The "Down East Loop"

The Down East Loop

We have talked about our plans for this summer with so many people that I did not realize that I had not explained the plan in our Blog. We are currently heading for New York, the starting point for the "Down East Loop".

Starting in New York, the Down East Loop is about 2,400 NM and will take us all summer, and some more!. We plan to make it to NY harbor in mid to late May and to be back by mid September.

The basic route is made up of:

* Up the Hudson to Waterford
* Thru the Erie and Oswego canals to Lake Ontario
* Across Lake Ontario to Kingston, Canada
* Down the St. Lawrence "all the way" with visits to Montreal, Quebec City, and the Saguenay Fjord
* Into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and East around the Gaspe Peninsula
* East thru the Cumberland Straights to Prince Edward Island
* Back into the Atlantic and north to Cape Breton Island
* South down the coast of Nova Scotia
* Across the Bay of Fundy
* South down the Maine Coast to New England
* South to Boston and the Cape Cod Canal
* South to New England, stops at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket
* Back to New York

We will be travelling with Barb and Don Cavin on Cavara. Don is an ex USAF and Northwest Airlines pilot and Barb is English and an ex Northwest Airlines stewardess.

This voyage will be quite a challenge for boat and crew. We will be travelling thru some rather raw territory. (The Gaspe peninsular has more wild moose than anywhere else in the continent. We will have to keep a sharp lookout!) We are keen to see some whales, but we are told the issue will not be seeing them, but avoiding them!

The tides and tidal currents are impressive in this part of the world. Our research has told us that we need at least four 60' docking lines to help cope with the large tidal rise and fall. So I purchased a reel of 600' of 3/4" nylon rope that we will split with Cavara.

Making mooring lines

Beaufort, NC (On the hard)

Monday May 4, 2015
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We are here to get hauled and to prepare for our adventure on the Down East Loop (Next posting). I am hoping to get in to the yard today and out on Friday. We had arrived exactly on schedule and the yard manager ("Keenan") was on board at 8 AM arranging for our haul. So far so good.

I find hauling a nervous business. Tide Hiker weighs about 35 tons, which seems a lot to lift safely. But all went well and we had been power washed (to get the slime off the hull) and blocked by 10 AM. So far I was impressed by the yard.

The approach - there was a bit of a current so I needed two tries.

Out of the water - waiting for the power wash

We can live on board while we are here. Its a bit like living on the second floor of a small condo. We are connected to shore power and have a nice set of stairs leading to the swim platform. We have water in our tanks - but only let water drain over the side at night! The yard has nice bathrooms and a boaters' lounge.

The yard manager and I had a planning meeting before lunch. My main objective is to have the hull sanded and painted. Tide Hiker also has a "bit of a vibration" and so I wanted to track that down. And I had some questions for a mechanic in the Engine Room.

According to Keenan, the vibration could be caused by:

1. Engine mounts
2. Either or both of the cutlass bearings (on the prop shaft)
3. A bent shaft
4. Prop damage

The mail was waiting for us. I spent much of the afternoon paying bills. We invited Don and Barb over for dinner.

The shaft/cutlass bearing contractor ("Mayda") turned up in the dark during dinner. After some chin scratching we decided to try the easier (meaning least expensive) repairs first - get the props balanced and change the outer cutlass bearings. One hour later the two props were off. Mayda promised he would be back Wednesday to install the replacement bearings.

The props are off and now at the "prop shop"

Tuesday May 5, 2015

Starting to clean the hull

Very calm night - the boat did not seem to move at all.

A young man ("Will") started sanding the hull at about 8:30 AM. Great.

The mechanic ("George") turned up about 9:00 AM. My list for the engine room:

1. Check the engine mounts (re the vibration)
2. Adjust the tappets on the main engines - has been 3 years since the last adjustment
3. Look for a small coolant leak on the stb engine
4. Look for a small fuel leak that maybe causing the stb engine to stall shortly after starting
5. Check the "Glendenning" engine speed synchronizing system.
6. Remove and inspect one of the main engine exhaust elbows.

