velcro beach

well we've been just chugging along day after day after day with lots of sunshine but no wind to take advantage of cause it is either not there or directly on the nose so we haven't gone out into the ocean but we're sticking with the icw. we haven't heard any of our friends on the radio for a while and assumed they'd all jumped off for the bahamas since there are some good places along here to do that. but guess what we came into vero beach today and they are all here! they say they've been having so much fun and are so comfortable here that nobody has left yet. so big party tonight and breakfast with the gang in the morning and then we'll move along since we're already “behind schedule”. all that means is that we didn't get to spend thanksgiving with big dummy's aunt and cousin in port charolette. but we did have turkey. b.d. opened a tin of turkey breast and split a bunch of pickles and dumped all that between a couple of slices of bread and then scooped some of the turkey into my dish. delish.

here's some news for all you cats who are shoveling snow and ice this week – down here there are biting insects and flying cockroaches. so don't complain too much. i don't know what these little bugs are but they look like tiny flying ants and they must have some secret way of communicating with each other because they get all over your body when you aren't noticing and then biteA you all at the same time so you think you are going crazy or having a manapause hotflash or something. nasty little critters. and last night big dummy had some kind of bug zipping around inside his sleeping bag man that little baby could move. finally he turned on the light and grabbed it and threw it out the hatch. but it didn't bite anyway. somehow it got all the way down around his feet. big dummy was mad at me for not catching it before it invaded his most holy of holy places – his sleeping bag. hey i try nobodies purrfect.

here's some other news for all you amateur ornithologists – you know who you are. remember when it wasn't that long ago that seeing an osprey was like a really big deal? well now they are all over the place down here. its like they are taking over. and they aren't shy in fact we got so close to one today that we could see the eyes on the fish he was eating. osprey's are so cool they play with their food. really. when they swoop down and catch a fish they fly around and juggle that fish between their toes until they get the head turned into the wind. i guess that makes it easier to fly. then they eat it after they find a place to land. also today we saw a cormorant that swallowed a giant fish right in front of us while we were moving and then his belly was so full he couldn't take off so he just splashed along on top of the water until he was out of our way. stupid bird. but that fish did look pretty good though. i would have at least chewed it a little though.

well i hope everybody had a bodacious thanksgiving with lots of fish to eat and stuff. time to close up all the ports so the bugs don't eat us and then get some sleep.

purrs and kisses

peace

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

do dolphins eat cats?

big dummy tells me i'm just being chicken but today when i was looking over the side to see what was making all that noise down there suddenly a dolphin popped up right under my chin and tried to suck me down his blow-hole. i'm not kidding. and it happened two more times before i got scared and went below to wait out the attack. big dummy just sang them a song and said they were cute. they were so close i think they were rubbing against the barnacles on the bottom. so dangerous! i wonder if they know how to make those ieds i keep hearing about on the radio.

another dangerous thing. last night while i was keeping night watch and we were anchored in yet another isolated location far far away from any humanity and where the stars shine from horizon to horizon i heard a panther scream! whoa! made the hair stand right up on my tail i tell you.....

anywho all is well with us. we're stopped in st. augustine at the moment but we'll get going as soon as we get done with showers, e-mail, banking, fueling, supplies, and etc.

purrs and kisses to all my fans and to everybody else i hope a dolphin vacuums you up...

peace
kitty
first mate s/v JoHee

savannah!

november 10 wednesday

one word describes south carolina. slow. the birds (egrets, bald eagles, herons) flap their wings slowly while we slowly wind our way through swamps and marshes and the sun slowly creeps across the empty southern sky. dolphins slowly surface around the boat and the cormorants take their time deciding whether or not to take flight as we pass them perched on a buoy. even the biting insects seem to be undecided when they first land. spanish moss sways slowly in a gentle breeze and the alligators are so slow they can't be seen at all – but i can smell them. word has it they eat cats. i'd like to seem them try – why there wouldn't be enough left to make a pair of shoes when i finished shredding – and i wouldn't be slow about it!

