Tern Travels
Year 1 Going South For Winter To Play And Rest
Repairs To Otto Pilotte
Hi Girls & Guys: After making emergency repairs to OTTO Pilote in Great Kills harbor, I set sail for Atlantic City NJ at 1600 hours. With brisk winds out of the wnw we made record time averaging over 6 knots at times touching 8 knots. Arrived before dawn waited outside for the sun to come up. Tommorow I hope to make Cape May with favorable winds. Then up the Deleware Bay to hopefully meet up with Half a Day Ray and his Captain!
Arrival Cape MA, NJ
Hi Girls & Guys: Getting warmer every day! 70 degrees inside boat tonight! No stove needed! Left Atlantic City under full sail wind died and motored to Cape May under bare poles! Plan on heading up the Deleware Bay to Baltimore on Monday!
Arrival Chesapeake City
Hi Girls & Guys: Left Cape May at sunrise headed for Annapolis to meet "Half A Day Ray" AKA Rayster! The trip was uneventfull with the exception of I got sick as a dog from eating old bread. Passed numerous ships and bridges. When I arrived in Chesapeake City on the C & D canal, I crashed and did not get up until this afternoon. I took many pics in between puking and the runs. Feel better today and will be heading out in the morning to Annopolis.
Goodbye Chesapeake City Hallo Annapolis MD
Hi Girls & Guys: Left Chesapeake City at 0700 hours, arrived Annopolis 1500 hours. Woke up in the morning to a weird sound of tens of thousands of birds flying south, I grabbed my camera but only got one faraway pic. If you look at the pic titled birds you can see what looks like black clouds on the horizon well those clouds are birds and they stretched as far as the eye could see. I made record time to Annapolis with the wind at my back, flying the Italian flag and the tide with me I made the 60 mile passage in 8 hours. Ray just arrived more later!
Annapolis To Sandy Point VA
Hi Girls & Guys: Left Annapolis early this morning. Motorsailed with the Italian flag flying averaged 6/1/2 knots. Anchored in Sandy Point VA, hope to catch up with "Half a Day Ray" on the Dream On and Lars and Inger on the Cinnabar tomorow in Norfolk!
Ships Of Norfolk VA
Hi Girls & Guys:
The Ships of Norfolk are a lot like the cranes they are everywhere. In all my port callings on the East Coast of the USA this is by far the busiest as far as the variety of ships, military & merchant. Though the US Navy are the most numerous and their repair facilities are everywhere. In every backwater creek you see ships being scrapped, ships in dry-dock, ships loading and unloading salt, sulphur, coal, and containers of just about everything.
In all my passages through Norfolk there has always been ship traffic everywhere, this year was no exception. The amazing part is you only see one small part of Norfolk as you pass through. The US Navy has its ships tucked away everywhere. This is probably to avoid another Pearl Harbor. They are in Back Creek, Hampton, Portsmouth, Newport News and every deepwater creek!
CVN (69) USS Eisenhower is a Nimitz Class nuclear powered Aircraft Carrier. Though not much lager than the USS Coral Sea, CVA (43) she carries almost two thousand more men & women. This was accomplished with replacing 28 oil fed steam boilers with one steam nuclear reactor. The old salts call these new carriers “Love Boats” because of the addition of women on the ships. I can only imagine what the new quarters are like! Our quarters consisted of 36 men sleeping in very hot sweaty quarters below the hangar deck. It was not uncommon when we were in the Gulf of Tonkin for the temp to rise to over 125 degrees in our quarters. That would make some really hot lovin!
