Posted by Michel Capel (mike_c_f35ck@…>)
Thanks Mike, you make my mouth watering about sailing the US east
coast! Put some photo’s in your account and you have a nice magazine
article!
mike c
— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, “Michael G Katz”
<mgkatz@c…> wrote:
I am sitting here in Colorado, looking out at a foot of snow on my
patio, and reading all these messages about the size, shape and name
of a new Freedom group. So, I started to dream about the 6 week
cruise my wife and I took on our Freedom 38 (1991) this fall and
thought maybe I’d share it with you. Please accept my apolgies if
you are not interested, and hit the “delete” button.This was our first lengthy cruise. We bought the boat in 2003,
sailed weekends on the Chesapeake–Deltaville, Va., on the
Rappahannock–and just retired this year. So, we decided to “start”
heading south this fall, cruising North Carolina and waiting until
next season to get to Florida. No rush, no “gotta-go, gotta be there
by…” We waited for Jean to pass, and then took off. Great sail
down the CB, stopping in Mobjack Bay overnight. An even better sail
the next day, so we hit Hampden Roads by mid-afternoon, and I
thought “wow, this boat really moves.” Unfortunately, it was full
ebb tide when we got there at about 2:45 p.m., and I–a former Great
Lakes sailor–learned a lesson about tides and currents the hard
way. Hampden Roads is HUGE, I mean I had no idea, and it seemed like
the entire US Navy fleet was there with plenty of room left over. I
had put on a chartplotter this summer, and the “chip” was for Norfolk-
-Key West, so I could follow our “progress”–about 6 kts through
water, but 2.7 to 3.0 over ground! It was like “virtual sailing”–
plenty of wind in the face, apparent boat “speed”, rushing water, but
we were standing still!
Suffice it to say that 3 and 1/2 hours later we had made the 11.8
miles into downtown Norfolk and dropped anchor across
from “Waterside” complex just before sunset!Next day we headed for Dismal Swamp Canal, through the industrial
part of Portsmouth/Norfolk, and got to first lock in time for a T-
Storm to hit. Dropped anchor, went below, and decided to spend
afternoon just hanging out, reading, napping. Called locktender and
he said no problem anchoring outside of lock, since no one was coming
or going. It was very strange to be anchored in what felt like a
backwater bayou only ten feet from the shore, yet really not that far
from a big city. The next morning we locked through alone, and the
locktender gave us a warm greeting and the history of the canal. The
DSC itself was really interesting, with coffee colored water (tannins
from the swamp) and some nice birds. Not much more than 50 feet
wide, and had to watch the overhead branches as they would grab your
mast if you didn’t pay attention and maneuver a little. Got through
and entered the upper Pasquotank, which was even more interesting
since it was “wilder” and not just a land cut. I felt like we were
in a cypress swamp, with trees standing above the water on their root
systems. A great blue heron guided us for about an hour, taking off
everytime we came close and then landing about a quarter of a mile
ahead of us. Their wingspan is really something.The Pasquotank gets wider and wider, and then you arrive at
Elizabeth City. Great old town, with 4 historic walking tours.
And of course the famous “Rose-buddies”–retired men ranging in age
from 70-90 who make it a point to greet the boats and offer rides to
the market, laundromat, post office, etc. The head Rose-buddy is
Fred Fearing, who is 90 and lives on Fearing Street. He invited us
to his house for beer, wine, and cheese “under the oak tree.” (My
wife rode with him in his golf cart, while I walked with a couple of
the other guys. By the time I got there he had told my wife his life
story, and she was completely charmed. He is, indeed, a wonderful
man.)We spent two nights there–it is free for 48 hours, or longer if
they have the room–waiting out a pretty serious blow from the north
with 30 kts. Once you leave Eliz City there is really nowhere to
stop until you are across the Albemarle Sound and into the Alligator
River, a distance of about 30 miles or so. The Pasquotank after E
City, and the Alligator, are really big bodies of water, so you can
sail, and indeed you must assume that rough weather on the Albemarle
can also make for some rough waters on the Pasqotank and Alligator.
It was predicted 10-15 out of the North, but was closer to 18-20. We
reefed, and then were quite comfortable. The Albemarle is pretty
wide at that point, and it was quite whipped up–which I expected.
But we went wing and wing across, with the Autohelm 6000 steering far
better than I could. Smooth, comfortable, steady, with 3 footers
behind us and the little “cross seas” that you get on this body of
water making it look much rougher. (I haven’t used the Autohelm 6000
in over 22 kts, but it is fine to that point although the former
owner cautioned me about winds above 25 on some points of sail.) We
anchored in the Alligator in a very rolly spot, but safe, and took
off next day for the Alligator-Pungo canal. North wind allowed us to
sail the 18 miles down the Alligator, and then we motored this huge
land cut that connects these two rivers. Here we met alot of traffic-
-mainly power boats–heading south from the main ICW route. This
land cut was as wide as a superhighway, straight as an arrow, and
kind of boring. But the upper Pungo was nice, with a great “Prince
of Tides” anchorage overnight, and then Belhaven the next day. Very
pretty town, small and quiet, with the famous River Forest Marina.
