Dealing With Hurricane Matthew

As I previously mentioned, we were exploring some of the stops of the Albemarle Loop when we decided that hurricane Matthew was likely to become an issue for us.  We were at the dock in Columbia, North Carolina with internet access when we looked at the weather, and forecasts seemed to show that Matthew was likely to come up the coast and make landfall in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  The Albemarle is known for being unpleasant in bad weather, so we decided we should try to head a bit more south and inland.

We made a run south, through the Alligator River Bridge (that closes if the winds go over 35 knots), down the Alligator-Pungo canal, and into the Pungo river.  We stopped that evening at Dowry Creek marina with the intention of making our way on to Oriental where we had a car waiting for us.  We figured a car would be a good thing if we needed to evacuate.  When we got to Dowry Creek, we kept an eye on the weather and by the following morning the forecasts seemed to be turning to follow us. We decided that Dowry Creek and the Pungo river were better protected (and a bit more inland) than Oriental, so decided this is where we would stay.

One of the live-aboard residents was gracious enough to give us a ride to retrieve our car from Oriental.  Then we began preparations for the potential storm.  We gathered up important paperwork and packed enough that we could leave for a few days if necessary.  The winds at the dock were not cooperating and were blowing up to 30 knots across the beam of the boat.  On a slightly less windy day, we ended up tying bow-in to the face dock so we would point into the wind and could remove the sails and stack pack.

The marina we were at, as is the case with many fixed-dock marinas in the area, does not allow boats to remain if a hurricane is expected to hit. There is normally no tide here, so pilings are not all that tall, and a large storm surge could easily cause problems. Instead, a number of the boats chose to anchor in one of the more protected creeks in the area. We watched the forecasts and, for a time, it appeared the storm may veer off to the east before it was this far north.  Then the last couple days, the forecast started creeping north again.

On Friday we decided to anchor the boat as far up Dowry creek as we could, bring the dinghy back to the marina, and then take the car to a hotel well inland. We left the dock and motored up the creek, keeping an eye on the depths as we went.  We found a spot we thought would work and then circled around to verify the depths anywhere the boat might swing during the storm. We dropped our anchor in about 5 feet of water. Since the storm surge was expected to be around 5 feet, we decided a bit more than a 10:1 scope for a 15 foot depth would be the best we could do and still allow adequate swing room. I know that some use multiple anchors for a storm, but lacking multiple Mantus anchors (I have a Bruce and small Danforth along with my Mantus primary), I decided a single anchor approach would work best.  After watching a video on Youtube of a Leopard in the Bahamas swinging wildly at anchor during Matthew after its bridle broke, I did use two dock lines to rig a backup bridle that would take up any slack if the main bridle failed.  We secured everything as best we could and then bid Rover a temporary farewell and headed back to the marina in the dinghy.

After securing the dinghy at the marina, we drove to Raleigh to a hotel we had booked several days before. After a long day, despite the nervousness of leaving the boat, we crashed soon after arriving at the hotel.  The next day it rained like crazy in Raleigh. Apparently Matthew was interacting with a local front to create an obscene amount of rain inland.  In a bit of irony, when we called the marina they reported that the weather was reasonable and they were getting last minute preparations done. That night was a restless night for us. The storm grazed the area, with peak wind gusts around 70 knots and sustained winds in the tropical storm force range. When we checked the weather on Sunday morning, the storm had passed by and was finally dying as it head out into the Atlantic.

The weather was nice that morning, almost eerily nice. The problem was that all the rain was now causing severe flooding in between our location in Raleigh and our boat near Belhaven.  We called the marina to see if everyone and everything was OK. We were told everyone and all the boats, including ours, were doing fine. It would just be a day or two until we could get back. We ended up making a trip up to Virginia to retrieve our other car and from there were able to find clear roads to get us back to the boat.

Approaching Rover after the storm.

When we arrived back at the marina, we drained the water from the dinghy (it was left upright so it would fill with water and hold it down when the winds picked up) and reattached the motor.  We made our way back to Rover and found her where we left her.  One of the lifeline gates had come loose but the netting held it secure enough.  Otherwise, the boat was in great condition!  We removed the secondary bridle (it was never actually used) and fired up the engines.  It took a bit to pull up the anchor as the winds apparently helped it dig in pretty well.  When we deployed the anchor, I added a trip line with a float attached (to mark the anchor location in case any other boats thought about anchoring near us after we left) and used that line to help coax the anchor out of the creek bed.  It came up with a good amount of mud and some decaying wood branches on it. I used about 6 buckets full of water to clean the mud off of the anchor and chain as we pulled it in. I'm very happy with the performance of my Mantus anchor, it has held the boat everywhere I've put it.