Mike
Cranes Of Norfolk VA
Hi Girls & Guys: This blurb is about the cranes of Norfolk VA. In all my travels to east coast ports I have yet to see more cranes or bigger cranes than in Norfolk. Even large ports like New York City can not compare to Norfolk! I have been busy sailing New England this summer but will catch up on the blurbs as the summer winds down! Cranes, cranes, and more cranes, Norfolk has them. Cranes here come in all sizes from small to XX large and all shapes. Cranes that can do just about any task you can imagine, without them this port would come to a standstill. Without them it is hard to imagine how we could keep this port functioning. Man would find it painstakingly slow to move the millions of tons of goods in and out of the ships. Dredges have cranes, cranes on barges, cranes on ships, cranes on land to lift ships, cranes to load ships and cranes to empty ships. Cranes to move salt, sulphur, coal, munitions, food, goods and anything a ship may carry. The first time passing through Norfolk one tends to notice the big naval ships but on closer look you see the cranes standing in the background waiting to repair, load or unload these ships of their cargo.
NOTICE OF APPROVAL
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Corporations Division
To: S/ V Paviti Tern Preservation Trust Inc
The organizational document for the above-named nonprofit corporation is approved and now on the public record of the Corporations Division. We are sending out this notification to inform you of some of the possible filing obligations for the corporation.
ANNUAL REPORT:
Each nonprofit corporation (except a church or religious organization, a nonprofit school or college, a charitable hospital, or a library association) owes an annual report on or before November 1st. The annual report may be filed using our online filing system, using the below CID and PIN. Please maintain this CID and PIN for your use when filing online.
CID: M71JA0
PIN: 8315
BIO REPORT:
Please be advised that your entity may have a filing obligation with the Federal Government. You may need to file a Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOI Report) with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Updates or corrections to reports must be submitted within 30 days of becoming aware of the change. Go to https://www.fincen.gov/boi for more information and to submit your electronic report. DO NOT SUBMIT THESE REPORTS TO THIS OFFICE.
Ocracoke Inlet, Edward Teach AKA Captain Black Beard!
My address here is 4 South Woods Lane, Durham, CT 06422 and in Florida: 3431 Feriwinkle Ct., Port St. Lucie, FL 34952. We would love to go on a sail..............
on a favorable day of course!!! Yes, Bret surely loved the ocean and I wish I could feel his presence at times.............I know he's with us, but my dreams are the only time I feel he is close! We certainly had lots of signs of presence the day of his funeral of which we will never forget.....................I wonder where he would be sailing to right now. I often said to him...............what are you going to do when you are 60 yrs. old???? .................... still going around the world on a boat or on foot??? He always said "Maybe"! He was an adventurer................as you are! Must run in the family!!!
Have a safe trip and take care.
Love Bev
Hi Cuz:
I am never lonely at sea! When on the water I feel like I am in the womb! Black Beard was indeed a real pirate in Ocracoke. There have been many times when I have felt the presense of others on my boat! Like the day you and Hugo visited and Hugo kept saying how much the inside of the Tern was so similar to Brett's boat, I could feel his presense there. May be it comes from spending so much time at sea alone? I do know when I look up at night and see an endless array of stars that there is something a lot bigger than us mere mortals.
Send me your address and I will stop by to visit and take you for a sail if you would like to? The voyage is going to go on until I leave this life. I don't know how it can be better than this but I will find out some day!
Love,
Mike
Very interesting........................Black Beard story strange...................you have to believe in order for that to happen!!! You sure do have some stories! Glad you got off OK and glad you had insurance!!! I guess you aren't lonely with all those happenings!!!
Good luck with the rest of the voyage.
love, Bev
Hi Girls & Guys:
This leg was one of the stangest of the journey. The Tern motored out of Moorehead City NC at sunrise on our way to Wanchese NC to visit with my longtime fisherman friend Frog Tillet! The tough part of this leg would be to get through Ocracoke Inlet 60 nautical miles north, then into Pamilco Sound to Wanchese. They call it a sound but there is only 8 feet of water in most of the sound. This particular inlet was home to the famous pirate Edward Teach AKA Captain Black Beard. He had his fortress in Silver Lake just inside the inlet.
