Moving Rapscallion back to the great lakes

 It has been a long time with no postings so i felt it was time for an update.

St. Marys Ga. was a great home for Rapscallion for 5 years. After launching during the Thanksgiving break in 2015 we blow the wet exhaust fitting resulting in a series of problems. We made the decision to send the boat back up to the great lakes where we started. We have had many grandchildren during our time away so we thought it would be good to share this great lifestyle with the kids. 

We put Rapscallion on a truck and got it back on time for the North's 2016 spring launch.

We still had a few problems to resolve with the engine and other things the salt environment had degraded. These repairs were gradually worked on and now is better than when we left on the first trip.

With Rapscallion no longer in the south we had nowhere to go to escape the Michigan winters so we started shopping for our retirement home. We started looking in the New Bern NC area where we spent the first year back after our cruise. Not finding anything that suited us, we shopped around where we had Rapscallion last, in southeast Georgia. We found a nice place a short distance inland from the harbor.

2017 had us living and working in southern California so Rapscallion stayed in storage. Once back for the 2018 sailing season it was becoming obvious the salvage restoration of Phoenix ( see svphoenixproject@blogspot.com) was pulling me away from using Rapscallion and looking like there was no end in sight. A decision was made to sell Phoenix and focus on Rapscallion and enjoy using a boat instead of working on one all the time. It was an incredible project but summers are short and one had to go and the better of the two was Rapscallion.

After a year back at work in Michigan and keeping Rapscallion in New Bern N.C. we have decided to move the boat further south. We spent 2 weeks moving down to St. Mary's Georgia on the Florida border, where we have arranged to have it pulled for the hurricane season. Like in North Carolina we will put it back in the water for the winter but here we expect to have warmer weather in the winter.

The trip was a mixture of elation of being on the move again and frustration at having all kinds of things breaking. We have been back to land life for a year( sure flies) but slipped right back into our cruising life oh so easily.

New Bern NC.

An unplanned stop ,we made a detour to New Bern from our anchorage in the icw at Adams creek. We left Wrightsville Beach on 5-2-10 with the evening falling tide getting outside the break water before dark. We had a very nice sail overnight to the Beaufort inlet in the early morning then motored up the waterway about 20 miles and anchored for the evening. We decided to go out of the way to New Bern where we could get inexpensive dockage if we need it to go back home. The town is real nice and so are the marinas. We are the only boat anchored out here, the first time we have had the anchorage to ourselves in a long time. The water is almost fresh this far up the river but very dark, almost coffee colored.

After spending a little over a month here we received an offer for a great position back in the Detroit area. It is with mixed feelings that we return to work and set aside this wonderful life style we have been living the last 2 years but we knew it would come. Time to repair, replace, reequip and save. Rapscallion II will be hauled for the hurricane season then return to the water in New Bern NC. as our winter retreat.

86.5 NM to Adams creek sailed 16 hours motored 3, 23 NM to New Bern motored.

Wightsville Beach NC.

Anchored in Wrightville Beach where we are visiting family and friends that we have not seen in a year and a half. New and growing grand children are the biggest indicators of how long we have been gone. We had a great time seeing Andrew and Aarons families. Getting together for BBQ's and visiting aboard Rapscallion II.

North Carolina

We set off from Charleston SC. the morning of 4-22-10 for the overnight trip to Wrightsville beach. The wind was so light the entire way we had to motor and motor sail. We are way over due to have the bottom and prop cleaned. We are losing 1 to 1.5 knots from the growth. In Charleston i tried using a brush on a long handle to remove what i could but it wasn't enough.
The second day we spent motoring against the Cape Fear river tidal current into the ICW to Wrightsville Beach. 151 NM , 32 1/2 hours, (gad).

Charleston SC.

We have really enjoyed our stay once again in Charleston. It is such a beautiful city with so many historic buildings. We especially enjoyed the French Quarter of the city. We had a bad scare the first night here when around 1:00 am we were hit by another boat. By time i got on deck they were gone and out of sight, quite possibly very drunk. We had a bent stanchion and some black rubber marks on the side but no real damage. I was able to remove the black marks and bend the stanchion back but i don't think the other guy will be able to put back the gel coat he left on our deck. He must have made a nice gouge down the side of his hull. The weather has been great with no rain. 168NM, Light winds, 33 3/4 hours , motored 3/4 of the way.

Fernandina Beach FL.

We had some mixed emotions about being back in Fernandina Beach. Its a lovely town and very cruiser friendly, but unlike the December before last we had horrendous no-see-ums attacking us this time. We revisited the shops and found the large grocery outside town to stock up at. The weather has been all northeast, the very direction we need to go, so we are here for almost 2 weeks until the weather breaks. We took a short 7.5 Nm. motor boat trip over to St. Marys Ga. for a couple of days where when we were pulling anchor to return to Fernandina Beach, we discovered we had a raccoon stow away in our anchor locker. Unfortunately i had to send him swimming back to shore. St. Marys is a very nice town but very small with no provisioning at all. 56 NM. motored the entire way.