Month: December 2015

Leaving Jacksonville headed to a spot to ring in the new year.

Arriving at Beach Marine we receive docking instructions. “Enter the Marina and go to the eleventh “T” dock and staff will assist you…..”

So I am creeping down through the marina, as the travel way became narrower and narrower……. wondering how in the hell am I getting out of here in the morning. I sometimes wonder if the marina folks do this on purpose as some kind of challenge. Deep in the bowels of the marina, I find the 11th “T” and there are at least 5 staff members patiently waiting to assist us….. or maybe it takes that many to keep us from hitting anything….

After we let the generator room cool off a bit, Mike and I decide to take a closer look at the water pump on the port generator. The leak is not a loose fitting…..which is too bad……which means I’m going to have to take something apart….which usually means trouble. The leak seems isolated to the pump itself, does not leak when not running, and doesn’t seem to reduce the cooling water flowing through the heat exchangers. I will consult my Virginia mechanic for guidance before I start removing pieces.

In the process of this examination, I notice the bilge water level is fairly high……bilge switch not working and the pump is not responding to the manual switch. Great another project……in fact this bilge was the only one that was working correctly when we bought the boat. Oh well, I’ve got spares and I’ll attack it tomorrow.

Debbie arrives and gets settled in. Susan will have a female to hang with now (I know she was getting tired of hanging with Mike and I).

Another visitor was Mary Beth, she was a northern necker that moved to Fl. We used to hangout with her when we kept our previous boat at Port Kinsale Marina. Lots of memories and alcohol. Nice reunion.

 

Today we are planning a short day to Jacksonville to pick up Mikes Fiancé Debbie.

Before that, we get to see my son Winn, his wife Julie, and granddaughter Temperance, and grandson Anderson.

We had a nice visit this morning before we left. I got a USS Wyoming hat…..we gave Anderson a Pirate necklace (sharks tooth) and Temperance  a dolphin necklace with a pearl in it.  I got to take the kids around the boat. Even the generator room…..

Generator room…

The trip to Jacksonville was uneventful with the exception the port generator was leaking around the raw water pump. Every morning when I start the generators, I have been switching between starboard and port generators each day. Today the port side generator was leaking around the water pump assembly. I’ll need some extra time to diagnose the problem. We ran the starboard genset for the day.

Today we plan the trip to Fernandina, Florida. After 2 1/2 weeks on the trip we finally make Florida. Short day. We take on fuel and water before we leave Lanier Island.

The route today took us through two ocean inlets. One of them took us very exposed to the ocean. Winds from the southeast created some mild wave action for the passage. We encountered more south bound traffic. Several boats have been “with” us for the last several days. The tides were with us for the  most part and we made decent time. Today is my youngest daughters birthday…..

Fernandina is a cute little town.We found the oldest bar in Florida. It has an active railway that runs through the town.

The town was all lit up for the holidays.

Tomorrow we get to see my youngest son, his wife, and two of our grand children…… Can’t wait.

 

This morning I woke to my morning ritual…..5:30 wake up. Coffee. Morning trip to the head. Then pour over weather and tide information. Our goal today was Lanier Island, Georgia – 85 miles……at 8knots that’s about 10 3/4 hours of travel in ten hours of daylight. We needed to pass through Hells Gate well before high tide at 10:24am.

We cast lines off at 7:30 and headed out and made the Gate by 9:00. Plenty of water (though we did find several areas of 12′ water depth which meant at low tide we would not have been able to make it through). Glad we waited for a rising tide.

The rest of the day was just long. We fought currents and tides most of the day. Susan’s seagulls were back in force.

One of Susan’s favorite picture of Mike and I in the pilot house. Me at the wheel and Mike on a step stool to see over the fenders on the foredeck.

We made Morningstar Marina at about 5:00. Enjoyed the sunset.

This part of the waterway is windy, has a huge tide range (8′), very fast currents and areas that have little water depth at low tide. Here if you run aground on a falling tide, you can loose your boat quickly. Our boat draws 5′. If we ground on a falling tide of 8′, we will be laying on our side in the mud at low tide…..