A short motor back to the marina and we were once again tied to the dock and plugged in.  Everything turned out about as well as it could have regarding weathering the storm.  What happens next is still up in the air.  With all the destruction to the south of us, we are wondering if it makes sense to try and continue going south.  Will we be able to find marinas and fuel along the way?  Will there be new shoaling or missing markers?  We simply do not know at this time.  So, it is unclear if we will be continuing the trip south soon or if we will need to stay put a while longer.  These are the questions we will need to answer in the coming days.

But for now we are just happy that everything is well and we are once again back on the boat.

The Last of the ICW

For a change, we don't get an overly early start.  The weather broadcasts indicate there may be some more unsettled weather and since we could probably use a little re-provisioning, I decided we would splurge for a marina this upcoming evening.  We pull up the anchor and head out just before 8am.

I still don't have 100% confidence in the various gauges on the boat and even though the fuel gauge claims we are mostly full, we stop at the Pungo Creek marina for fuel.  The Skipper Bob's Marinas book claims they have better than average prices for the area, but I this was the most expensive diesel we purchased on the trip.  Fortunately, the fuel gauge seems reasonably accurate and we only needed about 15 gallons (the boat holds 75).  The Marina book also claimed they had a store, but they do not. The marina is pretty run down and with the fuel prices, I don't think I'll return there unless it is an emergency.

After departing the marina we make our way down the Pungo river and into the Pamlico.  The winds were a little under 10 knots from behind us as we made the turn so I decided it was time to break out the spinnaker and we make like a sailboat for a short time.  The spinnaker doesn't last too long as we again quickly enter a narrow section of the river...and, of course, the wind is blocked by the trees.

We make it to Whittaker Pointe marina, just outside Oriental, well before dark.We get tied up and sign up for the courtesy car and make a run into town.  We come back, have dinner, check the weather, and call it a night.

The weather the next day is proving to be difficult.  The original plan was to head down to Beaufort/Moorhead City and out the inlet to open ocean.  But, the winds were predicted to be rather high and the seas even higher, so we decided we would find an anchorage near Beaufort to wait out the weather.

Entering and leaving Whittaker point there is a rather narrow channel with some shoaling.  They say there are boaters who have run aground and those that will.  With the winds as we were coming out, I did end up pushing into the mud as we tried to leave.  Fortunately I was going slowly and was able to simply back out and work my way around the pile of mud that narrowed the channel.

We set sail with winds again on our nose.  Just as we make it out of the Neuse river and into Adams creek a thunderstorm alert comes across the radio for the Neuse river.  We are relatively protected in Adams creek and we watch the thunderstorm roll by behind us.  We hear tornado watches for adjacent areas and the weather is a bit unsettled for the whole trip to Moorhead City.

I had originally thought we would use an anchorage behind Shackleford island.  Getting to this anchorage requires going part of the way out of the inlet and then turning behind the barrier island.  As we made our approach to the inlet, I realized that was not a good option.  The rough seas were pushing their way into the inlet and we would have had a very rough ride over to a relatively shallow cut into the anchorage.

Fortunately, boats travel slower than airplanes and we had plenty of time to figure out another plan. I knew of an anchorage just behind Fort Macon and we decided it was a decent location with protection from the easterly winds with a long fetch to the lee shore so we found a location and dropped the hook.  Just as all our previous anchoring, the Mantus set immediately and stayed put in the 30 knot winds.  This is where we would stay the night in hopes that the forecasts were correct and the weather would improve tomorrow.

On an unrelated note.  I think I understand why everyone has a romantic idea of of cruising.  When everything is nice, we have time to take pictures...and they are usually nice with beaches and sunsets and dolphins playing and all of that.  When it isn't nice weather, we are usually too busy with the boat to take pictures...like this part of the trip.

The Trip South....The Posts I Couldn't Make During the Trip.

Sorry for the lack of posts again, but I've made good progress outrunning (or running with) the cold weather and am now in Brunswick Georgia where the current temperature is about 25 degrees higher than Deltaville.  But backing up a bit and providing a more detail on the trip....

I was able to find a hand with this trip at the boatyard. A was talking with a nice gentleman that is in the process of restoring a Bristol 32 and he offered to make the trip with me.  Neal didn't have any plans until the week of Thanksgiving and thought it would be fun to get out on the water again, so it was a perfect match.

