June and July Catchup (Herrington Harbor North)

I know some of you are probably wondering why we didn’t publish a blog entry in June – or July for that matter. Well the simple answer is that we didn’t do much of anything interesting and go much of anyplace worthwhile. The more complex answer is that both the boat and I were in our respective hospitals for maintenance and repairs. I was, once again, much more impressed with the people hospital than the boat hospital. In fact, this is the second boatyard that has lost our business forever and ever and ever. Before I discuss work on the boat, let me say just a little about my own “repair and maintenance” experience.

I have now had FOUR – count ‘em FOUR – operations on my Achilles tendon. As a reminder, the first was for severe tendonitis, the second was to repair a rupture that occurred as a result of the first, the third was to cut out an infection – and repair damage to the tendon – that occurred as a result of the second, and the fourth was to dig out the a piece of infected suture that was left over from the third. Yeah … that’s what I say. A-N-Y-W-A-Y, my foot now feels better than it has in ages. I can do “toe raises” on my right foot alone – without pain – for the first time since the process began. In short, I firmly believe that the evil pseudomonas bacteria has been banned from my body and my Achilles tendon is well-recovered.

At the same time I was in the hospital, we had the boat out of the water in the Deltaville Boatyard. We gave them a list of projects that needed to be done. While I wasn’t sure they would get to all of them, I thought they would work though the higher priority projects – boy was I mistaken. I have listed all the projects and the action (or lack of action) at the end of the blog (for those who just HAVE to know the details). For the rest of you, let me summarize.



I call this, Portrait of a Butterfly.
 (You have to think about nice things when dealing with
boatyards -- otherwise you'll go bonkers!)

We asked them to do as many of the 20 projects as they could in the time they had. In the event, they accomplished only FIVE of them with varying degrees of professionalism, but with an UNVARYING desire for our money. One of the five projects they completed was the repair of two of our air conditioners that weren’t working. I told them that if they needed to, they should replace one or both. They reported to me that neither needed replacement, just sealing some leaks in the system. Great! I thought. And while I thought $2200 was a bit much for filling some leaks, it was certainly cheaper than replacing them. As it turned out, of course, one of the air conditioners failed – barely two weeks out of the boatyard – and needed to be replaced anyway, to the tune of $3500. In essence I wasted a grand at the boatyard.



I also asked them to wash and wax the boat. They washed and waxed the hull for $2000. Last year at Herrington North, I had the ENTIRE boat washed and waxed (while in the water) for around $1300. I’m just sayin’ …

As I said we didn’t do much during the months of June and July, we did take a couple of cruises. We brought the boat from Deltaville to Herrington North, our favorite marina in the northern Bay. The cruise up was great; the weather was wonderful and the seas were perfect. We spent the night anchored in Smith Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River. We have stayed there before and it is every bit as lovely as we remembered. Although there are some buildings in view, Smith Creek is mostly surrounded by nature in all of its glory. One of the exceptions is a farm house on the south side of the creek that plays the national anthem and raises the flag every morning at 0800. We also discovered that there is a restaurant near the entrance to the creek. Now from the way it looks from the outside, it surely isn’t one of those kitschy restaurants to which the nouveau riche flock on the weekend. It is either one of those place that primarily serves locals with wonderful food, or you have to pull the flies out of your mashed potatoes. We’ll never know until we go there!



Lightning at Herrington Harbor

 While at Herrington North, we took a weekend cruise to Solomons Island, Maryland, a kind of touristy place that we like to visit. Our friend Joan Wolf was on the boat and we were going to meet Dave at Zahniser’s Marina. As we approached the Naval Air Station at Pawtuxet River we saw a number of things flying around, i.e. a couple of different kinds of helicopters, a Boeing 707, some F14’s AND a bald eagle! Yes, a bald eagle! We were cruising down the river and noticed a dead fish in the water about 100 feet ahead of us. Just then, a fairly large bald eagle swooped down to pick it up. It seemed, however, that about the same time I saw the fish he saw Traveling Soul and made a quick calculation as to whether he could get the fish and get away before colliding with us or not. He apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valor and continued his swoop away from the boat. At the closest, though, I would guess he was somewhere around 50 feet away. They are magnificent birds.

