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Late April - Leaving Charleston Behind

4/30/2007

Marion Square Fountain

Warm Enough
The reason we stayed in Charleston was to wait for the weather to warm up. By the time we left, it certainly had. Several 90 degree days in a row were warm enough. We headed north looking for cooler weather, leaving on Thursday, May 3rd for Southport, NC to rendezvous with some friends there.
We had enjoyed being in downtown Charleston, continuing to explore its historic district and the waterfront on the downtown peninsula, even squeezing in a few shopping trips out to the nearby communities.

Rough Seas
Bam! Bam! Bam!

So much for the light winds and low waves that were going to be on our stern the whole trip from Charleston to Southport, NC. We certainly had those conditions as we left Charleston, but overnight, the conditions changed dramatically. The wind shifted from the southeast to the northeast, right on the nose, and the winds and waves began to build. Now we were plowing into waves and struggling to make headway against the wind.

We had been under sail for most of the day. Even in light winds, we were making good enough time to arrive at the Cape Fear entrance by daylight. A brief sound of thunder in the distance never materialized into any storms over the water. The winds eventually died, so Dave powered up the engine and furled the headsail. However as we were bringing in the sail, a gust of wind came up suddenly, which should have been a warning of things to come. After supper, Dave took the watch and saw the winds clocking around, but the waves were still low and the wind strength was only in the low teens. Not what was predicted, but not too bad.

Shortly after Cathy’s watch began, the waves started to build. Orion started see-sawing over the oncoming waves and would, with increasing frequency, rise up on a wave and crash into the next trough. Bam! Cathy checked the wind strength, and was surprised to see that it was never much more that 15 knots. Not bad, but the waves were certainly taking a toll on our speed. At one point, the time to destination on the GPS increased to over 24 hours. There was no way Cathy was going to put up with this torture for another 24 hours. With a few more RPM’s, the speed increased and the ETA moved in to early afternoon. Better, but that still meant 12 more hours of pounding.   Ugh!

So the hours ticked by. The conditions on Dave’s watch were not much better. By early morning the waves seemed to moderate a bit as we gained some protection from Frying Pan shoals. As Cathy took over the helm for the next watch, she was puzzling over how the light winds could have produced these conditions. By checking the instruments, she discovered that she had inadvertently left the wind speed display on a setting that showed the wind angle instead of the wind speed. Since we were headed straight into the wind, it never varied by more than 10 degrees. A quick check of the wind speed log, showed that we had actually experienced 30 knot winds overnight. That explained why the waves had built as much as they had. In retrospect, it was probably better that we hadn’t known just how strong the winds were.

We entered the Cape Fear inlet at 10:30 and made it to South Harbor Village marina by 12:30 – exhausted, but glad to be in.

Company
Before we left Charleston, we met another couple of boats who had stayed in the marina last November when we were there. Bob and Jean on Dolphin had halted their trip south last fall at Charleston and hauled Dolphin at a marina further up the Cooper River. They had left the Maritime Center a few days before Thanksgiving. Just a day or two longer and we might have convinced them to continue on with us south. We may hook up with them again further up the ICW or maybe in Maine if we make it there this summer. We also got to see Carolyn and Keith on Whim, who came in for a few days after returning from the Bahamas. They had been our neighbors at Barefoot Landing and at the Maritime Center in November. They left with Dolphin headed north on the ICW.

Finally, Johesa arrived a couple of days before we left. We had met them in Marsh Harbor. They were friends of Joanne and Ralph on White Bird. They had been with White Bird in Green Turtle Cay while White Bird was waiting for a transmission replacement. Unfortunately, Johesa had to begin their trip back to the states, leaving White Bird before the repairs were completed.

Spirit of SC

Tall Ships On the Way
The tall ships are coming to Charleston on May 17-20. Four of them will be at the Charleston Maritime Center, including the newly launched Spirit of South Carolina, which we saw under construction last November. She pulled up to the end of our dock on the Tuesday before we left. Her standing rigging (masts, shrouds, stays, etc.) were done, but her sails had not yet been rigged. She is a beautiful ship, and a lot of work (and several million dollars) has gone into her. Like many tall ships, she will become a training ship.