We made the trip from the boatyard in Deltaville, VA to Brunswick GA over the course of about 10 days.  With the shorter days upon us, it was slow going through the ICW (I only travel it during daylight hours).  I also worked to make the trip a bit less expensive than the trip up by anchoring out instead of visiting marinas each evening...and T-Mobile doesn't have the greatest coverage so I didn't have much of a chance to make any posts except the previous brief entry. Once we got to open ocean, it was much easier to make good time...but no chance at internet access at all.

The boat was launched Tuesday morning, and after a number of system checks, we departed around noon.  The winds weren't particularly favorable, so we spent much of our time motor-sailing. For the unfamiliar, motor-sailing is where you are running engines and have one or more sails up.  The theory is the light winds and the extra wind created by the fact you are under power can drive the sails and give you a bit more gain in speed than the engine alone.  I think the conditions have to be just right to see any real gain, but it is nice to at least look like a sailboat.

Even motor sailing we just barely made it to Mobjack bay as the sun was going down and found a place to anchor along the shore that would shield us from the overnight winds, had a decent bottom composition, and depth appropriate for anchoring. I motored around just a bit to verify depth in the area we could swing and then we dropped the hook for the night.  This is the first night I've tried our new Mantus anchor, and she set solidly.  Actually, I didn't realize that I had let the anchor rode go a bit slack, and when I backed down on the anchor to set it, the bow of the boat dipped a bit as the anchor instantly grabbed hold of the muddy Chesapeake bottom.

The next morning we set off early under overcast skies and a bit of chill in the air.  It is getting colder in these parts, so it is really nice to be finally moving south.  The sun broke out as we made our way through Norfolk and Portsmouth.  This begins the portion of our trip where we get to play "Mother may I" with a number of draw bridges that are too short for a 60' tall sailboat to pass under without being opened.  Fortunately rush hour had just passed, so the bridges would open mostly on demand. Now normally most train bridges are left open unless a train is using them, but we arrived at one in Norfolk that was down and had no train.  We waited for over half an hour, watched several people in reflective yellow vests walk around and look at various pieces of the bridge, then finally it opened and we continued on our way.  The next bridge we encounter is the Steel bridge, and it only opens on a schedule of every half hour so naturally (thanks to the train bridge delay) we just missed the opening and had to wait about 20 minutes for the next opening.  We make our way through that bridge and on to the Great Bridge Lock.

This is my second time at the lock and so I knew the basic procedure.  Before arrival, you rig long bow and stern dock lines and fenders on the starboard side.  When the lock opens, you proceed in and throw the dock lines to an employee at the edge of the dock who wraps the line around a cleat or bollard and throws it back.  You then use the line to keep your boat near the wall and boat poles to keep it from rubbing along the wall of the lock.  At the time we arrived it was apparently high tide so the lock didn't even lift us a full foot.  The doors at the far end of the lock open and you un-loop your lines from the cleat and head out of the dock.

Normally, you go through the Great Bridge draw bridge (technically, a standard draw bridge is called a bascule bridge) that is timed to coincide with the lock operation (or maybe the lock is timed with the bridge...I forget which is which), but there is a free dock located between the lock and the bridge and, since it was getting late, we decided we would stop there for the night.  We tied up the boat and walked into town (Great Bridge is in Chesapeake VA.) to see if we could find dinner to reward ourselves for the first two days of travel.  We found an OK Mexican restaurant, had a nice dinner, and then called it a night.

On My Way South

I am on the move at last. I left the Deltaville boat yard around noon on Tuesday with my volunteer help, trying to head south before this strange arctic weather arrives. After a combination of motoring and sailing we anchored in Mobjack bay just as the sun set that evening. The next day we made it through Norfolk and on to the free dock at the Great bridge lock (Chesapeake VA) for the second night. Yesterday we continued motoring down the ICW past Coin jock and anchored in Broad Creek (NC I believe) just north of the Albemarle sound.

The Arctic blast has caught up with us and it is cold and windy...too windy to attempt crossing the Albemarle sound, so we are staying put today, trying to stay warm, and hoping for better weather tomorrow. Wind is around 25 knots and the temperature is maybe 40 if we are lucky. This really shows how poorly insulated boats are.

The two uses of the anchor indicate that she sets and holds very well in the softer bottoms of the Chesapeake area.

Cell phone and Internet access are spotty, so no pictures or long stories today. Hopefully this will post.

