Category Archives: Trips

Gwynn’s Island II 2025

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Friday evening I asked Henry what he wanted to do on Saturday and he said he wanted to go back to the sandbar. So Saturday morning we got the boat loaded up and headed back out there! I let him steer while we idled through the no wake zone which he enjoyed. He hasn’t quite figured out you need to move the tiller opposite of where you want to go, but we’re working on it! As we got closer to the island we saw a ton of kayakers and paddleboarders. I later found out it was an organized circumnavigation of the island.

We got out to the beach by 9:30am and had it all to ourselves so we took a walk to the point. I usually try to collect litter I come across, mostly because it doesn’t belong but partially so I don’t feel so bad if I accidentally lose something. This oyster struck on a beer can and washed up on shore and I was a little conflicted. Eventually I decided he was still alive since the shell wasn’t open, so I pitched him back into deeper water. Good luck little guy!

Henry is still towing his boogie board around and anchoring it with a plastic shovel. He was having a harder time getting into the boat since the water was deeper so I made him a rope ladder out of cedar driftwood I cut with my Leatherman. It kind of works, but the rungs want to go under the boat when he stands on them. Maybe I should make some sort of rigid ladder that hooks onto the inner deck carlin.

It wasn’t supposed to rain, but as the day went on I saw some dark clouds developing across the water. I really started to doubt the forecast when the far shoreline started disappearing. A small rain storm popped up and headed over to the island.

It rained pretty good for about 45 minutes.

Luckily there was no wind and our umbrella did a good job of keeping us dry. I pulled my boom tent out of the boat to wrap up our pile of beach gear. It was interesting watching other people hide under smaller umbrellas or under the bow of their boats. The rain made a really funny sound on the hard styrofoam of the boogie board.

I managed to finish up Bernard Moitessier’s The Long Way that I started last week. I’ve got to say it went downhill quick after his decision to abandon the race and continue around to Tahiti. I had to skim through some of his philosophic ramblings and it was disappointing that it only took a handful of pages to cover 10,000+ miles. I did enjoy the appendix where he details what he carried and why and how his boat was rigged. All in all, probably worth reading if you come across a copy, but I wouldn’t rush out and buy one.

Eventually we decided to pack it up and head back. I later saw this video from a drone that must have been taken just as we left out of frame. I saw the paramotor fly down the beach and in the second clip you can make out the inflatable raft that was beside us.

Gwynn’s Island 2025

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My wife, son, and I took the boat out for the first time this year! It was a quick 2.5 mile motor over to the sandbar below Gwynn’s Island. I used my new (to me) Honda 2hp outboard and it did a great job compared to the British Seagull or my trolling motor experiments. I averaged 6.2 mph although the wind was favorable in both directions. We left the dock around 8:30am with a 5 mph breeze from the west, flat calm for an hour around 11am, then the wind backed to the south east and picked up to 10-15 mph with higher gusts.

This year Henry is three and much more interested in doing things himself. He set out across the sandbar to explore, spent a long time giving his toys rides on the boogie board, and can get himself in and out of the boat.

As the boat spun nearly 270º I was interested to see what my homemade aluminum fisherman anchor would do. It eventually straightened itself out once the higher wind and choppier water arrived. I’ve been very pleased, it really digs in and holds well although the lazy fluke is a liability.

Henry can flop himself over the gunnel and into the boat now. It was fun watching him wiggle the tiller and climb all around.

We were the only ones on the beach at 9am, but by noon everyone was out in force. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but there must have been at least 50 boats here. At a super conservative $20k per boat, that’s at least a million bucks. Pretty wild when I think that I built mine for less than $1,800.

I spent the day reading The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier which was a Christmas gift to me by a coworker I worked with for a couple months. We spent a day flushing coolant out of a pair of Volvo engines on a Mahe 36 catamaran and got talking about sailing books we liked. I mentioned I enjoyed Tim Severin’s adventures and he said he liked Motessier’s account of the first Golden Globe race which was a solo, nonstop, around the world race departing from England in 1968. I got up to where he crosses Cape Horn and the Falklands and just before he retires from the race to make another lap in the southern ocean. It’s been an enjoyable read, but at times it’s a little too… something… for me. When he talks to animals along the way I can’t tell if he really believes they’re communicating with him or if it’s just a fantasy to entertain himself. Hopefully the next leg to his eventual landing in Tahiti is a good read too.

Eventually Henry announced he missed home so we packed it up around 4pm. He’d had a really busy day with a short nap and lots of excitement. By now the wind was pretty breezy but the protection from the sandbar was keeping the waves down.

Heading to the ramp. I idled into the dock, backed the trailer on a long S shaped approach in one shot, and had the boat out of the water in 7 minutes. Then another 9 minutes to transfer our loose stuff to the SUV and get the boat strapped down and prepared for the road. Not bad and I didn’t “muck it up” like a lady commented about a guy causing chaos earlier this morning.

