Saturday, July 14, 2018

Little Triangle Loop Week #2, 30Jun-6Jul 2018

       We got back late Monday to Point Pleasant, NJ where SummerTime was waiting for us to board after our road trip to Ohio. We chose to leave SummerTime at Canal Point Marina while we took our road trip as we thought the south end of the Point Pleasant Canal area would be more secure than the north end on the Manesquan River. We knew we needed to be at Manesquan as that is where you go into the Atlantic to get to New York harbor. Canal Point Marina was only ten minutes from the Manesquan River and turned out to be an excellent place to leave SummerTime. The place was very nice. Our dock was next to condominiums on canals that were inhabited by mostly boaters, one who volunteered to watch SummerTime for us. Also the staff at the Marina was very nice and knowledgeable. On Tuesday Barbara did laundry and I did some chores on the boat. Most importantly I bought an alternator belt, and put the one in stores on the engine. The new belt went into the spare parts stores. While in the bilge, I saw that the exhaust elbows off of the turbo were sooted. That could only mean that the joint between the dry ell on the turbo and the wet ell above it was leaking. I pulled the elbows apart, and the seal was distorted. I do not know if it was like that when the manicooler was put back on, or if I did it later when I took the exhaust and upper ell loose when the hot water heater hoses were thought to be leaking. I cleaned up the area and put my one new seal in place. On Wednesday, the 4th, I worked on routing the cable from the radar to its monitor at the lower helm. We did not go to any fireworks shows, but there were plenty of fireworks to be seen from the locals up and down the canal.
       Thursday we got up early and went to Walmart to get provisions for the boat. We were back on board by 8:15. I took the rental car back to Hertz, and a Canal Point Marina employee picked me up at Hertz and brought me back to SummerTime. We got underway at 9:50, and were out Manesquan Inlet and in the Atlantic before 10:30. The ocean was much smoother (2-3' seas) this time than when we carried SummerTime north to the Great Lakes just over 5 years ago (4-6' following seas). We ran at 90% until we were at New York Harbor, or 2-1/2 hours after clearing out of the inlet. We slowed to 11kt going under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. It was a lovely day, and we could see the bridge about 12 miles away on the ocean. We could see the City skyline from farther out than that, well before we got to Sandy Hook.

ENTERING NY HARBOR, STATUE OF LIBERTY IS JUST to LEFT of  CENTER
WAITING to GET IN
New York Harbor is a nightmare of sorts when you are skippering the boat. It has constantly moving traffic. Besides the ships and tugs, there are numerous ferry boats, water taxis, and tour boats running around. None but the Staten Island Ferries seem to have a set route. It requires your head to be on a constant swivel as you go through the harbor.

CONTRAST in SPEEDS
And I think the only thing slower than SummerTime are the kayakers and sailboats. It is most congested, as would be expected, around the Statue of Liberty. Once we clear the George Washington bridge, the traffic lessens, and the trip becomes a little less tense. We soon pass under the new Tappan Zee bridge.

NEW TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE, REMAINS of OLD BRIDGE in BACKGROUND
Parts of the old one are still standing, and there are some massive cranes on barges next to the old bridge. It is a good thing we come through this Thursday, as the US Coast Guard makes a radio announcement that the Tappan Zee bridge area will be closed to through traffic in the channel on Friday and Saturday. We get to Half Moon Bay Marina at Croton on the Hudson at 4:50, having covered nearly 87 miles. We had a rising tide and wind behind us to cover those miles in that time. We go into the village of Croton for dinner. It was more than the 3/8 miles that Steve at the marina told us, by a factor of 2. The Colonial Diner made it worth our while as we could not eat all that was served. We had our cake put in a carryout box so we could stop at the village creamery on the way back to the boat. The ice cream there was as good as we were told. They are also a bakery, and we were told the weekends that they make exceptional donuts. We will have to try that another time. It will be hard to beat the baked goods from "Glazed Donuts" in Hampton, VA though.

YACHT OLYMPUS ANCHORED OFF CROTON
      On Friday we try to get off early hoping to catch a little of the rising tide as we head up the Hudson. We are a little later than I had planned due to looking for some charts stowed away somewhere. We find the charts and get underway at 8:50. There are 2 other boats leaving the marina in front of us. We manage to stay in sight of the one, but the front one goes away from both of us. About 1-1/2 hours into the trip we are overtaken from the west by a bad thunderstorm. It is raining hard, and we both go down to the lower helm to navigate. The radar is not working as I had cut the cigarette lighter plug off this morning to wire it permanently. Then the chart searching got me distracted so I did not finish the permanent power supply to the radar. So we slow and motor on at about 6kt in reduced visibility. The boat in front has slowed also. About 11 the rain quits and we pick speed back up. We catch up to the other boat at West Point. They are slowed taking multiple photos of the Institute from their bow. It is an impressive site when seen from the water. The buildings appear to rise from the river to the heights of the hills surrounding them.

WEST POINT
We pass the other boat, and through radio  conversations find that they are loopers also. They are only going to Kingston, NY and we are headed to New Baltimore. We have one more light rain shower where I do not have to leave the upper helm to navigate. The front has passed, and the winds have shifted from our port stern quarter to our nose. Now we are now fighting the wind and the falling tide. We pass Hyde Park, another famous place on the Hudson River. We get to Donovan's Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore about 5:45, or 15min before closing.
SHADY HARBOR MARINA
We get a pump out before moving to our slip space. It is quitting time for the help, so we decide to fuel before we leave. When I check in my exhaust seal and gaskets I had ordered from TAD on Thursday are at the counter. There is another Mainship here, a "400", and they are loopers and come over to introduce themselves. So we meet the crew on "First Forty", the first looper boats we have had contact with since Hampton.