Since it was Joan’s birthday, we had dinner at the Drydock Restaurant. Unlike most Bay eating establishments where you pay exorbitant process to get good food, good service OR great views (pick two out of three), at the Drydock you get all three. Seriously, it is one of the nicest restaurants on the Bay. In addition, my wife, the magnificent cook, has expanded her repertoire – she has now made some homemade tonic, as in tonic for drinks. So, on our boat if you ask for Vodka and Tonic, you don’t get some regular old-fashioned, store-bought tonic water, you get Ann’s special, home-made tonic. No, we aren’t going to tell you how to make it, you have to come and visit to find out. (We’ll even provide the vodka!)

Door Before

We still have one more set of repairs for the boat – those that the boatyard did not do. Those will be made by our friend and (seemingly) only trustworthy repair-person we know, Rick Nissan (and his son Tyler). We are also going to bite the bullet and pay an exorbitant amount for some internal decorating. We will publish more details – and even some pictures – when they take place. However, in preparation for the changes we decided we HAD to re-varnish the doors. As most of you know, that doesn’t mean just re-varnishing, it means stripping and re-varnishing. We decided to make it a two day affair. I am going to hold the blog for a day so we can get some pictures of the new doors in.

Door Aftet

Ann’s Notes: As Michael has told you the summer months have been rather slow…as far as cruising goes. That does not mean we have not been busy. I like coming back home to catch up on my friendships and seeing my family. I have also been kept busy practicing my nursing skills, thankfully I won’t need to use them on Michael any more. It has been a long two and a half years dealing with the Achilles surgeries and the healing. I can now talk about that ordeal in the past tense … Michael is well and healed (a small pun was intended) Michael even bought a new bike and has been very loyal to it in the daily rides…except on weekends. I know I should get off my butt and do more … I have my yoga and walking. And now I have a new and unwelcomed pain in my neck. I will not go into details but I will just say that getting old is not for sissies.

We have done a few DIY projects…the port and starboard doors look really good. Picking out the color of stain was a two day talk fest…no matter how hard you try matching the color of teak on a twenty plus year old boat is not easy. We also took all the varnish off the swim platform steps and swim ladder.  After five coats of teak oil, they also look new. I have also replaced a port screen…I will not name, names…but one little girl we know sleeps on the top berth when she is on board and likes to open and close the port window.

I have been trying new recipes, one a week at least. I found myself cooking the same meals over and over again. I wanted to add some fun and spice (so to speak) in my cooking. Since we are dock side and have a car to get to the grocery store, I have had the time and the means to try something new. I have made some rather good meals, most are low cal but Michaels favorite, pecan chicken, is as far from low cal as a recipe can get – butter, heavy cream … but YUMMY!!!

Not much to report on the wild life…seeing the eagle so close was amazing. Some of the Osprey nests are empty…the teenage birds have learned to fly and are on their own and heading south. The big migration of Monarch butterflies is well under way. One thing I noticed and am happy about…NO JELLYFISH in the Bay this year. Some say the winter was too cold and that somehow prevented the jellyfish from mating??? Hey…I am an just an observer, not a biology expert.

Thanks for reading…stay tuned for more adventures. We promise to be more productive in the future!

Traveling Soul…OUT

 

Annex 1: The Repair List

As I said, we asked the Deltaville Boatyard to repair the following items. They accomplished only the first five.

·         I have already discussed the air conditioners.

·         And the Cleaning and waxing

·         Repair/replace seacocks. This is the major job that needed to be done this season and the reason the boat had to be taken out of the water. For those of you who don’t know boat engines are cooled by massive amounts of salt water circulating through them. For each engine, the water is pulled through a hole in the hull of the boat (called a thru-hull). The hole is covered with a seacock. The seacock is like a valve that can be shut off if there is a malfunction and water starts pouring into the boat through the aforementioned thru-hull.  On our boat, the seacocks were stuck in the open position, so if something catastrophic happened we would not be able to close the seacock. As you can imagine, this could be a very bad thing so we wanted to have them repaired. It was probably around a week-long job. It looks like they did a very good job on these.