George is a neat and tidy mechanic. The results of his visit:

1. Engine mounts are fine
2. Tappets are adjusted and I enjoyed a lesson on how to do it myself.
3. George found and resolved the coolant leak in 3 minutes
4. The fuel leak also took about 3 minutes - George believes the leak originates from the low pressure fuel pump - we will swap it out next visit
5. The Glendenning will have to be removed and sent back to the manufacturer - lets do that on another time - we do not have time this visit.
6. No need to remove the elbow - when the boat is back in the water George will flush the cooling system with a "Barnacle Buster" type product and that will clean the whole system, including the elbow.

Wednesday May 6, 2015

First thing this morning "Will" was back grinding. What a job! Thanks goodness for our Mexican friends. I busied myself dismantling the above deck parts of the windlass so as to apply a liberal coating of "Never Seize" to the working parts. I now feel "even" with the windlass.

This afternoon Don and I loaded my props into the rental and took them to the "prop shop" - will be ready Monday - maybe. Back at the boat I borrowed some scaffold and started waxing the hull. Dinner on board and a quiet evening.


Thursday May 7, 2015

Mayda turned up bright and early and removed the old cutlass bearings and installed the new. I was his understudy and enjoyed the experience. Hopefully I will never need to apply that experience on Tide Hiker.

The old cutlass bearing being pressed out.

Mayda then directed his talents to the port rudder post, and after removing the packing we decided to remove and replace the packing on both sides. It was a dirty, awkward job executed in a very confined space. The old flax packing is now out - waiting for the new synthetic packing material to arrive.

The rain started about midday, and is generally forecast to last for a week! The hulls cannot be painted in the rain, so we are looking at a delay.

Dinner out with Kathy and John from Sea Grace. 

Friday May 8, 2015

Now we have Tropical Storm "Ana" heading straight for us! Its "no big deal" except that we can expect more and more rain, and less and less progress on Tide Hiker. We are using up "weather days" and we have not even started the loop. So we have decided to rent a car for a few days and visit some friends and do some exploring.

Don and barb came over for a drink and a chat after dinner.

Saturday May 9, 2015

The car rental place has run out of cars so we did dot get our car till after lunch today. But it is a nice car (Chrysler 200) and is the "weekend special" - only $33 for three days. We drove around and re-acquainted ourselves with Beaufort, NC and did some shopping, including lumber and rope for the fender boards.

Back in the yard we set up the fender boards and tried them out for size on Tide Hiker. We will store them on the top deck lashed to the rail.

Midships fender board.

Lisa and Tom Noyse also own a DeFever 49 RPH and live in New Bern, about 45 miles away. We met them in Stuart, FL on the day we purchased Tide Hiker 3 years ago and have kept in touch. They kindly invited us to meet them for dinner (with Lisa's Mum, Wanda) in Beaufort tonight. The company and food was great.

From the left - Lisa, Wanda (Lisa's Mum) Jeff, Bob and Deidre

Sunday May 10, 2015

We were on the road by 9 AM and into the rain. Tropical storm Ana was crossing the coast south of us as we headed south. Did not emerge till a few miles north of Charleston. Mason was pleased to see us!

Monday May 11, 2015

Kylie and Ryan were off to work early and Mason deposited at "school". We drove the 265 miles back to Beaufort without any rain and dropped into the prop shop to check on progress. They were not ready

Tuesday, May 12, 2015


Picked up the props today and Mayda installed them. There is a problem with the cutters so I ordered the parts "rush".

Wow!

Wednesday May 13, 2015

Not much going on. But the weather has improved and we are starting to see progress on the hull.

We are all blotchy

A barge passing on the river

Thursday, May 14, 2015


"The more I learn the more I realize what don't know." The other day Don changed the electrode in his hot water service. I did not know that they even had a sacrificial electrode, let alone that they needed to be changed once a year. So I ordered a new one and it arrived today. Needless to say it seems the change might have been "just in time".


Friday May 15, 2015

The painting was completed today. Needs 8 hours to dry, so we will be launched Saturday morning. We are all ready for it.

