Oriental, NC to Duck Creek to Oriental, NC

We arrived just on schedule at Duck Creek Marina.  A lovely little place back on a beautiful channel.

Tyler from Maverick Marine met us at the dock and got busy right away.

They started removing the hardware.

David, the yard owner arrived minutes later with the crane.

Using a lift and the crane, they prepped the mast to be removed.

And just like that - off it came.  Amazingly simple process. 

Perfectly balanced, they just swing the mast over to the dock.

And set it on saw horses.  We'll be back to do some more grinding and painting in the days to come while we wait for Tyler to assemble the new rigging.

Then it was back to the 5 hour motor back to Fork Point!  A beautiful calm day.  Weird to be a "motor boat"!!

Back at the dock, Ed came over for a visit....he's been working hard over at Bridgeton getting their boat ready so that they can leave it while they have some other ventures!

 

Oriental to New Bern, NC

 We were up at first light to untie and get moving the 30 miles to Duck Creek Marina near New Bern for our 11am appointment with Maverick Marine, the rigger.  They’ll be removing the mast and constructing all new stainless rigging as required every 10 yrs by insurance. 

In case you’re not familiar, this is some of the rigging that will be replaced. It’s not necessarily bad or worn out, you just can’t tell by looking at it if there is internal corrosion. Hence, the replacement on time, not condition. 

Pretty and calm sunrise. Should be an easy motor (no sail)!

Oriental, NC

 

Laundry day - looks weird without the foresail!

Hot and sunny - neighbor Andy out for a nice sail on one of his tri-marans.

Duane and I went for a walk - saw this snake that I thought was a copperhead.  But Google helpfully says it's a fairly harmless Plain-bellied Water Snake.  I think I'll avoid him regardless!

Oriental, NC

It was time for Skyfall to depart as they have an appointment in a boatyard in Virginia soon for haulout.
 

It's been fun having them on the dock and they'll probably stop by again on their way south later in the summer.

We're still doing little chores while we wait for the Monday mast removal.  For years, I've hated our old corroded locker latches.  It just wasn't high on the priority list of things to fix.....

But we decided it was something that was fairly low cost and would be a nice upgrade for selling the boat.  New stainless latches all around.  (The small leftover pilot hole will be filled so it' won't be noticeable).

And Sojourn is once again all on her lonesome.  Looks strange!

Oriental, NC

 We’re slowly getting some of the bubbling paint sanded off of the mast and boom. Duane worked a while a few feet off he deck. Hot and muggy here now so work progresses slowly.  

 

The crab fishermen come through every couple of days...fun to watch them haul up their catch.  Looks like hard work.

Oriental, NC

Lots of activity, just none of it very photogenic as sometimes happens....Jim on Skyfall getting his mainsail back on board after the sail repair in New Bern.

Team effort to take the 17' long boom off of Sojourn getting ready to take the mast off.  We've rescheduled for Monday because it will be stormy with 30 knot gusts tomorrow.....

And it was Two-Fer-Tuesday at the Silo's once again....so we had three Manta crews and two Antares crews to enjoy a nice evening. 

 

Oriental, NC

 We moved Ed & Cathy's pickup over to Bridgeton for them so they'd have transportation once they got to the boatyard.  

We arrived just as they were pulling into the well to be lifted.

The crew worked well under Mike's guidance as usual.

They will work on the boat in the yard for a few days before heading off on other adventures!

We visited with the Jandals crew - they were lifted out for the summer just a few hours earlier. 

We will take our boom off tomorrow and get ready to go to New Bern the following day for our mast removal.

Oriental, NC

 Time to play musical boats.  Ed & Cathy are leaving early in the morning to go to Bridgeton to the boatyard and they are "trapped" by Skyfall on the outside dock.  

I jumped on board Skyfall to help with the lines as Michelle is away.  We move off the dock and then What If will pull out of the slip.

Jim at the helm - weird to be on a different Manta!

 

We get out of the way for What If.

And What If pulls out

Then Skyfall moves back into the slip where What If vacated.

And What If anchored out for the night - to leave at daylight first thing in the morning with minimal effort!

Oriental, NC

In prepping to sell Sojourn, one of the things our boat broker told us to "spiff up" on the boat was the salon table.  I guess you just get used to things on your boat and don't pay any attention to them....but it's obvious from this photo that the table needs some TLC....

So I sanded the entire top finish off.

 

And started to rub on Shellac.  It's hard to see, but parts of the tabletop turned an unpleasant shade of brown.  Weird....so we decided Shellac was not the appropriate chemical for this wood. 

After another round of sanding, we took the table out to the utility trailer to protect it from debris and did many coats of natural polyurethane.  We're letting it cure for a few days before using but it looks very nice.  (Hard to see with the shadows, but it's nice a smooth and shiny and a lovely shade of natural wood!)

 

With the sails all off the boat, Duane has been busy at the mast and boom sanding off bubbly paint and corrosion areas.  We'll be taking the mast down in a few weeks for new rigging - at that point he'll address all the areas that are too tall to reach from the deck.  Looks like a spotted tiger - will look nice and fresh with new white paint eventually.

Oriental, NC

 Just doing some overdue boat chores. This is the anti-skid step area on the port side of the boat where we normally climb onto the boat.  The anti-skid has worn off through the years.  It's the first area you see when you walk up to the boat....

Since we're sprucing things up to sell Sojourn, I got out the weird rubberized paint....Did a minor amount of taping.....

And now it looks a bit better. 

In the afternoon the crew from Jandals (Dave, Carey and Toby) came by for a nice visit.  They are a Manta 42 that we met several years ago.  They are at New Bern for haulout on Monday where they'll leave the boat for the summer and travel home to Portland, Oregon. 

And to top off a busy day, neighbor Andy invited us all over for a cookout!

 

The view from Andy's place over to our dock full of Mantas.

Fun evening and unbelievably cool for the first of June in NC!!!

And the walk was short and pleasant back to the "compound"....

Oriental, NC

Always stuff going on around the boats!  Ed was installing a replacement cable for his radar and needed another hand so Duane went over and helped out.

Then later in the afternoon the Skyfall and Sojourn crews loaded up all the sails to take to the sail loft.

The new owner Johnny seems to be very good - we'll leave a review after it's done!!

We pulled out all the sails so that he could understand where all the rips and tears are.

 We also stopped by the American Machine shop in Bridgeton to drop off a stainless "tang" for the boom vang that developed a crack this winter.....lot's of little chores to mark off the list.