Monday, July 9, 2018

Little Triangle Loop Week #1, 23-29June2018

  It is Saturday, 22 June, the day we had scheduled to leave Hampton, VA for the start of our Summer 2018 trip. We actually were planning to start this trip back in May, but Mr. Perkins decided he needed some major repairs. We discovered on some short day trips back in May that we were losing engine coolant. As there were no external leaks present, I made a best guess that the closed coolant glycol system that operates under pressure was losing to the open raw water system. The raw water system uses a heat exchanger to cool the closed system with water drawn in from the outside source the boat is sitting in. A leak from the pressurized glycol system through the heat exchanger to the raw water system would not be seen as it would go out the exhaust with the raw water. It is not a good thing to happen, but we were in a good place for it to happen. Trans Atlantic Diesels, an old Perkins dealer, is across the York River from Wormley Creek Marina where we keep SummerTime while in the Hampton Roads Area. The mechanics at Wormley pull off the Perkins' Manicooler (Brits name) and I take it over to TAD. They rebuild the Manicooler in 2 weeks, and in mid June the Manicooler is back on the Perkins. After some short runs verify the repair is the cure, we move the boat to Hampton Public Piers dock where we spent a lot of the Summer of 2017. We are near our daughter and her family there if we need help of any kind. So it is Saturday, and we are trying to decide if the Chesapeake Bay is going to be calm enough for us to travel. About 12:50 we get away from the City docks. We are headed to what we plan to be an anchorage in the Great Wicomico River. The Coast Guard is having a busy day on the radio, and one of their watches is for a boat that just happens to be outside the mouth of the Hampton River. We contact the USCG, and report we are standing by with the broken down boat. The couple is worried about Thunderstorms. Barbara pulls up the NOAA radar screen on my phone, and Barbara tells them there are no Thunderstorms in the area to worry about for the next 3 hours. The VA State Water Police arrive after about 10 minutes, and we continue on our way. We round the corner of the Fort Monroe Point and head up the west side of the Bay. The land is sheltering the bay from the westerly winds, and we are having a relatively calm ride. Just prior to Wolf Trap Light, or about 3hr into our 6hr trip towards the Wicomico River, we get hit with sprinkles. The heavy rain follows suit. Barbara and I abandon the flybridge for the lower helm. We stay at the lower helm for about an hour before the rain has subsided enough to go back to running from the flybridge. We slowed down through the heavy part of the rain due to visibility. We abandon plans for Wicomico River and go into Godfrey Bay SW of Deltaville.

SUNSET OVER GODFREY BAY
This is the same area that the Bay kicked our butt last October. It is calm now, and while most boats are anchored in Fishing Bay, we stay in Godfrey Bay as it offers the most protection from any storms that might appear from the SW, which has been their route all week. We watch several groups of Cow Nose Rays swimming near the boat.

COW NOSE RAY
It is peaceful, and stays that way through the night.
        We wake on Sunday morning and try to get going early. I have it in my mind that we can get to Rock Hall, Md from this spot in one day. Rock Hall has a sheltered harbor, and a good marina to overnight at. We run hard most of the day, the wind is behind us, but we have half our time with the current of a rising tide, and half against the current of the falling tide. About half way through the day, I spot something large floating near the main channel. I go over to check it out, and determine it is the corpse of a large dolphin.