Friendly people–they loaned us a golf cart to go the 2 miles to the
supermarket.We then headed down the Pungo into the Pamlico River–not Sound–
and spent a few days going up to Bath (don’t miss it) and
Washington. Pretty, wide, nice sailing river. The Creek going into
Bath Harbor is as pretty as any I have seen, with lovely homes along
the shores. The marina owner was super friendly, and gave us a
couple fish fillets for dinner since both the restaurants were closed
on Sunday. The next day he gave us his van to do some shopping and
see the area. (There is a free town dock in Bath, but no
facilities, and the marina gave me a “discount” rate of about 65
cents a foot.) Washington is much bigger than Bath, and has a
museum, art galleries, and a renovated waterfront with free docks as
well as a nice marina. Very nice historic walking tour here, too.We then headed back down the Pamlico to the ICW (Goose Creek into
the Hobucken Cut into the Bay River) and out into the Pamlico Sound
and around Maw Point into the Neuse River. The Neuse has the town or
Oriental–a real boating center–and many nice rivers and creeks such
as Broad Creek, South River, Mitchell Creek. Lots of options. We
spent 3-4 nights, in the area, and then went out to Ocracoke–38
miles from Oriental on the Outer Banks. This place is a kick–a
cross between Key West and Nantucket.
Sandy lanes, lots of good food, interesting mix of people
and “neighborhoods,” wonderful barrier beach on the Atlantic side.
Bike rental a must. We spent some time here, and only left because
the weather was going to be changing with two fronts passing back to
back.
Unfortunately, we should have left a day sooner than we did, and
the predicted 10-15 out of the SW on the Pamlico Sound was more like
22-27 as we motored the 3 mile channel out of Ocracoke harbor into
the Pamlico Sound. The sky was blue-black to the SW, but there
wasn’t much lightening, and the morning radar showed that the really
bad weather was coming late that afternoon, so we proceeded on our
way with only one real destination as an option–Swan Quarter, 26
miles to the NW. With some effort we got a double reef in and flew
the jib as well, and I felt we would be okay to at least 30-34 kts.
(I certainly didn’t expect more than that amount of wind.)
Unfortunately I realized my mistake when it was too late–the water
suddenly was in a turmoil and the wind hit. I am going to estimate
over 40, because it was at least 15 more than we were experiencing to
that point, and I could NOT get the bow into the wind with the wheel
hard over and the engine at full throttle. I thought we were going
to take a knockdown–I had a harness on–so I moved in front of the
wheel so I would be thrown down inside the area of the dodger. To my
pleasant surprise we stood up pretty well, as the main halyard–which
I had released–started to spill some wind. 5 minutes later it was
down, but I broke a slide in the process. The jib took longer to
get down, and I tore the aft end of it in all the flogging. At that
point the coast guard put out a message about a 38 foot sailboat
taking on water somewhere in our vicinity, and eventually dispatched
a helicopter to that boat. Very scarry stuff.
Thirty minutes later we were back under sail, with 15-20. Needless
to say I watched the horizon like a hawk after that, but we were able
to sail all the way to Swan Quarter arriving mid-afternoon. The
really bad weather had gone south of us, and we had a pleasant day in
Swan Quarter. SQ is by far the most “backwater” place I have ever
been, with among the nicest people I’ve ever met. We were the only
transient boat there, among all the shrimp trawlers. They charged me
$10 for the nite, and I got water and bathroom (at least until the
store closed at 6 p.m.) and lots of free fishing advice. The town
had one “sketchy” take out restaurant next to a gas station, but the
food turned out to be really good down home cooking–with the best
pies and cakes of the whole trip.From there we sailed back into the Pamlico Sound, into the Pamlico
River, and did some more exploration, eventually working our way back
to the Neuse where we headed up to New Bern. This turned out to be
some of the best sailing we had, with good winds from the north and
pretty smooth waters. New Bern is a pretty big town for this area,
and it has a restored waterfront and downtown shopping area. Really
good food, beatiful neighborhoods, and the usual friendly people.
We returned to Oriental and left the boat in early November at Deaton
Yacht Service. (They had done some work on the boat earlier in the
trip, and I was really impressed with the yard.) The weather was in
the low 80s in November when we left for home, and it was actually in
the 70’s most of October in N. Carolina with the exception of about 4
days where it dipped into the high 50s. (Definitely warmer than the
Chesapeake.) Very little rain, lots of sunny days.The boat is a dream to sail and to live on. I will probably never
own any other boat, and certainly no boat that has a large genoa to
mess with. On a reach this boat puts a smile on my face, and even
dead downwind or close hauled I have no complaints.All in all we covered about 600 NM, ate about 20 pounds of fresh
shrimp, drank way too much beer, sailed to the point where, on some
days, I was actually satiated, and got to know our boat thoroughly.
In addition to the chartplotter, which was absolutely fantastic, we
had replumbed the boat and pulled out the old holding tank and put in
a custom 30 gallon under the vee-berth (on the advice of Paul Dennis)
and all new, expensive, marine hoses. We put on a propane BBQ, got
a nice handheld VHF for the cockpit so we could talk to bridges and
marinas as we approached, and we got a 5" LCD color TV from Radio
Shack for $145 so we could stay on top of the World Series, etc. The
TV turned out to be great, even at anchor.Finally, we did solve a nagging problem that might affect your
boat. Our Yanmar 3 GM 30 had always leaked fuel. Banjo fittings,
fuel pump, washers, etc. were tightened several times by different
mechanics, but still we leaked. I was told “Yanmar’s just leak.”
Deaton Yacht Service said that we should try replacing the copper
crush washers on the fuel filter with rubber washers. They made the
fix, and we never leaked a drop after that.Okay, back to reality. I gotta walk my dog and it is now dark and
about 15 degrees outside…
Michael Katz
Freedom 38
Acquittal