well one thing finally did happen fast today. see big dummy was trying to follow the instructions of the deck hands at the charleston harbor marina (where we are stopped for the night) and they wanted him to dock in this little corner that had no room to maneuver and a swift current pushing the boat toward the dead end and a huge sport fishing boat. b.d. realized it wouldn't be easy and actually made a 360 once just before it was too late and made a second try with the bow tucked in closer. but the current was too swift and caught the stern and suddenly we were slammed t-bone against the bow of that big fishing boat with our rigging tangled in his bow pulpit and the current pushing the keel so that we were pinned under there at about a 20 degree angle. it was a very ugly sight and some very ugly words were being uttered. eventually b.d. realized it wasn't such a hot idea to follow the instructions of the goofballs at the marina. i think it was just after one of them said if it makes you feel any better that boat gets hit all the time. anywho b.d. called his insurance company and they sent out a boat to pull us off the bow of that other boat and get us situated. fortunately it didn't cost us anything and it doesn't seem there was any damage to either boat to speak of so b.d. went ashore and had a bottle of cold beer and a low country pulled pork sandwich and watched a fantastic sunset over charleston. there are lots of dolphins here and they swim around the boat and the docks and blow their noses at us and sometimes even stick their heads out of the water to look at us. cool.

now we're going to get some sleep and get the heck out of dodge before anything else happens. g'night all. keep purring and kissing on each other.

peace

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

november 13 saturday

we made it to savannah! we are tied up at big dummy's friend's dock and will be here a couple of days eating hot meals, taking hot showers, provisioning, and doing laundry etc. i met a couple of dogs to play with here. they are mastifs so they slobber all over me but i won't let them get on the boat so they can't make a mess down here.

peace

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

bashing about in the gulf stream

friday november 5 cape fear no' cal ina

well we started out with fine weather yesterday (leaving camp lejunne) but the radio voice said one hundred percent chance of rain and about noon it hit about two hundred percent to make up for the dry morning. i stayed below but b.d. put on his lobster man suit and hung tough till we got to wrightsville beach where of course it stopped raining as soon as we dropped the anchor. we ran into scott and kitty (the “other kitty”) of the Tamure while we were there and they told b.d. about a wonderful mexican restaurant so of course he left me alone on the boat and rowed ashore to check it out. then he slept and slept and slept and this morning when he finally got up all the other boats we had been traveling with were already gone. what a lazy bum.

so we didn't make much progress today. we're in southport anchored in the tiny harbor and will stay at least tonight while b.d. works out a course for getting us to savannah maybe in one stretch depending on the weather. at least the sun is shining today and we did have a little fun this morning while b.d. was fueling at a dock in wrightsville. see b.d. thought he'd be smart and tether me to the boat so i couldn't wander off while he was looking the other way but i jumped off the boat anyway. just couldn't go very far cause of that dang tether. when i jumped back on the boat i got that thing wrapped around a stanchion and next thing i knew i only had about six inches of tether to work with. as you can imagine that didn't set well with me so i wiggled and squirmed and ducked and pulled and guess what i found out i can actually get out of that harness! woohoo! but i was so tired by then i just went below decks instead of wandering off on the dock. that was enough excitement for one day.

one observation today. the further south we get the more hot exchanges we hear among the crews of the other boats we see. funny how weeks and weeks of intracoastal waterway navigation can put a damper on relationships of husbands and wives, kids and parents, buddies, etc. but i gotta tell you me and b.d. are still tight and very happy with each other. he might be dumb as a box of rocks but at least he's always my best friend and he never ever calls me names or shouts at me even when i walk on his face in the middle of the night or wake him with my exercise routine at four a.m. even when i'm hiding under a deck he just figures it must be time to do the laundry and take a shower until i get done clearing out all the dustbunnies and cobwebs under there. he's a pretty nice skipper. think i'll keep him.

purrs and kisses

peace

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

sunday november 7

no good sail goes unpunished and every sailor knows that when a strong wind blows against a strong current the result is massive, confused seas. well b.d. had this wonderful idea that we could take advantage of a weather window yesterday and sail from cape fear to savannah and at first that was a lovely idea. all morning long we had nice wind and big fat rolling seas and blue blue sunshine with the occasional fair weather cloud. then afternoon came and we had to pay for that morning ride. in fact it got so rough that we decided to change course to wherever the nearest shelter was (although we were tempted for a moment to just follow the wind all the way to the bahamas until we took into consideration a certain thomas who is hanging down around that area. b.d. got busy on the chart plotter and wouldn't you know, as usual is the case at a time like this, the nearest shelter was thirty miles away and nearly upwind. so he bowsed the jib, the staysail, and put a double reef in the main and started up the iron jenny. the next ten hours was hell. b.d. was seasick in spite of the behind-the-ear patch he wears for occasions such as this. i must admit he's really developing his vomiting skills. he used to say he would rather cut off an arm than throw up and if he did get nauseous he would be completely incapacitated til it was over. but no such luxury when survival of self, boat, and crew is at stake.

well no need to linger on that crazy trip. you've heard it all before except that this time it was like all the other times rolled up into one – except that it wasn't raining. the first time we took a breaker right over the boat b.d. was surprised by how warm the water was. then it dawned on him that we had wandered into the gulf stream and that explained the wild conditions given the strong north wind we were trying to ride down to georgia.