DOLPHIN CORPSE?
It is hard to identify as Barbara does not wish to get too close, and a good portion of it has been eaten by scavengers. Before we get to the Bay Bridge at Kent Narrows-Annapolis area, we are hit by sprinkles again. This time it does not get to be a hard rain, and we do not have to slow down, or move to the lower helm. It is unbearably hot (90s) today, and because the wind is behind us, there is no cooling breeze up on the fly bridge. Rock Hall is looking too far off. I look in the Guide Books to see what else may be near without taking a long trip up a side river. I find Podickory Yacht and Beach Club right on the Bay just N of the Bay Bridge. We call and make reservations. It is about 2hr closer than Rock Hall, and we get to their docks about 6:30. We tie up and check in. There are two parties going on there, so the place is noisy until about dark, when the parties break up. Barbara and I go to the main building and get a fresh shower, something we have not had for 2 days. The shower feels very good after this hot day on the bay.
       We leave Podickory early in the morning. It is a narrow channel from the marina through several hundred yards of 1-2' water. It requires close attention to get out as the wind is blowing a little more than the NOAA marine forecast. NOAA was calling for less than 10kt of wind with seas of 1'. We are in winds greater than 15kt and seas in the 2-3' range. Regardless, we follow the course laid out on the GPS to get us to the East bank of the bay. And there are lots of people out fishing, so it can not be too rough. We are however only able to run about 7kt due to the swells until we get land shelter from the wind generated waves after about 2 hours. We pick up speed and the rest of the trip to our destination of Delaware City Marina is pretty good. We get to the C&D Canal without much trouble. Just before we get to the canal, we are caught by a lot of boats and passed. We pass hardly anyone this day. Most of the boats are express cruisers, or what us trawler people call "go fast" boats. They are all in a hurry. The C&D is better to us this day than it was last September when we went to Philadelphia. The current is with us and we do not have to run hard to get through the canal. We do pass two sail boats in the canal that are flying the flag of Denmark. They are on the AIS, and one of them generally speaks for both. I finally get to pass a boat, actually two. I do this as we leave the "NO WAKE" zone by Chesapeake City. We continue to ease along with the C&D current pushing us. We get to Delaware City Marina on the "old" Chesapeake & Delaware Canal about 4:20. The dockmaster talked us in the last mile as the tide is at full low, and the channel entrance is narrow. The dock boys here do their usual marvelous job of using current and wind to get you secured to a dock. They are some of the most efficient dock personnel I have seen in 5 years of running SummerTime. We pull to the fuel docks first and take on the first fuel since Wormley Creek. It takes 147.9 gallons to fill SummerTime's tank. The second most fuel we have ever put in her. We secure the boat after moving to our dock after fueling. We walk into town (actually down the docks) for dinner. We eat at Lewinsky's on Clinton, a visitor favorite. Our two previous visits here we have hiked to La Matesina, which probably has the best "meat lovers" pizza in the country. We think we will for once get to the Delaware City ice cream parlor after Lewinsky's, but the dessert menu at Lewinsky's is too good. We have a leisurely walk back to SummerTime along Canal St.
        We are in a sluggish state when we get up on Tuesday morning. Both of us were up through the early morning with diarrhea. We do get going about 9:40 from the old C&D canal. We are bucking the tide on the Delaware Bay and a light wind. But the bay is being good, and we soldier on. About half way to our destination of Cape May the winds start to pick up. The tide is now behind us, and though bucking the wind, our speed has increased 20% to over 9kt. We are traveling with sail boats and power boats down the Delaware Bay. About 3 hours from the Cape May canal, the winds have kicked up substantially. The tide is with us going out the bay now, but is making some nice waves bucking the wind. About every 8th wave, SummerTime's bow is going in up to the rail.

UP TO THE RAILS
This goes on for nearly 20 miles until we are in the shelter of Cape May, and the waves subside. We get to Utsch's Marina about 4:20. I spend time rinsing the salt off of SummerTime before going for our own showers. We go to the Lobster House Restaurant  for dinner. We both appear to be over our earlier maladies. It was a good meal.
       We leave Cape May at a reasonable time, but not one that will help with tides. We do good for a ways, until we pass Hereford Inlet north of Wildwood. Either NJ, or I, has dyslexia on which side red markers are to be on. I run SummerTime aground at slow speed as I slowed for some fisherman near the channel. It is not a hard grounding, and with a little power we go across the sand bar between the two red markers and into the deep channel.

NJ WATERFRONT PROPERTY
We continue on our way, and the rest of our trip is uneventful until we get to Atlantic City, NJ. There are a number of low bridges crossing the NJ Intracoastal Waterway here. We are approaching the first one too early, and hearing other boats calling for a bridge opening, we realize from the answer of the bridge operator we might as well slow down. We only have to wait about 15min for this bridge to open and we are through. We are not so lucky at the next, or Albany St. bridge. The bridge tender states it is rush hour, and he will not open again until 6pm. It is a couple of minutes to 5. I move away from the bridge, and practice holding position against tides and with a beam wind for 55 minutes. We get through the bridge at 6pm, and proceed to Farley State Marina at the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City. The dock girl is very efficient, almost as efficient as the dock crew at Delaware City. We have a nice evening eating on the boat.
       On Thursday morning, I check the engine before starting. The alternator belt feels a little loose, but I do not think it will be a problem. We motor across the harbor to another marina for fuel. After fueling, the alternator belt goes to squealing every time we try to accelerate the engine. I tighten the belt now, leaning over a more than warm engine. It takes three attempts to get the belt tight as there is really nothing to pry against, or way to get a long pry bar for leverage in the tight space. It is after 11 before we get away from the fuel dock. About 5 miles from the fuel dock, and just past a dredging operation, I feel a bite on my leg. It is a green head fly. And there is another bite. I look around, ant the flies are everywhere. There are tens of them landed on the underside of the bimini top. Barbara gets out a flyswatter and begins killing or shooing flies.

GREEN HEAD FLY INVASION
This goes on for well over an hour, until we change direction sufficiently to have wind off our side. Then the flies are gone. We proceed North on the NJICW passing through Little Egg Harbor and Barnegat Bays. The water coming in Barnegat Inlet is green as ocean water should be. It is a cool day compared to other days as the wind is blowing. We are headed to Canal Point Marina where we have had a reservation for over 2 weeks. We intend to leave SummerTime there while we take a short trip to Ohio. We get to Canal Point Marina at Point Pleasant, NJ at about 6. We had called and got a slip number as we knew we were not going to make their closing time of 5pm. It is a nice marina with fixed piers surrounded by condos and a canal system. The Pleasant Point Canal is obviously not a "NO WAKE" zone. We are rocked, even though off the canal, every few minutes by a passing boat.
      We get up on Friday morning the 29th, and go to the Marina office to check in. The staff offers to carry me to Hertz to pick up a rental car. I pick up the car, and we secure things on SummerTime. We leave Point Pleasant headed for central Ohio just before noon.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

