34:33.0514N 077:19.5205W

Friday October 29, 2010 11PM

We are motoring down the ICW because the weather off shore is not so good and our jib roller furler is still broken.

While we were in Oriental NC, I called about getting the parts I need to fix the roller furler. Not only did I just have half of one part, I was missing all of another. None of the companies I called had the parts, all said they needed to be ordered from the manufacturer. One even said it would be 3-4 weeks for them to get what I needed. So I called the manufacturer. Yes they had the parts, no they wouldn’t sell them directly to me - I needed to do through a retailer, plus they were doing inventory so nothing is being shipped until November 1^st. <Add your own comments about customer service here.>

The plan now is to motor down the ICW to Cape Fear and it looks like there will be a 24 hr weather window of light airs on Monday that will allow us to head offshore to Charleston SC. If we have to motor, I’d rather do it off shore as we can travel further faster. If we stay in the ICW to Charleston it will take 3-4 days - offshore we’ll leave one morning and arrive the next.

We had one draw bridge to go through today and it only opened on the hour and half hour. Three of us arrived with about 5 minutes to spare and while waiting the 1-2 knot current kept us moving towards the bridge. There were some interesting maneuvering required by all to keep the boats apart and away from the bridge. I also think the bridge keeper delayed the opening a couple of minutes so he could watch our circus routine.

Tomorrow we have 3 draw bridges to contend with all with limited opening times and there are close to 20 boats in the anchorage with us. It’s a rather narrow entrance to the anchorage and I’m guessing it will be Le Mans type start tomorrow as all the boats try to head out at close to the same time.

Can you tell how much I enjoy the ICW?