Day started off cool with strong head winds and waves, again on the nose. We went about 4 miles and the engine started to slow down. Figured that it was a clogged fuel filter so we got into the lee of the shore and dropped the anchor and changed it. Worked fine after that but suspect that we may have a bad tank of fuel. From there we went onto a long sound that was a couple of miles wide and vanished over the horizon, so it was several hours of pounding into them until we got a change in course and could get the jib out. Speed went from 4′s to 7′s on the turn. The sound lasted for almost 20 miles before we got into another narrower section with mostly pine forests along each side. From there we went onto a long wide river for several more miles and then to the town of Oriental. When I was checking the engine in the morning I found a broken bolt on the bracket that holds the adjusting arm for the alternator. Figured that it should hold for the day and that we would be able to find one in Oriental. The town of Oriental is called the “sailing capital of North Carolina”. Cannot argue that but it is very friendly to boaters. There is a town dock which you are allowed to stay at for 48 hours per month. A few blocks away they have a dinghy dock for people who anchor in the harbour. Once we got tied up it was shoes on and off to find a hardware store. There is one in town which we found out. There was also a small grocery store. We talked to a couple who came by the boat and they say they drive 30 miles to a larger store. There is also a store that has used boat stuff, anchors chain etc etc. Got the stuff I needed to do the repairs, a metric 6×14 bolt and aluminum putty. Got work done by supper time and then phoned Homeland Security to advise them of my arrival at Oriental, which I had forgotten to do in the rush to get the engine repaired. Was told by homeland security that I had never phoned in before and there was no record of me since West Palm. Told the officer that I had been phoning in each time that I tied to a dock as advised. Then gave him the names of the officers that I had talked to, the dates and locations. Said that was Ok and not to phone North Carolina any more on this trip. Did phone 3 different 24 hour phone numbers before I could get an open office. Must find a more up to date publication with numbers than the March 2011 issue. We did see lots of Dolphins today, probably in the neighbourhood of 50 to 70. This is the first day that we have seen large pods of them. One pod I counted 8.
The other thing that was interesting was one stretch we went through that was relatively narrow was filled with boats fishing clams. One half of the river all the clamming was manual with the people doing it using rakes. On the other half of the river in a one mile stretch there were probably 20 boats that were using mechanical means. They have a conveyer belt and scoop they lower into the water and as the boat goes forward it scoops them off the bottom and they pick out the live ones as they come up the conveyor belt and the empty shells just go over the back of the boat. That is the only place we saw any boats doing this. There were also about a dozen boats that were dragging trawl nets. They would fill the net, bring the net up and then sort out the live ones. Spent a quiet night at Oriental until someone tossed a beer bottle on the deck.
Read more of the adventures of Jim and Phyllis at: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/chainreactiontoo/