Piankatank River 2024

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October 12th, 2024

Nearly a year after my trip with the British Seagull 40 Plus I set out again with a four stroke 2hp Honda a friend gave me. It was another beautiful day… a slight chill in the air and not a cloud in the sky. I launched at the local boat ramp around 9am and started up the river. The goal was to find the right fork and explore further into the swamp since I didn’t have any specific time to be back home.

I didn’t take any pictures on the way up since it really felt like a continuation of the trip from last year. I saw the same guy fishing on his dock under the transmission lines, got stuck in the same place, and even ran out of gas 130 yards apart!

Here’s where I made a left and was able to continue two miles further up into the Dragon Swamp. Unfortunately it was right at low tide so the channel was narrow and downed trees were an issue.

Last year’s trip in yellow vs this year in green.

It’s hard to convey how beautiful it is back here. Everything was this vivid full green color with hints of fall colors in places. The river water was dark from leeching tannins of the 140 square mile swamp, yet clear enough that more than once I freaked out thinking I was about to hit a submerged tree yet it passed well under my centerboard. Sometimes it was hard to spot the next bend from the reflection of all the trees.

It got narrower…

and narrower…

And in a few places blocked entirely by guys fishing. One turn I took way too close to the inside trying to get around a pair of boats and I ran aground. They looked at me like I was nuts, but raising the centerboard and poling off with an oar had me free again in a few seconds.

Eventually I ran up on a fallen tree and could go no further. I bet at high tide I’d be able to get over it, so maybe next year. It looks like there’s 40-50 more miles of river that kayaks and canoes can navigate.

Look at all those cypress knees just waiting to rip your hull open!

On the way back down I swung over to check out the crane on the sunken barge. It’s a Northwest lattice boom crawler that I assume was used for dredging. Funny enough the radiator fan was still spinning in the breeze.

I ended up going 31 miles in 6:10 at an average of 5 miles an hour. I kept the throttle at the start position, or about half throttle. For fuel economy, I averaged 8.16 miles per 1 liter tank which works out to 30.89 miles per gallon or 0.16 gallons per hour. Nearly twice as efficient as the two stroke British Seagull.

I saw bald eagles, osprey, herons, kingfishers, pileated woodpeckers, a red tailed hawk, squirrels, a long nosed gar, and various other large fish I don’t know the names of. Not a bad day for $4.10 in gas!

Hatteras 2024

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8/31 – 9/7/2024

Off to Hatteras on North Carolina’s Outer Banks for our 2024 beach vacation!

Getting everything loaded up Friday night before the trip. I don’t know why, but every beach trip seems to be a flurry of packing right at the last minute. Thank goodness for my sailboat checklist!

I launched at the Village Marina on Saturday evening to motor the 2.5 miles back to the condo with my trolling motor. Dinkey’s and Breakwater restaurants were in full swing with music blaring and I got a lot of curious looks from people on the docks as I went by. I heard one guy wondering why the boat was so quiet.

It was really cool going through the narrow channel with houses on one side and marsh on the other. I have no idea how deep or wide the channel is, but there were some pretty big boats I passed along the way.

I stayed relatively close to the shore and as it got darker I didn’t realize I was in really shallow water. The centerboard grounded and the motor quickly got fouled with grass. Eventually I pulled out the oars and rowed back into the channel. I came across a number of PVC pipe markers in “The Slash” but it was too dark to know what they meant, so I just stayed as close to them as I could.

Eventually I made it to the condo and got the boat tied up.

My slip was nearly at the end of the canal and we had a good view from the third story looking out towards the sound.

Unfortunately during our stay a storm came up the coast and most the week was super windy or pouring down rain. Sunday looked like the best opportunity for anything boat related so my wife and son and I took the boat out for a quick trolling motor cruise.

We nosed up pretty close to the Slash Creek Bridge on route 12 before turning around. A few weeks after we left North Carolina Department of Transportation started a 4.5 million dollar project to replace the wooden bridge with a concrete one which is supposed to be finished by the end of May 2025.

Heading towards a narrow cut around the pair of islands in The Slash. We later ran out of water and drifted into the marsh a bit before I could get the oars rigged and row us back to deeper water.

Back to the dock at our condo.

Here’s our track. 1.4 miles in 28 minutes.

Strong winds kept the boat pushed over towards the finger pier for days. It was kind of funny how lopsided the scum line was when I hauled out on Saturday. My bilge pump and LiFePO4 battery kept most of the rain water out, although there’s no real sump so the bottom collects an inch or so of water.

We were smack in the middle of the purple with 45 mph gusts.

One morning looking out the window I saw this center console stuck in basically the same area I drifted into. It took him a while, but eventually he wiggled off.