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Mid-April - Chillin' in Charleston

4/19/2007

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After our first 2 days back in Charleston saw temperatures in the high 80’s, we were given an abrupt reminder that we had come back north. As Easter approached, the temperatures plunged to the 30’s, making us re-check the calendar to be sure it really was Spring. As a result, we decided to extend our planned stay in Charleston to a month, giving the weather time to warm up again before heading further north.

Reunited - At Last!

We finally heard from both Marianna and Merlin once we reached Charleston. We were not surprised to learn that they had crossed to the US at different locations. Donna and Dave on Merlin had crossed from the Bahamas to Beaufort, SC. They would be arriving in Charleston via the ICW on the Saturday of Easter weekend. However, Pat and Fred on Marianna were still in Florida, on their way to Vero Beach, when they called us. They had crossed to Lake Worth and planned to take the ICW north to Fernandina Beach. From there they would look for the right weather to head north outside to Charleston, bypassing Georgia (Fred said he will never do Georgia on the inside again.) They hoped to arrive the following Tuesday.

Merlin arrived on schedule early on a windy Saturday morning, having weathered the same high winds overnight at a nearby anchorage. They were having to deal with one of the perils of traveling with animals on board, since their cat Lydia had developed a serious ear infection over the previous several days. Donna wanted to get the cat to a vet as soon as possible. Dave helped her locate a vet within walking distance of the marina, who was willing to see Lydia Saturday morning. After helping them dock, we agreed to meet later for supper on Merlin. The next day, Donna joined us for a trip to church on Easter Sunday morning, which required us to bundle up in our foul weather gear over our best khakis. Not exactly your typical Easter finery, but the folks at St. Phillips Episcopal had the good graces not to make us feel out of place. So, where was Marianna?

Fred and Pat were still in Fernandina, hoping for the weather window to jump north. On Sunday night, Dave relayed weather information to Fred from the NOAA grib files and buoy reports. It looked good for a Monday departure from Fernandina, so we told them we looked forward to seeing them Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday, Marianna arrived as planned at the Maritime Center in much calmer weather than Merlin had seen as they completed their outside run from Florida. We had hugs for everyone after we secured them in their nearby slip.  Giving Pat and Fred some time to settle in and sleep, the rest of us took advantage of access to a car for the day and agreed to gather later for dinner. Since no one was enthusiastic about cooking, we instead ordered pizza, a gourmet treat we hadn’t enjoyed in 6 months.

Ah, the good life.

Marianna heads out for points north

We knew that Pat and Fred had to be back in New Hampshire by May 1st. This would be incredibly aggressive, given their delayed start. Donna and Dave were not under quite so much pressure, since their deadline was June 1st, but they would likely leave with Pat and Fred, since the marina had no room for them past Saturday. Despite our hope that they could stay longer, it became apparent that they had to leave no later than Friday morning in order to get some miles behind them before a nasty storm came through late Saturday night. We regretfully said goodbye, but held out the hope that we might travel to New England in the summer to see them.

The Port of Charleston is CLOSED!
You know that the weather is something to pay attention to, when you hear that a busy commercial port like Charleston is closed for all traffic. This happened the Sunday after Easter as the winds were howling at a steady 35-40 knots (40-45mph) with gusts that we clocked up to 60 mph. (The port officially recorded a 70mph gust.) We had added additional dock lines the night before, but continually adjusted them under the stress of the persistent high winds and assisted our neighbors with theirs as well. The river looked more like the open ocean with 4 foot rollers just outside the marina opening.

We watched in awe as more than one huge freighter made their way up what, for them, is a narrow channel in the incredible wind. Their high profile gives them enormous windage and makes the likelihood of being pushed out of the channel a real possibility.

They also had to contend with some idiotic little sport fishing boats that were darting in front of them as they made the treacherous trip up the channel. Repeated warning signals (5 blasts on the horn) seemed to go unheeded by the little boats, which looked like minnows next to a whale.  (What were they thinking?) It wasn’t surprising when the port was closed shortly after the 2nd freighter docked that morning.

