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

baltimore maryland, inner harbor thursday october 14, 2010

as usual there are many things i could say to criticize big dummy but today I'm going to be nice to him because his father passed away while we were sailing to baltimore which was kind of fortuitous because b.d. has a brother who lives here and now we get to visit him and his lovely wife in their lovely home in the burbs. it is a bittersweet visit of course and appropriately it is raining cats and you-know-whats. but the weather has been wonderful if not quite enough wind since the wild times just south of new york city so we're due for some rain. which hopefully will wash off the anchor and chain which are laying on the deck after anchoring last night in the toxic slippery mud of the baltimore harbor – b.d had to make four attempts before finally getting the anchor to hold but this morning decided to move to the baltimore city dock and tie up because a big wind is coming and he didn't trust that oily mud to hold the JoHee and keep her from crashing into the torsk or the constitution two historic ships (submarine and sailing ship) tied up on either end of the anchorage.

anywho we are enjoying the visit in spite of the situation and in case you wondered why we're not taking a break so b.d. can fly out to a funeral and stuff is because “the rev” specifically requested no funeral, no memorial service, and no burial only cremation. so we are mourning in our own way and continuing the trip probably on monday after this crappy weather gets past then maybe i'll tell you about more dumb stuff like when we went aground not once but twice in the barnagut bay and the coast guard finally came in the middle of the night and showed us where we could anchor out of the way until morning when we could see the buoys that marked the constantly moving channel.

that's all for now time for another nap on this sofa that doesn't move around while i'm sleeping. what a concept!

peace and love

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

the big apple is what big dummy calls this town. i don't know why. no room here for apple orchards or anything else cause they have all these really really tall houses jammed up against each other. i think there are giants living in those houses and i guess they must sleep standing up there is one b.d. called lady liberty standing on a rock holding a book and an ice cream cone. she would make a good mouser she stands so perfectly still for a long long time. b.d. says she moved here from france (so they must have giants in france too) and that she invited all those stinky foreigners to move here. if b.d. would sail up closer to her i'd pee on her rock see how she likes that. (note to include in c.a.t. party platform kick out all the french too except uncle pierre who is my friend)

anywho big dummy had a pretty big dummy type day yesterday. he had it all planned out see that we would leave rowayton home of the linkbelt monster which by the way i saw again - that we would leave at two oclock in the morning and would then hit hell gate at just the right time. well big dummy didn't count on being parked in the mud at low tide extreme in rowayton at two oclock and we wasn't goin nowhere brother! it was six thirty before we were afloat and moving. then of course b.d. had planned on another excellent downwind sleigh ride into the city but the wind wasn't any place close to east like it was supposed to be so by the time we got to hell gate it was exactly the wrong time. at first we did ok and even had some good laughs when we saw uncle russ go by on the boat he was delivering but then when we made the turn to go down the east side of manhattan a wall of water made us go nowhere but backwards. that was exciting like whitewater kayaking. when we finally gave up and turned downcurrent we actually hit 9.4 knots for a few seconds! woohoo and hold on cousin but that only lasted a minute before we were headed up the harlem river looking for a place to tie up or anchor since we are too tall to go around the north side of manhattan and come down the hudson. we found a place to anchor right off wards island and when the tide went out we were careened and everything fell down from the starbord side at the rate of about one item every three minutes and chased me all over the boat till i figured out the safest place to sleep was on top of big dummy. crazy night man i tell you.

and you wanna hear another big dummy story? ha! he has been planning all summer on taking a canal from big apple town to trenton new joisey to catch the delaware river there so we can avoid the delaware bay but guess what. there aint no such canal. sometimes he gets his dreams mixed up with real life i think like when he dreams he already put fresh food in my bowl in the morning.

from here big dummy says we are going to follow the ickwu. i don't know what that is but anything that starts with 'ick' sounds like fun to me. uncle russ gave b.d. lots of notes about fun places and nice people along the ickwu. can't wait to meet them and see all that stuff. question do alligators really eat anchor rodes? just curious.