WEEK #35, 25-31MAR017, TRAVELING COASTAL SC, FINISHING IN NC

      On Saturday morning I am up first and decide not to run the generator to make coffee. I use the microwave running on the inverter to heat water for instant coffee. it was a peaceful night considered we were on a river leading to the ocean. I think I expected outbound fishing boats to rock us after daylight, but it did not happen. We get our quick breakfast of cold cereal, and then we prepare the boat to weigh anchor and get under way. We are off anchor by 8:50 and headed into Charleston. As we head up Elliot Cut, I glance back and see a big tour boat gaining on us as we head North up the cut. There is a drawbridge with enough clearance for us, but he has to wait for it to open. My worry of having to be passed in this narrow cut by a large vessel is ended.
TOUR BOAT HEADED FOR CHARLESTON HARBOR
We pop out of the cut, and into the Ashley River leading into Charleston Harbor. The tour boats are the main movers in Charleston Harbor this morning. As we pass Fort Sumter, a tug is coming in from the ocean towing a barge.
FORT SUMTER
On the ICW route, we are not near the navy base as other ports have been. The only naval ships we see are the ships on memorial duty at Patriot Point. The aircraft carrier "Yorktown" is still impressive, even from over a mile away. A couple of turns, and we are in the narrow ICW channel. This channel is pretty open to travel. But near Isle of Palms, I must have missed a "No Wake" sign. I see a jet ski tour operator motioning for me to slow down and not wash his craft sitting on a dock. I slow down, and feel bad as he is going to get some wake anyway. I am just glad I saw him as he signaled me. We are headed to Georgetown, SC, and for half the way we buck tides. We are able to run only 8.3kt at 2240rpm (normal speed @ 1800rpm), but when we hit tides the other way, we are running over 10kt at the same 2240rpm. The only looper we see on the route is "Cway", most of the other boats are small fishing boats and runabouts. We arrived at Harborwalk Marina at Georgetown at about 4:10, a little over 69mi from where we weighed anchor in the Stono River.
GEORGETOWN WATERFRONT
       On Sunday morning, we got up and walked to the Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church. It is another old church building with a lovely interior. And it still looks good because it has been well cared for.
PIPES for ORGAN IN DUNCAN CHURCH
After church we walk back over to the main street to look for a place for lunch. We settle on a "soul food" café called "Aunnys". It lives up to the hype, and we leave stuffed. For a little over $10., you get a meat entrée and three side.
AUNNY'S SUNDAY BRUNCH MENU
And I had peach cobbler for dessert after that big lunch. We spend the rest of the afternoon resting on the boat. On Monday  I do miscellaneous chores on SummerTime. I do find the fuel leak I have been looking for. The mist has become an occasional drop where the throttle shaft enters the injector body. I wash the boat, the first time it has had a good soap wash in several months. We are only a few days from finishing the loop, and SummerTime needs to look good. We have dinner in the old town at a very nice Italian restaurant, Alfresco Bistro, that we looked at on the way to church.
       On Tuesday morning we get ready to leave. The holding tank gets pumped, and we fill the water tank. We know we probably have at least one night we will spend on anchor. We get away from the marina at 9:30. We run about 1800rpm, and the rising tide helps to push us up the Waccaamaw River at about 9-1/4kt. For the first hour we are mostly looking at saw grass swamp areas, and then the plant life starts to change. The river narrows, and there start to be cypress trees along the banks. Some are quite big. We saw some eagles flying in this area.
EAGLE OVER RIVER JUST NORTH OF GEORGETOWN
I think now that we may have seen eagles in every state we traveled through except for New Jersey. This part of the Waccamaw has very little development. One side of it is a "National Wildlife Refuge".  The river is relatively deep, not too crooked, and there are plenty of large cypress trees lining the edge. About 30 miles north of Georgetown, we stop at Bucksport Marina and RV park and fueled up. They are cheapest in area per "Waterway Guides" fuel listing. We put 92.9 gallons of fuel in the tank to fill up for the first time since Savannah. A few miles after leaving Bucksport we come to the place where the Waccamaw River splits from the dug canal that becomes the ICW. We decide to go up the Waccamaw River for a short ways to check out its reported beauty. A few people have told us it rivals the St. John River in Florida for natural beauty. It is impressive, mostly a large cypress swamp with a river in it. We go about 5 mile up it to marker "4", and start to see signs of civilization. We turn back for about 2mi to anchor near a creek branch.
