November 2007

November 25^th, 2007 We have spent a couple of evenings in Daytona Beach, Florida for a visit with some old friends. We joined Wayne and Eloise on their boat Megalove II after breakfast for a wonderful visit and tour of their boat.

Once again, thanks to our Cedar Mills Yacht Club Membership and reciprocity with other yacht clubs, we have a courtesy slip at the Halifax River Yacht Club here in Daytona. The club was established in the late 1800s and had occupied the same building until just last year when the members built a multi-million dollar facility. Members and visiting cruisers enjoy a fine restaurant and lounge, tiki bar, swimming pool, laundry, and boaters lounge with internet. Even better, it turned out that Wayne and Eloise keep their boat about 3 slips away from us. Wayne and Nancy worked together for about nine years.

Later in the morning Tom and Conny (formally from Cedar Mills in Texas, our old Marina) also joined us at the boat and we all had lunch together at the yacht club.

As we were coming into Daytona Beach, Nancy waved at someone on the shore. Its not unusual to wave to people on shore as we travel down the Intracoastal Waterway because we come so close to the land. Well, this person waved very energetically while Nancy was on the phone talking and explaining to the person she was talking to about how friendly the people were. Later as we were getting ready to go under one of the bridges, our phone rang. We were told to look onshore to our starboard, for a gray van. We saw it right away traveling along the highway parallel to us. It was Tom and Conny. We then found out that the waving person was Tom. They had come out to the waterway to watch for us coming down. When we got to the Yacht Club, Tom was on the dock helping the dock master with our dock lines. They then took us to dinner and the next day to West Marine (where Tom used to work) for some needed supplies. What great friends.

It was Wayne and Eloise's Anniversary the day we pulled in and they were in Orlando having a special dinner they'd planned for several months. We thought that we would see them the next day. Well, after their dinner, they drove here and about 11:00 p.m. we met them at the Yacht Club Tiki Bar. We did not know that this is where Wayne kept their boat, so after we called the yacht club for a slip we called Wayne to let them know we would be in town and where. That's when we found out that they were members here and he made another call to the yacht club to make sure that we had the best treatment.

Its hard to explain how we feel that we have such caring friends here in Tom, Conny, Wayne and Eloise.

From the attic of my mind.

Intracoastal waterway:

The waterway twists and turns its way southward. Sometimes its a river to follow, other times a canal and other times a very shallow sound. No matter which, it is not going straight. Even if a canal appears to be straight, the channel in the canal is usually not dredged to the full width of the canal and zigzags its way left and right. The marks show the turns and changes but its a mistake to try and head straight to another mark with out completing the course to the mark in front of you, even if you see the next marks and those further along. Remember, the channel is turning and the marks are there to show you that. You cannot just "connect the dots" from one mark to the other. Many people run aground on the waterway because they are not following the channel. Another mistake is that they take the mark too close. Any daymark or flashing buoy with a Alfa suffix (Green 23A, etc.) indicates shoaling and you have to remember that that mark was put next to the shoal several years ago and that shoaling has continued to build. What I do is keep at least a boat-length away from the mark and maybe more. One of the things people say is "stay in the middle of the channel. Well, that will keep you safe most of the time but don't forget shoaling.

My turn to run aground may be next (I hear that we have a very shallow place coming up) but I work hard at trying not to touch the bottom.

One of the things that really helped us was the Oklahoma City Sail and Power Squadrons', Arkansas River Run. We were taught what to look for on the river and how currents and bends in the river create the shoal. The actual river run, although a great social time as well, was a real learning experience and has helped us immensely (and we can now call ourselves river rats or waterway weasels ). Because of this training we have been able to visualize the course of the channel and so far it has always kept us in the deeper water. Thanks to all the experienced instructors in the Squadron for their lessons.

How wide is the channel on the Intracoastal Waterway??? Sometimes only wide enough for two boats to pass.

Tomorrow we keep heading south. We love the warmer weather.

November 22^nd, 2007 Happy Thanksgiving. We are getting ready to have a feast. Over 100 boats have now joined us at St. Mary's, plus a pelican that says "This is my piling and I am not going to move".

An aerial photo was taken a few days ago of the anchorage. At that time we had about 80 boats at anchor.

The group has been getting together each evening at happy hour and meeting old friends and gaining new.

We are back from the turkey GAM (a GAM is where boats gather together at sea). It all started out with a morning rainbow and a radio call at 7:30 this morning wanting help setting up the tables. So, being the nice person that I am, I went up and for the next 2 hours, helped set up for the dinner. After that, I came back to the boat, got our place settings, made a place card, went back to the hotel and pick out the best table in the house for our Thanksgiving dinner. We were joined by Kathy and Mike from S/V Sapphire. The food line was long (about a block) but went fast with 4 serving lines to get everyone to their tables. The local hotel had shut down their bar, dining room, patio and lobby to host the turkey event. We had set up about 280 chairs and tables for use and everything was full. Even the dinghy dock. During this event we spent time meeting new friends and visiting with old. This is Jon and Jill from S/V Sirius and they were great to meet. Others just came by to say "Hi".

The St. Mary's Thanksgiving feast is not one to miss and is a must on everyone's trip down south.

November 19^th, 2007 We are having a wonderful time in St. Mary's. They say that it is the second oldest city in America. The area around the docks is called the historic district and it is great. St. Mary's is very small and shows that small town spirit.

When we first got here, we took our bikes out, rode around town, did some shopping and got to know the area. We usually spend our mornings on boat chores; laundry, cleaning, fixing the dinghy etc. and then in the afternoon, we tour. In the local used book store, cruisers write their names on the wall. We saw a friends boat, "Sapphire", from last year and had to write our name next to theirs.

We rented a car one day and drove to St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island with Pierre and Kathy. We liked Jekyll the best. All the "big money" families from the last century had winter homes there (the Rockfellers, Morgans, Pulitzers, Vanderbilts, etc.). The homes were built without kitchens. Everyone was expected to dine at the club house (which is now a hotel, that big). Rooms are now available in many of the homes and we had lunch in one of them with Pierre and Kathy.

We also went to the light house on St. Simons Island and climbed to the top.

The view of the harbor was breath taking.

The next day some old friends for Cedar Mills Marina (now living in Florida), drove up for a visit. Tom and Connie drove us all over the place and allowed us to get some needed things for the boat.

Today we took a ferry ride to Cumberland Island.

The Island is mostly federally owned today, but at one time 90 percent was owned by the Carnegie's. They gave it to the government and it is now under the National Park Service.

The old Carnegie Mansion (Dungeness) was destroyed by fire and is now referred to as the ruins.

One of the things unique to the island is the wild horses. About 300 of them roam the Island.

Don't try to pet one, they know that they are wild. And of course Nancy had to dip her toes in the Atlantic.

I just don't know what the fascination is. We sail on it all the time and taste the water during storms and yet she still has to roll up her pant legs and go wading.

The evening get-togethers, with the other boaters that are showing up for Thanksgiving, start tomorrow. We will be part of the festivities. The town is putting on Thanksgiving for cruisers and will be cooking 15 turkeys along with hams and oysters. The cruisers will provide the side dishes. Its interesting how the whole town is getting involved. Individuals are cooking the turkeys in their homes, the small hotel is donating the space and all the cruisers are providing side dishes and desserts. This is a great place to be. The anchorage is filling up with boats and we are at the dock for easy access to town anytime we want. Life couldn't be any better.

From the attic of my mind:

Dock lines: We just purchased two 35 foot lines. The longer ones are needed to cast off. I don't know what the problem is, but when docking, there is always someone from the marina at the dock to help but they are never there when we cast off ( 6:30 in the morning). So we cast off ourselves. Well, its a little hard to be on the dock and say good-bye to the boat. So we need to loop the lines around the dock cleats and bring the lines back to the boat. We then cast off the bitter end of the line and retrieve it from the cleat by pulling it aboard. That allows us to get ourselves underway. At our home slip, we just throw the lines on the dock. It would get to be a problem leaving all those lines at all those marina's.

Dinghy Davits: Ok, I want to get rid of mine. Trouble is, I have my solar panels on them. What I have seen:

1. Davits do not hold the dinghy secure. In any type of ocean sailing, the dinghy swings back and forth.

2. Attempts to stop the swinging with lines or webbing, just slow down the swinging and will eventually rub through the fabric. The many hours of pressure will eventually stretch, loosen, or completely remove the line or webbing.

3. Dinghies need to be on deck to stop any problems.

We have noticed boaters pulling them behind, but, we have also heard the Coast Guard being called many times by boaters finding dinghies adrift.

We have noticed a lot of boater putting the dinghies on deck.

Using a halyard, we have now put ours on deck and it was easier that putting it on davits. The only difference is that all things have to be removed from the dinghy (battery, anchor, etc.)

Davits are nice for lake sailing, short passages in good weather, but that is it, unless another type of secure system is used. Many are on the market.

When I realized that a 30 hour ocean passage would probably equal a year of lake or bay sailing, I saw the problem. When a 3000 mile trip is made, the problems multiply.

Nuts, Bolts and Screws: Again, hours of work and they all get loose. Preventive maintenance is needed on things that normally would only show up every 5 years. They show up every week or so. I now go around the boat about every two weeks and keep checking things. During storms, I am continually checking things as much as I can while we are underway.

So goes the day.

November 10^th, 2007 Florida is over my left shoulder and Georgia is on my right.

Before we left Charleston, we visited Fort Sumter. To look at the place where the Civil War started and to realize that it was not really that long ago, is something.

As we left the National Park Service Museum on their ferry boat bound for the fort, I looked back and saw a wonderful view of the bridge over the bay at Charleston.

We left early in the morning planning on a slow overnight passage in the Atlantic to St. Mary's on the border of Florida and Georgia. It started out wonderfully with clear skies and calm winds. Little did we know what we were about to have for weather after midnight. But during the daylight hours we had a ball.

Bottle Dolphins were the first to visit. Wonderful to have around and a sign of a good passage for a sailor (right). We had several visit us during the day mostly making high speed runs at us and then diving under the hull of the boat. We were their toy. One became a bow rider and I got several pictures of him showing off for me.

It seemed that if we paid attention to them the more they would play. Another one said, Eck, Eck, Eck, Eck, Eck, to us. I think that was a hello.

Later in the day, spotted dolphin came by in a very large pod and swarmed around us. One stayed with us a very long time, swimming just off our starboard beam, looking at us. The day started out great.

All was great until midnight then the winds came up (25 to 30 knots) and the sea state changed (from 2 - 3 foot seas to 5 - 8 foot). It was one of the worst rides that we have had and it continued for the next 9 hours. Sea spray all over the place. The good thing is that we have picked up about 10 days from our planned route by taking another outside passage (the waterway is considered "inside" and the ocean "outside"). Because of this, when we arrived at St. Mary's, we decided to have a vacation and stay 2 weeks and look at the area. One of the places we plan to see is Cumberland Island. It is next to us and a short Ferry Boat ride to visit. It is owned mostly by the Federal Government and has restricted development. Its main attractions are the wild horses, turtles, manatees and nature. We will take our bikes with us and enjoy a day. As we went passed the Island on our way here, we saw the wild horses on the beach.

Mail: When we left on our first day from Deale, we had our mail delivered from Florida. We opened our package when we were headed south on the Chesapeake Bay and as we looked at the latest issue of Latitudes and Attitudes, we saw a picture of so many of our friends from our home yacht club (Cedar Mills Yacht Club). How appropriate it was to have them with us on our first journey south.

Fenders: you just can't have enough of them. At our home slip they just are really not needed and we used them mainly for rafting (two or more boats, tied along side each other). Since we would be cruising and anchoring, I didn't think we would need them. I kept the two we had mounted on the bow and brought another one for tying the dinghy along side. Little did I know that when fueling or docking at most ocean access marinas, that the tidal current would be so strong that three is a minimum number and 4 is what is really needed. Oh, does a strong current smash those little things.

November 07^th, 2007 Well, we made it to Charleston, S.C. Solitaire left Beaufort, N. C. early in the morning on Sunday, November 4th. We'd stayed anchored in Beaufort the previous week as the Hurricane went by. We saw winds up to 60 mph. Both Nancy and I slept in the cockpit for two nights keeping anchor watch. Turns out that we didn't have to. When we tried to raise our anchor it wouldn't come up. I put the boat right over the anchor and hoped that bobbing up and down would release the anchor. We tried driving over the anchor. Nothing would work and the anchor refused to come up. We worked for a couple of hours and gave up. We have unlimited tow insurance and when Tow Boat U.S. came by, I waved him over. He dropped a weighted line down our anchor chain and after 3 tries, the anchor finally came free. The high winds really dug the anchor in. After we got the anchor up we went to the marina next to us and tied up for the night. We filled up our water tank, did laundry and had dinner with Jay and Di

at the marina restaurant. Well, morning came and we headed out of Beaufort with an early morning bridge opening.

That's Jay and Di in front of us going through the bridge first. We told them that we would follow them out to the Atlantic. When Di asked "why?", Nancy said that we would use them as a depth gauge. I think that was a wave she gave us.

This was to be a outside passage in the Atlantic to Charleston and our first full overnight run. The weather was just settling down from the storm and we were ready to go. It was a bucking sea and I have never had so much water go over the bow. I think that I had enough water over the bow to fill the largest lake in Texas. Salt just caked up over everything. The sunset was wonderful at sea

and the stars the brightest. It looked like you could just reach out and touch Orion's belt.

We rounded Cape Fear after dusk and it was the darkest moonless night I had seen in a while. About 10:00 p.m., Nancy baked fresh chocolate chip cookies from frozen dough that Di had given us the day before. What a treat during a night ocean passage. I think it needs to become a tradition.

As we came into Charleston about mid afternoon, we passed Fort Sumter

where the first shot of the Civil War was fired and got a slip at a resort marina. Most expensive we have ever paid. We found out that this was one of the cheaper marinas and one of the cruising web sites mentioned that you better be prepared for sticker shock when in Charleston. We stayed at that marina a couple of nights and met another cruising couple that had sailed with us during the over night passage. On Tuesday, we all went into town for a tour. One thing that we did was take a carriage ride around the historic town. We went to the Red Barn and got on our mule-drawn carriage.

The City made me think of New Orleans; when there is a higher high tide, a lot of the city is flooded. We saw high water marks on the buildings in the market center. The homes have a different and unusual style. The homes all face south or west and have a porch to protect the house from the sun on the hot southern days. Nothing really strange about that but they put a door on the porch so they are not surprised by visitors. This picture shows a walk up to the porch (remember high water) and the door to the porch.

After our tour, we had lunch at well-known Charleston restaurant, Hyman's Seafood. One of their signature dishes is crispy flounder - very good. Later, we all met at Jay and Di's boat for a late night party.

This morning we toured an aircraft carrier like the one I was on during the Viet Nam war and a submarine before moving our boat across the harbor to another marina. It is about half the price and located right next to downtown. It fact it is the city marina called the Charlestown Maritime Center.

There are only about 15 places that a boat can tie up so I feel good that we were able to get a spot here. The aquarium is next to us and the Fort Sumter Museum is just before the aquarium. Tomorrow we will be going out to the Fort via a tour boat (the only way to get there) and probably do some more shopping.