·         Repair fresh water leak. I could have done this if I could get back where the leak is. The problem is that it is waaayyy back there. I needed someone who is more nimble than I. So far, so good.

·         Check all batteries and replace as necessary. One day tops. They did this on the last day we were at the boatyard.

·         Repair the Bowsprit. I had a small run-in with a piling in Vero Beach just before we left for the Bahamas. We need to have the gelcoat repaired and made to look whole. It might have taken one to one-and-a-half days. Another great job.

 

The rest of these items, they didn’t even attempt.

 

·         Repair hatch to flybridge. This hatch that leads from the salon to the flybridge has been repaired so many times (by both the previous owner and us) that it is just about unfixable. We need someone with a good imagination and some woodworking skills to figure out how to repair it this time. Moreover, we want it repaired so that we don’t have to do it again in another couple of months. One day, maybe two tops to get it put together again.

·         Draw electrical system diagram. I really don’t know how the entire DC system works. I know where the battery chargers are, for example, but I do not know which charger charges what bank of batteries. I know that the panel in the engine room implies that the alternators charge specific sets of batteries, but I don’t think they do. I just want a high-level diagram of the electrical system. One day tops.

·         Repair scratch on the starboard side of the transom. This resulted from a slight accident. It really shouldn’t take more than a half-day.

·         Repair dinghy repair. We had a hole in and repaired the dinghy in the Bahamas. Our repair was not particularly professional; the pontoon deflates over a period of ~one week and the repair is an eyesore. We need it fixed so the pontoon holds air and the repair doesn’t look quite so bad. Maybe a day.

·         Repair Middle Head. The head does not flush properly. I think it can be done in half a day, but I would give them a day if they needed it.

·         Repair/replace port#1 outlet and fuse. We have had the others repaired in about 2 hours each.

·         Check Electrical cords. I would like someone to check all our electrical cords to ensure that they are operating as designed. I am afraid that one or more might be bad. Again, three cords, one

·         Watermaker

o   Repair. I am not sure what’s wrong, but the motor seems to run roughly. Could it simply be that I need a new membrane?

o   Replace seacock handle

o   Pickle.

o   Okay, I have seen all this stuff done by a competent repairman. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours, but if it takes a day-and-a-half, I can live with it.

·         Replace forward bilge pump switch at the helm station. I am going to try and fix this before I leave. If not, the switch that turns the switch to “manual” does not work. It can probably be done in two hours.

·         Repair door to fresh water wash down on aft deck. Half-day maybe?

·         Generator

o   Repair generator “start” system. Our generator does one of three things when we try to start it. (1) Starts right up and runs beautifully. (2) Starts, runs for 3 seconds, then dies. It will start up after we continue to try starting it. (3) Nothing. It is like the switch isn’t working, but it isn’t the switch.

o   Remote oil filter for generator

·         Check trim tabs. I don’t need them very often, so am not willing to pay much to have them fixed. But if it is simple, I would like them to work. An hour?

·         Take out icemaker and make storage space in salon. Door should either look like the existing cabinet doors or should be louvered (accordion). Maybe a half-day? The difficult part will be the door, I suspect.

 

 

Savannah to Deltaville (14 May - 5 June)

You will recall that our last adventure took placed in Savannah, GA where we had to replace our house bank of batteries. So far, the replacements are working well and we have had no more battery problems. We did find, however, a hole in a cabinet door about where, oh, I don’t know, maybe the corner of a battery might have hit the door and poked a hole in it! <Deep wistful sigh> If it isn’t one thing it’s another.

When we left Savannah the morning of the 14^th of May the weather was decent. We anchored in the South Edisto River that evening. The last time we anchored at this spot our generator failed; this time, we had no real problems.

