R.I.P. Ringo

The crew of Stardust is sad to report the loss of one of our own. Our great sea dog and best friend, Ringo, has passed away. I wish I could say that we got him to the animal hospital and they did all they could to save him, but he was just too sick. But unfortunately, we had that option taken away from us...


We've been in Elizabeth City for a while now. We were over at Pelican Marina for a couple of months and during that time, since we hadn't really all that much in the way of resources, Brenda decided to apply to Camden County and got us involved in a program called Work First. The county will provide you with a limited check while you look for work and if you don't find work in a given time, they have you do volunteer work until you do find something, this way you are earning your check. When the dockmaster of Pelican Marina, Josh, found this out, he decided to let us know that even though our slip was paid up for two months, he wasn't happy to have that kind of element at his Marina. When our two months were up, he advised us we had to leave his docks. We ended up having a problem with the starter and rather than let us pay for an extra night so we could get someone to look at it, he towed us over to the public docks. It took a few days to get someone that could look at the engine and fix the problem. Once it was fixed, we moved on to a nearby location called Janette Brothers. This is a food distribution company that allows boaters to tie up as long as they agree to frequent one of the establishments they supply at least once per day that you are tied up. We got our taxes done and got a check from Work First so we were able to do that for a little. When we finally got our refund, we spent a couple of more days at Janette Brothers and then went back over to the town docks to get ready to leave.

 We got everything ready to get going and then Leia, our Bengal, jumped off the boat, into the water and after climbing out go herself under the boardwalk at Waterfront Park. It took a couple of hours to finally get her to come back out and by then it was too late to try to head south and cross Albemarle Sound. That night, another boat came in and the nice gentleman that was the skipper of it said he would be happy to cross with us the next day if the weather was right for it. The next day, we ran the engine to charge the batteries and found that they were not charging. This bothered us since we need the batteries to start the engine and need the engine to go down the ICW. Our new friend checked things and determined there was no charge coming from the alternator. After a day of trying to find a replacement in town, I managed to track one down on ebay and get it sent to us. Due to some confusion regarding the method of shipping, it took a week and a half to finally get the part. The weather was really bad as far as causing the boat to rock heavily the next day, so I couldn't try to do work on the engine that day and the next day was raining and I didn't want to get anything with the electrical system wet if I could avoid it. That Thursday, St Patrick's Day, we got the alternator changed out and then found that the real problem was the cable that runs from the ignition to the alternator had been disconnected when the starter was being fixed and not reconnected afterward. We also found that the engine needed an oil change so Brenda and I took care of the that on Friday.

By this point, we had found out that Josh from The Pelican had been going around telling people we had been bad mouthing Elizabeth City every chance we got, that we had been stealing electricity from the Christmas lights they had over at the Marina when we were there, that we were taking advantage and mooching off everyone at the Marina and in the City and pretty much anything else he could come up with to cover for the fact that he had us leave because of our assistance from the County.

Back to having changed the oil. It takes a long time with a Marine Diesel to change the oil. And by the time we were done and had gotten the old oil someplace safe to dispose of it, it was after 2pm. Way too late to try to cross the Sound again. Saturday the winds were too high to try for a crossing, because there are so many crab pots in the sound, that you need to be able to see them, so you need calm seas. On Sunday morning, we were getting ready to go and found that Ringo did not seem to be feeling well. He wasn't really interested in his food and we felt something on his right side. I had to wait for Monday morning to bring him to the Animal Hospital and found that he had Pancreatitis. They kept him overnight and gave him IV fluids. I got contacted the next day by a representative of the Harbormaster of Elizabeth City aka The Chief of Police. He stated that since we had been on the town docks for so long, we had to get off. I went and spoke with him directly, explaining how Ringo was in the Animal Hospital and that I had just talked with them that morning and they wanted him to stick around for the rest of the day, possibly coming home in the afternoon. The Chief said we could just go someplace else and anchor, then come back for him, but why couldn't I just call and see if I could just pick him up right then. After leaving the Chief, I called the Animal Hospital and they said he was doing a little better and I could come get him, they would send some antibiotics home with him. This was on Tuesday, March 22nd.

