November 3, 2012 Wally's Leg, Georgia

This was by far the longest day of our trip to the Keys.  The 83 miles however, allowed us to finally meet up with one of our "Buddy Boats!"  Ken and Marie on Tempest greeted us with smiles and we renewed our friendship with some wine and stories of our children.

The Skidaway Bridge opened for us with only a slight delay.  We waited only a couple of minutes for the sailboat behind us to catch up to us so we could all pass through with a single opening and thereby reducing the inconvenience on local traffic, you know, those late for day care, on their way to work and to school.

Moon River, Burnside, Vernon and Little Ogeechee Rivers took us round to the left then round to the right!  The Ogeechee River had many dolphins feeding.  Again, I have no pics of dolphins since the little creatures hold their breathe for what seems forever!

Up the Florida Passage to Kilkenney Creek and the Bear River led us to St Catherine's Sound.  Walburg Creek and Johnson Creek brought us to the South Newport River and the Sapelo Sound and Island.  Once across the Sound we entered the Altamara Sound and Little Mud River with low tide in progress and very little water under our keel.  Sometimes as little as (5) feet.  We draft 4' 9" but anything less than (7) feet is a problem.  We arrived in Wally's Leg just as the sun set and it started to get cool and buggy with "no see ums" that you could see!!

Captain Sid

Friday, November 2, 2012 Thunderbolt, Georgia

Leaving Beaufort we saw the weather bring us brilliant sunshine, lots of dew on the deck and canvas, and cool temps.  We decided to sleep in and get started an hour later than our usual 7-7:30AM start up.  We caught the 9AM Ladys Island Bridge opening after weighing anchor at 8:15AM.  Shortly, we managed to put up the jib sail and add to our motored speed.  We heard IOLAR on the radio and called Walt to let him know we were in the area.  Walt kept his ketch in front of us at Osprey Marina for the summer.  We met Walt and Lynn in Vero Beach last May.

We always enjoy Hilton Head and seeing the excessive beach homes and scenery.  For many of these beach-front dwellings no expense is spared! All are well done with unusually well thought out landscaping.  The trip from Hilton Head to the Savannah River and Thunderbolt is made up of winding rivers and shallow water at low tide.  Crossing the Savannah River both north and south channel can be dangerous at low tide.  We were fortunate to run through the tricky sections at almost high tide.

As we travel on Fiu it's amazing how the kinds of boats, size of boats and the names of the boats are so diverse!  I am sure when boaters hear our "Fiu" they wonder, "What the heck?"  Well, Fiu may be unusual but when you hear the story of what it means it makes sense.  There is one boat name that no matter what the story is it doesn"t make sense. As we moved from Beaufort, SC to Thunderbolt, GA we kept hearing the  boat named "Breaking Wind" over the radio.  I'm sorry, but don't be that guy!  All I could think about were other more ridiculous names associated with Breaking Wind.  Here are a few:  Stinky Feet, Bad Breath, and, well,you get the idea.  The long time tradition of naming your ship with a woman's name is somewhat limited these days.  The large luxury power cruisers and the sport fishing boats have been difficult to deal with on this trip.  Both of these boats are designed in such a way that a huge wake is delivered outward ready to swamp any small craft and roll the "ba jeepers" out of even larger sailboats!  Often you will hear some say that the faster they go the less wake they deliver!  Not true!  For many designs this is true.  However, there seem to be just as many designs where this is also not true.  The hard part of all of this is we all have a right to be on the water in the size of the boat, the design of the boat and of course, even the name of the boat we choose.  Getting sailboats to understand they need to slow down and move to the right when possible and more importantly, to get power boaters to pass on our port side at a reasonable speed that produces the smallest wake for that design is what really needs to happen.

Bon and I prepared the boat for the night and headed over to Tubby's for a draft beer and a fish dinner.  We usually stop there and see our niece, Dawn, who was out of town this trip.  I purchased diesel and filled the water tanks for the trip south.  The 47 mile day was tiring but fun.

Captain Sid

Thursday, November 1, 2012 Beaufort, SC

The 63 miles and (10 hours) we motor-sailed today was in mostly sunny weather with a cool breeze in the afternoon.  Actually it was downright cold at times, like when the sun went behind the clouds!  Early on in the AM we spotted (6) deer along the shore a few miles from St John's Marina. Most of the wildlife we see are birds, rarely deer.  As we passed Church Creek and the immediate area we were treated to a well-kept golf course with a tee box built out into the water.  I'm sure there a a hundred golf balls in the river.  Too bad they sink and not float!  Passing a tricky part of the Wadmalaw River we passed a navy ship being refitted with work being done on the bow. 

