tracking map for the spring sail (CORRECTED!!!)

Checking the link to the SPOT tracking map I see I inadvertently used a link for a SPOT test.  I have corrected it in both locations below.  The track should go live sometime tomorrow morning.  The correct  link is:  https://maps.findmespot.com/s/5PLS

A little touch up on the bottom paint.  Packing coming along well.  Forecast looks good beginning Monday morning.

If you want to follow along the tracking map is here.  Or copy and paste the link below.  Map should go live sometime Monday morning.

https://maps.findmespot.com/s/5PLS

 

reconstructed

My Rite in the Rain all-weather Journal No. 393 from the abbreviated sail down south has been sitting next to my computer ever since I put together the online log.  I find myself flipping through the pages now and then, remembering the great sail and looking forward to doing it again next year.  I decided it would be fun to reconstruct a couple of pages of the journal.  (Each evening at the end of a day's sail I write out the day's log in a larger notebook based on the journal, and that notebook is the main source of the logs you see here).

These two pages are from day seven of the trip, the day I left Hilton Head and sailed to a creek off the Skidway River.   This portion goes from Haig Point to crossing under a bridge near Savannah. 

9:10  Haig Pt, Daufuskie Is to port, can feel the flood tide helping. 3.2.  tour boats.  white sand beaches, brown marsh, birds screeching loudly on shore.  recording.

Haig Point is the north end of Daufuskie Island, that island being the setting for Pat Conroy's The Water is Wide.  Sailing south on Calibogue Sound the incoming tide was against me but as I entered the Cooper River at Haig Point that same flood tide was helping me.  Wind and tide gave me a decent speed of 3.2 kts.  On the Cooper River there were tour boats carrying visitors to historic sites on Daufuskie Island.  There were white sand beaches and brown marsh.  I realized after noting the birds screeching that the sound was in fact a recording broadcast over a speaker to keep seagulls off the nearby docks.

9:50 no wind, under power.

What light wind I had disappeared.  The tide was still in my favor.

10:00  wind

And a nice breeze filled in.

10:10 G Marker 37 turn to port, stand of trees filled with egrets.  can see container ships on the Savannah R

At green marker 37 the stand of live oaks was shrouded with Spanish Moss and filled with white egrets.  I have since checked the distance and I was looking over about six miles of marsh to see the container ships on the Savannah River.

10:50 sails up but powering into the max flood

That flood tide, while helping me on the Cooper River, was against me and running very strong.

11:30 slip out of channel to let tug + barge pass. main and jib down

No wind and motoring into the tide a tug and barge were approaching from the stern.  I dropped the main and jib and motored out of the channel to let the tug and barge follow the curving path of the channel.

11:40 wind, full sail just before cut to Save R. 4.9

A solid wind showed up, I raised main and jib, full sail making 4.9 on the last leg to the Savannah River.

12:00 100 mile mark.  575??

The app on my phone showed some mile markers and I wondered if I had just crossed the 100 mile mark on the trip.  I could not off the top of my head recall is I began the trip at mile marker 575 or not.  I have not yet gone back to look, it really doesn't matter.

12:20 Motorsailing across Sav R   w/1.1 flood tide

My phone app the peak flood tide had passed but I still had a 1.1 kt current helping me.

12:35  light winds, helping tide, 1.3

An easy crossing of the Savannah River with a helping tide, no container ships in sight, in fact no other traffic at all.

1:05  Oatlet Is to port McQueen Is starboard   both marshes  2.6

Easy sailing on St. August Creek between two "islands" that were nothing but marsh.  I was eating lunch and feeling very relieved to have crossed the river and in be in Georgia.

1:40  radio Bluffton Bride. they say 24' clearance now   drop main for bridge

I think this was a mistake, not quite sure where I got Bluffton Bride.  Bride is of course bridge and I may have been confusing it with a bridge that goes to Bluffton SC across from Hilton Head.  With the wind and currents I often drop the main and then power beneath the bridge.

As you can see, a lot of my notes are just short phrases or quick observations.  It gives me a good timeline to go by as I fill out the handwritten log each evening.  