We anchored out a couple of days and then made our way across the Sound on a very pleasant Friday, March 25th. Ringo had been eating and taking his medicine and seemed to be doing better. We noticed a small bump on his muzzle, between his forehead and his nose, but weren't sure where it came from. After getting across the sound, we dropped anchor, but when we realized it hadn't set right, we went to start our engine to get into a better location. The engine wouldn't start. We decided to get the anchor set properly and then we would worry about trying to fix it in the morning. Ringo was starting to eat less. We tried doing everything we knew how to and nothing seemed to work for getting the engine restarted. We contacted the Coast Guard and they managed to contact a vessel, Propinquity II, that was willing to try helping us get the engine going. We went through a few hours of work and didn't seem any closer to solving the problem. The Coast Guard had a small boat show up to check on us and since it was getting late, after speaking with Sector Command, they decided that they wanted us in a safe harbor so they would tow us to the Alligator River Marina, right across the channel from where we were anchored. The Marina confirmed that they had enough depth for us to make it in, and they had a slip big enough. When the Coast Guard got us over to the side of the channel that they Marina was on, the Marina heard the name "Stardust" and said we were not allowed in their Marina. Apparently, Josh had decided that getting Elizabeth City against us was not enough for him and he called the next few Marinas to tell them not to assist us. This made it so that we couldn't get to shore to get a mechanic friend of ours to get the engine fixed on Sunday. We spent Sunday anchored within sight of the Marina, Ringo getting a little worse, having to wait out a storm. Monday, Propinquity II went into the marina to get fuel and were told by the staff not to get involved with us. Apparently they had been telling anyone else that came to the Marina not to assist us in any way.

Propinquity's crew tried again to solve our problems, but all we could tell was there was air coming into the fuel line somewhere and we couldn't find where. We had the Coast Guard contact our friend Dave, a diesel mechanic and he said he could get down Tuesday morning at 10am to the Marina. The Marina refused to help him get out to us, Ringo was getting even worse. He had spent the two nights prior snuggled up with us in the Quarter Berth, trying to feel better. We were contacted by the Coast Guard the next morning when Dave got to the Marina and we managed to be lucky enough to have a sailboat called Serenity coming by that was willing to get Dave from the fuel dock at the Marina. He brought Dave out and within a couple of hours, he had found the problem and fixed it so our engine was running again. Just before his arrival, Ringo suffered a stroke, but he was still with us. I tried to get us back across the Sound, to Elizabeth City, to get Ringo back to the Animal Hospital. He had three seizures along the way, then went to sleep. A short time later, just after we entered the Sound, our brave sea dog had left us...

Had we been able to get ashore, get our friend to fix our engine on Sunday, we could have had Ringo in the Animal Hospital on Monday. There's no guarantee that they would have been able to save him, but the fact that the possibility was taken from us because of some petty little man with a superiority complex on a power trip really rips me up inside. I took his body up to the Animal Hospital today and said a final goodbye to him. Every one of us keeps just losing it because of how much it hurts to lose him. He wasn't just the family pet, he was family. He was one of us. And now, he is gone...

Happy Holidays

The crew of s/v Stardust would like to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays as well as a Happy New Year. We're still here in Elizabeth City. We'll see how things go with the job search and if it goes well, we stick around for a while. If it doesn't look good by the time we do our taxes, we'll take the money from the refund and continue moving South to where we have friends and family so we can look for jobs in potentially larger markets with better public transportation options. We'll let you all know what happens as soon as we know.