The dinghies in the foreground are usually in 2 feet of water at low tide, instead of sitting in the mud. The boats in the background are sitting on the bottom.

The next day, as the winds were still blowing, although somewhat less than Sunday, we were shocked to look at the interior slips in the marina to see no water at all. Luckily, there were only dinghies left high and dry by the extreme tide, which had been driven by both the new moon spring tide and the persistently strong westerly winds, blowing the water out of the marina. The boats at the edge of the shallow water were obviously aground. Cathy quickly checked the depth on Orion to see with relief that we still had a little over 2 feet underneath us. (However, we usually have no less than 4 feet under our keel in our slip.) We remembered the “thundersnow” of last November, and were beginning to wonder if perhaps our visits were causing the weather extremes. Maybe, we should leave so that things could return to normal . . .

Who’s Out There?

One of the unnerving things about traveling on the open ocean at night is the possibility of a close encounter with very large, fast-moving commercial ships. We had always assumed radar was the only solution for being able to locate and identify these vessels and to determine whether they were on a collision course. However, we learned that a less expensive technology would give us a significant leg up on identifying these ships and their potential for intersecting our course.

The solution is an Automated Identification System (AIS), which uses the VHF antenna to receive transponder signals from commercial vessels. These are packed with information on these ships, which include their name, bearing, closest point of approach, time to closest point of approach, and much more – even their destination in some cases. For much less than a radar installation would cost, an AIS unit can be installed, taking advantage of our existing VHF antenna. Dave ordered a receiving unit along with a splitter to connect it to the antenna.

The Charleston harbor is so busy with commercial traffic, we immediately started receiving a couple dozen signals once Dave linked in the AIS signal to our Fugawi charting software. There were freighters, pilot boats, a cruise ship, even the immobile Yorktown across the harbor appeared on the screen. We were so fascinated, we played around for an hour or more, watching the screen like you would watch TV. Two pilot boats left the harbor to meet an incoming freighter. We heard them hail each other on the VHF, and then saw their speeds and bearings synchronize as the escorts joined the larger ship for the trip back into the harbor. It was even more fascinating watching the graphic representation of the pilot tugs turning the freighter around, when we could also actually see the ship spinning around just outside our slip.

Cool!

The downside of AIS, is that not all ships show up on it, so it cannot be used exclusively, but it will be a huge help for our next ocean voyage. Having a ship’s name and bearing, makes it much easier to hail them to ensure we stay out of their way.

Seeing the Sights
We stumbled onto a number of events while walking around Charleston that reinforced our decision to stay here longer.

One night we took in the King Street Design Walk, an event sponsored by a number of upscale merchants who provide wine and h’or d’ouvres in their shops to get the foot traffic through them. Long before we had made the entire circuit, we had enjoyed enough goodies to fill us up. On the way back home, we discovered that the City Paper was sponsoring a free movie in the Marion Square park, which they do for 4 Thursdays in a row. This night it was A Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller, which was a cute movie. Since we were caught by surprise, we didn’t have anything to sit on and could have used a little warmer clothes for the breezy night. Next week is Casino Royale. Assuming we make it again, we know what we need to take, so we’ll be better prepared.

Another find was the free ice cream cone day at Ben and Jerry’s on April 17th. Apparently, they have this every year as a customer appreciation day, but we had never seen it before. How could we pass this up?

We made use of the bus system to take us out to Wal-mart and other stores that we can’t find in the city proper. The bus system was easy to use, and the all-day passes allowed us to transfer freely from the suburban routes to the in-city trolleys, which stop near the Maritime Center.

A Little Longer

We will be staying here through about May 3rd, depending on weather. The temperatures haven’t returned to the high 80’s yet, but the days are warm and the nights not too cold, so it’s fine with us. We’ll continue to explore the city and get to know our neighbors at the Maritime Center while we’re here.