When we left the next morning the weather wasn’t that bad, but as the day progressed and we cruised further north it began to deteriorate significantly. Between the South Edisto River and Charleston it was raining off and on driving us down to the pilothouse to drive the boat. That isn’t terrible, it just isn’t very comfortable. By the time we reached Charleston Harbor, it was not only raining pretty hard, it looked like there was some fog. Now, I did not relish running through Charleston Harbor with all those BIG boats entering and leaving while using only radar, so we decided that it the fog got any worse, we would head back to one of the anchorages in and around Charleston and wait it out. In the event, we didn’t have to hunker down at all; the fog dissipated and we continued.

When we got to the spot where we had decided to anchor – Minim Creek – the weather was looking even worse, but it wasn’t until Ann stepped outside to drop the anchor that the heavens opened up. Okay, maybe the heavens didn’t open and maybe it wasn’t even the worst rain we have ever seen (although I can assure you that Ann will swear otherwise). Still, it was raining pretty hard and Ann is the outside person when we anchor. I started to walk outside and help her – but, did I mention it was raining? I didn’t think BOTH of us should get wet. One of us might have to do things that only a dry person could do and where would we be If we were both wet? I mean someone might have to do something with electricity and we surely wouldn’t want a wet person to do that! Anyway, I got away with it, but throughout the night there was even more with a mixture of thunder and lightning.

While at Minim Creek we called to make reservations for the next night at Barefoot Landing Marina. We always make reservations at a marina if we know we want to stay there the following day. Barefoot Landing is kind of cool. It is a long dock (1000 feet?) on the ICW and it is right next to an outlet mall. It used to be free. You could dock your boat and go spend all your money at the mall. While we wish we could have stayed there then, it is now $1.20 per foot, which really isn’t that bad. We hadn’t been there before and both Ann and I were looking forward to staying.

As we approached the marina, I called on the radio – just like I always do. “Barefoot Landing Marina, Barefoot Landing Marina this is the motor vessel Traveling Soul.” I didn’t get a response, so after a minute or so I tried again. Then, someone answered. “Traveling Soul, this is Barefoot Marina. If you are calling about reservations, switch to channel 12.” I “rogered” them, switched to channel 12 and told them that we first wanted to get some fuel and then go to our slip. They said okay. It took us a while to find the fuel dock, but when we did it appeared to be on the wrong side of the ICW. Hmmm. We thought that kind of odd, but we figured that maybe they didn’t have room on the outlet mall side for all the slips and the fuel dock. After refueling, we asked where our slip was. It was back fifty feet or so and they would be glad to walk us back there. Hmmm. Well, maybe this is all one marina and they have shuttles to the outlet stores. When we asked the answer was, nope; we could ether walk a couple miles across the bridge or we could take a taxi. Suddenly it occurred to us. This wasn’t the Barefoot Landing Marine, it was the Barefoot Marina. My God, we had been Shanghaied!!!! Or Marina-haied!!! These guys must be honest-to-goodness pirates.

The next morning we were able to escape our captors at Barefoot, but about ten miles down the line we were almost captured again; this time by an inoperable swing bridge. We arrived at the Little River Swing Bridge at about 9AM. We called on the radio and asked for an opening. The bridge tender said he would open it, so we waited … and waited … and waited. Finally the tender came on the air and told us (there were two or three boats waiting by this time) that the bridge was experiencing mechanical difficulties and he couldn’t get it open, but he had called for a mechanic. Well, we knew that the bridge had opened thirty minutes earlier, so we figured either that the Barefoot shanghaiers had bought off the swing bridge operator – and they really wanted us badly – or that the bridge would be fixed in a little bit. It was over two hours before the bridge finally opened.

That kind of threw a wrench into our plans. We had been on our way to an anchorage near Wrightsville Beach, NC that was about 75 miles down the ICW. Actually, the only reason we were going there was because it was the only reasonable anchorage in the area. I was a little concerned because it appeared to be an urban anchorage very popular with locals and while it wasn’t yet the peak of boating season, if the weather was good I was afraid there would be so many local boaters that we wouldn’t have a decent spot to drop the hook. And if we didn’t have any place to anchor, what would we do then? We had also planned to drop by and see Shay and Elizabeth Glass on their boat Escape when we got to Morehead City.