PANORAMA OF OUR ANCHORAGE IN WACCAMAW RIVER BEND
There are lots of Osprey flying in this area. Turtles and jumping fish are the only other wild life we see on this wild river. We cook on the grill. It is a peaceful night without much wind, but cool enough we do not need a genset and AC, or heat.
      We get up on Wednesday morning, and after more microwaved hot water for coffee, we head out the river. There is not as much mud on the anchor as I was expecting, in fact almost none. We follow the river back to where the ditch split from it, and follow the dug ICW north. We pass through Myrtle Beach, which is now putting development on both sides of the ICW.
ONE OF MYRTLE BEACHES GOLF COURSES ALONG THE ICW
We travel at 1500-1800rpm to keep our wake in a more acceptable range in the ditch.
TOUR BOAT AT MYRTLE BEACH OUTFITTED FOR YOUNG BUCCANEERS
A little after 1 we get to Little River. Here we somehow get into a pack of lunatics. It starts with the boat "Capt. Rick" that comes barreling down a marina fairway from the side, and nearly "T-bones" a small skiff traveling south on the ICW. The "Capt Rick" turns north and drives on the left side of the ICW, going slow now, and impervious to any boats headed south bound on the left (inland) side. I am following to the right side of the ICW, and trying to think where, or if to pass him. A high speed, 40+ passenger thrill tour boat and a charter boat come up behind me. A Charter boat is returning from the inlet to the north. The skipper of Capt Rick, in the returning boat's path, steps out of his pilot house and starts to make gestures to the north bound boat. Right after he passes, the thrill tour boat and charter boat come by me, and head past Capt Rick. He is having none of it, and pours on the throttle.
LUNATICS HEADING OUT TO LITTLE RIVER INLET
The two boats are now forced to follow Capt Rick as he moves side to side to block them. They all turn out to the inlet, and I am glad. I see more unprofessional "professional captains" in this 10 minutes than all the rest of our 8month trip. We come to Calabash Creek, and decide to go up Calabash Creek thinking we will try to anchor on it. We do not see a place that looks acceptable, mainly due to development. We decide to head north towards Southport NC.
WIND BLOWN SANDS AT LOCKWOOD FOLLY INLET
We call St Jame Marina and make reservations. I program the GPS to extend our route to them from Shallotte where we had programmed to earlier. We pick up our cruising speed to 2500rpm, which gives us about 12kt +/- depending on current. We get to St James about 4:30pm, and get checked in. We eat in the Marina Restaurant for the evening. This is a very nice marina, part of a large resort area featuring several golf courses along with the marina. There are 4 restaurants within Jamestown Plantation, but only the restaurant in the marina is open to the public. And the marina has a nice deli where you can buy meats, cheeses, and breads for your day on the boat.
       On Thursday morning, we decide we are not going to delay completing our loop until Friday. We know we are close enough to Carolina Beach, and our beginning spot on the ICW to easily complete. It takes a little bit to get ready and get away, but we do it. We actually get moving fairly early for us, before 9. In less than an hour at moderate speeds, 1500rpm, we are in Southport, NC.
SOUTHPORT WATERFRONT
We go through this old fishing town/ seaport and make a NW, or left turn onto the Cape Fear River. We have the tide with us and are making good time. We pass by Sunny Point, a munitions storage and shipping depot for the US military. It is being guarded by several small boats, what I would have expected. There are no ships at their docks, but they do have a dredge in their channel deepening it. We go on by, passing a couple of commercial fishing boats. We come to the point where the waterway departs the path of the ship channel in the river. We bear east into the ICW channel, and in a few minutes we are in Snow's Cut. We pass on by the State Park Marina and head to the intersection of the channel at the Carolina Beach Inlet  and the ICW.