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April 1st Week - If its Tuesday, It Must be . . . Charleston

4/7/2007

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If anyone had told us that we would be in Charleston a week after leaving Great Sale Cay in the Bahamas, we would have scoffed. Not us. We don’t like to travel that fast. Well, what do we know? After weeks of paralyzing weather, a week of calm winds and waves was too much to resist. Also, not having heard from Marianna and Merlin, we continued to speculate that the further north we could go, the more likely it would be that we would see them.

The Crossing

The final check of the weather on our planned crossing day, Wednesday, March 28th, confirmed our crossing window was still there. It also confirmed that the window was closing behind us faster than originally predicted. We stayed on our original schedule, but the change in forecast caused Lunasea to decided to travel close behind us.

Three boats, Nantileas, R Pellican, and Orion, left around 11am to allow for a easier sail over the bank, with a little less stress on the engine. We hooked up with Sea Holly and Slow Dancin’, who left an hour later, at Mantanilla Shoal just before entering the ocean at about 8pm that evening. The winds and waves were on our starboard quarter (i.e., at an angle off our stern). The winds being mostly behind us meant that we would experience them as calmer than almost any other angle. The wave angle meant that there was still some rolling, but not as bad as having them on our beam (i.e. side). We were relieved to find that the possibility of 5-6 foot seas didn’t materialize. Instead, we were experiencing 2-4 feet. This we could handle for 14 hours.

Since Cathy had been sick on the last 24-hour trip, we never developed the watch schedule that is necessary to keep the person on watch rested. This time, we alternated sleeping in the Main Saloon and taking our turns at the helm. It worked well. Neither of us had to do a marathon session at the wheel. Neither of us got sick, and we were able to go below to complete simple tasks, without risk of seasickness. Which isn’t to say we weren’t tired arriving at Port Canaveral at 11:30 the next day, but we were better rested than on our first 24 hour trip outside.

To make our arrival more interesting, as we entered the relatively narrow Canaveral Barge Canal, we discovered we were arriving as 2 gambling ships and a large freighter were leaving dock for sea. Most of our group had already passed by the commercial docks when we heard the blast on the horn of the ship we were passing that indicated it was leaving the dock. However, he began following us into the canal. Cathy scrambled to hail him to understand where it was going, when we heard the “Securite” announcement that the freighter in front of us was also preparing to depart. Cathy was now trying on channel 16 and 13 to hail the 2 boats, when someone said they were trying to hail us on channel 12 (12?!!). Cathy managed to talk to the first ship, who told us that if we sped up we would be out of their way as they entered the turning basin to turn for sea. (No problem!. We can speed up.) Also, the freighter would be leaving right behind him, but we should be clear of them by then. He also said the 2nd gambling ship ahead was about to leave.   Before Cathy could hail that ship, she heard them say they planned to wait for the freighter. Phew! We were glad to get past them to the marina, which was still in the shadow of the large cruise ships from Disney, Carnival and Royal Carribean.

Just Call Me

Upon re-entering the US, we were required to clear customs and immigration. This of course, was going to be simple, since we had taken care of getting our customs sticker and registering with the local boater option with immigration. One phone call and we should be done. Right?

Not so fast.

Dave called as we approached the entrance to Port Canaveral, and was told that we needed to be tied up to a dock before we could make that call. (We later learned that this was to ensure we could be boarded by surprise, if necessary). So, when we arrived at the dock, Dave tried again, and got placed in a queue for the “next available agent”. Sigh! He then found out that we needed to call a different number for Port Canaveral than that for south Florida. After working his way through the voice prompts to the right one for clearing customs, the recording informed him that we must appear in person and then hung up. Click.

So much for the one phone call.

