Starting Out

Sunrise on the Neuse

We left Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday, October 8 heading for Oriental, North Carolina. This is a pretty long stretch of about 525 miles. My life long friend Rich Roberts had foolishly agreed to spend a week sailing on a 22 foot Chrysler Sandpiper sailboat. He had contributed to the preparations by installing a much needed second axle on the original Chrysler trailer. This trailer is built lightly by anyone's standards. When you sighted down the length of the frame rail, you could detect a 2" bow over the single axle caused by the weight of the boat over time. I suspect they designed the trailer lightly to save as much weight as possible as the GVWR of the trailer exactly equaled the maximum load of the tires. Always one to take two when one will do, I elected to install the second axle and halve the load on the tires.Rich straightened the bow as much as possible and lengthened the fenders. Thanks Rich! We stopped once for fuel for the Ford F350 and for us. The 7.3 Powerstroke will generally get about 19 mpg on the highway at 70, but with the boat in tow we averaged a little under 13 mpg. The advantage to a trailer sailer is that it will go 70 miles an hour, (or more) on the trailer and thus can be launched anywhere there is an adequate ramp. We cruised into Oriental, A Friendly Little Drinking Town With A Sailing Problem, about 6:30 that evening, about 10 hours on the road. We stayed at the Neuse River Suites, which is a very nice place right on the river with a wonderful view and very nice accommodations. This was the last night of the trip with a comfy bed!