On Wednesday when it was super windy we took the ferry over to Ocracoke. The ferries used to hug the point before looping around, but I guess the inlet has shoaled up enough that they need to head north east before turning towards Ocracoke. What used to be a 45 minute ride is now more like 1:25. It was one of the roughest trips I can remember with quite a bit of spray coming over the bow. Every now and then we’d hit a wave just right and there’d be a loud thud and a couple times I wondered if we’d hit the bottom.

Henry had a fun time on the ferry. We rode the River class Floyd J. Lupton over and he got to wave at the W. Stanford White along the way. These are newer ferries with an off center island so there are three rows of cars on one side and one on the other.

On the island we checked out the inside of the lighthouse, hiked the Springer’s Point nature trail, got lunch at Eduardo’s, drove out on a deserted beach for Henry’s nap, went to the Village Craftsman and Ragpicker, got ice cream at the Slushy Stand, and checked out a few areas of personal significance. Ocracoke is my favorite beach vacation spot since I grew up going there most years. But I have to say it’s just not the same anymore. Everything is way more commercialized and touristy than I remember and I don’t think it’s just from rose colored glasses of nostalgia.

On the way back we rode the Hatteras class Chicamacomico. These are the older style ferries with a center island and two pairs of rows that I remember as a kid. I remember climbing up the steps to the lounge area smelling the salt air and feeling the wind blowing in my hair. I never went into the lounge much since I didn’t like the smell of all the smokers.

Friday was actually pretty decent so we made the most of it on the beach. The waves were still really rough and erosion from the storm was pretty wild. It was into the dunes in a lot of places and almost broke through Highway 12.

I took my Freiberger sextant along and made some practice sights. Someday when I have time (hah!) I’ll reduce them and see how far off I was.
Actual location: 35°12’14.8″N 75°42’21.3″W on 9/6/2024
Sight one: 13:20:11 – 31º 29.0′
Sight two: 15:19:23 – 52º 31.1′
Sight three: 16:56:27 – 60º 41.8′

Pretty soon the week was over and it was time to head home. Of course it had to rain Saturday morning when I wanted to haul out, but it was super calm and that was what was important. I put on a rain jacket and left right at sunrise.

With the benefit of research I figured out where the channel was and swung out much wider into the sound to avoid the shallow spots.

Turns out, it’s well marked if you know where to go.

Entering the cut to Hatteras Harbor.

Another guy came blasting up behind me but fortunately slowed down a bit as he got closer.

Village Marina is ahead and on the left, to the right is the main entrance out of the harbor. A ferry was going by before it turned out into the sound and back towards Ocracoke.

Back at the ramp where I hauled out. Later at the condo I got the spars all secured and the cover back on for the trip home. It rained all five hours on the way back!

 

 

Gwynn’s Island 2024

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June 29th, 2024

Launching just across the bridge at Gwynn’s Island with a full load of beach stuff and the stowed sailing rig.

We motored 2.5 miles out to the sandy southern tip of the island in about 45 minutes. I didn’t keep track of the watts consumed, but it was slow going against the wind, tide, and chop. A couple of times we’d hit a wake and almost come to a stop.

About 50 feet from shore the amps suddenly shot up and progress ground to a halt. Fortunately it’s quite shallow and I could jump out to pull us to shore. I was surprised by how loose the grass was to still foul things up. I later swapped to the stock propeller but didn’t get a chance to test its weed shedding ability.

After getting our umbrella set up I started getting the rig together. We were the second boat out to the point and the other couple seemed pretty interested in what I was doing. I’ve only ever seen one or two sail boats out here amongst the horde of power boaters.

I haven’t sailed since last summer’s trip to Kure Beach and it took a bit of time to get the lines on the snotter running right. It’s so easy to get halyards outside of the jib sheets or the reef lines inside the sail’s robands. I put in a preemptive reef since it was blowing a good 10-15 with some gusts.

Eventually I got everything set and took off. Once I got some sea room I hoisted the jib which took a few tries to get tensioned enough. If I wasn’t building a Long Steps I think I’d build a homemade roller furler for it.

I didn’t take any pictures from the boat since I just bought a new phone and didn’t have a case for it. After getting the jib set up I headed downwind along the shore and then tacked my way back upwind to the beach for a 7.4 mile trip in 1.5 hours. It was slow going since everything was against me… the wind, the tide, a short and steep chop, and a reefed sail. The best I could do was a 150º tacking angle. Despite sailing at 5-6 mph on each tack, I only made 1.3 mph toward my destination. I’ve heard it’s often faster to row upwind than it is to sail and I think this might be some good evidence!

After lunch and Henry’s nap a ton of boats showed up. I thought the wind might keep them away, but a friend said more than likely it just takes a while for them to sober up from Friday night and get going.

Henry had a great time sitting in the sternsheets wiggling the tiller as the boat hunted back and forth in the wind.

Finally it was time to pack up and head home. I decided we could sail back to the ramp since it was dead downwind. I dispensed with the jib so there’d be fewer lines in the way and less things to keep track of.