[Rhodes22-list] cheungs trip to edenton narrative (long)

[Mike Cheung]

We flew from KAKR to KEDE on Saturday morning.  The trip down involved “end
arounding” a very nasty storm system that stretched from just NE of
Columbus, OH across WV all the way to the middle of PA.  We were filed IFR
KAKR to TVT (a radio navigation aid near Columbus) then direct to KEDE.  It
almost worked out that way except we ended up clipping the western part of
the storm system and had to pick our way through after climbing to 15,000
feet and putting on the oxygen.  No biggie, that’s exactly what the Mooney
231 is good at.  We reached KEDE after a 2 hour 40 minute flight, topped the
plane’s fuel tanks, and tied N1168N down for the next two nights.  

The FBO (translation – marina for airplanes) lent us a courtesy car and we
took all our stuff over to GBI and met Cesar, a new employee, who showed us
in to Stan’s office to meet Stan.  Stan took over, introduced us to Rose,
and showed us around the plant.  He has several boats in processing inside
the plant, I’d guess about a half dozen or so.  Most are being recycled
though he did have one brand spanking new hull that they’re working on and I
think one other new boat that’s nearly complete.  This was inside the plant. 
Outside sat probably another ten or so boats on trailers.  I’m not sure what
their status was.  So, all in all, for a small manufacturer, pretty busy
looking.  

After the tour, we transferred all our stuff out of the courtesy car into
Rose’s car and I took the courtesy car back to KEDE while Stan, Rose, and my
wife, Mary, came along in Rose’s car to pick me up.  Cesar followed in a
van.  Cesar, who’s new, had not yet sailed on a Rhodes and Stan wanted to
bring him along on the test sail.  After returning the car to KEDE, we all
went over to Rose and Stan’s house and transferred the gear and provisions
onto the boat, NC5040X, no name painted on the side.  I didn’t lean over and
try to read the HIN, but the boat looks to be a late 80’s model.  She had
IMF, enclosed head with marine toilet and holding tank, the new electric
motor raising system, tiller mounted remote engine controls, and a
motor/tiller interconnect system.  This last was unfortunately damaged, but
still worked.  Apparently, whoever last used NC5040X had probably raised the
motor without first disconnecting the motor/tiller interconnect.  There were
at least three ways to rig the genoa: outside all stays, inside the outer
stay, and inside the inner stays.  The galley counter held an ice box was a
front loader with an icebox on top with a spigot to drain meltwater.  Stove
was under a cutting board and was a little C4H10 burner.  Stan had forgotten
to grab another C4H10 canister at the factory, so we were left with
uncertain fuel status.  Based on earlier comments on the list, I should have
remembered to ask.  Cockpit filler system was onboard, but we removed it as
Mary and I did not plan to use it.  NC5040X had a dual battery, solar
recharged system without an A/B switch.  So the engine start battery and
house battery were completely separate.  There was a macerator and Y-valve
installed for the waste system.  The water tank was a converted Rubbermaid
container.  Stan believed that the boat has the diamond keel.  There were
two top opening hatches and the two forward ports opened.  This boat has the
Captain’s chairs which look funny at first, but do grow on one with use. 
There was little in the way of instrumentation: a compass that only sort of
worked, a depth finder that didn’t work, and no wind indicator.

Stan walked us, including Cesar, through the systems on the boat.  Then all
four of us motored out of Stan’s creek with me at the tiller.  We got out to
the Yeopim River and got the sails up with the genoa in the outermost
position outside all stays.  There was a light/moderate wind, I’d guess in
the 10 knot range, out of the WNW.  We sailed a bit, trying the various
points of sail.  Stan had us “accidentally” jibe to show us how benign that
is in the Rhodes.  After about an hour, maybe a little less, we headed back
to Stan’s creek under sail.  On return, Stan had us sail back to this dock. 
Fortunately, he took the tiller for the last part of that approach and
planted us squarely alongside.  