A Better Hook

The anchor that came with our boat when we bought her was a 45 lb. CQR which I believe was the standard anchor they outfitted the boat with when they were new.  While the anchor was still in OK shape, I wanted to beef up our main ground tackle since we intend to spend a fair amount of time at anchor.  I definitely don't want to be up at night when the wind blows worrying if our anchor would drag.  That would be...you know...a drag!  (sorry, couldn't resist)

In my research on anchor recommendations, many of the older style anchors such as the CQR or Delta (plow), Bruce (claw), Spade, or Danforth are good for one or two particular bottom types (sand, mud, rocks, grass, etc.), but not others. I'd like my primary to work in a wide variety of conditions as I don't want to carry an abundance of anchors or have to switch them out depending on what I'm floating over at the time. This led me to some newer design anchors that seem to be getting favorable reviews in tests and in real life with varying bottom conditions.  These newer style anchors are more of a scooping spade design with a roll bar to aid in orientation so it digs in. I decided this style of anchor is what we should be looking for.

So, after a bunch of online research, one of our missions at the boat show was to check out these newer style anchors from Rocna, Mantus, and Manson and see if we could find one that we liked and would fit our boat (the anchor locker sits behind the trampolines and I had some concern about the anchor fitting in the available space). Most cruisers also say to figure out the recommended anchor for your boat and then go one size larger, which added complication to the already difficult fit issue. We found displays at the show that included each of the anchors and compared the various designs, sizes, and (of course) price.

We had narrowed the decision down to either a Rocna or Mantus.  In the end, we chose a 65 lb. galvanized Mantus for our primary hook.  The reason for choosing the Mantus over the others boiled down to a few key considerations.  First, I knew of several other boats that have recently taken the plunge with Mantus and have been happy with their decision.  Watching the test videos from Mantus as well as independent comparisons of anchors from other sources indicated the anchor set, and reset, well in a variety of conditions.  The people at Mantus were very helpful and friendly when we were asking questions and did their best to help determine fit and assured us they would work with us if there were any fit issues.  And finally, the price of the Mantus anchor is just a bit more friendly on the cruiser's pocketbook.

Mantus at the Annapolis Boat Show

As my wife and I were leaving the boat show, I realized I had once again forgotten to take some pictures for the blog and so I ran back in to take pictures. I stopped back by the Mantus booth to get a picture and we started talking again.  The result is that I now have my first official "sponsor".^* If you have noticed, thus far I have avoided advertisements or sponsors on the blog. I didn't want to get into a situation where I felt obligated to write anything other than how I felt about a product.  But I also realized that I often use the recommendations and sponsor lists from other blogs when making decisions, so it did make sense that I should provide that same help to others.  And if it is a product I want anyway, getting a little compensation for all the time spent blog writing and providing thoughts on various products is something I needed to consider.  But don't worry dear reader, I fully intend to continue to tell you how I really feel about the various products we use,

Anchor Packaging...only 73 lbs.

Now back to the anchor.  Our anchor was shipped to the boatyard where I am currently busy working on the boat.  When it arrived, it didn't take me long to decide to assemble and install our new hook (can you say kid at Christmas).  The anchor arrived disassembled and attached via webbing to an open wooden box inside a cardboard box.  I assume it must have been a bit of a struggle for the delivery man to wrestle a 73 lb. anchor plus wooden box, based on the condition the box arrived in, but the anchor itself was in fine shape (I'll assume any anchor should be able to handle whatever a delivery man can throw at it).

New anchor assembled and sitting next to our old CQR

Assembly consists of bolting the shank and the roll bar to the fluke.  Mantus provides and instructs that you use a liberal amount of grease on the bolts and holes so assembly is a bit sticky.  While we plan to keep ours installed, the anchor does come apart so it could be a good spare for those with limited storage space...but you may need to bring some extra grease along for reassembly (I assume it is recommended for each assembly).  I then shackled the anchor to our chain rode (after buying a new anchor shakle) and manually cranked the anchor up into its new home on my bow.  The anchor fit like a glove with the roll bar just clearing the strut between the two trampolines.

Our new Mantus in its new home.

So, we now have a larger, newer style anchor on Rover...and I think my wife and I will be able to sleep better on the hook knowing it is there.  Can't wait to give it a try and let you know how it holds. Now the question is....what to do with the old CQR.  Do we replace our backup Bruce anchor?  Do we keep both?  Do we sell it?  Hmmm.

^*Sponsor Disclosure: In the interest of full disclosure, the company mentioned in this article has graciously provided free or discounted products or services to help support our effort to sail away from the rat race. The opinions expressed in this blog are still our own and not indicative of the opinions or positions of the company. We do encourage you to check out the products or services provided by this, or any, company that supports the cruising community.