NOTE: Before you read the following paragraph you MUST find
someone with a deep, coarse voice. James Earl Jones’ is deep enough, but far
too smooth; Lee Marvin, now Lee Marvin could make it work.
AARGH! Thar we wuz, anchored in the marshes near Fernandina
Beach, ready to run the line and stay ahead of the King’s Navy. We were in a
good anchorage; it was quiet and so were we. Neither of us had any desire to
hang at the end of a yardarm – which is what we suspected them Limey Tars had
in store for us. We could see one of their boats. It crawled forward slowly,
looking into each little creek and all the little rivers. As they sailed by we
could see them; they wuz just polishin’ their cutlasses and cleaning their pistols.
Aye, if they caught us, we knew it would be a hard fight, but
we also knew if we could just make it past the inlet and onto the high seas
that our superior seamanship (and 1100 horsepower contained in two Detroit
Diesel 6V92s) would give us a better than even chance of escapin’ them
scalawags. We waited until they tacked to port – then I gave the order to “raise
the mains’l, the jib, the mizzen-thingie that they raised on Master and
Commander,” and I reminded the crew “to set the topgallant studding sail ( …
really, that is the name of a sail!) Most of you have already realized that
when we did all that we had exactly zero inches of sail up because … well … Traveling Soul is a power boat, not a
sailboat.) Anyway, I then had the crew “stoke them boilers;” and that did it. That
day, Traveling Soul might have been
the fastest ship in northern Florida (or at least the fastest recreational
motor vessel in the Fernandina Inlet.) And though it was a close-run thing, we
made it into the glorious North Atlantic and away from our tormentors.
Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it was, but I was just
trying to spruce up a discussion of our foray into the Atlantic. With one or
two exceptions, it was really a boring trip. What were those exceptions you
ask? To learn about those, you will have to keep reading.
You are probably asking why we went into the Atlantic in the
first place. Well, some of you will remember the Deadly Georgia Attack flies! Since our adventure last year and Ann’s
victory over the flies in the Battle of Kilkenny Marina, we have maintained a nervous
cease fire with the flies. We thought, therefore, it would be best if we
recognized their sovereignty in the state of Georgia and skipped that part of
the ICW altogether. In addition, of all the states along the ICW, Georgia seems
to care less about the depth of its Waterway than any other. As a consequence,
running the Waterway in Georgia leaves the captain with the “ICW hunch,” where
he holds on to the wheel and leans over the instruments, keeping one eye on the
depth gauge, one eye on the GPS chartplotter and one eye on the waterway. Yes,
I realize that makes him look like a three-eyed hunchback goon, but that’s
exactly how he feels sometimes. Anyway, in addition to the flies, the hunched-back
captain pose, and Kilkenny Marina itself (dum da dum dee dum dum dum dee – to
be hummed to the tune of Dueling Banjoes from the movie Deliverance) there is the
simple math.
Because of the winding nature of the ICW, it is 314 statute
miles from Fernandina to Georgetown, SC. Because we go about 80 miles per day, it takes
us roughly 4 days to make the trip. If we go into the Atlantic, by contrast, we
can travel 178 miles from Fernandina to Charleston, then 40 miles on the ICW
from Charleston to Georgetown for a total of 218 statute miles. Moreover, since
we go 24/7 on the outside, it takes us about 18 hours on the outside and
another four on the inside– or one very long day. It also saves us about 100
gallons of fuel. The logic for us was inexorable; we went on the outside.
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| I am not sure you can read it, but this is our Lat/Long list for the night of May 17 - 18 |
Prior to leaving Fernandina, we filled up at Port
Consolidated (cheapest fuel in the area by nearly $1 per gallon) there was one
other boat also filling up – the trawler Carolina,
a 44 foot Defever. We followed her for a while heading out the inlet, until we
figured out that Carolina was going
the same direction we were. We called her on the radio and found that she used
to make the run from Fernandina to Charleston but now she only goes as far
north as Savannah. The reason she doesn’t have to go to Charleston anymore is
because the owner’s new insurance company only requires that the boat be north
of Savannah for the hurricane
season, whereas our insurance company requires we be north of Hatteras. Hmmm. The name of his
insurance company is Ace. We will definitely be checking out Ace over the next
few months. It is odd how, when and where you learn about insurance companies
in this lifestyle.