The trip from Moorehead City was uneventful but once inside the inlet things changed very fast! Once through the treacherous inlet I went below to get my camera to take pics of the sunset. I felt a soft bump and the Tern was no longer moving. It was dead low tide so I figured the Tern would float off in an hour or so. Well I was wrong, the wind came up from the southwest driving the water out of the sound. I kept her in gear thinking the incomming tide would lift her off, then I felt this presense on board my boat. When I went below I bumped into things that were not there and I realized I was being visited by Blackbeard himself. It was such an eerie feeling almost like I was in the grasp of this long dead pirate. After three long hours of standing at the helm willing the Tern to break free of his grasp I decided to call the coast guard. My radio would not work, when I looked aloft at the antenae it was gone! Fortunatley I had a 5 watt handheld radio below and called the coast guard. They asked me if I was in immediate danger and since Blackbeard had not threatened me (he was laughing at me), I told them no! They told me they would call Tow Boat US. Towboat arrived from Cape Hatteras two hours later. Jjust after midnight he pulled the Tern off the sandbar. I let out a big "Arrgh" and anchored up in Teach's hideout for the night. I had been initiated into the mysteries of the pirate world by one of the best.The tow bill was $1700 but my tow insurance paid it all.
Early the next morning we headed out to Wanchese to visit my friend Frog. When I told Frog of my encounter with Teach he told me I was not the first to report such a sighting at that inlet. Of course Frog is the one that told me to come in Ocracoke inlet. Do you think he knew all along? The next few weeks will bring Naggies and Picaroons into my path! More on that later.
The next two weeks we spent in Wanchese waiting for the weather up north to warm up and conduct long overdue maintainence. When the Tern left Wanchese she would be sporting new netting on her life lines thanks to Frog!
Only a few pics were taken on this trip due to the sensitive nature of pirates!
Mike
Naggies and other assorted Pirates
Hi Girls & Guys:
Some of you may remember last fall while I was traveling south I suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning? When the ambulance driver asked me if I wanted to go to Columbia NC or Wanchese NC I told them Wanchese. When I arrived at the emergency room at the Outer Banks Hospital the nurse asked me for my next of kin, I told her Frog Tillett! Now the village of Wanchese has 1500 people in it and though the hospital is in nearby Manteo the nurse knew Frog! She called Frog and told him I was there. I was taken to a Virginia hospital where Frog and his friend Wayne picked me up then drove me to Frog's house in Wanchese. That started a love affair with this quiet little fishing village.
As you know we left Captain Black Beard behind in Silver Lake, NC. This leg begins in Pamlico Sound, NC and ends in the beautiful fishing village of Wanchese, NC. When I say beautiful remember beauty is in the eyes of the beholder! There are a lot of small shanties, trailers and no sign of trophy houses. There is a lot of big houses and condo's in Manteo and Naggs Head but Wanchese is still a small fishing village.The loves of my life have been twofold, one is fishing and the other is sailing. Here in Wanchese fishermen and pirates coexist! There are no traffic lights, police or stop signs in Wanchese. My intention is to spend the fall months here to wait out the hurricane season.
While here in Wanchese the Tern got much needed repairs to her salt water pump, her dodger and new netting on her lifleines. After 40 years Frog has given up fishing in order to stay at home and raise his children and grandchildren. He is now a master netmaker and did all the net work on the Tern. During my stay I had fresh fish everyday! Every morning I was greeted by a big loud Arrgh to which I would answer "Arrgh Matey come aboard".
I hated to leave Frog and his family but I have to go back to Westport to take care of Lady Anne. My return trip will be through the dismal swamp to look for a hurricane hole to hide in if one comes along while in Wanchese.
In case any of you have wondered what a Naggie is the story goes like this. In the days of sailing ships the land pirates of Naggs Head would move the lights on Naggs Head and this would cause ships to go aground. When the ship was hard and fast aground the Naggies would go out to the ship remove the cargo.
Stay tuned for scenes from the Dismal Swamp and Norfork!
Mike