Anyway, since we were now 2 hours behind, we would not arrive at Wrightsville until well after 6PM so we changed our destination. We would now head to St. James Plantation Marina just outside of Southport, NC. We had been there before. It has a little convenience store, a nice restaurant and is hardly ever crowded. It is nothing special, but it is a quiet place to rest. That also meant that we would miss seeing Shay and Elizabeth. We hope we have yet another rain check from them.  

After St. James we were on our way to Mile Hammock Bay. Mile Hammock is on the Waterway just outside Camp Lejeune. I think we have stopped here each time we have traveled the ICW. After Mile Hammock, it was on to Bonner Bay. Bonner has three anchorages that are really too far off the ICW (~4 miles), but they are just about the only decent places to stop in the area. Besides, it is quiet, pleasant and scenic.  In fact, it might be considered a destination anchorage for someone looking to get away from it all for a couple of days. The only problem with Bonner Bay is the bugs. Although we didn’t notice them when we went to bed, there were thousands of them on the deck and the windows the next morning.

The little spots you see are bugs -- thousands upon
thousands upon thousands of bugs -- after anchoring in
the otherwise lovely Bonner Bay.

 After Bonner Bay it was on to the Alligator River Marina. We needed to stay at a marina because we had sprung another fresh water leak – this time in the hot water hose. It is under the decking in the main passageway (under the flooring in the main hallway for you landlubbers) way back in a position such that, while I can touch it with one hand, neither Ann nor I can get two hands up there to repair it. Since we are taking the boat to a boatyard anyway, we figured we might as well have the technicians fix it rather than strain something trying to do it ourselves. Since, during the day when we seldom use water anyway, we turn off the water pressure pump and turn it on again when we need it. This technique, combined with a little water conservation, allows us to continue our journey. However, we do stop at marinas for water a little more often than we would otherwise.

Back to the Alligator River Marina. I have described this marina before. It is basically a filling station along the highway that backs onto a deep creek leading to the river. The owner carved out the creek, added a few slips and a fuel dock and called it a marina. Actually, it is much nicer than that, now. It has good shower facilities, clean restrooms and a small restaurant so it has become a decent little marina. When the Alligator River is nasty (a frequent occurrence) the marina is full. When the weather is pleasant, there are only a few boats there. The night we stayed there were only three other boats, one headed south and the others, like us, going north.

Our next stop was the Atlantic Yacht Basin just outside Norfolk. We like stopping there for three reasons. First, it means we are in Virginia and have only one more day to go before we arrive in Deltaville. Second, they have really inexpensive fuel (well, as inexpensive as diesel gets). And finally, there is a huge shopping area about a mile away. We generally only go there to pick up one or two items, but it is nice knowing it is there.

Norfolk’s bridges are as uncoordinated as are those in North Carolina so no matter how much research you do and how much you plan, you are going to get caught in at least one node of Norfolk’s bridge network. For us this time it was only one railroad bridge. Bridge #5 is normally open, but as we were approaching it closed right in front of us. Hmmm, we wondered, what is going on here? Have the Barefoot Marina Pirates finally caught up with us? We called on the radio and got no answer from the bridge tender (yes, we know he was there because we saw him sitting in his office when we finally went under the bridge). Eventually, we put out a call for any railroad bridge tender in the area and got hold of a guy who gave us his best guess as to what was happening. Basically, we had to wait 20 or so minutes until a train passed over the bridge, then it would be opened again. It turned out not to be a problem, but this is the first time we have been stopped by a railroad bridge that is “normally” in the open position.

Our surreptitious photo of a US Navy submarine!

On our way out of Norfolk we passed some really big ships, but the most interesting vessel we passed was a submarine! It was surrounded by four or five coast guard vessels that reminded boaters to keep 500 feet away from the sub because if you didn’t they were authorized to use, “force, including deadly force.” Gulp. We decided to keep about 1000 feet away in case those coast guardians didn’t estimate distance well. But we also (shhh!) surreptitiously took a photo. Did we need to do it secretly? No, but I like saying “surreptitiously.”

