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.