INLET WATCH MARINA WHERE WE STARTED WITH SUMMERTIME MAY, 2013
We go slightly past this intersection to make sure we have crossed our starting point. We have officially "Crossed Our Wake", completing our loop. We started our loop when we left the Inlet Watch Marina at this intersection on 25May, 2013 headed to New York with SummerTime.
       We record the moment, we have crossed our wake at 12:16pm on Thursday, 30 Mar017.
CROSSING OUR WAKE AT CAROLINA BEACH INLET CHANNEL & ICW
We did 23.2 miles this morning to get here. We have done over 5000 miles total, but it is going to take looking at some saved routes to get the actual mileage. We turn around, and head to Joyner's Marina which we passed a mile back. We fill up SummerTime with fuel so that the tank does not sit partially full and sweat inside. We leave Joyner's and back track to the Carolina Beach State Park Marina. We arrive and check in for two days on their "A" dock. Barbara's brother Kenny comes and picks us up, along with some of our belongings. We will come back another day to get some other belongings off of SummerTime ad we move back to shore.
     Friday we come back to SummerTime and take some more clothes and dirty laundry off. I also take the slip for the month of April so we have a place to rest SummerTime while we figure out what we are going to do yet.
END OF OUR LOOP JOURNEY

       

Monday, March 27, 2017

WEEK #34, 18-24MAR017, LEAVING GEORGIA

     Saturday we do not get up quite as early. We are going to go into Savannah with our relatives and take a trolley tour of Old Savannah that lets us get off and on. We get almost all the way around the route (our plan) and get off to get lunch. We go to "Leopold's" ice cream shop, a Savannah tradition. We have lunch in there.
LEOPOLDS OR LUNCH AND DESSERT
And we wait in line after lunch to get an ice cream cone topped with one of their fantastic home made ice cream flavors. After the ice cream, we head down to River St where the real St. Paddy's festival is going on. There is green everywhere.
FESTIVAL CROWD ON RIVER St., IT LOOKS LIKE THIS THE OTHER WAY
After about an hour here, we head back up the steps to Bay St to catch our trolley for the rest of our tour.
STAIRS BACK UP FROM RIVER ST TO BAY ST.
We end up walking farther than the shown stop, as the police have closed the side street to the trolley stop. There is a music festival going on in Savannah this same weekend, and there is a music stage set up near the trolley stop for the music festival. The day is near the end, so we go back to the trolley beginning and back to the car. We drive over to "The Pirate House" to get dinner. On the way we go by Forsyth Park with the big, Forsyth Fountain to take some photos.
FORSYTH FOUNTAIN, WITH GREEN WATER
We get to "The Pirate House" later than planned, and are in the queue for a table for dinner. The dinner is great, but alas they no longer have the great dessert menu I remember, and certainly do not "flambee" anything at the table now. We get back to SummerTime in time for bed.
     My sister and her husband pick us up for church Sunday morning. We are going to the First Baptist Church of Savannah which is quite old. It is quite nice inside, but not as full as expected. One regular church goer states that a lot of people leave Savannah during the St Patricks Day weekend due to the craziness. After church we head back to Thunderbolt, GA where SummerTime is docked. We are going to have lunch in "Tortuga Island Grille" . We have to wait again, but we are not disappointed. After brunch we are dropped at Thunderbolt Marina, and my sister and her husband head back to their home in NC.
     On Monday we decide to stay another day and take care of some chores aboard the boat. It is a mostly productive day. On Tuesday we get up, get a pump-out, fill the water tank, and fuel SummerTime. I think we are going to take near a hundred gallons as we last fueled before returning to Ortega Landing.  And we have run Mr. Perkins kind of hard some times when the tides were against us. We barely get in 80gallons, so I apparently misinterpreted the gauge and how hard we had run the Perkins. We get off towards Beaufort, SC about 11am. It is not a long run, and most of the ways the tides are with us. We meet a tug pushing a barge right as we cross off of the Savannah River.  The runs today are rivers, cuts between rivers, sounds, and more cuts. We do not see a lot of pleasure boats until we pass by Hilton Head Island.
HILTON HEAD LIGHT
There are actually people parasailing behind boats. It is warm, and you do  not have to get in the water to parasail behind a boat.
PARASAILING NEAR HILTON HEAD
It just seems cool as I started the day in long pants and a wind breaker. We meet two more tugs pushing construction barges at various points. It is nice to see commercial traffic on the ICW, which was the purpose of the ICW creation. And we pass by the American institution that is Parris Island.
PARRRIS ISLAND, BOOT CAMP FOR SOME
It is only a few miles before Beaufort. We get to Beaufort right at 4pm, when we told the dock master we would be there. We dock at Downtown Harbor.
BEAUFORT IN SITE
After securing the boat, we go just a block from the marina to old town and one of  its many restaurants.
      For Wednesday we borrow the marinas courtesy car and go to the grocery store to stock up. We go to one of the many eating establishments and get hot dogs for lunch. After lunch we decide to tour the town differently than we have in the past. Beaufort has a lot of old houses (more than 200yr old) that are occupied, and so not available for tours.

MAXEY-RHETT HOUSE



GRAND MAXEY-RHETT CREEK HOUSE
But you can take a horse and carriage tour and see all of them from the outside, and get a history (and sometimes gossip) commentary on them at the same time. There are a lot of people visiting this historic city, and we are put on the carriage tour to occur in the late afternoon. It is good as we get an extra block or travel for being on the last tour for this carriage. It is a nice tour, and some of the streets you travel both directions on, so the photos on the wrong side going away, are on the correct side coming back. The slow moving horse tour is worth the cost, and it saves our legs for nearly an hour. We get back to SummerTime and decide to eat aboard. We are expecting company for Thursday. There is an 87' USCG patrol boat at the dock for the evening also. And a big R/V, or research vessel. Everyone seems to be seeking shelter from the winds forecast for Wednesday night and Thursday.
     
OUR PROTECTORS & GUARD
On Thursday we have old friends aboard who arrive in Beaufort to spend the day. It is the first time in many years we have seen each other, so the first part of the day is spent catching up. We go into town for lunch at a different establishment offering sandwiches and light entrees. The food does not disappoint. Afterwards we visit some shops and do some touristy things. Barbara buys chocolate at one of them. We visit some more, and our friends drive us across the river for dinner at another great seafood restaurant on the water. They drop us back at SummerTime after dinner, and head back  to their home in SC. It has been a very pleasant day with friends. It was not a good day to travel, the CG stays at the dock all day as well as two other cruising boats. And the R/V "Silver Crescent" shows back up.
     Friday finds us doing a quick load of laundry before heading out. After all the checks and last minute errand running (PO) we get away just before noon. We are hoping to get to a creek or river a few miles short of Charleston to anchor for the night. We start out on falling tides, and fight the current some initially. Eventually we are traveling with the currents. It is another day of running in rivers, cuts connecting rivers, and sounds. I have traveled I-95 through Georgia and Southeast SC, and you cross a lot of salt marsh doing that. When you travel the ICW, you realize that a lot of the coast of these two states is nothing but salt marsh.
SALT MARSH , DANGER FROM INSECTS ALSO


The colonial settlers were pretty hardy, as there are a lot of insects that live in these salt marshes. The insects are not too bad today as the wind is blowing for the most part fairly good. I did put insecticide on my arms and neck before leaving the dock and creating wind while moving. We get to our anchorage on the Stono River about 10 miles short of Charleston about 6pm. Shortly after we anchor, the wind dies down. I am glad we have screens on the windows. The small gnats are out as part of a welcoming committee. I go on the flybridge just before dark to program the GPS  for the next days run. But the "no see-ums" are a little more numerous than I wish to deal with. I go back into the protection of the screened cabin. The anchorage for this night is very still with almost no wind, and SummerTime only changes position on the anchor with the tidal changes. There is no lapping of water against the hull as most nights have with light winds.
MULTI-FACETED SHIP REPAIR YARD ON ICW JUST SOUTH OF CHARLESTON, SC