Then we were into the Deltaville Marina in Deltaville, VA. After we got here and were tied up, a very strong thunderstorm came through. Right beside the marina is an anchorage and both of the anchored sailboats dragged anchor and took off. The anchor for one of them eventually grabbed hold of something on the bottom and stayed put. The other was still manned and the crew donned lifejackets and managed to get control of their vessel before it hit anything. Man it was a close call!

Red Marker Number 36: Statute Mile Zero on the ICW,
the end of our trip

Ok, for all of our faithful readers – and even for you fickle readers – I have some not-so-good-news. Remember that Achilles tendon infection that I had last year? Well, it came back. That much I have reported before. Well, it seems as if I am going to have to go back into the hospital so they can find and cut out the infection – again. Then I will have to undergo some kind of an antibiotic regimen. In short, this summer is going to look a lot like last summer where I am out of action for a month or more.  AAAARGH!!!!

UPDATE: We had intended to publish this update a week ago, but could not get our act together. Since then, I have been admitted to the hospital and had the operation. The doctor found a piece of the suture that had caused the problem before that had been hiding behind the Achilles. He has taken it out and feels that he now has it all. We’ll keep you posted, but it looks like I am alive, well and ready to go cruising again in a few weeks.

ANN’S NOTES:  I must confess I read this blog more than a week ago and have been so busy I never got a chance to add my comments. Right now my mind is elsewhere so my part will be rather short and Michael wants to get this out today.

One strange thing did happen while we were anchored in the South Edisto River in South Carolina. When I was getting ready for bed, I heard this loud humming noise. I know all the normal humming noises that the boat makes at night. (An example is the battery charger that is in the engine room next to our stateroom and the bilge pump that is in a small hatch on the floor …also in our state room.) After telling Michael about the noise we went on a hunt for the humming with flashlights.  After looking in all the easy places, I finally found the noise and the place. Believe it or not…the water current was so strong in the River while the tide was changing that it was turning our propellers. The noise was the shaft turning in the engine room. Once we knew what the humming noise was, we could both go to sleep. The boat stopped humming when we were facing the current slowed down. Every day is an adventure when you live on a boat.

Now for the Wildlife Count

Wednesday 14 May 2014

·         1 Pod of 3 dolphins fishing

·         1 Pod of 2 dolphins

Thursday 15 May 2014

·         1 single dolphin

·         1 Pod of 2 dolphins

·         FINALLY 2 very playful dolphins that likes to play in our wake!!!!

·         A flock of seagulls following us in a canal during low tide…our props were really churning up the water and I could see the small fish on the surface so the birds took advantage of this event. To the birds I am sure the formula looks something like this…Big prop during low tide=Large wake=Fish=Dinner=Very little work

Friday 16 May 2014

·         1 Turtle basking in the sun

·         Lots of fish jumping

Saturday 17 2014

·         Nothing seen…well a few birds

Sunday 18 May 2014

·         Osprey nest with babies

·         1 Pod of 2 dolphins

·         1 Pod of 2 dolphins

Monday 19 May 2014

·         1 Pod of 2 dolphins

Tuesday 20 May 2014

·         First sighting of the dreaded Jelly Fish

·         Thousands of mosquitoes…really thousands…ok….hundreds…I have pictures to prove it…

Wednesday 21 May 2014

·         Ospreys and babies

Thursday 22 May 2014

·         Mama duck with 9 ducklings

 

That is all…Thanks for following…

Traveling Soul…OUT

Traveling Outside (7 - 13 May 2014)

Leading off our description of events was our 300+ mile trip from North Palm Beach to Cumberland Island, GA. We then started the grind up the ICW, stopping at Fort Frederica National Monument and Savannah, GA where we had to stop for battery issues. Here we sit, hopefully on our way Wednesday but at the whimsy of repair people (again). I know. For some of you that is an adequate description but others want more detail. Okay, since we are waiting here for repair people – and have nothing better to do – more detail it is.