I look forward to filling out the notebook on this next trip.

electronics day

Electronics day here as I get ready for the next trip.  That means cleaning data off devices from the last trip, images off the GoPros and iPhone, tracking data off the gps.  Clearing the tracks off the gps I came across the above of the last couple of days of the trips showing, from top to bottom, Ossabow Sound, St. Catherine's Sound (both crossed on the same day), and Sapelo Sound (crossed on the final day of the abbreviated trip).  The Sounds were beautiful as were the rivers and creeks connecting them.  All of that data is already stored on my iMac and also backed up on a hard drive .

There are a bunch of GoPro batteries and power banks to charge.  In a couple of days I'll look at the forecast and leave as early as Monday if the forecast is good.  No reason to start a trip with bad weather.  

 

a blast from the past

Received this photo on my phone today along with a few texts from my good friend Dave ("Baydog").  It was the Downrigging Festival in Chestertown in maybe 2014 and Dave joined me for a sail.  Thanks for the memory, Baydog.

I hear there are tentative plans (tentative being a common and good word to use during pandemics) for a Downrigging Festival this fall, and those plans might include - tentatively - having SPARTINA at the festival.  Wouldn't that be great...

the spring trip

Time to pack for the spring trip.  That should be pretty easy with a lot of gear and food supplies still intact from the abbreviated winter sail down south.  I hope to explore Pamlico Sound, which I have sailed quite a bit, and spend more time on Albemarle Sound to the north.  On my list of things to do is visit a couple sites connected to the Lost Colony, the first attempt at an English colony in North America.  On the map above the X to the right marks Roanoke Island, the site where the colony was established in 1585.  The X at the left is Salmon Creek, the possible site of a fort connected to the colony.

That fort was marked on the Virginea Pars map but hidden for centuries by what was thought to be a patch on the map.  There is an interesting story behind all this and you can read about it here and here.

Salmon Creek is at the lower left in the map below, just across the Albemarle Sound from Edenton.  I would like to visit Edenton and maybe spend the night anchored in that little creek with a hidden history.  Wouldn't that be interesting?

 

sliced

The guys at the boat shop helped me cut some angled slices out of the original mizzenmast, some keepsakes for myself and the daughters who helped build it.  King of interesting looking, don't you think?

After three days of light breezes Webb has found some wind on his way to Bermuda.  He is of course not going to Bermuda, just rounding it before heading back to Hilton Head.  You can follow his track here...

https://my.yb.tl/gannet

 

light and variable

 Light and variable winds this morning.   Cool and comfortable.  No complaints were heard on board.

and the boats have eyes too

These photographs are from a gentleman on a boat anchored in Craford Bay this morning.  I thank him for sharing the photographs.  It was a beautiful day that began with light winds and only got better from there.  

 Nice weather the next few days and I hope to make the most of it.

the buildings have eyes

From this morning's sail, a photo from a friend in a condo on the waterfront, above, and another from the Pilgrim in her 17th floor office

 

back on home waters

 Cooler than expected, and with gusty winds this morning.  Back on the Elizabeth River for the first time since early January.  How many miles on the road between now and then?  I don't know.  How many rivers, creeks, narrows and sounds between Charleston, S.C. and Nowhere, Ga.?  Don't know that either.  But it has been a great winter and now I'm looking forward to summer.

the long road home

It is raining. The wind is blowing.  The mizzen mast lies in two pieces in SPARTINA'S cockpit, the mizzen sail wrapped around the mizzen boom.  Tied up at the dock in a little marina in what one guy tells me is Nowhere, Georgia,  I walk up towards the office.   There is a covered area outside the office, a couple guys standing there and a woman at a table that seems to be collecting dues.  She looks up at me and says "Where do you need to go?  We'll take you."  

 I'm a little bit confused as to where I am, where I need to be.  The BoatUS captain had mentioned a couple towns along the coast.  At first I say Darien.  "That's easy," she says, "just 15 minutes away."  Then I realize that that is not where I need to go.  "No, that's not it.  I need to get to Jesup.  That's an hour away.  That's too far, but thank you."  I tell her I'll try Lyft or Uber, and thank her again.  And I figure if that does't work I'll ask the marina manager if he knows anybody who'll take me to Jesup for a couple hundred bucks.