So, we joined the 8 other boats (3 Canadians, 1 British and 4 US) for the 2 mile walk in the sun to the Customs office. Thankfully, our group of 6 managed to hitch a ride there with a sympathetic marina employee. Then we stood shoulder to shoulder in the cramped entry hall of the Customs office, smelling a little rank, since we had all needed showers pretty desperately. Another customs officer entered to find the crowd of us and seemed dismayed at the backlog. Dave took the opportunity to explain that we wouldn’t be there at all if we could have registered on the phone. She took a look at our paperwork and agreed that we should have been able to clear with a phone call. To the chagrin of our fellow travelers, she took us immediately back into the office and had us work with an agent who completed our sign-in. She said that the phone message would be fixed so it didn’t happen again.

The agents were very helpful and generous to all the boaters, ensuring they were all processed as quickly as possible – even giving out bubble gum to the kids and joking with those of us in line. But as we continued to hang around, ensuring our fellow travelers were taken care of, they politely suggested that we should leave if we had been processed already to relieve the congestion in the crowded hall. (Perhaps they were thinking it would freshen the air a bit, too.)

So, even though we didn’t get to have the “one phone call” clearance process, maybe we made it easier for someone else.

Cumberland Island

Three of the boats in our flotilla -- Sea Holly, Slow Dancin’ and Lunasea – decided to leave the marina on Saturday to travel north to Cumberland Island, GA, the next logical stop on the outside run up the coast. This would be a 26-hour trip, so another overnight on the ocean was in store. We agreed to join them, since the marina was much too expensive to stay longer than the 2 nights we had booked, and we still hadn’t heard from Marianna and Merlin. According to an earlier e-mail, the St. Mary’s/Cumberland /Fernandina inlet was likely the southernmost port of entry for them.

We were nervous that conditions were not going to be as placid as forecast, as we plowed headlong into 6 foot waves and 20-25 knot winds as we left the Canaveral inlet. Luckily, soon after we turned north the conditions settled down to the forecasted conditions which were calm for the rest of the run until we entered the Fernandina inlet the next day. The waves and winds had once again kicked up making for a rough ride into the inlet.

Cumberland Island is a beautiful island, formerly owned by the Vanderbilts, with a pristine beach, wild horses, ruins of the former mansion and scenic beauty to explore. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any time to explore the island, because Sea Holly and Slow Dancin’ had decided that the best weather for the jump to Charleston was going to be over the next 2 days. This meant less than a 12 hour turnaround before heading out for another 26-hour run.

Dave and I looked at each other to decide whether we could do this again. On the other hand, we still hadn’t heard from Marianna and Merlin. Maybe they were already north of us. At least, if we went there, we were sure to run into them. They couldn’t be north of there. So, we signed up for the next hop and wearily began getting ready for another run outside.

Anchor Woes

We knew we needed to get to bed and sleep well if we were going to start out early the next morning for our trip to Charleston. We had to first head to Fernandina beach to re-fuel and then out the inlet to Charleston. But Dave began to worry that the anchor was not “right” as he checked it before going to bed.

Coastal Georgia has 7 foot tides by Cumberland Island and the current associated with the rising and ebbing tides can have a dramatic effect on the boats position – equal to or greater than that of the wind. When we set the anchor the wind and tidal current were in the same direction, and the anchor set well. However, the current changed shortly after we set anchor and would change again around 10pm. Sometime in the intervening hours, when the boat turned with the current, our chain must have caught on the keel. Dave could see the anchor bridle taut and heading back from the bow instead of forward away from the boat. Cathy was too tired to take in this bad news, so we went to bed anyway, thinking it would work itself out. However, at 2am, we were back up again, Dave checked the anchor and it was no better. Now, Cathy couldn’t sleep either. This could mean our passing up on the trip to Charleston if we couldn’t resolve this before morning.

So, at 2:30 in the morning, we decided to launch the dinghy, mount the outboard motor and use it to spin Orion around. Thanks to a full moon and a clear night, we could see what we were doing. Cathy stood at the helm and spun the wheel in the direction we wanted Orion to spin. Then Dave positioned the dinghy at the bow and pushed on the hull to start the spin.

The first attempt did nothing. The bridle was still angled back. Nothing accomplished. We thought about it a bit and tried to pull Orion backward from the stern in the direction that she should be laying. It didn’t work, so Dave went back to the bow and gently pushed Orion’s bow in the other direction. Within a quarter turn, the bridle shifted forward. Cathy looked at the GPS and we had obviously dropped back to our original position.