Sunday, March 26, 2017

WEEK #33, 11-17MAR017, HEADED TO SAVANNAH

SummerTime BACK AT ORTEGA LANDING, JAX
    Saturday is a day of chores. I help Barbara get to the laundromat early to get our linens done. And I kill time on SummerTime working on blogs I am behind on. After lunch I crawl into the engine compartment to complete fastening the sound insulation I installed several weeks earlier. The screws I was going to use to hold up the insulation I can not get started in the fiberglass underdeck. The angle is too awkward for the driver to start the screws. Gene comes by, and I am more than happy too crawl out of the engine compartment. We get cleaned up and go to dinner with him. We go to Tom and Betty's Diner, in the area we have been shopping at. It is an auto themed diner, menu items are named after car models and parts. And there are posters and signs around that I can relate to from my earlier life.
     We are supposed to go to church with Gene on Sunday morning. But we forgot there was a time change. Gene knocks on the side of the boat, and we are still eating breakfast. We send him to church without us. He is going to the early Lutheran service. We finish breakfast, get ready, and walk to the nearby Presbyterian Church. We make the 11 o'clock service. We spend the afternoon on SummerTime looking at the route north, and staying dry from the showers. Gene comes by in the afternoon, and we go to Panera Bread with him, as hot soup seems right for this day. We spend more time talking about the trip north with Gene. He keeps his boat in York and has made the ICW trek to Florida and back several times. A wealth of info for us. And I share our travels from our log book entries of 2013 with him for the Chesapeake and going north to the Hudson. He has done most of the Great Loop, except for the Chesapeake north, and cross Canada or Great Lakes leg.
     Monday we get up and ready to leave. The OL dockhand comes by and we get a last pump-out of the holding tank. I fill the water tank. And I hike to Publix to get milk as we ran out. We get away at 10:45, about an hour later than planned. It is cool, overcast, and looks like the rain we are supposed to be getting will happen.
RAIN AND JACKSONVILLE, FL IN THE FUTURE
The RR bridge is in the right position this time, and we motor straight through downtown JAX.
MUCH AS I LIKE COFFEE, I COULD NOT DRINK THAT LAST DROP: MAXWELL HOUSE PLANT DOWNTOWN
We pass the shipping docks, and they are all partially occupied. Only fishermen and a few tugs are moving around.
PELICANS LOOKING FOR HANDOUT FROM CRAB FISHERMAN
We hit rain about an half hour before the Intracoastal Water Way. I move down to the lower helm. It is not raining that hard, but the wind is making the wind chill on the fly bridge feel quite raw. After we turn north up the waterway, the rain increases. it is actually running off of the fly bridge deck and over the side windows of the salon. The initial part of the waterway is Sisters Creek, and as such it twists and turns. As we get to Nassau Sound, I see a tug coming pushing a barge.
TUG & BARGE CROSSING NASSAU SOUND
I move way to starboard, as it appears we are going to meet in the bend that occurs as the waterway crosses the sound. I am listening to the NOAA Weather on the VHF radio. I am thinking we probably want to stop earlier than Cumberland Sound, and at a marina, not on anchor. The evening is forecast to have strong winds, and scattered thunderstorms. We call the Harbor Marina at Fernandina Beach and get one of their first come first served slips. Matthew had ripped them pretty good, and only a small part of their docks are in service. We go into town for the balance of the afternoon, and beginning of the evening.
FERNANDINA BEACH LANDMARK
We shop some in the assorted shops, and eat dinner at The Marina Restaurant. We went in for seafood, but their daily specials are down home type cooking. I get meat loaf, and Barbara gets Southern Fried Chicken. And they have fresh warm cake from the oven for dessert. It feels good as the weather has gotten more raw, with the rain increasing in hardness and longer duration of showers. When we turn in for the evening, the rain is continuous.
       Tuesday, it is cool in the boat, even though the heat was on through the night. It is still damp from Monday. And it is drafty as the winds are howling, and there are large white caps on the waterway in front of the docks. We listen to the NOAA weather on the radio and decide to stay put for the day.
BIRDS NOT FLYING: BARBARA'S FORECASTING TOOL to STAY PUT
We have to travel several large sounds in Georgia, and they will be very unpleasant with the strong SW winds. We see 6 other boats traveling today, 2 north, and 4 south. The damp  chill makes me think the boats going south know something that I do not.
       On Wednesday, we get up and the winds have shifted out of the NW as predicted by NOAA. and they are not blowing as hard. We get SummerTime ready to leave after a warm breakfast as the outside temp is in mid 40s. We decide to shower as we will be on anchor tonight. Bad decision. By the time the showers are done, the winds are up in speed. We get the dockhand to help us get away without hitting anything, as the wind and the rising tide are both racing in the same direction. Even though it is cold, with a terrible wind chill, I elect to run from the fly bridge. Barbara joins me on the fly bridge after she has all the dock lines secured. As we cross the St Marys River, we occasionally get some spray up on the fly bridge. The rising tide is running against the NW winds, creating some sizable (2-3') white caps. We meet three USCG boats. One small one, and two 40'+ patrol boats. They are patrolling the entry channel as the US Navy's Kings Bay submarine base is just ahead. There is a small navy vessel patrolling in front of the base as we go by. After the base, we make a right turn and are on the AICW in Georgia. We are passed by a go-fast Cruiser with a hailing port of Arlington, Va. After another bend, I think I see a ship on the horizon. I think it can not be as we are on the Water Way. I have Barbara check with the binoculars. She confirms it is a ship, and  moving. I hear him contact the go-fast boat, and ask for the middle of the channel. The go-fast boat acknowledges. I then call the "American Star" and acknowledge her presence and my intentions to pass port to port. As we go by, it is a small cruise ship.