I go inside the office, four or five people in there, none wearing masks.  They aren't big on masks in Nowhere, Georgia.  I pay for two nights at the slip.  The guy says "So you'll be gone Monday?"  I'm confused and have to ask him what day it is.  "Saturday."  "Yeah, I'll be gone Monday.  If not I'll pay for another day."  I get out of the office as quickly as I can.

I log into Lyft and Uber, requesting a ride.  The price is $100-plus, that's fine, but neither can find a driver.  I try again, letting the phone search while I go down to the dock, grab my duffel and electronics case, and put up the boom tent that sags sadly with no mizzen to hold up the aft section.

Back up to the shelter.  The manager tells me Lyft and Uber don't work so well there.  Cold, windy, raining.  No drivers with either app.  I see the woman and tell her I can't find a ride.  She tells me no problem, nods to her husband and says "We'll take you."

The woman is Tina, her husband is Barry.  They make room for me in the front seat of their big truck, acting as if there was nothing they would rather be doing than giving me an hour-long ride.  I pull out my wallet and says I am happy to pay for the ride.  "Absolutely not!" I am told.  So I put two $20s on the console, I'll at least pay for gas.  Barry grabs the money and tosses it back to me.

I get on my phone and find a hotel, make a reservation.  Then log on to Amtrak and find a north-bound train, the only one being the next evening.  Tina and Barry make me feel very welcome.  I tell them about my trip.  They tell me about their lives, their kids and the island they just bought.  I didn't know you could buy an island.  

It is an enjoyable trip. Time goes quickly, we talk about all kinds of things and I repeatedly thank them for the ride.  Tina says there is a reason we met, we just don't know what it is.  They only thing they ask is that I help somebody out the way they are helping me out.  I promise them I will.  

At the hotel Tina says they are staying in the parking lot until I come out and tell them I am checked in.  It takes a while, there are a couple of people in front of me.  Every one seems to be giving me a glance, I don't know why.  Maybe it is because I'm the only one wearing a mask.  I get to the desk, check in, walk outside and Tina gives me a hug.  I thank them again for their kindness.

Into the my hotel room I glance to the left and there is a big mirror.  And I realize why everyone was looking at me in the lobby.  I'm still wearing my bright orange drysuit and rubber boots.  Not a lot of people dressed like that in Jesup, Georgia.

The next morning it is a mile walk with the duffel and pelican box to the old brick train station.  I've got nearly seven hours to wait for the train, not a bad place to wait.  I look for restaurants on my map and see one two blocks away.  It is crowded.  I get in line to order some food to-go.  I'm the only one wearing a mask, so I get some looks.  At least I'm not wearing the drysuit, that is tucked in the duffel.  I eat lunch back at the train station, read my book and check the news on my phone.

The train arrives on time.  I had pony'd up the extra money for a sleeper room.  Extravagant for a train ride of just a couple of hours, but I wanted to be by myself.  Get to Charleston on time, Lyft to a hotel.  The next morning Lyft to the storage lot to get the jeep and trailer, then head south to get SPARTINA.

I can breathe again

Finished installing hardware about 8 a.m., down to the ramp in Elizabeth City by 9:00, out on the water with the new mizzen mast before 10:00.  What a relief!

New mast worked perfectly.  Just about a month from the time of the mast failure to sailing again.  My thanks to the students and teachers at the boat shop.

I received a question from "doatley" as to why I did not continue sailing with the main and jib.  "Balance" is my reply.  The boat is perfectly balanced with the three sails and also balanced under mizzen and jib.  Without the mizzen SPARTINA is a poorly balanced sloop with the center of effort for the sails much too far forward.  If I had 20 or 30 miles to go I might have given it a shot.  But not 100+ miles.  Had it been an emergency I could have made progress.  It was not an emergency, it was supposed to be fun.  And one other point, the boom tent relies on support from the mizzen mast.  It partially collapses without one.  Again, this is supposed to be fun.  A couple rainy nights without a proper tent?  Not fun.

I can't wait to get back down there next year.

