Old and New Friends

Most of the time I've lived on the boat, I've been at marinas.  In this time, I've met a lot of people that are actively cruising, preparing to cruise, or just living aboard their boats.  I figured sooner or later I would run into someone I had previously met...and this happened just after returning to Brunswick.

I was walking over to the marina bath house (admittedly, it is the most likely trip at a marina to run into someone) and came across a couple I had originally met in Hammock Beach FL. It was a nice surprise. We ended up having drinks and catching up that evening.

During the Thanksgiving dinner that was put on by Brunswick Landing Marina I ran into another couple that I had met the last time I was here.  The marina was so full that I had not noticed their boat still at the dock where they had stayed when I left.  They were getting ready to sell their boat when I left and it is now "under contract".  Another chance to catch up.

At Brunswick Landing, there is a covered wooden section at the head of each dock.  It is kind of like a wooden patio balcony you might find on a home in our old neighborhood.  There is a grill and a number of chairs.  It seems to be a regular event when the weather is nice, to congregate there in the evenings for sundowners and conversation.  I've met a number of my dock neighbors at these gatherings and it is a good way to wind down after a day of working on the boat.

It still amazes me how much better I know my transient neighbors than I ever knew my neighbors in my subdivision back home.  For people that can take their homes and come and go as they please, there is still a much better feeling of community in the cruising world.  You can pretty much count on fellow cruisers helping you out if you need it, or providing advice (particularly valuable for a new cruiser like me).  If there were still such things as a community barn raising, the cruising community would be where you would find it in practice. It is too bad that most of our society seems to be getting more and more isolated behind long work schedules, computers, TV, and political nonsense.

Maybe if everyone could feel a bit more of a sense of community we could better deal with our differences and learn to work together as a society once again.

Deltaville to Brunswick, By the Numbers

I thought it would be interesting to see a few numbers related to the last trip.  And I thought I would throw in a couple other pictures as well. Most of the numbers are calculated from the tracks recorded by OpenCPN.  Engine hours are the total number of hours run per engine (so if I ran both engines for an hour, the number would indicate 2 engine hours).  In most cases the time and speed numbers include time spent deploying and hauling the anchor, waiting on bridges, etc.

The first leg of the trip was from Stingray Point (near Deltaville) to Mobjack bay.

• Distance: 24.1 NM
• Average Speed: 5.5 Kts. (approximate)
• Time: 04:20 (approximate)
• Engine Hours: 10.7 (including system testing time at start)

(I forgot to turn on tracking for part of this leg, so numbers are approximate)

The second leg was Mobjack Bay to Great Bridge Lock

• Distance: 43.5 NM
• Average Speed: 4.47 Kts.
• Time: 9:43
• Engine Hours:  16.3

The third leg was Great Bridge Lock to the Broad Creek anchorage.

• Distance: 44.55 NM
• Average Speed: 5.8 Kts,
• Time: 7:55
• Engine Hours: 11.2

Fourth Leg from Broad Creek to the Pungo River anchorage.

• Distance: 60.87 NM
• Average Speed: 4.25 Kts.
• Time: 14:19
• Engine Hours: 17.9

Fifth Leg from Pungo River to the Whittaker Point Marina.

• Distance: 53.43 NM
• Average Speed: 5.23 Kts.
• Time: 9:11
• Engine Hours: 16.5

Sixth Leg from Whittaker Point to Ft Macon anchorage.

• Distance: 23.4 NM
• Average Speed: 4.82 Kts
• Time: 4:10
• Engine Hours: 8.4

Seventh Leg from Ft Macon to Brunswick.

• Distance: 408.67
• Average Speed: 5.3 Kts.
• Time: 3 days 09:03 
• Engine Hours: 39.0

More time running the engines than I would like, but it can't be helped when traveling the ICW. I don't have good fuel numbers since I was unable to fill up before the trip started, but my best calculations show we were burning less than one gallon per engine hour. Hopefully next year I will be farther south before the cold arrives.

Here's a nice picture of where we anchored on Pungo Creek. Just after we dropped anchor another boat decided it looked like a good place to spend the night too.

And here is a picture of Neal sporting the appropriate wardrobe for much of the trip. A far cry from the t-shirt and shorts trip I made getting the boat up to Virginia.