2009 Log
11/1 to 11/15/2009
This is the current period of our log for 2009. At the bottom of the page are links to this year's pass weeks; our earlier voyages are in Prior Voyages.
The Google Custom Search box immediately below is an internet search tool for more information on subjects and locations mentioned in our site. We hope you find it useful.
Updated on 11/16/2009
|
11/1/09 - Fall forward, we're not saving time anymore. Thanks to my brother we've got it right this time (the month). Drops of water on the hatches told us it had rained lightly during the night. Given the threat and actuality of rain all day we went shopping with Bradd & Maeve. Our major purchase was a small carpet and upholstery shampooer. We figured at the cost of having it done professionally we could buy and throw out 4 of these machines a year, have a cleaner interior, and still be money ahead. The proof will be when we try it. Wanted to watch Brett play tonight. In the course of trying to find a site with video I opened a Trojan horse, immediately bailed out when the virus warnings started flashing and ended up spending the next 4 hours running virus scanning software. One file found and deleted, hopefully I got it resolved. Logged back on the net and found that the Vikings had beat the Packers in what looked like an exciting game. Rodgers is playing well... so is Favre. 11/2/09 - Grey and damp this morning. The yard crew moved the jack-stands this morning so I can paint where they were - if the weather cooperates. It stayed cool and gray all day. By noon I had all our painting done (almost a thousand dollars in paint) and went to help Bradd & Maeve prepare Sampatecho (the original) for winter. Ruth and I cleaned out every locker on the boat looking for room to install a watermaker Bradd gave us. It was just plain the wrong shape for any space we wanted to give up until we thought of the area where the waste basket fits under the sink. Turned out it fit beautifully without displacing the waste basket. Kewl! By 4pm it was misting, good timing. I returned to AA and tried to get on the net. I was able to connect but data transfer was too slow to get much done beyond e-mail. 11/3/09 - Cool, gray morning, our heater ran most of the night; fall is catching up with us again. Talked to Miles last night; they are south of St Augustine. He texted me this afternoon to report that they were in New Smyrna Beach. Making great time toward South Beach! We were re-launched at 2pm, big smile on my face when the PYI prop went into forward and reverse as planned. There are so many ways to make a mistake assembling that bugger. Now if the pitch is correct I'll be a happy camper. The boat feels more responsive - Ruth thinks it's because of all the little critters we left behind. I think it might be because we're $1,888.00 lighter. We had to anchor outside Bock Marina as Sampatecho found themselves aground when they tried to back out of their slip. Pretty steady barge traffic here, we've seen one abut every 30 minutes anchored out. Sampatecho can't get out until the 10am tide, so we hung at anchor with towboats passing about 50' from us. Ruth declared a movie date so I grilled ribs while she made mashed potatoes with green beans... great meal followed by a good flick. Gotta love movie night! 11/4/09 - Cool, clear with heavy dew, definitely a fall morning. The full moon created an early high tide so Sampatecho was able to get off the dock at 8am. The weather report was 15-20 knots out of the north so we decided to exit the ICW at Beaufort and sail to Wrightsville Beach. At 10:30 we were 3 miles offshore and heading south with a dolphin pod escort. It was a beautiful motor sail to Wrightsville beach; the wind was 13 knots behind us and the seas 2 - 3 feet - long waves we could surf. We entered the inlet in the dark. A little scary as our chart doesn't show the breakwaters or all the buoys. By 7:30 we were anchored securely. 11/5/09 - Sunny, clear and no wind. We motored to the Yacht Club for fuel, heading south on the ICW at 8:30. We traveled 25 miles to Cape Fear where we exited into the Atlantic for a jump to Port Royal Sound (Hilton Head). We saw more dolphins that we ever have; at one point we had several dozen racing us along the coast. They'd play a game where they would see how far out they could go and still get back to the boat in time to cross the bow. Our genoa got sprayed by their splashing. One ran alongside by the helm... I could almost touch him. 11/6/09 - Ruth and I did 3 hour watch rotations during the moon lit night. Ruth set the speed record at 10 knots. I went to bed 3/8 mile behind Sampatecho and woke up 1 mile ahead. Ruth rocks1 What a ride! 24 hours from Cape Fear to Port Royal; 166 miles offshore. At times we were charging along at 10 knots over ground. It is hard to believe a new paint job and installing the the feathering prop would make that much difference. I came up for my 6am watch to find we sere dancing at the edge of control. Ruth was having a ball! I slowed us down by having Ruth furl the genoa. We were well ahead of Sampatecho. Enter local knowledge to tip the scales. We ran to the channel entrance and turned up the sound. Bradd