so today we're resting and drying out at this little hole called emmetts inlet. sleeping and sleeping and thinking of that line in an old sailor song “a man must be blind to make up his mind to go to sea once more.” b.d. swears never again. yeah. right.

purrs and kisses

peace

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

november 1 monday

hooboy there is never a dull minute living with big dummy. let me tell you about today. see we were quite enjoying being anchored at silver lake which is the town on ocracoke island especially after that fiasco getting into the harbor but this morning b.d. called a predawn crew meeting. never good news at one of those. like when he says not to worry lass everything is under control. that means time to worry. anywho at this meeting he announces that there is bad weather coming and we have a choice of either staying in this harbor all week or making a run for it. i don't like the sound of “make a run for it”. sounds kinda like “lets give it the old college try.” in other words odds are against us but lets be stupid and risk our lives anyway. damn the torpedoes full speed ahead and all that rot.

he asks my opinion as first mate of course and i say heck no lets just stay right here all week and let that weather move on past. but what he heard was “meow” and he says “righeeoh then its unanimous. we'll have a light breakfast, secure all loose gear and weigh anchor at first light. don't worry it won't be all that rough” but i knew he was lying because he was sticking one of those round band-aids behind his ear and putting on his slicker jacket (but not his slicker pants for which mistake he paid dearly as you will read in a moment.)

to be fair he did warn me that the first couple of hours we'd be bashing to windward but then we'd make a turn downwind and have a sleigh ride across pamlico sound.

we bashed all right. all that gear we secured came unsecured when a couple of things broke that were holding them in place and bottles of water, the bicycle, the short-wave radio, books, tools, etc. etc. chased me around the cabin for the entire day! b.d. was busy hand steering so we wouldn't get sideways to one of those giant waves so he was too busy to come down and help me any. finally we made the turn downwind and b.d. decided to let the autohelm take over for a while. he hooked it up and turned with his back to the sea and bent over to make some adjustments. about that time a sarah palin wave came breaking over the stern right into the cockpit. sailors call this getting “pooped”. now remember b.d. didn't have on his rubber overalls so most of that wave ended up in his back pants pockets. i guess we can say he got pooped in his pants. ha! that was sooooo funny!

but the fun didn't end there. somewhere along the way the dinghy got flipped over again and it was fun watching him deal with that. if he did that every day he would have muscles like charles atlas.

but he saved the best for last. you can try this at home. before you go to bed at night check the oil in your car. then instead of putting the dipstick back into the dipstick hole just jam it in between a couple of linkages so it feels like it is in the right place. then in the morning start the engine and run it hard all day or until the low oil pressure idiot light comes on and the warning alarm says BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!

then open the hood and see what a pretty mess you've made. again to be fair i have to admit the dipstick hole on the JoHee's engine is nearly impossible to see no matter where you stick your head. it has to be handled by feel. still i gotta tell you that little hole can spray out a lot of oil in eight or nine hours of motoring. and it covers every single inch of every single item in that engine compartment – engine, walls, storage bins, hoses, pumps, filters, switches, wires, spare parts.......everything. well at least the oil helps prevent rust. b.d. says he's just gonna let it stay there but don't tell uncle pierre. he always kept the engine so clean and shiny he would be sick if he could see this mess.

anyway we did have a very fast crossing of pamlico sound arriving at oriental north carolina (i wonder if there is an occidental south carolina) by lunch time so we kept moving and now we're anchored alongside the icw somewhere north of morehead city. i'm just going to sit on the cabin top and smell the birds while b.d. makes an attempt to clean up the messes......

toodles

kitty

first mate

s/v JoHee

ocracoke

october 23 saturday

big dummy lied to me we didn't go down the dismal swamp canal after all. but where we went sure looks mostly like a dismal swamp. it is called the virginia cut and we motored through a whole bunch of draw bridges and even through one lock spending most of the day with the same group of sailboats and motor yachts. of course the JoHee was the slowest boat of the bunch so we were always the last ones to arrive at the bridge or lock. but everybody was patient.

one of the motor yachts was called Lucky Me but they weren't so lucky because their propeller fell off way out in the middle of nowhere – well actually it was somewhere. but it was in that big swamp. big dummy stopped and towed them to shore and helped them tie up at a place that had a lot of big signs saying don't tie up here you might be shot or something like that. it was a jet fuel storage place that belongs to somebody named blackwater. big dummy pointed out the signs to the people on Lucky Me and recommended bullet-proof vests over their bikinis and then he got us the heck outa there. he made them promise not to tell the f.b.i. we helped them tie up there.