I always get interested in names of creeks, rivers and sounds in this region.  The Toogoodoo Creek is an actual place with its very own location on the charts!  That is its name.  As to origin, you got me!  As we approached the East Edisto River many dolphins appeared (not long enough for my camera to snap a "quick" foto)!  These mammals can hold their breathe longer than I have patience to wait for their eventual surfacing, again for a split second, just long enough to blow out and suck in some air! The next interesting body of water was Watts Cut.  This canal-like cut joins two rivers and is very shallow at low tide. It is just past the Dawho River.  All of this leads to the South Edisto River.  Following along we get to the Ashpoo River and the Ashpoo-Coosaw Cut-Off!  Yes, they are spelled correctly!  This is the fifth time I have traveled the Coosaw River and again it is wide open and very rough. We were saved by the fact that heading directly into the wind we get a little bit of pitch but no rolling!  Since the tide was going out we struggled with speed and only averaged 4.5 knots with while facing a 12 knot wind. So much for good fuel mileage today!  The next cut took us to the Combahee River past Bull River and Parrot Creek.

We finished our day by bearing a sharp left immediately before the Ladys Island Bridge ( no apostrophe) in Beaufort, SC and anchored on Factory Creek.  We used the heater in the evening while running our generator!

Captain Sid

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 Charleston, SC

The hot soup and sandwich was a perfect break from the wind and constant attention to other vessels, gauges and charts.  Again, the engine performed well and was little or no worry.  

The 53 miles we traveled today seemed like twice that.  Winds at a steady 20kts with gusts up to 27kts made it tough going especially since most of the time we headed into the wind.  This however, isn't all bad because crossing Charleston harbor (near Ft. Sumter) we managed to head directly into the wind and therefore, less rolling just a little more pitch up and down.  We covered most of the harbor before we started taking the waves on our port quarter.  The waves were so much smaller since there was little fetch for them to build!

The Wapoo Creek bascule bridge just past Charleston Harbor closes from 3:30PM to 6:30PM weekdays for rush hour traffic to flow more smoothly!  We arrived and requested an opening at 3:22PM.  Otherwise our wait would be at anchor for the three hours of closure and would have kept us on the water after dark.  I don't like to be out in the dark because there are too many variables most importantly the inability to accurately see what's ahead of you.  Also, the St Johns Yacht Harbor is directly past the Wapoo Creek bridge and Elliott Cut.  There are certain times  one is able to pass through the cut and approaching low tide is not one of them. We made it through at about 4:30PM and registered at the marina shortly after.

A quick call to Karen, our life-long friend, and we were soon on our way to laundry, shopping and dinner! Our two nights stay at St Johns Marina was reasonable and they have the best showers I have used on all our trips. Also, they give a discount for being a Boat US member. It is a well-kept marina with friendly staff there to help. Interestingly,  it's amazing the amount of tide and current there on the Stono River.  We always cleat our lines with the intention of when we return Fiu will still be there!

Wednesday, our college friend, Gloria, of Gloria and Ralph,  invited us to her house and to lunch at their local marina. We drove over to the Isle of Palms and spent some time catching up on our children, their activities and families.  Gloria, Karen, Bon and I were all classmates at Cortland State from 1967-1971. That was when you entered college and then graduated four years later.


Captain Sid
 

Monday, October 29, 2012 Osprey Marina Myrtle Beach, SC

Saturday and Sunday we continued to prepare for our planned Monday departure.  We met several new boaters some who docked near us.  We had snacks on Sea Quill and snacks and drinks on Windkist.  The winds were continuing to gust up to over 30 knots on the ICW!  We actually had very little wind and it reinforced our feeling Osprey Marina would be a good hurricane hole!  Lots of rain all day Saturday, part of Sandy's effects!  Much of Sunday it rained lightly but stopped most outside activities.

While the weather forecasts called for high winds we felt much of the first day's travel we would be protected by the narrow river winding down to Winyah Bay!  Georgetown is just off the bay on the Sampit River.  We turned off the ICW at R42 headed into Georgetown Harbor to get some relief from the wind, it had gusts up to 32 kts on more than one occasion during the day.  A gale begins at 36 kts.  Arriving in the harbor we found several derelict boats and our anchor wasn't holding in the mud with the powerful wind!  We pulled up anchor and headed back out into Winyah Bay.  Just two miles south we turned into the Estherville Minim Creek Canal.  Nine miles further we arrived at the South Santee River and anchored there.  This is our usual anchorage but with the weather we weren't sure we would make it.  The holding is great even though it is an open anchorage and the wind kept  gusting all night long.  The holding is so good I had some difficulty in weighing anchor in the AM!