 The trailer took a beating on I-95.  I replaced it with a new one.  This is the reflected of the fenders on SPARTINA'S hull.  Kind of interesting.

a little love from Down Under / worth every penny

Curt was nice enough to send me a screen shot from the Dinghy Cruising NZ Facebook page with Webb's fine photograph of SPARTINA leaving Hilton Head.  Very honored to have my Welsford Pathfinder shown there.  Thanks, guys, for posting.  As mentioned in the comments, there was no wind at dawn.  It wasn't too long before the breeze filled in as I sailed from Hilton Head to the Skidway River south of Thunderbolt.

----------------------------------------

 

I received my annual renewal notice from BoatUS yesterday.   Paid online today.  I have used the trailer assist twice and the tow service once.  The annual fee is worth every penny.  Patrick, who towed me from where the mizzen broke to a local marina, said it would have cost me, without the Unlimited Gold towing, around $1500.  (His estimate was based the five hours from when he left his dock at Jekyll Island until the time he returned, about five hours.)  With the Gold, not a dime.

about that new mizzen mast

I have received a lot of questions about the making of the new mizzen mast.  I did build a boat, but I am not a boatbuilder.  I did work with wood, but I am not a woodworker.  ( How I wish those two sentences were false modesty.  Believe me, they are not.). With that in mind I am reluctant to explain the process.  There are plenty of sites where you can get good quality information about the process for building a birds mouth mast.  Instead I will show some photographs I took along the way.  

First thing I did was dig out an old notebook to see if I had written down any specs from the first mizzen built about 15 years ago.  I was please to find the above.  

(This second mast was built at a boat shop with a lot of help from very, very experienced boatbuilders and some dedicated young students.  What amazes me today is that my Dad and two daughters built the first masts with no experience using a $90 table saw (picture a cheap circular saw mounted upside down in an aluminum stand) set up in the street to rip 16 and 20 foot pieces of wood into staves, cut the v notch and glue it all up on a hot July day.  I wish Dad was still around to remind him of what we accomplished that day.  I do remember we celebrated that afternoon with a couple bottles of Corona and a lime.)

Test cuts in cheap pine from the hardware

store to check measurements on both the

table saw and router with a 90 degree bit.

1x8x16 clear Douglas fir ripped in to

3/4 x 3/4 staves with the v notch

Dry fitting the staves.

The boat shop's cradle along with the 

dry-fitted mast and oak dowel.  The 

mast is hollow save for the bottom four

feet and the top two and one-half feet.

The dry fitted mast along with

part of the original.

Some wonderful, skilled and dedicated

students helped with the routing of the

v notch and first dry fitting of the mast.

Strakes laid on on glue day.

Tom at the boat shop saw the mast building as

a teaching opportunity for their students.  He is 

always looking for different skills for them to

develop.  Here they are spending epoxy, first clear

and then thickened, a process that needs

to be accomplished before the epoxy fires off.

Epoxied with dowel inserts at the top and the 

bottom, the strakes are pulled tight

 with hose clamps.

A day later, planing and sanding to shape.

Shaping.

Bringing the mast home

for final shaping and varnishing.

 First fitting in SPARTINA.  Too heavy

and a little to thick, so a couple more hours

sanding.  A slight curve in the mast which

is perfect for the designed rake of the mast.

Many thanks to Tom, the guys and the students at the shop.  Varnishing this weekend, hoping for a test sail Monday.

day nine - done too soon

Windy and cold overnight.  Comfortable in my medium weight thermals and sleeping bag with liner.  Overcast when I wake.  Phone app tells me its cool and only going to get colder as the day goes on.  Rain to the south.  I put put on a base layer of light thermals, knee-high merino wool socks, pants/shirt, wool sweater and the dry suit.  Sail off anchor 6:45 making 3.1 down Cattle Pen Creek under mizzen and jib.  Out on Johnson I raise the main with a single reef.

Easy sailing down the deceptively wide creek with St. Catherine's Island to the east.  Eating breakfast I lose track of the channel and the centerboard touches bottom on a shoal.  Not even 8:00 and we slip out on to Sapelo Sound.

The wind is building and I track the markers out toward the inlet to the ocean.  136 is there, so is 136A.  I can't find 138 but I can see the shoals to the west.  Round the shoals and turn downwind.  A gust and SPARTINA heels, a little water over the side.  Too much sail.  Round up and drop the main.  It is a long run up Sapelo Sound, more than five nautical miles.  Wind over starboard quarter we make anywhere from 5.2 to 6.4 depending on the swells rolling in from the ocean.  

