Captains notes are in black... First Mate's are in rust! 

Sept. 29th, 2003 - Hurricane Isabel and Work in Progress

Despite having no cruising stories to tell, I thought I'd provide this update on how we fared during Isabel and our work on the new boat. Daughter Noelle came down to Manteo to help bring Camaraderie back to Deltaville. The trip took 3 days and was uneventful but it was sure nice to have some extended time with "Dr. Barr" as we don't see a lot of each other these days. 
We have since been living on Camaraderie while working on the new boat which is on the hard. Jan and I have a lot of sweat into the boat already and she is beginning to look just great. We had to sand down every inch of the teak decks and toe rail and rub rail, and Jan has become addicted to 150 grit sandpaper and lost her fingerprints in the process! We used 3 coats of Cetol (satin and high gloss), on the rails and high gloss varnish below decks and are really happy with how it all turned out. We still have the cabin sole ahead of us but will wait on that till the workmen are off the boat. The work list we are all trying to complete is (so far) as follows:

Install dual Racor fuel filters so we can change on the run
Replace all worn hoses...lots of 'em!
Rebuild and lubricate windlass and winches
Replace aft air conditioner pump
Rebuild and re-fiberglass Genoa wince base and bulwark.
Repair/re-glass and re-finish forward bulkhead, mizzen chain-plate knee and aft cabin bulkhead which had all suffered water damage.
Seal propane locker
Epoxy Barrier coat bottom to prevent blisters and then paint with two coats of anti-fouling (CSC Micron works great in the tropics!)
Paint Boat topsides with Awlgrip in Captain's Navy Blue. (Note- this requires sanding and fairing the hull and 2 coats of primer before the blue). 
Add in-boom furling and new mainsail. ( I chose Schaeffer system which has just been installed and looks great. I wanted to be able to control the entire boat from the cockpit during heavy weather so, while expensive, this is really safety gear for a boat this size with a short crew.)
Remove existing non-functional bow-thruster system and glass hull. (Got rid of several hundred pounds of metal and freed up storage space. I don't think we need a thruster to cruise!)
Re-plump salt water system to eliminate heater unit.
Add high output alternator (Ballmar 100 AMP)...replacing 50 amp unit and cutting charging time in half for batteries.
Add Inverter (Heart 2500W) to provide AC power and Link10 monitoring system to track battery state of charge and energy usage.
Purchase new Genoa (got it from New Zealand through the Internet!) and refurbish staysail and mizzen sail (Sail Care out of PA does great work!)
Reconfigure battery system to provide on HUGE 800AmpHr. bank of four 8D cells for our electrical needs...plus a small starting battery.
Install new radar/chart plotter (Raymarine as on Camaraderie), as well as new depth sounder and GPS and VHF radio at the helm.
Rebuild Robertson auto-pilot and install new control head at helm. Link with other electronics.
Install personal electronics below...added Philips LCD flat panel HDTV and Panasonic combination stereo/CD/DVD system & VCR...for those rainy days! (From circuitcity.com of course!)
Add dodger/bimini and full cockpit enclosure.
Replace all cushions, seating and mattresses (www.yourdesignmattress.com) and order custom blinds.
Re-certify & pack life-raft and install canister on boat.
Purchase complete spares for engine & generator for extended cruising.
Sand and re-varnish everything!

Add to that a lot of sweat and general provisioning and you can see this is no small project! All was going well but slowly and I was beginning to worry about making our November 1st departure date when we began to hear about hurricane Isabel.
About 4 days in front of her landfall, it became evident that the Chesapeake could get a pretty good hit and everything in the marina stopped to prepare for the storm. The yard crew was amazing as they pulled and blocked about 65 boats from the water in 3 days...working from 7 in the morning till after dark using their headlights to complete their work. We arranged for Camaraderie to occupy the travel lift slip since it was very protected and secure and had metal welded cleats along both sides. At 10PM on Wednesday night we pulled in and tied about 15 lines to Camaraderie and headed to Richmond to wait out the storm. The eye passed over Richmond but the winds weren't as bad as I've seen before....Unfortunately, with the ground soaked by a VERY wet spring and summer, a lot of trees went over and the electrical grid in Virginia was a mess! We drove back out to the boat on Friday morning and were amazed at the devastation along the roads and had to take several detours and drive under downed wires propped up by branches just to get to the boat. We didn't know what to expect at the marina but were pleased to find the new boat untouched and totally dry inside. Unfortunately Camaraderie did not fare as well. Her long stern lines had pulled the cleats out of the dock as the water rose, then the wind took her into the sides of the slip and scraped up her beautiful paint job. Thankfully, there was no structural damage and our insurance will cover the paint,  but we were both upset by the damage done to our beautiful boat...especially since we were one of the few boats damaged and we had taken so many precautions in preparation...Oh well, that's mother nature.
The real storm damage has been to our plans as we're still without water and electricity at the Boatyard and have lost a full two weeks of work on the boat...so I don't think we'll be able to make our departure date. (After Nov 1st or so...the Atlantic winter gales and Xmas winds make an offshore passage significantly more dangerous. Unless things go very quickly, we'll plan instead to go to the Bahamas again and work our way down to the Caribbean in the spring. For now we'll settle for some electricity and a hot shower!
Oh yeah... just got word from Blue Water Sailing Magazine that they would like to publish my article on using PocketMail to get weather forecasts from NOAA, "Weather in Your Pocket"....most kewl, and they're even gonna pay me a bit! I'll be signing autographs at the boat show <grin>.  Stay tuned...//GB