Dolphins

I forgot to mention all the dolphins we've seen since we passed through Beaufort. We were in the narrow channel in a large shallow bay approaching Beaufort when all of a sudden there's a big splash on the port side right next to me in the cockpit -- I almost jumped out of my skin. Turned out to be a dolphin, and he did it a few more times, close enough to touch if I hadn't been steering. Then I saw several more off the starboard bow. They seemed to be circling me and looked like they were having fun. That's the first time I'd ever seen a dolphin in the wild,at least up close -- pretty cool.

I had another visit after we got off shore before dark, then two more the next day. They seemed to like jumping out of a wave and getting a bit of air, and they had plenty of opportunity, I can assure you.

My only regret was that Zoe didn't get to see them, she was safely down below. With the nice weather today, I kept her on deck, and we had a few more visits, so she finally got to see one.

However, she didn't get nearly as excited as the time she saw a seal rise near the boat in Buzzard's Bay -- she went nuts that time and would have jumped in if it weren't for the tether. I guess the dolphins disappeared a little too quickly to be of much interest. The seal stayed there a while, breathing deeply, before diving down again. Rob, from West Marine in Marion, said she must have thought it was just a big dog in the water.

Trip watch:

We're anchored in the Shallotte River about 20 miles south of Cape Fear. It looks like we'll have to stay in the ICW until at least Georgetown, South Carolina -- none of the inlets between here and there appear to be deep enough to get out.

I'd like to visit Charleston, just south of Georgetown, so I might stay in the ICW until then, but we'll see what the weather looks like when we get there. It was great today. It even got warm enough to take off my shirt for a couple hours. There wasn't a lot if wind either, at least not inside, but as we passed a couple of inlets, I could see the ocean still covered with white caps. It's still a bit too bumpy for me.

Gear watch:

The wind vane stopped working early in the morning, forcing me to hand steer for close to 9 hours in moderately heavy seas. That's after hand steering the day before for about 15 hours (we were motoring with little wind, so we couldn't use it) and little or no sleep. I had a really hard time adjusting it and figured the shaft was bent, but even after I got it adjusted, it wouldn't hold a course.

I'm not sure when or how it happened, but this morning I noticed the actuator arm was bent near the top just below the threads. I hope I can bend it back without breaking it. The tow boat ran into it when when we got a tow the day before Thanksgiving, but I'm not sure if it happened then or yesterday during the heavy winds. Well, they weren't that heavy, so I'm leaning toward the collision. I'll try to call them tomorrow.

Also, once we got anchored tonight and I turned on the anchor light, I noticed another problem -- my batteries were down to 50%, and that's after a day of motoring. They should have been fully charged.

I started checking all the wires and found the power cable for my voltage regulator had broken off at the connector to the alternator. It might have happened the last time I adjusted the belt, or it could have been due to the rough conditions -- I'll add another item to my morning PM list.

Zoe watch:

She loved Wrightsville Beach and liked staying on deck today. I really feel bad about bouncing her around in bad weather, but she seems fine as long as she has a secure place to hide and wait it out.