At that point it was probably 14:30 or so and Stan turned the boat over to
us and he & Cesar went away.  Mary and I squared away our gear and
provisions and motored out of the creek, probably around 15:00.  Our
original plan had been to reposition to Edenton, but that had be erroneously
premised on our getting the boat at the plant not on the Yeopim.  Guess I
should have asked.  With the wind out of the WNW, getting to Edenton before
dark didn’t seem like a particularly likely outcome so we instead headed
over towards Columbia to the south.  Naturally before long the wind shifted
more to the SW, got up a bit, and got gusty, so we got to beat our way into
Columbia under less than ideal conditions.  It took until about 19:00 to get
across and tied up at Columbia.  We tied up at the city pier.  In getting
there we mistakenly headed into the small marina nearby and had to backtrack
a little.  At Columbia The winds heading over were 10 to 15 knots and we had
some fun figuring out how to rig the sails, but all-in-all it worked out
okay.  We were fighting the boat way more than necessary though.  We did
discover when we tied up that the boat had very little in the way of
docklines; one 20’ or so line with loops at each end and some smaller, thin
poly lines.  This wasn’t too big a deal as we were tied up alongside a dock
and only needed to tie up fore and aft.  We walked into town to get ice and
found some about a ¼ mile from the docks.  There did look to be a handful of
taverns open that we could have visited, but we were tired and headed back
to the boat with the ice.  I couldn’t quickly figure out how to get the
onboard stove to light and we had a cold dinner of summer sausage, cheese,
veggies & dip, and a bottle of home vinted red wine (a Pinot, making home
vinted wines is a hobby of mine).  The attempt at lighting the stove was
half-hearted and having the dinner described above out in the cockpit after
rigging the table was very pleasant.  We rigged the pop-top cover and
retired to the cabin after dinner.  It was then that we discovered that the
house battery was a little tired.  It provided cabin lights for about 10
minutes, then quit.  Oh well.  We had an LED flashlight with us that let us
get the cabin dinette rigged for sleeping and called it a night.  

In the morning, we headed out almost immediately after getting up and
squaring away the boat because we hoped we might make one of the masses over
in Edenton if we were lucky.  We only dallied long enough for me to use a
backpacking stove I’d carried as backup to make coffee (brewed in a French
press, not instant!).  I estimate we were underway by about 07:30. 
Unfortunately the winds were not with us and making it to Edenton in time
for mass was not to be.  The winds were again out of the west at about 10 –
15 knots, but steady this time.  It took us until about noon to reach the
bridge and just after we crossed under it the wind died to nothing.  It had
been dropping steadily as the morning wore on.  The good news was that it
was a glorious, sunny morning, and with a little less gusty conditions we
were able to experiment with the sails and somewhat make peace with the
boat.  The Rhodes really does sail pretty well all on its own in moderate,
steady winds.    When the Admiral was tending the helm I tried out every
conceivable position for the genoa using the guides and cleats the boat had. 
We used the becalmed time to have a pleasant lunch of sandwiches, more
veggies & dip, and nice, cool meltwater from the icebox.  Our thanks to Stan
for making sure we knew to use the meltwater that way!

Fortunately the wind began to blow again by about 14:00 or so and we made
reasonable time getting into Edenton after lunch, making it to the city
docks at about 17:00.  If you’re cruising the Albemarle, the city docks at
Edenton are really very, very nice.  They have a little office building with
his and hers showers.  They usually have ice.  And, best of all, the first
two days are free!  The attendant helped us get tied up and was kind enough
to call a couple of restaurants to see who was open on a Sunday evening. 
Waterman’s was closed, but Sean’s was open and we ate there between two
thunderstorms that visited Edenton.  The attendant also was kind enough to
drive to get ice as they were out at the dock office.  The first
thunderstorm hit while we were getting settled.  The lines we had were
barely sufficient, in my view, during the first one.  So after it let up we
used the line from the mainsheet to double up the thin lines that we were
using aft.  The heavier single line with two loops we had used forward on
the slip outer piers and that seemed to work well enough.  With her tied off
at all four corners and the lighter lines doubled by the mainsheet things
seemed secure enough.  A second thunderstorm rolled through after we got
back to the boat after dinner and we were glad we’d increased our docklines. 
There were probably 40 – 50 knot gusts and pretty heavy rain.  We had the
pop top cover on and it did great except that the windows on the sides blew
up and let rain blow in.  We held towels over them from the inside to keep
things reasonably dry.  The Velcro closures on the pot top cover windows
just don’t secure them well enough in a good blow.  Other than that,
everything stayed tight and dry.  I admit to being a little concerned about
N1168N at KEDE, but she was securely tied down, though only with single
lines, and had her cover on.