peace and love

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

later

what a day! now we are in manasquan new joisey after a day of sailing mostly pretty ok but for about forty five minutes pretty hilarious. i’ll tell you about it see we were getting a lot of really strong wind out in ambrose channel and the chop was pretty huge so big dummy was flying only the working jib and the staysail which was like one jib too many but he was having fun so i didn’t say anything then all of a sudden bam! the wind went from turn your fur inside out to blow the whiskers clean off your face and suddenly the JoHee was on her side with the sheet blocks under water. i was screaming like god help us we’re all going to die and diving for the companionway but b.d. was trying to be all cool and stuff and said don’t worry it’s only a gust and she’ll right herself in a sec. only it wasn’t a gust and she didn’t right herself until finally b.d. let fly the jib and furled her in. apparently in the excitement he forgot to cleat the furling line for which consequence you will hear in a moment. after i had been hiding about half an hour i climbed out into the cockpit and said to b.d. how long are you planning to tow the dingy barnacle side up? he looked back and said something bad then spent the next fifteen minutes trying to get the dingy right side up again which he finally did just as a coast guard cutter appeared off our port bow. we were admiring how pretty the cutter was with the traditional white and the racing stripe instead of the new uber military schemes of the homeland security when suddenly zzzziiiiipppp bang! rattle rattle rattle rattle loud enough to make my ears hurt and once again i dove into the saloon and listened to b.d. on the radio saying sorry coast guard cutter i have a jammed headsail and am momentarily out of control then lots of thumping around up on the foredeck and cursing and whatnot until finally the rattling sound gradually went away then b.d. on the radio again saying thank you coast guard cutter for your patience and does this mean i don’t get the recommendation for crewing on the eagle? that is the coast guard academy’s training ship for those who don’t know their tall ships.

well with that three stage fiasco behind us we had a lovely day of sailing with only the staysail and now we’re in the ickwu so lots of motoring ahead and good thing b.d. did an oil change and changed all the filters and stuff before we left newport cause we’re gonna put a bunch of miles on the iron genny for the next few weeks.

peace and love

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

news from the s/v JoHee:

it is official now big dummy is trying to kill me. he told me that harness thingy he bought me was to keep me safe but a couple of nights ago after he got me all drenched from spray while we were bashing through the waves of the long island sound he decided he'd had enough and we went to a dock. it was two oclock on the morning and he was beat so i thought i'd help him tie up. i went to jump off the boat onto the dock but my tether was too short so halfway between the boat and the dock it stopped me in the air and dropped me into the water and held me there with my tail and my back legs splashing around. big dummy felt sorry for me so he hoisted me back onto the boat but i was pretty sore at him so didn't kiss him again untill he was sound asleep and i had got my tail and legs groomed all nice. anyway he either made that tether too long or too short cause all it did was make me get wet. that's just not right.

another thing that's not right i just heard on that communist radio station called npr that the new supreme court has only jews and catholics. hey. doesn't anybody besides me remember that this country was founded by puritans? i mean hello since when is it constitutional to have no protestants on the top court of the land that is supposed to keep all those stupid idiots in the house and senate from passing laws that go directly against what this country is supposed to stand for. so i decided it is time to start a new political party and do something about it cause if i don't then who the heck will.

at first i was gonna call it the pure american party which would be p.a.p. but then i realized that all the attack ads would be called pap smears and that just sounded gross.

so i decided to call it the coffee and tea party. much more civilized don't you think? c.a.t. party. how can you go wrong with a name like that.

here's the thing. i did a lot of research to find out just what makes this country so great and i'm telling you it is the greatest nation in the entire world and if you don't agree with me then you are attacking the constitution and should not be allowed to do anything like talk on the radio or teach school.

anywho i figured it all out. puritans founded this country. they are white. so if you aren't white go back where you came from. all you indians go back to your reservations and get a job. the declaration of independence says "...that all *men* are created equal..." so it only follows that women are less than equal. get to the back of the line ladies. most of the founding fathers and i don't use that term loosely had slaves so it must be alright. i got big dummy for instance and he doesn't complain so what's the big deal. also our history shows that we had laws that limited chinese and irish immigration and put all the folks of japanese ancestry into concentration camps. i respect that. would this country do it if it was wrong? no i tell you a million times no cause we are the greatest nation in the world so all you irish and chinese go home and japanese get back behind that fence.

i mean if we are going to realize our true greatness we have to begin with the fundamentals and that means looking back to the very beginning when white people discovered this empty continent and made it safe for protestant christianity just like the crusades did way back in the day. so all you true americans out there are you with me or against me. are you american and willing to stand on your hind legs and slash, hiss, and bite to protect the freedoms that all white protestant men were meant by god to enjoy? if your answer is no you know you are the enemy and probably a terrorist. if your answer is yes god bless you and join the c.a.t. party right away. don't forget to vote if you own land.