I pick out a green marker in the distance and head for that.  Bigger waves, 7.4 sliding down the face of one.  At 8:30 pick out the entrance markers to the Front River.  The waves on the stern are getting bigger, maybe because of shallower water.  They lift SPARTINA'S stern and we pick up speed as we slide down the front.  GPS shows 8.3.  As the stern lifts the bow goes down into the water and I can see the spray flying port and starboard as the bob stay cuts through the water.  Just great sailing.

9:05 in Front Creek, calm water, great wind and easy sailing.  The water winds through the marshes, rounding a point three white pelicans rest alongside the brown marsh grass.  I glance at the app on my phone, Doboy Sound, an easy sound to cross at less than a mile wide, is not that far away.  Then Altahama Sound not too far beyond that.  Great progress.  The creek curves back and forth through the marsh and I jibe with each turn.

One more turn to make and I see nothing but marsh in front of me.  My gps shows the creek curving to the east but the marsh ahead blends together.  I finally see the opening to port, push the tiller over as a gust hits and as I reach for the jib sheet I hear the mizzen jibe and the sound of cracking wood.  I don't even need to look behind me to see what happened, I already know.  When I do look, the mizzen is being towed behind SPARTINA like a drogue.  A deep breath.  Disappointment.  

I suspect the trip is over but need to get out off the ICW to figure out what is going on.  There is a creek to starboard and I sail into that and drop the anchor.  I bring the mizzen mast on board, roll the sail around the mizzen boom and take a look at the mast.  It snapped, twisted off really, at the deck.  I take off some of the hardware, think about my options.  Searching the apps there is not much nearby in the way of towns or marinas.  I see a few houses up the creek and some shrimp boats across the marsh.  

If I can get back out on the creek maybe I can sail downwind under jib alone and reach a marina.  I try to motor out of the creek but the wind, which is coming right up the creek, pushes me port and starboard.  Without the mizzen to balance the boat I can't get through the wind.  I re-anchor.  Decide to call BoatUS.  When I reach them the woman asks for my membership number and I give it to her (wondering all the while if I paid my membership fee last spring).  She finds my account and tells me I am a gold member - a tow is covered.  

A few minutes later Patrick, the BoatUS towboat captain calls.  I describe my location and ask if he is familiar with the creek.  He says "Look up the creek, see the three docks?  The middle one is my folks' house."  Small world.  "If you want to get a shower I can call my mom."  I tell him I'm fine, I'll stay where I am.  He's an hour away but the time goes quickly as I have lunch (drawing the attention of some pelicans) and start tucking away gear.  I pack my duffel with cameras and notebooks, tuck away some valuables in the pelican box.  It begins to rain.

Patrick arrives in a large rigid hull inflatable.  He tosses me a large line that I feed through the bow-eye and up around the cleats on the foredeck.  He has me climb aboard his boat and tells me to make myself comfortable.  SPARTINA tows surprisingly well though she looks a bit sad as a sloop.  Patrick asks me where I want to go.  I have no idea.  I tell him I need to rely on his local knowledge.  I need a marina with a ramp where I can get to a town with a train station.  He phones a place called Blue N Hall marina and they say I can tie up there.  

It is maybe an hour or more tow to the marina and we have time to talk.  Patrick said he was on duty and figured it would be a quiet day.  "Wind and rain.  Who would go out on the water on a day like today?" he says with a smile. He tells me this is his winter job.  Summertime he heads up to Montauk on Long Island to captain a catamaran for tourists.  That's interesting, I tell him.  Years ago day sailing on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk there was catamaran out of Montauk anchored there and the captain of that boat hopped on SPARTINA for a sail.  I tell him I think the boat was called Mon Tiki or something like that.  "That's it!" Patrick says, "that was David, he runs those boats!"  Small world....again.

Steady rain as we arrive at the marina.  Two guys come down to grab the lines.  We get SPARTINA tied up and I follow the guys up to the office.  I pay for two nights at the marina, tell the guy I'll pay for more if I need it.  Now I just need to figure out how to get home.