Elizabeth City, NC

So now we find ourselves in Elizabeth City, NC. It has been almost three weeks since leaving Warren, RI and it has been a crazy three weeks at that. Our first day out, we had some high winds and around 3-5 foot waves going through Block Island Sound. This was not the best way to start a trip and things didn't calm down until almost midnight when we were in Long Island Sound. Brenda was then able to take over for a while so I could get some sleep. We ended up stopping in West Haven, CT to refuel and then spent a relaxing day in LI Sound and arrived at the East River around sunset. We made our way through New York City and New York Harbor without incident. Everything looked beautiful lit up at night and we got to see the Statue of Liberty up close, which was really cool. We made our way out of the harbor a little after midnight and started down Chapel Hill Channel. When we got to Sandy Hook Channel, Brenda said she would be willing to take over for a bit, since she would just be following the channel markers. I went below, lay down and about 15 minutes later felt the boat shake and the heard the engine stop. Apparently, you can see the markers over the top of the beach at Sandy Hook and our GPS had it as being slightly shallower water on the chart. This is apparently a land mass that has been growing every year for several years, so it was right at the time that the GPS chart was made and we were now in the sand at the edge of the beach. We tried to reverse and of course ended up getting the towing bridle of our inflatable caught in the propeller, disabling us and setting the inflatable adrift. We ended up waiting for low tide, when we were resting on sand at a 45 degree angle and cut the prop free, then waited for high tide when we were able to float ourselves back out and get away from shore. We have since heard from Sandy Hook Coast Guard that they found the inflatable, so at least we won't have to buy a new one. We need to see if they can get it sent to another Coast Guard station so we can retrieve it.

After getting back underway, we started down the coast of New Jersey and it was fairly calm for a while, so at around 1:30am, I went to get rest while Brenda took over. At 3:30am, she called me up as we had just entered a sizable fog bank. I got us through the fog without issue and got some more rest, then when the waves started to pick up, I took over again. We had at least 5 foot waves going down the coast of NJ the whole way and had no place we could have pulled in to get out of it. About 2 hours north of Atlantic City, we noticed massive clouds over the shore, so I had Brenda go below and seal everything up tight. The system moved right over us withing 15 minutes and had not only high winds, but driving, freezing rain coming down sideways in sheets. Waves crashed up over us and some water got between my collar and my neck, going down and soaking everything I was wearing. It took about an hour to get through the system and then the waves settled down a little as we made it to Atlantic City. Unfortunately, we were unable to contact anyone on the VHF in Atlantic City, so we couldn't pull in to stop there and the sun was going down. We went a little further south and put out a general call to see if anyone could suggest a place to stop, so I wouldn't end up with hypothermia and we were advised to head into Great Egg Harbor and Ocean City. We got in there, found everything was closed for the season, so we tied up at a Yacht Club and waited out some of the worst of the winds. We still had some issues with big waves going down to Delaware Bay, but once we were in the Bay, we had the waves coming behind us and pushing us along.

We entered the C & D Canal and made our way to an Anchorage Basin there, which ended up being a great place to stop since there was a lot of severe weather and thunderstorms moving through the area at the time. We were there for a few days and heard the tornado sirens go about three or four times.

Chesapeake Bay ended up being some of the worst waves of the trip after New Jersey and so we stopped in Annapolis and anchored there for a couple of days. When we left Annapolis, we had three footers most of the way and one of the knocked the hose loose from our bilge pump, so we started having water building up down below until we found what the problem had been. We spent a few hours over at the mouth of the Potomac bailing out and making sure the bilge pump was repaired. After that, we finally had calmer waters the rest of the way to Norfolk. When we got to Norfolk, we were impressed seeing all the Aircraft Carriers and assorted other warships that we had to pass by upon entering. We anchored over by the Naval Hospital and the next morning found ourselves on the ICW. By this time, our primary VHF radio had ceased working for unknown reasons, our handheld fell into the water from the bilge and shorted out, our speed indicator no longer worked, our depth finder works about 1% of the time and the radar decided it no longer wanted to give data to the GPS. We got into the Deep Creek Lock, made our way up the Dismal Swamp Canal and then found we seemed to be running low on fuel. We decided to wait on going through the second lock and instead moored in South Mills, NC to get fuel and something to eat.

The next morning, we got into the lock and made our way the rest of the distance to Elizabeth City. We arrived here a few days ago and have decided since we are very low on funds, that we are going to stay here for a few months and try to replenish our money. The people here are wonderful and we've met a lot of great boaters. Our thanks go to the family traveling on the catamarans "Alleycat" and "Zab-A-Cat" for coming over with their tension tool and helping get our rigging properly tuned finally. Hopefully, we'll see them again someday, but we at least hope to stay in touch with them as we do have their email.