The rest of the trip I was concerned whether or not my engine troubles were truly over or just a temporary lull in more issues!  The engine performed with all important gauges and warnings working as expected!  It's late and I need some sleep.

Captain Sid



 

Friday, October 26, 2012 Osprey Marina, Myrtle Beach, SC

Well, finally it is settled!  The diesel techies, Glenn and James were able to identify the problem and fix it!  This morning after three days of "well, maybe it's this or that" Fiu is fixed and ready for action!  It was in the end more like a vapor lock!  Here's the run-down:  my original starter works just fine; when removing the fuel injectors water came streaming out of the supply lines instead of diesel fuel.  After several attempts to drain all the water they realized it must be syphoning in from the raw water cooling system. A valve in the vent line was plugged (this happens sometimes) so instead of the pressure being released and the water stopped from building up and entering the engine, it was allowed to enter and since water doesn't compress the engine wouldn't turn over.  This would be a symptom of a bad starter motor.  They really should have checked it out before ordering a new one.  Once the vent line was clear the water completely drained from the engine and diesel fuel replaced the water in the lines. It fired right up and I let the engine run for almost an hour to help dry it out.  I thought at one point we would have to be towed, the engine removed and replaced with a new one!  That worst case scenario didn't happen.  We would have been unable to continue our trip!

The best part of all of this (besides a hard learned lesson) is that the yanmar dealer took back the new starter motor at no cost to me.  Second, he only charged 7 1/4 hours of labor for the three days they worked on the engine!  It seems to be running fine and they assured me it was good to go!  No bent rods or other potential damage from trying to compress water in a diesel engine!  We will see.  I was very depressed over this whole issue because there was no warning.  However, I will check this vent periodically.  I could only imagine this happening while anchored out in the SC grasses where a tow would be required!  Kind of like your car breaking down in the middle of the Adirondacks on a back road.

Our plan is to stay here until "Sandy" passes by.  We will check conditions Sunday morning and if high wind warnings are still in effect then we will leave Monday AM. The staff here Lynn, Miles, Richard and Sherry has been most gracious and flexible.  They have new boats coming in each day and yet they still manage to accommodate us with their limited open dock space. 

Time to retire!
Captain Sid

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 Osprey Marina

To be or not to be!  I now have the answer.  The vapor lock theory evaporated this AM when the diesel techie informed me the starter was indeed in need of repair ( it only has three seasons of use)!  After several calls back and forth a new starter is supposed to be here tomorrow, Friday or Saturday.  He did promise to install it as soon as it is delivered.  Yes, they will charge us for the new one with a hefty freight charge added to the bill.  I guess it's better to be here in a marina than anchored out somewhere in the SC grasses (often beautiful in their way) and not be able to start the diesel!

Hurricane Sandy is now a real threat!  We will stay right here regardless of when the diesel is repaired!  It is scheduled to pass this Friday and be north of us by Saturday.  We have agreed that being safe here is more important than making planned connections with friends further south Thursday and Friday.  We will reschedule our plans with them and hopefully see them as we sail south to the Keys!

We have continued to work on getting Fiu ready to sail.  Most things to do involve cleaning of some kind.  The hull has had its brown "ICW mustache" removed. The fresh water in this part of the region has lots of tannins, which are chiefly complex glucosides of catechol and pyrogallol making the water truly the color of iced tea on the strong side!  We will be reviewing our charts and refreshing our memories about anchorages during the next three days.

We have been in contact with some of our boat buddies from previous trips and they are further south than we are.  We are hoping they can find adequate shelter from the off-shore effects of Hurricane Sandy over the next few days.  Higher tides, high winds (above 20kts) and probably lots of rain will all come together to make life on a boat just a little uncomfortable for a couple of days!

I think, all things considered, we are probably fortunate to have to wait for the new starter since Hurricane Sandy has the potential to reek havoc.  We are thinking of our families and friends and want you all to know we are safe here.  Osprey Marina is the absolute best marina for friendliness and helpfulness. Everyone here will go out of their way to make sure we are comfortable and have our needs met!

Dinner awaits!

Captain Sid