crossed the shoals to enter the channel ahead of us. He saved 45 minutes! By 3pm we were tied to the wall in front of the South Carolina Yacht Club. Bob greeted us at the dock, making us feel welcome. Great to see him again! We decided to take part in the two race series being held by the South Carolina Yacht Club. We paid our entry fee and got our rules. Tomorrow at 10 we'll be at the starting line. 11/7/09 - A sunny clear morning greeted us on race day. Bob treated us to the $1.99 yacht club breakfast: eggs, sausage, bacon, rolls, coffee, sweet rolls and more. Excellent. Off to the races, tidal current and fluky winds. We had a poor start on port, last to cross the line. We made it up by the second mark which we rounded second. We died on the windward leg in spite of Ruth's excellent sail trimming due to strong tidal currents and capricious winds. One boat dropped out, and one finished behind us scratch though I think we corrected to last. We sailed to the finish line doing 2.5 knots over the water and .5 knots over land while the crew of the committee boat urged us on. A couple of times on the course we were actually going backward because the tide current was faster than our speed over water... quite the education. The evening entertainment was a low country oyster roast. The oysters were cooked in their shells on on a large grille. We shucked and ate them on the patio before moving in for corn on the cob, salads, grilled chicken and ribs. Met lots of folks, had a great night. 11/8/09 - Fifty degrees and clear this morning. Another light air race in strong current... boy did we get another education. It's wild to watch the line sweep by while you are pointed in the right direction and the tide is taking you sideways. Our goal of a starboard tack at the committee boat ended up barely making the pin. We hit the leeward mark 10 minutes behind the second place boat and 5 minutes behind third,; that was just enough time for the wind to die up the course. We fought our way to the finish, tack after tack, sometimes with no wind... finally finishing before the committee called the race on the remaining boats. Sampatecho took 3rd in the regatta and Autumn Voyager took second. We picked up survivors of the disaster. We celebrated Sampatecho's third place overall and Autumn Voyager's second place over spaghetti served by Maeve and Bradd. 11/9/09 - Balmy dawn, great for coffee in the cockpit. E-mail from Miles indicates they are hunkered down in Vero Beach waiting for a weather window to head to Miami. Vero is a nice place to be stuck; very boater friendly. Today we had the wind we needed for the regatta. By 1pm we were in Savannah where we walked a little before taking an hour long horse drawn buggy tour of historic Savannah with a 19 year old definite hotty as our guide. Great way to see the city. After the tour we walked the riverside shops. Definitely tourist country. Speaking of tourism, Maeve called early in the day leaving a message to see if we could have space on the city dock. The Park and Recreation lady called back and said yes, first come, first served. Further we were welcome to stay overnight. We found space. Later in the afternoon the lady called again noting that she'd seen the docks were full and wondered if we'd found space? If not, she'd made arrangements for us to stay at another dock. Wow, that is southern hospitality! We informed her we were docked and in town spending money. 11/10/09 - Marnie and Brian treated us to breakfast at the Rock Cafe, the same place where Ruth shot the lamp picture. We got to sit right under the lamp Ruth coveted. Good meal! Ships were heading out on the tide like lemmings. They pass right in front of the restaurant and only a hundred feet from our boat. They look really big when you see them from that perspective... looking up. Given the 8 foot tide at Savannah we got the chance to see our vessel from another perspective. Great time to check out the solar panels. After eating we headed back to Hilton Head so Sampatecho could drop off their guests and for dinner at Judy and Bob's home. As we ran down the river we could see considerable effort being expended to raise the levees several feet. Global warming or hurricane insurance? Back at Windmill Harbor Ruth went grocery shopping while I did an oil change (right up there on my list of favorite things to do). A phenomenal baked chicken dinner at the Powell's completed the day. With all the conversation and food we didn't get back to the boat until 10pm. 11/11/09 - Ida died over Georgia. We got only a touch of rain during the evening and lots of gray today. There is another storm, Invest 98, developing along Brad Abbott's path to Bermuda (they are about 3/4's of the way there). They may be in for another adventure of their own. If it develops into a tropical storm it is projected to stay well offshore. Marnie and Brian headed back to Canada today. We'll miss them. We extended an offer to visit us further south... let's see, visit in AA in the Bahamas or Sampatecho in Cuba... what was that offer again? We had lunch at the yacht club with the Powells and Wilsons. It was a nice respite from the rain and boat. The day remained gray as waves of showers passed over. Remnants of Ida or part of the massive low forming on the east coast? 