Wilmington Marine Center

Wilmington Marine Center   ... Sunday 5 May 2013

Many grim predictions were made about the likely conditions on the Cape Fear River today.  The chap who worked on the dock suggested that with a northeast wind the sea state might be bad enough (if combined with an adverse current) to make it impossible to make headway up the river.  Someone else suggested that with all the fetch down the river, the waves might be 5 feet.  All this added a certain something to our discussion about the timing of our departure.

Thankfully, Mike studied the tide and current tables well.  We had only a little bit of adverse current upon entering the Cape Fear River.  The current soon gave way to slack. By the time we were nearing Wilmington, we had current helping us on our way.  We departed about noon and motor-sailed with the genoa.  We arrived at the marina just shortly after three pm. Not bad for a trip of twenty miles! The seas were probably less than two feet, although there was some spray resulting from the wind gusts.  We also got the obligatory rain-shower just to make sure the trip was complete.

First thing this morning we took advantage of the truly fantastic showers at the South Harbor Marina.  There was a glut of hot water—marvelous.  After breakfast we started on the dumb dog.  We pulled her out of the water and scrubbed the algae/slime off the underside.  Then a similar treatment was applied to the topside.  Much attention was paid to removing the sand from the inside of the dingy.  Then we deflated the dog and packed her away in her carrying case.  The whole thing was lashed onto the foredeck. That’s another thing crossed off the “preparations list”.

Having arrived at the marina we walked around the yard and found a couple at work on their boat.  Mike enquired about the proximity of the nearest café.  The answer was about seven miles.  Sounds like we will be cooking on the boat tonight.  We did get chatting to this couple—John and Jennifer.  Their boat is a catamaran and they are in middle of “repainting the engine rooms”.  Foolishly, I thought that sounded simple enough.  Not so.  They are removing, cleaning and painting both engines along with replacing all the hoses.  While the engines are out the engine-rooms are being cleaned, insulated (to reduced noise) and painted.  The scale of this task seems staggering.  We saw the before and after pictures of the first engine room.  It looks like the boat just rolled out of the factory shed.  The very idea that you would take the engine out of your boat yourself—wow!

The sun is out and I can see some blue sky.  Maybe it’s a little interlude between the bad weather systems.

Tug and Barge on the Cape Fear River