I had deliberately plotted a course that kept us less than 15
miles or so from the coast. The good thing was that most of the time we could
see the coast line. Although not entirely necessary, let’s face it, seeing the
coast does give you a sense of security – even if you are not likely to be able
to swim the fifteen miles to safety if something happened. The bad thing is
that, the closer to the shoreline you are, the more buoys, navigation markers,
private navigation aids, ships, recreational boats and other “blips” there are
on the radar screen. On the radar, a blip, is a blip, is a blip and it is very
difficult to discriminate a boat from a small ship from a navigation aid.
 |
| The sunsets can sure look beautiful when you are off in the Atlantic looking westward. I guess in this shot we were a little beyond visual distance from the shoreline. |
In fact, just as it had turned dark – about 10 PM or so –
the radar showed maybe twenty different blips on the screen. I tried to match up all the blips to the
buoys and other kinds of navigational aids on the charts we had, but it was
really too hard and I finally decided that there weren’t any boats or ships out
there, that they were all NAVAIDS. Well, I was wrong. For some reason I stuck
my head out of the hatch (doorway) and about 200 feet in front of us I thought
I could see … yes .. I think that is a green light … hmmm, I wonder … YIKES,
it’s a boat!!! I immediately turned hard to port (so I could pass behind the
ghost boat in front of me) and took Traveling Soul out of gear (to slow her
down). I then hit five beeps on the horn (the sound signal for danger). The
sports fisherman crossing in front of me didn’t even slow down and continued on
his merry way as if nothing was the matter.
As a result of that little experience we made two changes to
our routine. First, I took us a few miles further into the Atlantic. I don’t
think we went more than two or three additional miles into the ocean, but it
took us away from all but a few navigation aids. Now we wouldn’t have more than
a few blips on the screen at any one time and would no longer face the problem
of the impossible-to-read radar screen. Second, we agreed that every five or
ten minutes or so, one or both of us would look out both of the hatches to make
sure some sports fisherman wasn’t sneaking up on us.
Other than that, the seas were only about 2-3 feet and the
wind probably less than 10 knots. Every hour or so we plotted our latitude and
longitude on our paper charts, just to make sure we knew where we were and
where we were going.
About 8AM we pulled level with Charleston’s outer channel
markers and headed into Charleston Harbor. We had stopped in Charleston on
every trip through the area and had stayed for over a month at least twice.
This time we decided to keep going until we hit what looked like some really
cool anchoring spots up the ICW. We looked and looked and couldn’t find those
great anchoring spots. We found a few but in each instance decided to keep
going. Eventually we decided that we would go to Georgetown, SC. Georgetown is
a hot spot for cruisers and just off the ICW. We called and reserved a slip (it
was Saturday and pickin’s were slim). We found one at the Harbourwalk Marina. A
number of Active Captain’s reviews swore that this was a five-star marina. It
really wasn’t too bad, but I am here to tell you it didn’t deserve five stars.
(I have noticed, over time, a decided inflation in the scores reviewers give
marinas on Active Captain. They just don’t seem as useful as they once were.)
Anyway, according
to Wikipedia (most of the following is straight from Wikipedia) Georgetown is the
third oldest city in the state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County. It is located on Winyah Bay at the confluence of the Great Pee Dee, Waccamaw, and Sampit rivers. In
1526, the Spanish, under Lucas Vasquez de Ayllón, arrived here with North America’s first load of African slaves
and founded San Miguel de Gualdape, the first slave-based colony in North America. The colony
failed for multiple reasons, including a fever epidemic and a revolt of the
African slaves, who fled to join the Cofitachiqui Indians in the area.
After settling Charles Town (Charleston) in 1670, the English established trade with the Indians . Trading posts in the outlying areas quickly became settlements. By 1721 the colonial government granted the English residents' petition to found a new parish, Prince George, Winyah, on the Black River. The Indian trade declined soon after Georgetown was established, as planters cultivated indigo as the cash commodity crop with rice as a secondary crop, both dependent on slave labor. Profits were so great between 1735-1775 that in 1757 the Winyah Indigo Society, whose members paid dues in indigo, opened and maintained the first public school for white children between Charleston and Wilmington.