11/12/09 - Cold, windy and drizzle - other than that a great morning. Bob & Judy called to note that the weather had cancelled their sailing with the Salty Sisters and Briney Brothers... they wondered if we'd let them tour our boats and listen to us talk about things to consider if contemplating extended cruising. After a short pow-wow we said okay. It turned out to be fun. The two groups included about 10 people, Ruth and Maeve talked about cruising from their perspective and Bradd and I covered it from a navigation, maintenance and equipment standpoint. It made the afternoon go fast. Buddy thought she'd died and gone to heaven; so many people came just to see her.,, it's all about Buddy! We combined efforts and made dinner at the Powells. Maeve contributed a great butternut squash soup that was to die for. The Powells have gone way overboard as hosts and we appreciate it. 11/13/09 - Woke to partly cloudy skies, the wind had died down to 15-20 knots and it was warmer. We left later than usual, clearing the Windmill Harbor lock around 9:30a so the Powells could bring more Cuba bound items for Sampatecho. Once we cleared Tybee Roads (the channel to Savannah) we were flying. 8 - 10 knots all day with no sail adjustments. The seas ranged from 1 to 6 foot as the wind blew a steady 15-20 with an occasional 25 gust. Sailing doesn't get much better. By going off shore for 6 hours we saved two days (and 18 gallons of diesel) on the ICW, We ducked into Doboy Sound for the night, anchoring in a river for protection. Okay, it's like anchoring in a wheat field, there's no protection from the wind but at least the field stays flat. 11/14/04 - Woke to a clear sky and light wind. We exited Doboy Sound at near high tide. The water at the mouth of the South River is shoaled to the point we would not be able to enter at low tide. Ten knot winds from the north dictated we motor sail to Fernandina Beach FL. We experienced a long 5' swell arising from the Nor'easter off New Jersey. Not uncomfortable but caused a lot of sail flogging and made doing the dishes a challenge. By going 45 miles offshore we avoided Georgia's poorly maintained section of the ICW. The channel by Jekyll Island is so shallow we can only run it at high tide. It's been that way as long as we've been traveling the coast. We also save about 20 miles of travel versus the ICW. We also miss a number of bridges and a lot of southbound traffic. By 3pm we were anchored off Cumberland Island at the Florida border. Time to relax and anticipate tomorrow's exploration. 11/15/09 - Beautiful morning! No breeze, balmy and endless blue skies. About 10am we picked up Bradd & Maeve to go exploring ashore. We walked the trails on the southern end of the island, revisiting some of the places we'd seen before: the Carnegie mansion, the wild horses, the ice house among others. The off to the beach. The tide was out so we had miles of wide beach to explore... finding shells, sandscapes, crabs and flotsam (or perhaps jetsam?). Several hours passed before we were tired of water and sand; hungry for lunch. That crab was looking pretty good about then. |
Google searches Use the custom Google search at the top of the page to look for boating, sailing and cruising information. At the bottom of the page is a custom search box that looks specifically at our site for reference to the subject you enter.
After hours of searching for a place to mount the watermaker we found one right below the galley sink
Ferry crossing the Cape Fear river. Ferries are a necessity in low country
Cape Fear light as we leave for Hilton Head. Savannah, GA We've been to lovely historic Savannah several times. Once during our business lives and several times by bus from Thunderbolt. We decided to visit by water... taking a space on the town dock in the center of the tourist area.
The Savannah River proved to be fairly heavily industrialized though not in the dirty manner of the Cal Sag
An old fort protected Savannah by water
Ocean going vessels thread their way upstream to discharge or load cargo
In this case to barges that will transport it further inland
An old dredge is claimed by the waters it maintained
Bradd, Maeve, Marnie, Brian, Ruth and I decided to see the city by horse
Our teamster was a cute young lady with a non-stop line of puns
This is the skyline of downtown Savannah
Ruth stopped to shoot this gal giving her pup a treat after a tour in her perambulator
Ruth saw this lamp in a hotel bar and just had to have it
Now I know why Ruth's been collecting rocks
Okay Willie, this one's for you
AA and Sampatecho share the town dock with Peacemaker.
AA's alternative energy package, 540 watts of solar and 5 amps of wind
Dueling backhoes working on building up the Savannah River levee's height
Swamp ho? Working the waterfront
You can armadillo, but you can't teach them to shoot
Their evolution stopped about the time of the dinosaurs, a horseshoe crab
Sandscape by Tidal Waters
Future clam bake, or just bubblers?
Wanna fight? Put up your dukes! |
Use this Google Custom Search for finding subjects on our site:
View our 2009 Logs