This classic "Trumpy" yacht was hauled at the yard next door today and is sitting right behind us. What a beauty!

Saturday May 16, 2015

We were up at 7 AM preparing Tide Hiker to be relaunched. The travel-lift was right on time and we were in the water by 9 AM. The only hassle was that the Stb engine would not run - discovered the silly mechanic had turned the fuel off and forgotten to turn it on again.

Tide Hiker and Cavara

Beaufort, NC (At the yard dock)

Sunday, May 3, 2015
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We were heading out into the Atlantic today for an easy 75 NM run to Beaufort, NC. Our target destination was the True World Marine boat yard about 10 miles up the Newport River. The weather was perfect, sunny with very little wind. We had the anchor up and we were underway at a leisurely 7 AM.

But first - today id Deidre's birthday. I had a cake for her (I had really lucked out at Ocean Isle - a mile or so from the dock I found a bakery!) and some candles and so once we were on course and handed over to the autopilot we had our little celebration.

The weather remained clear and calm. We seemed to catch 1/3 of a knot of favorable current, so that made me happy. A few dolphins came to visit us and ride our bow. We made the channel bouy by 4 PM and headed up the river past downtown Beaufort and arrived at the yard dock by 5:30 PM. Barb and Don ("Cavara") were waiting at the dock and took our lines. After a chat and a quick beer they drove us (they have a rental) into town for birthday dinner.

Wrightsville Beach (Anchorage)

Saturday May 2, 2015
34 12 143 N
77 48 241 W

Much nicer morning, sunny and calm. No tide or weather pressure today so we did not drop the lines till about 8AM. Easy day, about 20 miles on the ICW, 10 miles up the Cape Fear River then another 20 or so on the ICW. It was even warm enough to sit up on the Fly Bridge.

Hate it when this happens. But it does teach you that one should not rely 100% on the Chart Plotter. 

We had a decent run with the tide until we hit the Cape Fear River and "battling" a 3 knot head current. We lost focus long enough for a monster ship to take us 100% by surprise.

Plenty of anchorage space here, we were settled by 3:30 PM. The weather seems to be laying down nicely, Tomorrow should be great!

Sunst, Wrightsville Beach anchorage

Ocean Isle (Dock)

Friday May 1, 2015
33 53.390 N
78 28.345 W

Another early start in order to catch the tide. Yesterday we lost most of the fight, today we won big time. Managed well over 7 knots just about all day, arrived at our destination almost an hour early. In this part of the ICW there are very few decent anchorages - lots of man made canal. Plus there are lots of "small storms" passing through, and a tight anchorage would have been a worry. So we have taken a cheap slip. There is nothing here, we will eat on board.

The first part of the day was 20 miles or so of the Waccamaw River, probably the most naturally scenic part of the entire ICW. Both sides of the river lined with Cyprus swamp forest, the trees standing in water. A hard place to 'walk out".

Waccamaw River View

Cyprus forest swamp along the 'shore"

We also passed thru Myrtle Beach. As I am sure you are aware, MB is the "Mini Golf" capital of the USA. Plus lots of "nouveau rich" houses along the ICW.

Butler Island Anchorage

Thursday April 30, 2015
33 25.549 N
79 12.400 W

We were up at 5:45 AM and underway at first light. This was because we were aware of severe shoaling about 22 NM north, and needed to get there with at least 1/2 the tide. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea and at one point in the morning we counted 6 boats heading north. Quite unusual.

Our plan was to anchor in Wynyah bay for the night then head offshore to Cape Fear. But the weather forecast for Friday was slipping a bit and by Noon we decided to stay on the ICW for the next two days until Wrightsville Beach, and then head offshore to Beaufort. This plan meant two long days on the ICW, but we can still make it to the yard by Monday AM.

I have lots of favorite anchorages, and this is one of them. We enjoyed dinner on the aft deck. Grilled salmon.

Back to the IOP

Tuesday April 28, 2015

Long but uneventful flights to Charleston. Kylie picked us up in her NEW CAR. All was good on Tide Hiker.