Speedwell of Hong Kong

Leaving Oriental

Author: Shirlz

When I arrived back in Oriental in mid-January, after spending nearly 2 months in Bermuda´s balmy winter weather, it was to an icy little boat.

The small heater that had been left running while I was away had performed valiantly and the engine hadn’t frozen up and burst it´s essential parts. So all was well. I found some extra blankets to layer on top of my duvet and rediscovered my old hot water bottle.  Being tied to a comfortable floating dock at Clancy´s Marina had its advantages. A luxurious hot shower every morning helped to make the weather more bearable. The dock was often covered in slippery ice crystals so I would shuffle carefully along trying not to send myself sprawling into the icy water.

It was a chance to try to shorten the job list and I managed to fix many outstanding items: new higher lee cloths for the bunks to stop me rolling out of bed in rough weather; a new rain catching system; a  fresh drinking water filter; throwing out loads of unnecessary stuff and reorganising my storage ‘system’. I made a new bridle for the Jordan drogue as the original one had been made too short and I found that I could manage to stow the whole affair in one of my cockpit lockers, which will make it far easier to launch if it should ever be needed. I serviced the winches and anchor windlass; replaced the bearings for the Navik paddle; sewed a new windsock and on and on…

All these jobs I was able to manage on my own, and then one morning I decided to give the engine its weekly exercise and discovered that the starter motor had died. A friendly mechanic, Ed Piriczky, came to help and was horrified at the state of my heat exchanger. A month later a new part arrived from Holland, and both starter motor and heat exchanger were replaced and the engine was back in working order.

In between boat jobs I was wonderfully helped and entertained by my old friends in Oriental.

D and Don Wogaman have a 1974 Dickerson 41, Southern Cross, which they are preparing for their next cruise. She is built of mahogany, strip planked, edged and nailed  and later covered with glass and epoxy. She completed a circumnavigation with the previous owners from whom Don bought her in 1984. They are also heavily involved in clearing their house so that it can be let out. Many happy evenings were spent sharing a meal with them and Anne and Doug who are also getting a boat ready for the cruising life.

They gave me rides into the nearest shopping centres at Bayboro and New Bern and I was able to easily stock up for my planned trip back down to the Caribbean.

Henry and Tuk arrived on Parpar and it was really good to see them again.

Now it is Spring and time to move on. I decided to  anchor out in the harbour which will make it easier to leave when the weather is right. The problem with staying in the marina is that when the wind blows for too long from the South the water level drops alarmingly and Speedwell sits in the mud. No chance of moving then.

Spring in Oriental brings out hundreds of colourful birds – Blue Jays, red Cardinals, Bluebirds and robins. Daffodils and snowdrops and fat squirrels everywhere.

Yesterday Anne took me for a row in her beautiful dinghy, Enid. She built it herself and has made a perfect job of it. We explored the creeks and enjoyed the weather.

My plan is to head back down to the Caribbean and warm up again in the tropics. A direct sail from Morehead City to Dominica if possible and then fairly quickly down to Grenada and Trinidad. Now just waiting for a break in the steady succession of spring Northerlies which seem to be relentlessly besetting the area I’m heading for and which would make the Gulf Stream crossing a bit too boisterous for my taste.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2016 at 15:15 and is filed under Cruising, United States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.