We were enjoying a bottle of wine after a very nice dinner at Seans when
Stan & Rose showed up to be sure we weren’t soaked to the skin and in need
of the facilities of the “not quite Hilton” in the factory.  Talk about
thoughtful!  And lucky, since he had no way of knowing whether we’d be in
Edenton or not.  The power had gone out at their house during the storms and
they drove about a bit and decided to check on us.  We assured Stan we were
fine and would stay the night with the boat.  They headed for home and we
rigged the boat for sleep.  Again, the house battery only powered the cabin
lights for about 10 minutes.  That was fine, we planned a reasonably early
departure the next day so that we’d get back to Stan’s creek in the early
afternoon and get N1168N airborne by mid-afternoon.

We were treated to a beautiful, sunny morning on Monday.  I had figured out
how to operate the C4H10 installed stove by then and used it to make a
breakfast of egg beaters, sausage, toast, with OJ and coffee.   We delayed
our departure until 09:00 to await the dock attendant to try to pump out the
holding tank.  Alas, they did not have the right sized adapter for the deck
fitting.  It looks like it must be 1 1/8 NPT threaded.  All the docks had
were 1 ¼ and 1 ½ NPT adapters.  We repositioned the boat to the commercial
marina west of town, off a small creek, near the bridge.  It’s pretty much a
self-serve marina and while the pump out was powered, we still didn’t have
an adapter.  So we didn’t get underway out of Edenton until probably 10:00.  

We motored out of Edenton to the end of the channel markers and got under
sail.  The wind was probably WNW at around 10 knots.  So we were able to
sail between a port broad reach and a port beam reach.  We were able to stay
on that point of sail all the way to the bridge.  I timed us between the
power lines and the bridge.  That took just over an hour which put us at
right about 5 knots.  We had a very light wind for the last third of that
trip so that really seemed pretty good.  We crossed under the bridge shortly
before noon and the wind freshened and shifted more to the north putting us
more on a close reach.  Or so we thought.  A couple of times we let the boat
head up and ended up blown over pretty well as if the wind had shifted
westerly without our realizing it.  I suspect this is really due to our not
knowing how to handle the big genoa right and probably being sheeted tighter
than need be, but even explicitly retrimming often, it happened a couple of
times.  It got so bad once while I was at the helm that we “let go all” and
sat there to think about it.  I really missed a wind indicator then.  Now
one good thing about that was I really am impressed at how resistant to
getting blown over the Rhodes is.  I really blew it during one of those
excursions and sailed her straight abeam the wind with the genoa and main
fully out and close hauled.  The Rhodes went right through it though it was
a little more excitement than we needed.  Someone will have to talk me
through what I did wrong sometime.  Stan thought we might have gotten into
some swirling wind conditions in which case we’re just guilty of not picking
that up.  

The wind died again just outside of the baylike area outside of the Yeopim
River.  Rather than wait it out, we fired up the motor and motored in from
there.  We reached Stan’s dock about 14:30 and gave Stan a call at the
factory to come fetch us.  Stan & Rose came to get us.  Rose stayed home,
but Stan drove us to KEDE and we got there about 15:30.  I paid Stan for the
rental of NC5040X; he accepted on the condition that we consider converting
it into a down payment on a Rhodes.  That was certainly an acceptable
condition!  We’re thinking that over carefully.  We were wheels up by 16:00
and, after two photo passes along the north shore of the Albemarle to get
pictures of the plant and especially the wilderness behind it that Stan &
Rose also own, we headed NNW to home.  The flight back was uneventful with
very nice weather though I did file IFR anyway as a matter of habit.  We
made it back in 2 hours 50 minutes. 

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