Overall, it's been a crazy few weeks, but we're still in good spirits and looking forward to seeing what the next few months bring. If anyone needs or wants to send us anything, you can always send it "General Delivery" to the Elizabeth City Post Office, Elizabeth City, NC 27909.

Florida Bound Soon...

As we wrap up our time here in Warren, RI, I want to take the opportunity to thank a number of people that have helped us and offered us advice for our upcoming journey. Thank you to Harbormaster Matt and Deputy Dan for letting us use the transient dock and moorings during storms that have hit the area and caused even the river to be a bit on the choppy side. Thanks to Jason and Mary for advice, helping to put our sails up and letting us feel like we actually can make this trip without issue. Thank you to Bill and Donna for helping us out with getting an outboard for our replacement dinghy, being just generally cool folks to talk to and hang out with and giving Ringo plenty of treats. Thanks to Mike for being a real sport and ferrying us back and forth until we had gotten our replacement dinghy. Thanks to Jan over at West Marine in Newport for the assistance she provided when I accidentally got charged Sales Tax on the dinghy and also needed to return a light for the dinghy without issue. Thanks go to various others that it would take me a while to list here, but are no less important to thank for making us feel at home here in Warren and helping us in many assorted ways. We will miss everyone here, but will definitely return for at least a month time we come up to New England. To anyone not in Warren, but at least in New England, why not stop in Warren, which has many "Best of Rhode Island" shops and restaurants, as well as one of the nicest small libraries I've ever seen. We will likely depart on Monday the 18th as it looks like the weather all along the east coast will be beautiful for most of the week, with the exception of the end of the week having some showers down near VA and NC. But we can deal with a little bit of rain if we're going to have decent weather the rest of the time. Our plan, for those wanting to know is to leave early morning Monday, head through Block Island Sound to Long Island Sound. Down through the East River to New York Harbor. Follow the coast of NJ down to Delaware Bay. From there, head to Chesapeake Bay and pick up the ICW(Intra-Coastal Waterway) going down the Dismal Swamp Canal(really a much nicer area than it sounds) on to Elizabeth City, NC where cruisers can dock for free for 48 hours and we'll rest there. From there, we'll make our way down the ICW the rest of the way down to Florida. Overall, it should be somewhere between 1-2 weeks for us to get to Florida since we'll be mostly going the ICW and will be taking our time since there is really no rush. When we get to Florida, we plan to look up our friends that we have down that way and have a wonderful offer from Paul and Francesca to tie up on their dock for a little while. Looking forward to the journey as much as the destination. Hope all are well and we'll be sending Spot updates to Facebook for everyone so you'll know where we are along the way.

Greetings!

Welcome to the blog of the Ericson 38, "Stardust," and her crew. The crew consists of myself, my wife, our two kids, two cats and our dog. So far, we've been aboard for a little over a week and in that time we've done a lot. We had to leave Cape Ann Marina before being really ready, since they had a bunch of boats coming in that same day. We powered through Massachusetts Bay at night with limited experience and managed to avoid running aground. Got to the Cape Cod Canal at just the right time of morning to have the current work with us. Hung out in Bristol Harbor in RI for a couple of days. Moved up to a mooring on the Warren River in Warren, RI. Had our dinghy stolen. Even got to tie up on the docks for a couple of days to wait out Hurricane Earl which managed to turn south and not even hit us with anything more than a little rain. We've had stronger winds in the last couple of days after the storm than we did the whole night of the storm. We've met some really great and helpful people, too. Mary and her boyfriend, who own "Valentine" are being great and helping us out by letting us borrow their dinghy until we replace the stolen one. Mike, who owns "Diva," has offered us help with little things that were causing issues on the boat. Another great guy, Don, helped us get tied up to the dock, and brought us the 2010 edition of Eldridge, which has the tide charts for major locations along he Eastern U.S., as well as tide information and a tide wheel we could use should we choose to head up the Erie Canal to Buffalo to get some of our things from storage there. We really are enjoying being on the Stardust. I'll try to update often and will get other members of the crew to post here as well from time to time. Our plans for the next few days are to get ourselves back out to the mooring, then maybe take the bus to Providence, RI to walk around a little bit. Also get new tags for the pets showing boat name and Skype phone number. Oh, and laundry would be good too...