Publish Date: Monday, November 10, 2008
Location: Wrightsville Beach, NC
Coordinates: 34° 12.36′ N 77° 47.97′ W
Today we did our first open ocean cruise, transiting from Beaufort, NC to Wrightsville Beach, NC (near Wilmington). Our new friends Scott and Marian Bulger on the Nordhavn 40 Alanui invited us to accompany them for the offshore run, which seemed like a great opportunity to stretch Three@Sea’s legs. It was only a 10-hour cruise — sunrise to sunset this time of year — but that didn’t mean we took it lightly: we still had to be prepared for whatever the sea was going to throw at us.
Nordhavn 40: Alanui
The day could not have gone more smoothly. We slipped the lines at 6am, and soon found ourselves in 2-3 foot seas off the starboard quarter. The winds were about 15-20mph, but the prediction was for them to abate, which they did by mid-morning. By noon we were cruising in 1-2 foot following seas, and it was quite comfortable. We found a nice anchorage near Wrightsville Beach, and it was another gorgeous evening on the water. It was reassuring to do this run with another boat, and we’re thankful to Scott and Marian for taking us under their wing. The entire Three@Sea crew is looking forward to our next open ocean segment, which will probably be an overnight run somewhere between here and Ft. Lauderdale (weather permitting).
Mechanical Notes:
I wanted to close the loop on my previous post about a stabilizer problem: The Trac engineer came to our boat in Deale, MD and quickly diagnosed and replaced a faulty valve on our port stabilizer. I was impressed with Trac’s responsiveness and commitment to their customers, and the stabilizers have been working flawlessly every since.
We had been dealing with a slow oil leak from the transmission since leaving Florida, so I finally tackled the problem shortly before we left Deale. I removed and replaced the compressible copper washers from the banjo bolt, and it seems to have stopped the slow leak. This kind of fix is very satisfying, especially since I didn’t really know what I was doing. 🙂
I’ve had to top-off the hydraulic steering fluid a couple times since owning the boat, which made me think there was a leak somewhere in the system. I was rooting around in the lazarette one day when I noticed some hydraulic fluid underneath the tiller. I was able to find where it was dripping from and tighten the fitting. The hydraulic fluid level has been holding steady since this small fix.
Great job David
Thanks for the mechanical update!
I have been trying to figure out how the stabilizers work since reading about the over-rotation problem and viewing Ayla’s Bottom Job video.
On top of that, now I have to figure out what a “banjo bolt” is???????????