Phil is Back. Again.

We think Phil likes it here. In an earlier Shipping News (March 17) the story of Phil was covered - including a difficulty or two in departing on his voyage to the UK.

Well - Phil did finally leave (again) - got offshore much of the way to Bermuda - and challenges came his way again. He turned back - again.

We ran into him a few days ago on The Bean porch. Here are his words from an email to TownDock.net:

Hey Folks,
Hoped you guys would never get this one........

Well.. set off from Beaufort about 3 pm Tuesday afternoon and headed S'east with a nice 10 - 15 breeze blowing, by the evening it had veered around to S'east and was pushing me the wrong side of due South so I tacked (mistake #1) and set my course to the N'east, grabed a coupla hours sleep around 4am. Woke after a few more than a couple of hours to find we were bobbing along nicely, only bad thing, because of the tack I was only 70 miles from Beaufort as the crow flies by the evening.

By Friday evening we had 200m under or belt then got hit by the first gale, exhilarating or what !!!! a N'westerly that had us surfing under bare poles at up to 9kts at times but by 3am I was shattered and laid ahull to get some rest, did not trust the pilot unsupervised.

Things had sttled down to about twenty kts by morning tho the seas were still big but rolling the right way...sorta, so up the double reefed main ,1/3 yankee and away.

Why do gales always bang you as its getting dark? Put another 60m behind us and 5-30pm a Norther came screaming down, seas went up to twenty ft plus and nearly rolled us twice as they were nearly beam on and mixed with the remains of the day before, battened the hatches, went below and munched cashews while I read a book, ar'nt Sat's great, all the w'end ahead.

Sunday was a repeat performance, good mileage then early evening to the N'east I spotted the sea flattening and a haze effect, lept up started the engine and furled the yankee, set the auto pilot to take us into it and engaged the engine. It hit just as I got to the mast and spun the boat side ways, nearly a knockdown, ripped one of the reef points but eventually got the sail down a lashed, shaking like a leaf by the time I'd done..... must take up fitness classes, or stop smoking... lol

It was a stonker, massive seas and no way to do anything so retired below to the noisemaker and tried to ignore everything, even managed a snooze. Got woken around 5am by an enormous crash, thought something had hit us so charged on deck but there was nothing to be seen so figured it must have been a wave, dawn was coming so figured its sailable now...sorta so I rolled out some yankee and set the pilot, engaged the cluth, the motor worked but no movement, belt had broken.

Went to the forecabin to get my spare w'proof and found the support bulkhead and cupbord at the top of the v-berth had been smashed out and was scattered on the berth.

I now have a really roomy forcabin.

That was it, enough was enough, I'd planned to cross below Bermuda around 30 North, but no, had to be an asshole and sail the Nosth wall of the G'stream in spring... what do you expect if you act like an idiot.

Set course for Beaufort 397 miles to hand steer, no sweat.

I'd have killed for a hot coffee. Not the perfct diet and I must confess after the 5th day found myself feeling noticably weaker. About threedays before I got here a cruise liner went majesticly by, not a roll and I was leaping up and down 15/20 ft waves, heading South to. I was so tempted to MayDay, free trip to the Islands, hot good food, coffee......... boy it was close.

Monday night at 8pm I crawled below with 35 miles to go, woke up it was back to 49 but for the first time in a week the wind was fair, the seas moderate and I sighted Beaufort at around sunset, which meant entering under sail in the dark... Oh boy. Forgot to mention, engine had been running not so well, went to start it the next day and it fired coughed spluttered n died,.tried again same thing, changed fuel filter as it sounded like starvation.... wo'nt even splutter now.

Have you noticed how fish like to play around you depthsounder and scare you silly, well this had been happening for a couple of hours... 2ft, 65ft..4ft... 59ft... so I'd started to ignore the alarm.

This time though it was constant and at 5ft, suddenly realised I'd missed the channel and was following the wrong light as it turned into a pole ten yards away and I hit bottom, bang the wheel hard over to get on the opposite tack, lucky enough a breaker hit the stern and helped spin us round and we slowly bumped our way into 9ft of water while I desperatly tried to get my bearings. This time we were really lucky to get off.

Finally made it to the main channel, confidence shot to bits, and took nearly an hour and several passes before I could convince myself that what I was looking at was the entrance to Taylors creek, from there to the mooring was reasonably effortless, apart from having to make several passes before the pickup was a success, wind and flood tide the same way and a lot more boats than before..... way things were going I had visions of getting caught in the irons and drifting onto someone.....

So there we go... back to Oriental and get the boat racked and stacked on the hard..... no more sailing.

In the meantime.... if you know about engines........lol

Cya Lata Folks
Phil of Moondance

Despite all his difficulties - Phil has always stayed positive. It is good to have him back in the village.

The Tug Elizabeth E

A tugboat appeared at the Town Dock Saturday afternoon. Short and stout, it looked as though it had sailed off the pages of a children's book.

The boat, the Elizabeth E, came to the TownDock because of trouble with its generator. The 53 year old boat and her crew of five had been enroute between Jacksonville, FL and Norfolk, VA when her generator acted up. A part had to be ordered and the tug and her crew of five came to the closest town, which turned out to be Oriental.

The first mate, Lewin Usilton says that in Norfolk the crew was to meet up with an LCM, which stands for Landing Craft something or other. Basically, he says, it's "a 74 foot truck that floats" and then push it back down the waterway. The tug has a 600HP engine, though Lewin says most tugs today are between 1000-1200HP

But on this trip up the ICW the tug is also on another mission. It's a floating classroom.

One of the crew, Mary Randi of Jacksonville, Florida told us she was a student at the Bluewater Marine school and was working on getting her AB -- Able-Bodied Seaman certification The trip to Norfolk was an internship for her and another student.

So, how's it been so far? "There are five people, four bunks and a head that doesn't work. It's too close for comfort. "

She is the only woman on board but says everyone's been, "kindly and respectful.. which isn't easy for anyone in such small quarters. It's stressful to be mindful of other people 24/7."

Mary says she's taking the course -- and dealing with the close quarters on this trip -- because she wants to work on a Tall Ship "like in (the movie) "Pirates of the Caribbean". She's been to sea once before, on a religious missionary ship to the Dominican Republic.

On the three days of this trip, her first internship as part of the AB course, Mary says she's stood watch from 6a to Noon, up on the bridge on the leeward side. (Along the way she says, she pointed out the native azaleas growing along the sides of the ICW, which she was familiar with from her work as a gardener and helping in a native plants nursery back in Jacksonville. she also smiled at the recollection of one sailboat name, "Sensible Shoes") It was while she was on watch Saturday, three days out of Jacksonville, that the generator acted up.