MI>NC Learning the Coast

[NightCrawler]

Making the leap to live aboard lifestyle. We are gathering as much info as we can about the ups and downs of living aboard a boat. Our search is for a GB Classic 42 and we are narrowing the field at this time. We have a ton of questions about insurance, residency, etc. and look forward to browsing the forums for anything we can learn.

Deep channels and round docks to you all.

 

[No Mast]

Welcome to the forum! Definitely lots of folks here happy to talk trawlers anytime.

 

[Tom.B]

Bess and I are in Cary and would love to get together with you. While we aren't live aboards, we have know a few and know the NC waters pretty well. Like to talk about boating a bit too. Send us a PM, we can get together at Fortnight Brewery sometime and chat it up.

 

[User915]

Welcome aboard, good luck and best wishes for your great project !
Olivier

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

 

[NightCrawler]

It is done. We are now the proud owners of a wet house. Our dream is coming alive! The comments and insight of this group have been priceless to us in making our decisions and learning about this lifestyle. Thanks to so many who have offered up great advice.

We should be moving aboard within the next 10 days or so. Full bottom strip and repaint plus new electronics all going on/in now. Then we start our trip from VA to NC.

 

[Wayfarer]

Welcome to the forum, and Congratulations! If that's her in your avatar pic, she's beautiful.

 

[NightCrawler]

That's her. We're very excited to get aboard and begin our new life journey.

 

[Besslb]

Congratulations!! Will you take your time cruising from VA to NC or go directly to Southport? What route will you take? We need more pictures!

 

[NightCrawler]

We will travel mostly on weekends. Taking the Dismal ditch if there's enough water.

 

[BandB]

We will travel mostly on weekends. Taking the Dismal ditch if there's enough water.

If you take the Virginia Cut, just keep in mind that the Norfolk Southern #7 Railroad Bridge across the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, will be closed-to-navigation from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday, April 25, 2016 to May 26, 2016; and 9 a.m.to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday, June 6, 2016 to June 9, 2016.

 

[newbernbuck]

Congrats to you, I just recently bought a Mainship 34 from the Norfolk area and brought her back to my home New Bern, NC. Hopefully the winds will be calmer for you!

 

[Rossigal]

Congrat's!

 

[Tom.B]

Congrats to you, I just recently bought a Mainship 34 from the Norfolk area and brought her back to my home New Bern, NC. Hopefully the winds will be calmer for you!

Yea? Bridgepoint? Grand? Galley Store? NWCM?

 

[newbernbuck]

Duck Creek at the moment, then probably Bridgepoint

 

[NightCrawler]

How did you find the Dismal Canal?
Ok, poor choice of words - follow the signs. . .

Was there good depth, clean passage?

 

[newbernbuck]

Did not go the dismal canal route. I might be wrong, but thought it was not maintained so much these days. Others would know better. Coinjock and Belhaven still good places to stop.

 

[Maldwin]

Belhaven

I just had a great stop at the River Forest Marina in Belhaven, under new management since Oct 2014. New free washer dryers, golf carts for going into town, and a friendly attitude. They also jab very nice guest suites, where I put up a mechanic who came down to fix my engine. There is a gym for $5 a day, accessible by golf cart.
Best of all is a restaurant called Spoon River, great food ,and great service. Last night it poured while we were at dinner, and the owner sent her staff out to wipe our golf cart with tablecloths. That is Southern hospitality!

 

[NightCrawler]

We are on our way!! Spent first night in Coinjock (yes, the prime rib is delicious) and now a week in Manteo. I now have a degree in crabpotdodgology. Next stop is Ocracoke. Finding this vessel to be very responsive, easier to maneuver than some smaller ones I've captained.

A very special thanks to the folks at Atlantic Yacht Basin in VA. We had a lot of prep work done, some trouble shooting on systems startups and all new nav equipment installed. These guys rock. Great team. The got us on quality tradesmen who did excellent work on time and on budget. And a thanks to Ayers Electronics for their work!

 

[NightCrawler]

We were told in VA that the southern lock on the dismal is down, waiting for parts. We went the eastern ICW route.

 

[fastinated]

We are planning on doing the dismal at the end of June then coming down through coinjock. We traveled from Baltimore last year and didn't have time to do the dismal. We too are in NC. Live north of Raleigh in Castalia, and keep our boat under a shed at Washington yacht club. Nice to have a roof over our roof! Good luck and safe travels!

 

[BandB]

We are on our way!! Spent first night in Coinjock (yes, the prime rib is delicious) and now a week in Manteo. I now have a degree in crabpotdodgology. Next stop is Ocracoke. Finding this vessel to be very responsive, easier to maneuver than some smaller ones I've captained.

A very special thanks to the folks at Atlantic Yacht Basin in VA. We had a lot of prep work done, some trouble shooting on systems startups and all new nav equipment installed. These guys rock. Great team. The got us on quality tradesmen who did excellent work on time and on budget. And a thanks to Ayers Electronics for their work!

It's interesting how you find certain areas with so much good help available. The Portsmouth area including AYB has such excellent choices. At the other end, so does Beaufort. Glad you found good assistance.

Now, are we the only ones who find the quantity for the price on the prime rib a good deal but at best would rate the prime rib in Coinjock only Fair? Slightly below average? Maybe we picked a bad day.

And the Virginia Cut always makes sense to me. I think of the Dismal Swamp as a side trip sort of thing but not a way to travel in normal circumstances.

 

[NightCrawler]

I'll close out this thread by thanking the most amazing people we've already met along the way. Our journey to Southport was challenging, encouraging and most satisfying. Jan and I are now 100% convinced we've made the right decision to move aboard.

We are nestled into our slip and taking care of some issues that popped up along the way while getting settled into our new home. This boating community is populated with some of the most amazing folks we've ever met. Thank you all for your encouragement and support.

 

[jjorgenson3]

Welcome aboard and someday hopefully soon we will be joining the live aboard community.

 

[Tom.B]

We'll be down that way sometime this summer if it would quit friggin' being rainy, cold, and/or windy as all get-out on the weekends down here!! It is REALLY beginning to pi$$ us off!

 

[NightCrawler]

LOL. Being from Michigan, this weather is typical June stuff. Today is wonderful. I've come out of work on 3rd shift in July back home when I was in college and scraped frost off my windshield. We'll take this any day - but yeah, what a cool wet spring this has been.

 

[Besslb]

Which Marina in Southport did you choose? We love it there!

 

[NightCrawler]

We're in Deep Point. Lots of amenities, great community and the price is right.

 

[BandB]

LOL. Being from Michigan, this weather is typical June stuff. Today is wonderful. I've come out of work on 3rd shift in July back home when I was in college and scraped frost off my windshield. We'll take this any day - but yeah, what a cool wet spring this has been.

Wifey B: Froze my sweet bippy a few days ago with 40 degree nights, 50 degree days but yesterday 75 degrees, today 72 degrees and sunny and Lake Ontario like glass, less than 1' waves. I do long for some bikini weather though. I see almost 80 degrees in Toronto, but supposed to cool down before we get there.

I figured out something. Up here, summer doesn't come until....well, you know....um....summer.