As we studied charts, tide data, and currents for the next leg, an area titled “hells gate” came into focus. All and I mean all recommendations were to transit the gate at mid tide and rising. From our starting point on Hilton Head this morning the “gate” was 45 miles south. High tide was at 9:35am, and by the time we could get there the tide would be falling…… I decided not to risk it and we chose a marina 10 miles north of Hells Gate. Isle of Hope Marina. That way we could reach the “gate” the next morning on a rising tide.

The morning started out rainy and a little foggy.

The day was short (only 35 miles) and uneventful. The weather cleared and turned sunny and warm. Once at the marina, we walked to a local seafood joint and had a great meal (even though the marina gave us a courtesy car to use just cause Susan wanted to walk) The town was interesting….

the restaurant had an aquarium

This morning we had every intent to leave early and make at least Thunderbolt below Savannah. We woke up to lots of fog. NOAA has a dense fog warning until noon. I checked in and out of the marina office and we borrowed their courtesy car to get to the Piggly Wiggly to restock. We returned about 10:00 and our sailboat friends had left…….. and the fog was still very thick. We waited until about 11:45 when it started to lift and started out. We crept passed the anchorage in the fog and slowly found our markers to make our way south. As we crossed the Port Royal Sound the tide changed and we lost speed. At this point due to the very late start and the contrary tides there was no chance of making our goal today. We stopped at Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head Island for the night. Short day. Found a pub and took our two week selfie….

hoping for an early start tomorrow with no fog..

After our sloppy entrance to the Beaufort Town Marina our relationship with John (the person who’s boat I “kissed” on the way in) has improved. We shared the free meal at Hemingway’s and shared boat side drinks and conversation. We were talking about our boats and the question came up about the length of our boat. I replied “it’s 70′ long”. John said he didn’t think it was any more than 65′. I replied “if that were so I wouldn’t have hit your boat on the way in”. We laughed and I think he was finally over my mishap. In fact tonight he shared with Susan some homemade wine a friend gave him before he left New York.

John and the other sailboat are headed to Tunderbolt in the morning, a few miles below Savannah River. We are hoping to make it a little further.

Its our first Christmas away from family and friends…. We are spending another day in Beaufort. Fog is thick this morning, oh well. We visit a few of the boats of transients headed south.

Susan mixed a batch of bloodies and we are relaxing in the cockpit. She looks down the dock to the two sailboats behind us and notices that at 9:00am they are already into the beer….and says: “they are starting awfully early today…” I remind her of what she is holding in her hand. Haha.

Hemingway’s bar is the only place open today as we learned last night they are open every day of the year until 2:00am in the morning. But today at 2:00pm the staff is preparing a holiday meal that is free until the food runs out. We get over there a little early and was surprised at the number of people that showed up. Livaboards, transients, and locals all were family orphans for the holiday. Susan made everyone pose for pictures.

i think this would make a great Christmas card…..

As we approached Beaufort Town Marina, the fog was rolling in pretty quickly…..we spotted the long “t” dock and there were two sailboats already tied there. I decided to pull in in front of them and reduced power and angled the boat toward the dock.

What I hadn’t realized was that I was moving into a 6 knot current. I slowed the boat to idle and instead of coasting into the dock it stopped. The starboard stern brushed against the stern of one of the sailboats. Unfortunately the occupant was there to witness my mistake. All manner of language emitted. All pertaining to my abilities as a captain. Poor Susan was on the stern with dock lines when this happened and definitely felt the lightning Bolts as they were fired. The sailboat guy fended off the stern as I powered forward to get into place and we tied the boat off. At this point I was not sure that I should even go talk to the guy…. or even get off the boat anytime soon. Mike and Susan felt pretty sure the tiraid was “beer induced”. I fixed a rum and decided it was time and walked over and apologized and asked if I damaged anything. He responded that I “barely kissed” his stern and he was fine. I apologized again and he went below to get another beer. I figured that was as much as I could do at the time and retreated.

Not everything is going smoothly here…..

So, it was off to find a Christmas Eve drink. A fair number of livaboards in the Marina.

Hemingway’s a block from the marina. Open 365 days a year until 2:00am.