of course once we stopped to help those yachties the rest of the gang got way far away from us so now we're all alone and anchored at a place called pongo ferry. sounds like the name of a video game doesn't it? uncle russ recommended stopping here cause they have a “great buffet” - only they don't anymore cause the place is all boarded up and there is a “for sale” sign on it. sorry uncle russ – we tried. big dummy had a can of beans for dinner – cold.

oh almost forgot to tell you we saw a snowy egret today. and a couple of bald eagles too. nice thing about swamps – birds like them. but eagles and egrets are too big for me to catch and eat them so guess i'll just look at them until i get bigger.

north carolina tomorrow. woohoo!

peace and love

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

october 28 thursday

we've been in this neat little harbor for a few days hanging out with the fishermen and our friend mike of the Paviti Tern. we started out from newport together and have connected in a few places along the way. this town is called wanchese and it is on roanoke island in no' cal ina. there are only a handful of sailboats here but lots of commercial and sport fishing boats. the really cool thing is we get to stay here for free because we are friends of friends of the guy who owns the marina and also they serve really inexpensive meals ($4) here that always include grits of course. and the fishermen have given us rides to town for shopping and etc. they are surprisingly nice to us wind jockeys. but then mike is a retired commercial fisherman so he feels right at home with them. mike is always nice to me too but he won't let me explore his wonderful old wooden boat (built in 1932 and rebuilt by mike recently) cause he says he's allergic to cats. how can that be i ask you. that's like being allergic to air or water. geez. maybe it is a weird condition that is related to his agent orange exposure in vietnam.

hard to find a wi-fi connection around these parts so may be a while before you get this. big dummy says we'll probably stop on ocrakoke island next when we get a good weather window. meanwhile we're enjoying hanging out here and getting some little projects done on the boat and helping mike with his. b.d. climbed way up to the top of mike's mast the other day to change a light bulb and as put it in it exploded so he had to come down and do it all over again. that was funny. turned out it was a bulb for a 24 volt system. oops. i love watching b.d. make a public fool of himself.

purrs and kisses

later.....

well old mike the retired commercial fisherman always has a thing or two to teach big dummy about boats and sailing. today's lesson was a really interesting one that i thought you'd like to hear about. remember mike's boat is an old wooden boat and wooden boats always leak – to some extent. but during this trip the Paviti Tern has developed a leak that makes the bilge pump come on every 45 minutes. that was more than mike was comfortable with so he and b.d. worked on it today and got the leak stopped. but you'll never guess how they did it. first they pumped the bilges as dry as they could then took out everything and then used a shop vac to get the wood as dry as they could to locate the leak. they found it way down behind the engine. next they got a bunch of sawdust and a bunch of paper bags. they filled those bags one at a time and taped them to the end of a pole and pushed them down along the hull on the outside of the boat (in the water – with b.d. sitting in his dinghy and mike leaning over the side of the boat to help guide the pole) then rubbed those bags along the hull till they broke and all that sawdust floated up against the hull. they did this till they ran out of sawdust – about eight bags or so. then they checked the leak and tada! it had stopped! that sawdust got sucked right into where the water was seeping through and then swelled up with moisture and that blocked the leak. what a cool trick, eh? mike says they used to do this every day when they used old leaky boats for commercial fishing because they would open their seams whenever they went out and if they didn't do the sawdust thing when they came back in the morning to go out again the boat would be sunk at the dock!

the weather is supposed to be windy and dry tomorrow to we're planning to leave right after breakfast for okrakoke. i wonder if that's where they grow okra?

peace

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

october 29 friday

ha. big dummy did it again. we ain't goin nowhere today. the wind came up during the night and blew all the water out of the harbor so now we are careened at the dock. well it is a good day for naps and reading cause that wind brought some cool weather with it. the last couple of days have actually been too hot – almost ninety degrees!

b.d. is taking a ride into town with one of the local fishermen so maybe he'll find a place to post this through the wi-fi. maybe.

peace

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

halloween

obviously bd never found a wi-fi in wanchese but we are in ocracoke now and b.d. is going into town for a lunch of slimy ocra and a bottle of coke – i think. we almost didn't make it here. we went aground about a hundred times last night just as we were getting to this island. b.d. was so busy watching the most magnificent sunset he's ever seen that he didn't notice that the usual “red right returning” rule of channel markers was switched around for some reason. at one point he even called the coast guard because we bounced so far into this sandbar it seemed impossible that we'd ever get off and they put him in touch with boat u.s. (he's a member and has insurance through them) and they were all set to come and rescue us but told him it would cost about $1100 after the insurance paid their share. so bd said never mind we'll just keep bouncing until we get to other side of the sandbar – which we did. ha! fortunately there was enough water on the other side to make it back to the channel. what a night i tell you. b.d. was very glad to get anchored and into bed and his back is killing him but we didn't have to pay eleven hundred dollars anyway.