Sunrise at Sea -- an original photograph by Ann Brown

Our jump outside from Palm Beach to Cumberland Island Georgia is the longest trip we have taken in the ocean. We filled up with fuel, left our marina about 10:00 AM and sailed into the open ocean. Most of the way up the coast we stayed within sight of land – no more than 10 – 15 miles out – though occasionally we did go out a little further. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The waves were predicted to be about two feet and … drum roll, please … they were. Once in a while we might have seen a three-footer but for the most part they were exactly as forecast. The wind was a pleasant 10 knots and was behind us, creating following seas. In short, we could not have asked the mighty Atlantic Ocean for a better day to cruise.

The only downside to the trip was the need to stay up 30 hours straight. You know, when I was younger I used to do it all the time. Sometimes I would pull an all-nighter prior to taking a test; sometimes I would travel all night; and sometimes (in a previous life) I would take part in military operations all night. When I did so, I was usually ready and rarin’ to go the following day. Anymore? Not so much.  When traveling on the boat, one of us is always awake and while Ann is certainly willing to take her turn, it seems I can’t really go to sleep while we are underway. So, on my watch I am up all the time and on her watch I am most of the time. It is true that I lay down while Ann is at the helm, and I may doze a little, but sleep? Nope, not gonna happen.

Some of the wild horses at Cumberland Island

Anyway, we made it all the way to Cumberland Island, Georgia. There, we picked a place to anchor and spent the night. For those of you who don’t know, Cumberland Island is the southernmost of Georgia’s barrier islands, part of the national park system and is part of the National Seashore. What does that mean? Anyone … anyone … Yes! They have a stamp for Ann’s “Passport to your National parks.” So, of course, we had to lower the dinghy and head to shore. They also have, as might be expected at a National Seashore, a beautiful beach that is chock-full of seashells. They have big ones, small ones and some in between. For those of us who are becoming “shellers” it is truly a remarkable find. In addition, Cumberland Island has wild horses! I don’t know exactly how many there are, but they seem to be all over the island – or at least their dung is. Also, the Revolutionary War General Nathaniel Greene – who was, according to some, second only to George Washington in military ability among American Revolutionary War generals– used to own most of Cumberland Island.

And finally, in one little known footnote to history,



Lighthorse Harry Lee's original gravesite on
Cumberland Island

"In 1818, an ill Gen. "Lighthorse" Harry Lee, a Revolutionary War hero and old friend of Catherine Greene (Nathaniel’s widow)  was returning from the West Indies when he asked to be taken to Cumberland Island. Catherine Greene had a mansion there named Dungeness. After a month of illness, he died on March 25 and was buried on the island. His son, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, had a tombstone placed over the grave and visited his father's final resting place several times. In 1913, at the request of the Virginia General Assembly, the body of Harry Lee was reinterred at Lexington, Virginia, to lie beside his famous son, but his gravestone was left on Cumberland Island."

 

After Cumberland we headed up to Brunswick, Georgia, where they have what is notionally the lowest priced fuel on the ICW. After filling up, we headed up to Fort Frederica. We visited the fort last year (and Ann already had her stamp), so this year we just planned on anchoring for a night and moving on. It was at Frederica, though, that we discovered that one or both of our huge house batteries (about 200# each) were going bad quickly.

Our house batteries are lead acid (which means you should check the fluid level periodically) and are located in our cramped generator room (which means you CANNOT check the fluid levels). The bottom line is that the batteries went bad and would not hold a charge. So, we needed to stop at a marina just outside Savannah to have the batteries replaced. To have the batteries replaced with the kind I wanted would have taken several days, so we decided to get some “cheapies” to get us through to Deltaville. Lord, I hope they last.

We arrived in Savannah on Saturday and, since no one worked on Sunday, we decided to take a taxi downtown and take a trolley tour of the city. Savannah is the oldest city in the state of Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. A strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the American Civil War, Savannah is today an industrial center and an important Atlantic seaport. It has become a tourist center because it has maintained a historic area consisting of 22 squares, those that we saw were well maintained and very attractive. There are all sorts of colonial era houses, the headquarters for the Paula Dean Empire (while Paula Dean may have lost some corporate sponsors, she did not lose any support from her fellow Savannah-ians), and the setting for the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (I haven’t read the book, but MAN, what a cool title).

