Battery Problems in Wrightsville

Thursday November 6th: Swansboro 

We anchored in Swansboro and then immediately lowered the dinghy and took it into the town's dinghy dock so as to stretch our legs and have a look around. Bob is locking up the dinghy. Sea Change is in the background.

Friday, November 7: Wrightsville, NC

We've left the creeks and rivers behind and we're traveling through dredged channels and marshes. Money for dredging is scarce and the guidebooks warn of shoaling along channel edges and shallow spots at low tide. Here we watch depths with extra vigilance and keep to the channel within the wider waters - as shown on our GPS chart.

The restrictions of a narrow channel require cooperation among boaters. VHF channel 16 is used by fast boats to signal a pass by as in "Sea Change, this is Big Boat on your stern. I'd like to pass you on your port side. If you back off (slow down), I'll give you a slow pass by." Slow boats like us acknowledge, comply and say thank you. On occasion a fast boater will roar by leaving a slow boat tossing about in the wake. Then the VHF comes alive with angry recriminations. "Big Boat, you are handling your boat in an unsafe manner. It is customary to slow down when passing another boat!" Less decorous words are sometimes used.

There is a tendency to more chit chat on VHF channel 16 than we are accustomed to. For non boaters, channel 16 is a hailing and distress channel only. Users are expected to switch to a "working channel" for any other conversation. Some here take the attitude that if their exchange is short, why switch channels? When asked to move off 16 by a fellow boater, I heard one caller respond, "Put your big boy pants on. We weren't very long!" Listening to the VHF can be very entertaining.

We heard another interesting exchange on the VHF yesterday. A group of 10 boats had been waiting for over 30 minutes for the ICW to re-open at 3:00 p.m. (as had been promised). It had been closed by the LeJeune Training Camp for use of their rifle range. They shoot across the channel! When the captain of one of the boats called to inquire why they were not opening, he was told that the new time was 4:00. Since by 5:30 boaters should be anchoring or pulling into a marina to be secure before dark, a 4:00 opening was problematic. The military spokesperson said that he was just "following orders". The captain then called the Coast Guard to complain, saying that the extended closing was creating an "unsafe situation". We didn't hear any more because, at the time, we were anchoring ourselves but the caller was, in fact, one of the group we had for drinks on our boat a couple of days ago. He has spent part of his work life in the merchant marine and knew that he had a right to challenge the cavalier closing of the waterway. I don't think that he got far that day as he, and I assume the other boats were unable to move on and doubled back to find an anchorage before dark, but he said that he would be writing a letter to the person in command. (I use the word "Captain" here to refer to our friend since we've heard it so often on our travels south of the border. Men on boats are called captain, or "cap" by dock attendants, marina personal, etc. There's a bit of a struggle when they search for a word to address women on board.)

To time our own pass by the Camp LeJeune range, we got up at 5:30 am yesterday morning to listen to the Coast Guard "Notices to Mariners" which communicates when the ICW will be closed and also warns of areas of the channel where shoaling has become a problem - at least that's what we read. The announcer spoke quickly, ran his words together and was completely unintelligible. It sounded like gibberish to us and we were none the wiser. However, when we passed by the area about 8 am, there was no activity.

We anchored in Wrightsville yesterday afternoon. We haven't lowered the dinghy yet, but this looks to be a fairly large centre. This morning while I cleaned out grubby crooks and crannies, Bob has been grappling with our recurrent non-starting engine. More often than we'd like, he has to start the generator to get the engine to turn over. After much poking about and engine stopping and starting Bob thinks that we might have a faulty starting battery. He's still testing.

Bob has confirmed that he can get a replacement battery from West Marine. Possible next problem - how to get the battery off the boat and then to the West Marine in neighbouring Willimgton. There's a bus that goes there but a battery is awfully heavy. Perhaps a cab? We'll see what the "Cap" has up his sleeve.