MEETING the "AMERICAN STAR" on the ICW ABOVE KINGS BAY, GA
The trip is uneventful for the next several hours. We eat lunch as we pass by Jekyll Island. We plug the small electric heater into the inverter powered receptacles to start putting heat into the sleeping area. It is supposed to get near freezing tonight. We are passed by two fast moving sport fisherman traveling together, with hailing ports of Manteo, NC. And then we are by St. Simons Island. We are pretty much alone on the waterway now. We enter the Front River, and it is almost dead low tide.
NOT ALL MARKERS ARE IN THE CHANNEL
The mud flats on each side leave no doubt as to why this straight stretch is called "The Narrows" on the chart. We come to our planned anchorage just before the Sapelo River at about 5:40. Our first creek choice is too shallow across the entrance. We nudge onto a sand bar trying to enter the mouth, and back off. We move to the Ridge River Mouth and anchor. There is a 25' deep pocket in the mouth. It must have been the anchorage for a dredge at some time, as it is right off the waterway. We run the generator to cook dinner, top off the batteries, and run the furnace some before retiring.
      I got up before 5 this morning to start the generator. It is cold inside the boat, 45F by the thermometer on my portable clock. I need to start the generator so the furnace has power to run. The boat is up to 72F inside when I get up again at 7. Barbara cooks oatmeal so we have a warm breakfast. It is about 9 when we weigh anchor to continue our trip towards Savannah. It is fairly straight forward. No shallow areas to surprise us today. We come to the area called Hell Gate. We pass through this approximately .5 mile long channel connecting two rivers and I am dumbfounded. I do not see what all the fuss is about. There are cross currents. The channel is well marked. And while not deep, it is of adequate depth for all but the deepest draft sailboats. We continue on and eventually get to the Burnside River. We hit the first of a "speed/no wake" zone we have been cautioned about. It is fairly long, and as we leave it, we cross the mouth of the "Moon River" that Johnny Mercer penned a famous Andy Williams song about. It is not wider than a mile as Barbara and I both sing the parts of the lyrics we know. We get out of the speed zone, and about a mile later we are in another speed zone. We had some time saved as a comfort zone to get to the marina for the evening. But the speed zones is eating that time up. We get a fast section, and then a slow section. In one of the fast sections, I decide it is time to exercise Mr. Perkins before giving him  a few days off. With current pushing us, and some wind help also. SummerTime gets to 17.4mph at 2700rpm. We eventually get to Thunderbolt Marine in Thunderbolt, GA close to our appointed time late afternoon. We are given a slip on the back side of the face pier, and between two other boats. Getting in there test my skills and the ability to use the stern thruster and forward motion at the same time to kind of "crab" into the vacancy. We contact my sister and her husband who are driving to Savannah to meet us for a mini vacation together. They are encountering detours, and are running late. We agree to meet on Friday, and Barbara and I cook and eat on the boat.
      Thunderbolt Marine, true to their word, delivers Krispy Kreme donuts to the boat a little before 7. It is a decades old tradition for this marina to deliver fresh Krispy Kremes to their transient guests. Barbara and I wolf the donuts down, and then head up to the bath house to get a bath before my sister and her husband get to Thunderbolt. The four of us are going to downtown Savannah. This mini vacation was to be an historic area tour. But we learned that Savannah has the second biggest St. Patrick festival in the country, only behind NYC. We know we will not find parking downtown due to the size of the parade and number of spectators. We go to a nearby mall and catch a bus to the downtown parade area. It is free to ride the bus today. But it takes over an hour to get downtown. It is worth the ride. We are an hour and a half late for the start, but the parade is still going strong.
EVEN THE FIRE TRUCK IS IRISH ON ST. PADDY'S DAY
The spectators around us are a show to themselves. We enjoy the parade, and after about two hours, we leave to catch the bus back. There is still a half hour of parade left to pass according to the CofC promoting the size of this festival in Savannah. Officially they make it a 3:45 length parade. We get back to the car, and find a fast food for lunch. As my sister has never seen an eagle in the wild, we decide to drive to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. When we call up the Refuge's website, we discover there were 5 eagle sightings earlier in the week. It takes us about 30minutes to get to the entry. There is a dirt road that winds about 5 miles through the refuge. There are lots of birds in here.
WOOD STORK in SAVANNAH NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
Mostly wetlands birds as this refuge is mostly marsh grass with some solid areas to support some tree growth and stands. We are rewarded for our efforts. About half way through we see a solitary eagle sitting in the top of a tall tree. He is quite visible in the bare tree. And on the road ahead there are cars stopping. When we get to this area, we discover why. It is not a bird, but a reptile they are all looking at. There is a gator about 8' long laying on the opposite bank. A little farther down this road, between the two bodies of water, we see another gator, longer still swimming.
SNWR RESIDENT
He is very close to the car up on the road. We leave the refuge with my sister able to check off two of the animals she wanted to see in the wild. I have to eat crow. As we see eagles almost every week while traveling by boat, I did not think that we would ever see one by car. 
       We get back to Thunderbolt, Ga where SummerTime is tied up. We stop on the way in and go to Tubby's to eat. The food is very good with good desserts. This mini vacation with my sister and her husband is starting out very good.
FLOWERS in SNWR