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

[Brad Haslett]

Mike,

Nice story!  All I can say is, one flight in my straight 35 V-tail and you'd
be throwing rocks at the Mooney!

Brad

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:59 PM, Mike Cheung <mikecheung at att.net> wrote:

>
> 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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