MORE LITTLE STEPS

SHIP'S LOG:

With the bilge pumps now connected, pumping the bilge is a snap . . . . though I seem to have discovered some new cache of foul-smelling something - or-other that has created a new need for more bilge cleaner. I would suspect that that leak in the gear oil filter in the transmission has been there for some time and has been "poisoning the well" so to speak. It is a minor if pungent inconvenience and I have the time to do it as I await the yard workers to finish up their end of the deal.

With a little help from a sander I was able to refit the "newly discovered" engine panel. For the life of me I cannot figure out how something that fit correctly when in place suddenly "grows" when it is removed and requires as much effort as it took to get it back in. A couple of days of wind and rain have indicated that the ports and hatches are all tight which is a good thing as you want to keep water out of your boat.

I have begun the process of loading the boat. As I mentioned before it is more of a process than simply dragging stuff down and putting it in the boat somewhere. The "somewhere" is rather important as there is nothing worse than ripping the whole boat apart to find some little doodad that has become necessarily important in the moment. Here is where being a pack rat can be a true draw back. One can't really prepare for every contingency no matter how well one tries and

trying often leads to overloading. Right now I am in possession of three (3) high output alternators which are hefty little items. There is one on the engine, naturally, and two backups in lockers, one working and one in need of repair and repairable. Question: do I repair the repairable and bring it along, providing 2 working back ups or get rid of it? You just know that if I deep six it, the one on the engine will go bad and the back up will be on the fritz. What to do? What to do?

O, the latest fun fact can be found it the Dismal Swamp. The Dismal Swamp, quite beautiful I am told inspite of its name, is an area in south-eastern Virginia/ Northeastern North Carolina transversed by the Intercoastal Waterway ( the Way SOUTH!!). While most people think of the ICW as a big ditch on one level like the Suez Canal, it rises and falls and uses locks, more like the Panama Canal. The locks in the Dismal Swamp Section use water from a local lake to operate the locks. Well, the dearth of rain in the south east has evidently effected the level of this lake to the point that as of October 31st last, the Army Corps of Engineers has stopped operating the locks effectively closing this way south and at the same time "trapping" north of the locks. They will not begin to operate the locks again until there is sufficient rainfall to raise the level of the lake. To get around the blockage means going "outside" and outside at this point means rounding Cape Hatteras, know by the cosy nickname of "Graveyard of the Atlantic." The basic reason most people use the ICW is to avoid this very spot! O Joy!

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

It looks rather certain that I will be in Newport for Thanksgiving. I was planning to be here in any case, though I thought that I would have to fly in from somewhere South and get caught up in some airport mess somewhere. I had not quite expected to still have not yet, at this late day, to have made a start South. I had expected to hear about the leaves falling but on the radio and not from the locals, let alone see it happen in person. It's a good thing that I hadn't been more efficient in disposing of my stuff. At least I still have some winter (good grief) clothes available. It would have been a real financial drag to have to buy more new winter clothes. I had actually wondered how I would get to see the World Series if the Red Sox had made it!

It seems that I have been "10 days to 2 weeks away" from leaving for the longest time now and I find myself swinging between " well, when all is ready I leave" and " Damn it, I want to go now!" Of course, if I was to leave tomorrow morning I would be a mountain of jello. Then again, as the Chinese like to say, the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with a single step." Then again, if that step is off the edge of a cliff, the second becomes completely unnecessary! As much as I know that as soon as I get three hours into the trip I will remember all the stuff I forgot to bring and do, I really want to get started. The weather reporters keep using the "S" word and I want to get south before any of it starts flying.