that water appears to be the A/C runoff - more investigation on that this week, I guess.) Then I hightailed it home and finished up my online homework for the week and got my backpack loaded.

Friday morning we got up before the crack of dawn, loaded up the wieners and headed to Pisgah National Forest - Brevard, NC.

Molly likes to hop from rock to rock with me.

If I'd thought to pack a swimsuit in the middle of September, I would've been right in that swimming hole with the few brave kids at the camp.  It's what I like to refer to as Refreshing in water aerobics. 

The dogs and I checked out a few trails, but mostly just made up our own along the river.

Hard to believe people will be flooding the area in 3 weeks or so to see the turning of the leaves...

Molly followed me right into the river, as usual.

This picture would imply that Libby did the same - 

- but this one is more realistic.  Took some serious coaxing to get her off the shore and into the chilly water.

Mark rode with the gang all 3 days.  I took the puppies hiking on Saturday.  They love running around in the woods (and poison ivy...).  It was perfect weather - shorts during the day with sweatshirts/jackets/jeans and a fire at night.  Ideal tent camping time of year.

It was a nice 3 day break - but also great to get back home and back to boat projects.  I hear a rumor that Mark is actually going to write a post on the companion way doors he's been slaving away on...

Right or Left?

That was it.  "Right or Left?"  That single question was the extent of our planning for last Saturday's sail.

Around 3:15 we looked around. It was nice.  The tide was in our favor for leaving the dock and the wind was light, but from a good direction.  The last time or two we'd left the dock, we'd had to fight both.  We decided to take a last minute sail.  You know, a couple hours out then glide on back into our slip, thanks to the conditions.

We started by removing this plug and installing the speed reading thing.  (Ew.)  

Getting out of the slip was a breeze.  The easiest exit we've had in ages.  Apparently, when it's a stress-free exit, I have a stress-free sail.  We're also getting better at stowing things below (thanks to lots of industrial/removable Velcro attachments and museum putty stuff) which keeps us both from stressing about whatever is rolling around below when we're stuck in the cockpit.

Cruising on out into the Wilmington River - hoisting the sails.  Here's where I asked - Right or Left?  

We went right (usually choose left) and cruised on by some tiny little houses...

The breeze was light, but the sun was out, and there really weren't too many people out for Labor Day weekend.

We eventually got on over to the bridge in Thunderbolt - I KNOW we clear the bridges, but we still end up holding our breath a little each time. 

And here's where I breathe again.

Loads of cool shrimp boats in the area.

A quick snippet of Bonaventure Cemetery

Bridge number 2 of the day ahead.

This one is a draw bridge.

Notice the left fwd side doesn't actually open here.  ?!

Butterflies in the belly on this one.  

This is why you take sails down to go through a bridge - one big gust with sails up and we'd've been dangling from that sucker.

From the other side.

 About 20 minutes after going through the draw bridge we realized we didn't really have a "plan".  We looked back and there were some light rain showers - but we couldn't tell which way they were headed.
  We talked a bit about how far we were from our neck of the woods - and then hashed out how long it would take us to get back there.  It was almost 5pm, so we figured we had about 3 hours of daylight left.  We hated to call and make the guy open the draw bridge again.  I went below to check out our chart of the area so we could try and get an idea of how long it would take.  We've cruised the waters for years in our power boat - but I wanted to see an aerial view.  I understand things much easier when I have a visual.  Turns out we don't actually have a chart of where we live...  Who knew?  I have a chart of the ICW, but we were about to mosey on out to the outside - and we don't have a paper chart for that.  Using our massive experience, we determined it would take us right about 3 hours to go out the Savannah River, into the ocean, around Tybee, in Wasaw Sound, back up the Wilmington River, and back to our slip. Even though the leg from Wasaw to our slip takes a minimum of 45 minutes...

Here we are cruising on around Tybee.

Look at that gorgeous sunset.  From our boat.  In the ocean.  No where near our destination yet...

Still in the ocean.

We got to Wasaw Sound sometime after dark.  Without a Qbeam.  It's a tricky inlet to say the least, but we DO actually have experience with it and know that our chart plotter is very accurate here.  It was a slow 4 knot day.  As we cruised on up the Wilmington we were able to watch the fire works from the boat.  We finally eased on into the slip at 11pm.  The dogs were about to explode - in fact one of them did on the dock.

So what did we learn?  We ordered a Qbeam and it's already on the boat.  I'm going in search of a detailed local chart of the entire area this week - not just the ICW.  And today?  Today we turn left.

Trailer, uh, Boat Trash

We don't have a trash can on the boat!  How crazy is that?  Sure I could buy one of those tiny little flip top jobs from the store and find somewhere out of the way (?) to put it, but it would be full in no time, then what?  We end up just recycling the awful plastic shopping bags that we have way too many of (because I always forget to take my reusable bags to the store with me...).  I just tie one of those suckers to a random door knob and we stash our trash in it.  Very classy.

Note trash bag plopped on stairs waiting on the next trip to the marina dumpster.

Solution time!

Early on, I was stashing one of those classy bags in the forward starboard lower cabinet - just under the silverware drawer.  It's an odd shaped space with random things plopped in it haphazardly.  Because the bag was just plopped it there, it was a pain in the ass. You had to open the cabinet then find the opening in the bag.  Not a huge deal - unless you are cooking under way and trying to do that on a rocking boat...  But check out that rail right there - just under the rail that the silverware drawer rides on:

This empty rail is intriguing...

Clorox wipes, rubbing alcohol and Gatorade - makes sense together, right?
Notice the lack of clearance he's pointing to where the door and slider meet.

 I started scheming and decided a "ring" of some sort that could ride on that rail just might hold a trash bag.  I took measurements.  I slid a perfectly sized cutting board into the slot (yeah, it would make a good storage spot for a cutting board, too, but this boat needs trash storage!) Then I dragged Mark over to discuss my idea.  He's pretty good at shooting holes in my plans - which can be a downer, but he's usually right.  Just don't tell him I said that.  When he said the plan was actually feasible - and that he'd whip it up for me, I knew I was onto something.
Mark's current project is building new companionway doors (later blog on that) out of white Marineboard.  Turns out Marineboard is pretty easy to work with and looks fabulous.  And we have quite a bit at the condo.  So he went to work making adjustments. Mark took the left side of the slider off and shimmed it out a bit to create clearance.

Here he's reinstalling the shimmed slide.

 He asked me to sketch out what I was wanting one morning when I was heading off to teach yoga.  I whipped out a detailed blue print (I drew a rectangle on the back of a note card) and when I came home there was a magical trash ring!

 It slides right onto the slider.

Uses a regular sized trash bag - no more tiny grocery bags that shred!

It was sized perfectly to the opening - which actually turns out to be a little snug.
We brought it home and he cut it down a tiny bit.  Should work perfectly now.

I love this.  Such a tiny thing makes such a huge difference!  It is currently my favorite change to the boat.  I'm pretty sure it will drop to 2nd place as soon as those swinging companionway doors replace the wooden stackable doors (the same doors that have given me numerous bruises and tried to rip off one of Mark's toes...).  But for now, I'm a happy girl!

PS. - I still don't know what that slider was originally for.  A cutting board?  A custom trash bin?  Or maybe I'm not so original - just psychic, and this is what was meant to be here.  My Google research couldn't turn up anything.  Do you have a B393?  And if so, can you tell me what is really supposed to be here?