actually i knew something like this was going to happen so when we were getting ready to leave wanchese yesterday morning i ran away and made b.d. come looking for me. then twice when he thought he had me safely on the boat i jumped off again. heh heh. what a fun game. finally b.d. locked me below deck while he cast off the lines and didn't let me out until we were too far to jump. no fair.

well other than all that mess with the sandbars and all it was a fun sail yesterday.

purrs and kisses

peace

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

pelicans and dolphins and fish farms oh my

october 21

sometimes i just don't get big dummy. yesterday it rained all day so what did we do – sailed in the rain. fast. downwind. today the sun is shining and the wind is blowing like snot so what have we been doing all day? sitting here with the anchor in the mud, sleeping, drying things out, reading books, and “resting”. like we've done something we need to rest from....ha!

anywho it is a very pretty place even if it doesn't smell like fish like it did where we were a couple of days ago (reedville virginia). actually this is about the prettiest place we've ever stayed and the people are really really nice too. we are in horn harbor (nearest town is port haywood virgnia) and b.d. tells me we're going to leave on the high tide at eight tomorrow morning and that we'll be in the dismal swamp canal before dark. sounds lovely doesn't it? probably catfish in there. b.t.w. the horn harbor marina is for sale if anybody is interested. i hope the new owner is as nice as the lady who owns it now. she even made a special trip in to town to get b.d. the right kind of oil and an o-ring and invited him to use the showers (people always invite him to use the shower – what's up with that? i always thought the smell of low tide was kind of nice....)

well i gotta tell you about the stupid thing b.d did the other night see he wanted to sail until late at night cause he got worried that we weren't getting south fast enough so we sailed until ten thirty. but what he wasn't counting on was that there are these fish farms (when i retire again i think i'll be a fish farmer!) which are really just some long slender poles stuck in the mud that hold nets. well the poles and nets aren't substantial enough for the radar to “hit” on them when you have the sea scatter filter set on “rough” which it was. fortunately the pelicans are big enough that when they get a few feet off the water they set off the radar alarm. you shoulda seen b.d.'s face when he turned on the gazillion candle power spotlight to see what the heck that was so close to the boat without lights and he smiled and said to me “oh lookie it's just pelicans...” then kept turning towards the bow with that light and suddenly there is a big ol fence only a few feet away and, did i say we were moving real fast? he yelled something not very nice that translates as “evasive action helms hard over watchyerhead she's gonna jibe!” we made a one eighty and dodged that one only to find ourselves, seconds later, doing the same thing again for another and yet another! whew! my ears were hurting by the time we got clear of that mess b.d. was using words i never heard before and i'm sure they weren't nice ones. we double checked the charts and according to them we were in clear open water with nada but clear open water. lesson don't trust the charts. hey didn't we learn that one in barnegut bay? also lesson don't sail after dark unless you are way the heck out in the open ocean even with the radar going and all that. also lesson pelicans are cool – not only do they carry a suitcase under their beaks they save stupid night sailors who are about to crash into their dinner troughs.

well that's all for now. fair winds and following seas to you.

peace and love

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

october 22 friday

after my morning workout which consists of about two hours of bouncing off every conceivable surface below decks and waking b.d. a million times i was doing my morning bath and b.d. finished breakfast and brought up the hook then off we went into the sunrise with b.d. singing some stupid song about feeling groovy and something about the morning sun is rising like a red rubber ball. and it was. but i was too involved in my bath even when b.d. started calling me to come up and look at the dolphins. he won't let me eat them so i pretended i didn't hear him.

so we had another day of excellent downwind sailing this time with sunshine even if it was a bit cool. and we had another gang of dolphins greet us at thimble shoals just outside norfolk virginia which is where we are now. a heckofalotta gray ships in this place. all coming and going at the same time so we had to keep a sharp eye out. now we're in this marina that uncle russ recommended and we're surrounded by these really big motor yachts that probably use more fuel cooking breakfast than we use cruising for a week. silly yachties. b.d. says if he had that kind of money he'd wipe out a couple of major diseases in a dozen or so third world countries and still have money left enough to cruise on the JoHee the rest of his life.

but he doesn't so he won't.

well tomorrow we're back into the canals so sailing is over for now. oh well.

fair winds and following seas to ya.

peace and love

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee