Saturday, November 5, 2016

Sounds, Sounds, and more Sounds

I'm not talking about acoustical sounds but the Marine Sounds. We passed through 5 of them today. That is a BUNCH!

We left Killkenney Creek at 7:30am and had a good run with a favorable tide to transit all the troubles spots at near high tide namely, Little mud River, Altamaha Sound approach, and Buttermilk Sound. This involved transiting St Catherine Sound, Sapello, Dolboy, Altamaha, and Buttermilk Sounds. Destination was Frederica River Anchorage just above St Simones Island Sound.

We did it!! It was tough but no problem with low water because we timed the tide just right. The problem was the much more than expected wind speeds while crossing the Sounds. The worst was the Sapello. When we entered I saw the wind speed jump to 24 then 30 then 33 and then 35. Forecast was for 10 - 20. Eeeeck my crew is not going to like this.. Fortunately the wind direction was mostly on our stern and the current was with it. It was no cake ride but only a few items took a dive down in the cabin from the moderately rough rocking. We just plugged along and made 60 miles in 8.5 hours.. That is GOOD>>> We still don't have a buddy boat but we did have one sailboat follow us for a while -- FLOW. I talked to them a bit but they wouldn't strike up a conversation. They kept trying to motor sail with the Jenny but with this strong wind they kept getting overpowered and made erratic moves. I eventually stopped and let them pass me so I wouldn't have to worry about them. Several trawler types passed us today but that was all.

The wind should lay down tonight and we should be able to cross the notorious St Andrew sound tomorrow with some difficulty but if we don't then it will be Wednesday before we can try again.

I'm knocking on Florida's door and want to put this Georgia behind us. Georgia has a beautiful waterway but they don't keep it up and it is a ROYAL PAIN to cross since you must use the tide to do it.

I'm bushed -- going to sleep well tonight.

Friday, November 4, 2016

The devil in the details

Today we were going to transit Hells Gate - a little cut between the Vernon River and the Ogeechee River. It is reported that at low tide there are spots that are only 2 - 3 feet deep. That's a no go for my 5.2' draft. Just after that is the Florida Passage which is also quite shallow.

We timed our arrival to be about 1 hour before high tide. By that time there would be 7' of tide water over whatever was there. We hit it as planned and fortunately the strong cold front that was supposed to be here this morning had not arrived yet so we got through with some trepidation but no shallow water. Shallowest we saw was 10.2' which would be 3.2' at low tide. The Florida Passage was easy with that 7' tide.

It was a relatively short day of only 30 miles. We anchored in Killkenney Creek around 12:30pm. Tomorrow we have two troublesome areas to transit -- Buttermilk Sound and Little mud River. From here we should reach them about an hour after high tide, then on to Frederica River for a run of 58 miles -- long day.

The cold front has been coming all afternoon with higher wind speeds. Fortunately my wind generator is turning it into useable power. The batteries were pretty low this morning after a short travel day and long time on the anchor back at Herb River.

It started raining here about 4:15pm with some high wind gusts but now 30 minutes later the wind is down, rain has stopped and its just cloudy.

Hopefully all will clear by morning.

Oh it got up to 83 degrees here today but is now down to 70 and dropping. Should be good sleeping tonight.

And once again we traveled alone all day and we are the only vessel anchored here tonight.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

In the blink of an eye

Ahh today started normally enough. We were getting ready to get underway by turning on the electronics, stowing the paper chart for access, and mounting the IPAD. I was kneeling on a cockpit cushion when suddenly it shifted off the seat taking me with it. Before I hit the floor my chest plowed into the steering wheel. WOW - took my breath away and it hurt. I just rolled over to take stock. breathing didn't hurt, swallowing didn't hurt, but boy using any chest muscles did. Ouch I'm going to be sore awhile.

Trying to break my fall I grabbed the mount for the Ipad and snapped the top off. Well nothing Gorilla glue can't fix. Fortunately the IPAD was not in it yet.

After a few minutes we continued to depart. We were timing to hit the trouble areas of RAMSHORN Creek, Fields Cut, and Elba Cut near high tide. It worked!! We passed through all those areas and saw none of the shoal areas that there were warnings for. Hell with an 8.8' tide I have enough water get over any spot that is DRY at low tide. It's worth the wait.

We made Herb River just about noon and a distance of 20 miles for the day. To go another 15 miles to Hells gate would put us on the following tide and after mid tide so we wait here till tomorrow morning to hit Hells Gate and the Florida Passage at near high tide. A strong cold front is forecast for early tomorrow so this is a great sheltered anchorage if the winds should really pipe up.

Since I had time on my hands I troubleshot my inverter. I tried a power on clear with no affect. I then pulled some panels to look at the unit but could find no external fuses so I gave it a gentle engineers rap to hopefully jar loose any stuck relays. Still no affect. Looks like it will have to be replaced. I don't have the resources here to bench troubleshoot it and no schematic.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing my hurting chest and treating the pain with judicious amounts of Yeunling Ale.

I'm going to fix a big ol ribeye steak tonight to aid the healing process and to celebrate not seriously injuring myself today.

Oh it got up to 84 degrees here today. Eat your heart out northerners.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Trouble Strikes

We were ready to go this morning. Looks like another fine day.

We turned all the systems on, disconnected the shore power, and turned on the inverter to power the PC and charge some devices. Uh Oh, the inverter started flashing an error "AC Overload". Checking the breakers there was nothing on. I cycled the inverter a few times but still the error persisted. Oh well redundancy is the name of the game so I found a DC charger for the notebook and tried it and all was fine but this means no watching DVDs or TV when on anchor.

We tried to leave early but I couldn't get the dockmaster to come to assist so I got another boater to give us a hand getting away. Leaving was problematic since we had a strong current coming from the rear. We managed and got away just in time to see the swing bridge open! What? it is only supposed to open on the hour and here at 9:30 it opened. Well my Skipper Bob instructions were from 2 years ago and the Active Captain notes said it opens on the hour and 1/2 hour -- darn could have left even earlier.

We went through the bridge and stopped at the Beaufort Downtown Marina for fuel. We took on 53 gallons -- 44 for the main tank and 12 for jerry jugs on the deck. We did a pump out to of both holding tanks.

Then we were on our way -- just 30 miles today to Bull Creek to await high tide in the morning so we can transit Hells Gate and Fields cut in relative ease. On arrival I found the PC had shut down. The DC power supply was off. Apparently the outlet had blown a 5 amp fuse. I traced the outlet to the fuse and it was blown. I replaced it with a 10amp fuse but the outlet would not hold the plug tightly. This is probably why the fuse blew. Fortunately I had a spare 12v Outlet so I replaced it and I'm now using it to power that computer.

Another problem was that the forward head would not pump into the holding tank. I worked the pump harder and overextended the pump arm a couple of times then that started working.

So 2 of 3 problems overcome and just the most expensive one -- the inverter is left for further troubleshooting and probably replacement. It is a big unit at 2000 watts continuous so I hope I can find a solution rather that just buy a new unit.

I'll investigate later.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

An Easy Peazy day

Today was finally an easy day. Just puttered around on a few easy tasks like a new lanyard on the lock on one of the snubber line hooks, fill the water tanks and a trip to the Publix Grocery store here. Lou -- Kourtney's mother in-law lives here and she graciously took us to the store and back to the marina and took us to lunch in downtown Beaufort at Panini. A great little restaurant on the waterfront.

Back on the boat to do a little cleaning and organizing and get ready to leave in the morning for parts south. Actually -- need to stage for going through "Hells Gate". That is its real name on the charts. It is the junction between two rivers and notorious for shoaling. Yep got to work the tide.

Wish us luck.

Monday, October 31, 2016

Better Believe it!

We made the Lady's Island Marina with our usual hassles that always seem to follow us. First they lost our reservation, then still accommodated us and put us in a temporary slip that had no power. Ohh well we adapted and strung our power cords together to reach a different pedestal and just switched between AC and power for the boat.

It was only going to be one night and then they would move us to a face dock.

We checked in this morning and asked about the courtesy car -- ohh it got wrecked last week, someone can take you to the store sometime later today. Just minor annoyances but still accommodating.

After moving to the face dock one of my power cords wouldn't work. On inspection one of the blades on the male plug had been castrated. I had to install a new plug which fortunately I carried a spare.

We switched our schedule of work from tomorrow to today and will do grocery tomorrow. Today I cleaned the topsides of all the anchoring smutz, defrosted the refrigerator, and worked out the bugs in my main sail which prevented our outside passage the other day. So much for relaxing -- I'm whipped tonight. Karen dusted and cleaned floors and did the laundry. Ohhh should I mention -- The washers and dryers are FREE here and they are big commercial jobs.

While I was in the cockpit cleaning the inside of the Bimini of mildew/mold I heard on the VHF 4 sailboats trying to get through the Coosaw Cut at near low tide. You CAN'T DO IT!. They each ran aground and fussed about then decided to sit tight till the tide came up. You can get through but you have to work with the tide. Hell one of Hillary's Political fund raisers would pay to have that dredged! Maybe I'll e-mail her..

The ICW is in sad shape. You can get through but you need to work the tides and that means some short days, however most anchorages are very beautiful. But how much nature can you take?

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Joys and tribulations of the Tides

Today was going to be our longest travel day at 48 miles assuming we could get through the Coosaw Cutoff. It is notorious for very low water and is impassable by 5' draft boats at low tide.

We left at a good time from Church Creek on the rising tide -- 1 hour till high. It is really nice traveling at high tide because all the warnings mean nothing when the high tide is 8' above normal. The only worry we had was FOG. We could see fog building between the trees -- ohh man I did not want to delay for fog. We left and the fog stayed over the ground and did not diminish visibility much in the ICW. We had PLENTY water. Although we had 28 miles to go till we hit the really troublesome water and that was projected to be 2 hours before low tide.

We had a very nice run with some adverse current and some advantageous current and hit the decision point for taking the normal course or the alternate course which I had never used about 11:30am. Well we were near mid tide so I took the normal course and then hit really adverse current. When we hit the Coosaw Cutoff sure enough the water was low -- mainly 8 - 10 feet with the lowest at 7.2' and this was mid tide. It was nerve wracking but we made it to the Coosaw River and thought "what a good boy I am" when I noticed my speed was now 3.7kts. I had no idea the current was that swift in the Coosaw on Ebb Tide. If you can time it better it would be best to hit the cutoff on a rising tide after mid tide and then have the favorable current up the Coosaw.

We did okay and reached the Lady's Island Bridge about 3:30pm. I called the marina and they hemmed and hawkd and found they lost me reservation!!!Aaaack. Well Steve was being as accommodating as possible and finally found a place to use -- rafted to his boat. We got the lines ready for a starboard tie and then he changed it to a port tie. Karen did not like having to shift the lines. Then he wanted us into slip and back to a starboard tie.. Karen was miffed to put it lightly.

Well we got in and tied up and then found the power pedestal did not work so I had to string my two power cords together and go to different pedestal but now we couldn't use both battery charger and AC at the same time. It was 83 so we opted for AC especially since this place is notorious for lots of bugs in the evening.

We are now cool and calm ready for a couple of nice days of not moving at the crack of dawn.