Finally Bringing Manchioneal Home

[Jammin']

We are leaving in the morning for Little River, SC to finally bring our boat home to Colonial Beach, VA, shoving off Sunday. It's been a long time coming and we've had (and needed) much more work done to the boat than we anticipated. We've got a reservation at Seapath Yacht Club in Wrightsville for Sunday night. After that, who knows? The weather forecast isn't great. We have gunk in the port tank. I've got 16 - 30 micron Racors and 10 - 10 micron secondary filters on board. The plan is to change the racors every night as needed until they run clear.

This is a first for us. I'm very excited and a bit nervous. It's about a 480 mile run, depending on the route. We have a friend coming who has done the route 6 or 7 times. Our adventure begins.

 

[Dazed338]

Safe and problem free travels

 

[edward]

Swing through Elizabeth City , NC

 

[JD5652]

Robert-

Best of luck and try to enjoy the journey!

Having said that.... remember to check the bowls frequently if you have gunk in the tanks.... you might need to disassemble and clean the Racor tower if it's really bad.... the "ball" check valve can get stuck if you get too much "gunk" in the bowls...

 

[jrbrein]

Robert,

If you are planning a stop in Portsmouth or Norfolk, Virginia, I am located at Tidewater Yacht Marina.

I have a 1982 43' DCFB that I have owned and done lots of work to over the past 3 years since purchasing.

Might be fun to compare and contrast our boats. I am always ready to borrow some ideas.

Have a safe and enjoyable trip.

Jon

 

[SEVEN]

Check those filters every hour and don’t get any air in the lines while changing them. Have a safe voyage

 

[Scarlett]

Have a great trip and hope you have our luck. When we bought our Hatt we thought the fuel was at least 10 years old and were worried as we had a 500 mile open ocean trip to make so we also brought tons of filters, the good news was we still have most of those filters, didn’t need to change any on the trip. Most of all have fun and enjoy the trip. John

 

[Jammin']

Robert,If you are planning a stop in Portsmouth or Norfolk, Virginia, I am located at Tidewater Yacht Marina.

We do plan to stop in Portsmouth and Tidewater is on my list. I'll touch base when we get closer.

 

[Freeebird]

Hope it’s a pleasant and uneventful trip. Going outside is when your gunk might cause you problems, especially if the boat hasn’t seen any big waves in a while.

 

[Jammin']

We are moving along just above Lockwoods Folly inlet. It's a gorgeous day.

 

[Jammin']

Save and sound in Wrightsville, tied up at the dock with the tanks topped up. Port Racor bowl was clear! A little debris in starboard.

 

[Walter P]

Congratulations Robert. Glad you had a good trip and got some water passing your keel safely. BTW
I think your 43DC may have been my first Hatteras about 40 years ago. If you post some pictures of
the wing doors and the galley I might be able to tell. Mine had a pair of 6-71 Jt's (310 hp ea) and a
new generator was installed shortly before I sold the boat (8 kw Onan) Just curious, one of my dock
mates also had a 73 model 43 DC. His had a hard enclosure for the aft deck and his HIM was close to
mine. Oh and mine also had a custom made SS radar arch.

Walt

 

[Jammin']

Thank you Walt. This has to be a different boat. No wing doors and Westerbeke installed in 2001. Currently running about 10 miles off shore in 2 - 4 foot swell at 12 mph. Port engine was not happy running at 15. We are 57 miles from Beaufort Inlet. It's really special out here.

 

[Jammin']

Made it to Oriental and changed Racors. Port had a fair amount of water and the filter looked pretty bad. Starboard not too bad. Long day. We're going out to dinner.

 

[Jammin']

Left Manteo at dawn. Heading for Portsmouth tonight. Currently in Albemarle Sound with rain, a strong tail wind and following seas. Dodging crab pots. Having issues with this and that, but these 671N's are beautiful.

 

[JD5652]

Left Manteo at dawn. Heading for Portsmouth tonight. Currently in Albemarle Sound with rain, a strong tail wind and following seas. Dodging crab pots. Having issues with this and that, but these 671N's are beautiful.

Robert -

Best of luck!..... one half of the nor'easter coming up north is what you're experiencing...

 

[Jammin']

Wednesday afternoon heading for Portsmouth we missed the 3:00 pm opening of the Great Bridge Bridge and the next scheduled opening wasn't until 6:00 pm. We managed to get the travel lift slip with no power for the night at Atlantic Yacht Basin Marina and set out early Thursday to catch the 6:00 am bridge opening. Immediately after the bridge we got to go through our first lock. I f*cked up and didn't hold the boat off the edge of the lock got hung up as the water was released. I motored it off as the boat was tipping precipitously, pulling off a section of rub rail in the process. Oh well. Live and learn.When we got out onto the Chesapeake after Norfolk, conditions were bad. The stretch across the mouth of the York River and Mobjack Bay was like two hours of riding a mechanical bull. Heavy beam seas tossed us around badly. We are now aware of everything that wasn't fastened down. It was a real workout at the helm for me. We cut the day 10 miles short of our planned stop at Deltaville. We deserved the rest at that point.This morning we got out about 7:00 and conditions weren't great, but better than yesterday as we were now mostly heading into the seas. At least they were better until we approached the Potomac were things got rougher. When we rounded Smith Point I through in the towel and headed in to Smith Point Marina where we are tied up now. I couldn't take another 5 hour beating. Tomorrow is another day.This boat likes to travel at 10 mph (8.7 kts). Although my tachs are wildly inaccurate, that seems to be about 1400 rpm. I can run all day at 1900 rpm too and I gain between 1 and 2 mph. On our ocean day I ran 1900 rpm and got .84 mpg. The next two days I ran 10 mph at 1400 rpm and got 1.22 mpg. Yesterday we made 67 miles and I ran the engines up some and returned 1 mpg. In 46.5 hours of run time we have traveled about 400 miles and used two gallons of oil.The wind is supposed to subside tomorrow and we have a 53 mile run home.

 

[Freeebird]

Sounds "fun"!

Sorry about the rail modification on the lock, but it sounds like the old girl is doing pretty good with fuel.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Every time I have been across the mouth of the Potomac it's been really choppy. Are you all home? Today was better I thought.

 

[jrbrein]

Robert,

Nice meeting with you while you were tied up in Atlantic Yacht Basin. You have really gotten a lot accomplished in the relatively short time that you have owned your boat.

Appreciate you providing us with your fuel consumption data since we have the same boat with 6-71 N's (J/T modified). Your 1973 boat is heavier than my 1982 boat but we are pretty close with those numbers.

She loves it between 8 - 10 knots (1400 - 1750 RPM) averaging just a tad over 1 nautical mile per gallon.

Aint life grand?

Jon