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| I know, I know. This plaque and the Wikipedia discussion do not necessarily agree. I guess we need to pay historians more money to figure out the truth so we cruisers can always be perfectly correct in our blogs. |
During the American Revolution, the father and son
Georgetown planters, Thomas Lynch, Sr. and Thomas Lynch, Jr.,
signed the Declaration of Independence.
During the final years of the conflict, Georgetown was the important port for
supplying General Nathanael Greene's army. Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox) led many guerrilla actions in this vicinity.
Following the American Revolution, rice
surpassed indigo as the staple crop. It was cultivated on the swampy lowlands
along the rivers, where enslaved labor built large earthworks: the dams, gates and
canals to irrigate and drain the rice fields during cultivation. Large rice
plantations were established around Georgetown on its five rivers.
By 1840, Georgetown County produced
nearly one-half of the total rice crop of the United States, and Georgetown became
the largest rice-exporting port in the world. Wealth from rice created an elite
European-American planter class; they built stately plantation manor houses, bought
elegant furniture, and extended generous hospitality to others of their class.
Their relatively leisured lifestyle for a select few, built of the labor of
thousands of slaves, lasted until 1860.
 |
| Main Street in downtown Georgetown, SC. |
Nowadays, Georgetown is a perfectly laid out little town. It
is not dissimilar from Fort Collins, CO in the 1950’s (my birthplace), from
Saugerties, NY (Ann’s hometown) in the ‘50’s or from the hometown that many of
you remember from your youth. You get the feeling that you could safely stroll
the streets at any time day or night – though why you would want to stroll
around after they rolled up the streets at 7PM, I don’t know.
Having arrived a little late on Saturday we decided to wait
‘til the next day before we went downtown to explore. Now the stores and shops
in many small towns are closed on Sunday, and that is especially so in the
American south. However, our experience is generally that the tourist spots,
like restaurants, gift shops and even museums are open on Sunday afternoon.
Apparently that general rule doesn’t apply to Georgetown. About half of the
restaurants were closed on Sunday, and only a couple of gift shops were open at
any time during the day. Well, we decided that since we kind of liked
Georgetown, since we didn’t get to see much of the cool touristy stuff and
because we were ahead of schedule that we would stay an additional day.
The next day? Of course it was raining all day long. Ann
managed to get to a few of the museums and to get a pedicure, but I stayed on
the boat. I really don’t like walking on my bum foot in the rain.
ANN’s NOTES: Michael pretty much summed up this part of the
trip. What he did not mention was that we were awake for 26 hours and 20 minutes.
We left Fernandina Beach FL on Friday
the 17th of May at 1:10 pm. Arrived in Charleston Harbor SC on the
18th of May at 8am. Then kept going on the ICW, arriving at Georgetown,
SC at 3:30 pm. That is a lot of hours to be awake, we both got a ``second wind”
and we were fine. Plus docking in Georgetown was a slow moving nightmare, they
put us in an inside slip by the fuel dock , very close quarters getting in by
some very large shrimping boats, where we had to turn into the slip. Add a lot
of wind, strong current and two dock hands that were less than skilled and two
tired people… a fun time was NOT had by all. I pretty much strong-armed the
boat into the slip and the captain was yelling at the dock hands and not me. To top it all off the marina knew a larger
boat was coming in (the boat did dock next to us – all 200 feet of her!) and we
had just arrived and were asked if we wanted to move …. Ugh … I don’t think so …
FYI … we stayed in our slip.
 |
| We saw this sign in Georgetown on Sunday. I want to change it to: Boat Rules |
When we were out in the big blue and very dark Atlantic, I
got a lot of practice doing lat/long on our paper charts. Every hour or so we
would check the course on the paper chart with what the GPS on the Garmin said
we were. Not only was it fun but it made me stay awake and I felt like I was
helping in some way. Watching the radar makes me cross-eyed and is sort of
boring, but needs to be done in order to stay safe.
OK…I know you have been waiting for the next section….the
WILD LIFE COUNT…
- · Friday May 17th 2013 1 domestic yellow finch (sad but true … the poor thing was lost about 20 miles into the Atlantic – well out of sight of shore. He flew and was in our bimini on the second deck)
- · Saturday 18th of May 2013 2 single Dolphins to greet us at Charleston inlet
2 playing dolphins in our wake
1 pod of dolphins
1 pod
of 3 dolphins
Stay tuned for our next blog….thanks for reading…
Traveling Soul…OUT
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