It had worked. We were both amazed and relieved that we had actually fixed the problem. We collapsed into bed, knowing that the morning would come much too early.

On to Charleston

The Fernandina inlet was dramatically different from the day before – flat calm with little wind. The ocean was equally calm, which made the conditions more comfortable. However, there was little help from the sails in the light winds. We eventually got some stronger winds in the evening and managed to pick up 0.5kt from the headsail. As we approached Charleston, the winds died again and we motored in on a rising tide into the harbor. We couldn’t have asked for an easier entry. At the Charleston Maritime Center, the water was so calm, we just floated in. Perfect.

The one near miss came as Cathy was positioning Orion to enter the fairway into the marina, which had her concentration so engaged that she didn’t see the Fort Sumter tour boat departing its dock next to the marina. As she recognized the collision that was coming, she threw the engines into reverse, which caused Dave to look up to see what the hell she was doing. Thankfully, we easily avoided them.

Putting our skills to use

The maritime center is in the middle of Charleston’s waterfront, surrounded by activities. Since this was a holiday week, the docks around us were busy with families touring the sites. We were busy with chores on our boats after docking – Ken on Slow Dancin’ was up the mast working on his lights; Sea Holly was changing their oil; Dave and I were preparing to do the same. Dave was below and Cathy on the dock when we heard a chilling scream from the pier ahead of us. This was not the scream of kids having fun. Cathy leapt off the boat to head toward the sound of the scream, discovering a child in the water who had fallen from the pier above. The mother, unable to reach her daughter, was frantic. The boaters nearest the incident, Sea Holly and Slow Dancin’, reached her first and pulled her out. Cathy went back to the boat to get a towel and the first aid kit, while Dave assessed her injuries. The little girl had been walking along the benches on the upper pier and had somehow slipped and fallen into the water. She had several cuts and bruises from hitting something on the way down. However, she was incredibly lucky that nothing more serious happened. Her mother was going to take her to the hospital, so Cathy gave her a dry T-shirt to wear and let her change on Orion. Dave worked to reassure the mother that she had made the right decision not to jump in after the girl. He managed to put in a plug for taking the Red Cross courses in First Aid and CPR.

In discussing it afterwards, in the confusion of the moment, Joy and Heather initially thought that Ken had fallen from the mast. Ken, on the other hand, up on the mast saw the whole thing, but was powerless to help. We were all grateful that nothing worse had happened.

Good Company

When we pulled into Cape Marina in Cape Canaveral, we once again ran into Jed and Paige on Spellbound. They were in the marina for a couple of months while they prepared their new boat, Watercolor, for launch. We joined them for dinner on our second night there, along with Jerry and Will from another sailboat. The same day, we also were surprised to see Discovery, whom we had met in Treasure Cay, tied up to the dock in front of us. They were hoping to go straight to Charleston from Canaveral, but not until they had fixed an electrical problem that had caused them to cross from the Bahamas without navigation lights.

We finally heard from Merlin --who had crossed from the Bahamas to Beaufort, SC—and Marianna – who had crossed into Lake Worth, FL. We were north of both of them, but they were, as expected, headed to Charleston. So, we decided to wait for them. This meant saying goodby to Sea Holly and Slow Dancin’ who needed to continue to head north to the Chesapeake.

We enjoyed some time together touring Charleston, watching a DVD and a farewell dinner at at the Southend Brewery in the historic district. We bid them goodbye as they headed up the ICW for Georgetown on a windy Good Friday morning, with promises to look for them when we get back to the Chesapeake.

Chris and Margaret also called us as they left Charleston for points north. They had followed us to Charleston a day later and now were on a beeline to Annapolis, where they would leave their boat to be sold. Chris is starting a new job in Atlanta in May.

So, we are waiting for Merlin, who should arrive on Saturday and Marianna, who should arrive next week and the opportunity to catch up with them on their travels since we parted company in January.

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