You only have to spend a short time talking with Randy Mims to know that he has the soul of a true sailor. Randy not only built his 27ft gaff-rigged cutter, Ideath, but each year he single-hands the cutter from North Carolina to the Northern Gulf Coast and back again. “Ideath” is pronounced Idea-th and loosely translates as “house of ideas”. Randy stops along the way to visit maritime museums and, indulging his passion for music, he volunteers to sing in church choirs along the way. He also takes time to share his travels with his friends and has agreed to allow SSECN to post his emails. For more photos and more on Randy, go to http://towndock.net/shippingnews/ideath?pg=1 from TownDock.net in Oriental. Also see /?p=150703.

Dear Friends,
I have been having some wonderful times and survived some not so wonderful times here on the North Carolina coast. After leaving Beaufort, I went up to New Bern to Duck Creek Marina. Duck Creek is one of my favorite places in NC. It is the boat yard that I haul the boat to keep it maintained on the way back from each voyage. I won’t be hauling the boat until the end of the month but I came here so my long time friend could come down and go sailing with me for a weekend. This enabled me to ride back with him to Greensboro to visit my 92 year old father and the rest of my family. My sister brought me back to the boat and we had an exhilarating sail out in the Neuse river with all the wind that plan sail could handle from exactly the best direction for flying down and back up the river. Unfortunately, the next day was blowing a gale so we spent the day dodging the rain and visited Tryon Palace and museum. Next Stop was Elizabeth City. I had the trip planned out to arrive the following Saturday to tie up to the town dock (48 hours free) so I could go to church on Sunday. Listening to the weather radio changed my plans by Wednesday. Insted of a leisurly pace of twenty some miles a day and lots of time playing music and reading, it turned into driving on into the night to be in Elizabeth City before the gale spawned by hurricane Joaquin arrived. I arrived on Thursday night and not wanting to use up my 48 hours before Sunday, I anchored in a very secure cove in the Pasquatank river. Saturday morning I moved the boat to the City dock. The predicted wind had arrived and getting to the dock slip had lots of opportunity for disaster. I made double sure all my lines were all ready and well coiled, took a pass and realized I needed to be more upwind. I aborted and came around for a second try. Coming into the slip I hit strong reverse to slow the boat down but the slower it goes the less steering you have and the more the wind will push it sideways. I braced myself and threw a line with a loop on the end to the outside windward piling. Wonder of wonders the loop settled around the top of the piling and the boat came to a stop exactly the proper distance from the dock for the guys on the dock to take the neatly coiled lines and secure the bow. It appeared so calm and planned when actually my heart was pounding because I knew that if I had missed with the first line, even hitting full reverse the boat would have been blown down onto the pilings and possibly would not have stopped in time and hit the wall or would have gone sideways and been pinned against the pilings and pounded by the waves. This was graphically illustrated about an hour later when the next boat arrived and it took the two people on the boat and four guys on the dock to get the boat fended off and straightened out without too much damage. For the next two days it blew so hard that even in the harbor the waves were so high that with the boat tied up (with virtually every line I had) down below it felt like the boat was at sea. I did get to go to Church and sang with the choir. It was fun to see all my friends from when I was here before. They are always glad to have another tenor.
After the gale blew itself out, I took a very pleasurable trip up the Dismal Swamp Canal. The lock keeper at the other end has turned what is normally a place you go through and don’t look back into a famous “Cruising Destination”. People go through the lock and stay at the overnight dock and meet other cruisers. Everyone meets at the lock house the next morning for a Coffee and donut and yogurt breakfast before heading out. Stories are exchanged and people leave with a fondness for this historic canal and Robert the Lock Keeper. It is starting to really feel like fall here. Some of the trees are beginning to turn. Hope you all are enjoying the colors and being back into the fall routine. I am heading back to the boat yard to haul her and fix some places that need attention. I hope you enjoyed this update. I have posted some more videos on youtube and facebook. Please check them out if you can . Till next time
Thank you all,
Randy