In addition, we linked up with Bill and Jeanie from the sailboat Nemo. We met them during our first trip to the Abacos while we were both staying at the Jib Room in Marsh Harbor. Ann and Jeanie have stayed in touch primarily via Facebook and the blogs that both of us keep. Jeanie and I have been fellow sufferers as she broke her ankle in several places at about the same time that I was trying to recover from my Achilles problem. We ate dinner at a place called Tubbies that wasn’t too bad. But mostly we enjoyed the company.

Speaking of my foot … yes, you guessed it. While the doctors thought they took care of the infection last year, some of the darn commie germs apparently managed to hide from both the knife and the antibiotics. They have attacked again and I have an open wound on my Achilles. So, this summer is not going to be as pleasant as we had hoped, but I’ll get through it, I suppose.

ANN’S NOTES: I am BAAAAACK…sorry I missed the last posting of the blog but I was swamped with my ‘to do’ list before traveling all night. I had to make a dinner that could be reheated quickly plus get all the charts in order. Also cleaning and laundry had to be done. I know it is semi-crazy to clean before a long trip but I feel so much better knowing that everything is clean and in place. By the way…we had meat loaf and mac and cheese…good meal to eat while in the Atlantic. I am sure that Columbus had this meal all the time.

The cruise over night was really good, I do stay up with Michael but usually I am in the salon reading or doing lat/long reading so we can keep track of where we are on the paper chart. Michael said he would work on trying to go to sleep but I doubt very much he will be able to pull that off. The counter to staying up all day and night is to plan on staying put for 24 hours to rest and re-set our body clock.

I have been busy doing all sorts of phone calls for Michael and his heel. In North Palm beach we had to get approval from our insurance for his MRI. The Northern region and the Southern region did not seem to understand that we live on a boat and that they had to talk to each other to get approval. Add the MRI office, the front desk, the manager and the head of billing and insurance and all that adds up to many, many, phone  calls. Geez… I am glad I have the patience of Job.

We now need to make arrangements with the doctor at Walter Reed and his scheduler. So far so good..no date set but approval for surgery is done.  All we have to do is get up to VA/MD. This little side trip to Savannah was not on the agenda …but it is what it is. I have always said that when you live on a boat…one never has plans…one has intentions.

I had a very nice Mother’s Day…we took the trolley tour and then met Bill and Jeanie for dinner. The conversation was excellent and just seeing them was a treat. I hope to see them again later this summer. I have been enjoying all the history there is in part of the South. It makes it fun to see how so many events are all connected to different people and the area they explored and lived in. Gotta  love Goggle and Wikipedia.

I am also back in the land of dolphins and other ICW wildlife…so here goes…

Tuesday 6 May

·         4 very large sea turtles in the Atlantic
·         6 single dolphins
·         Flying fish all over the place

Wednesday 7 May
·         Large pod of dolphins 10 or more chasing fish in the shallows
·         7 single dolphins
·         Cannon ball jellyfish all over the place

Thursday 8 May

·         Wild horses
·         Flock of 8 vultures, eating a dead fish…FYI…on land they hop sideways to get around???
·         Sea shore birds
·         Lizards
Lots of dead Cannon ball jellyfish washed up on the beach…just did not make that out going tide…darn…I bet they hate that when it happens…good thing they don’t have a brain

Friday 9 May

·         6 dolphins
·         1 pod of 3 dolphins
·         1 pod of 5 dolphins
·         1 Turtle

Sat 10 May

·         Cows…YES…cows grazing on an island…they actually have an island named Cattle Pen island…that was not the one we saw…just thought you would like to know that tid-bit.
·         Marsh birds
·         5 single dolphins
·         4 pods of 2
·         1 pod of 4
·         1 pod of 5
·         1 pod of 6
·         A very large Osprey nest on Red marker #60 with babies in the nest
·         AND … Those nasty damn biting swamp flies…I thank Dave and Joan for the battery operated fly swatter. I am getting very skilled…I can now get two or three zapped at a time. I really dislike those flies.

That about wraps it up for me…we will keep you posted on future events …mostly Michael surgery and boat upgrades and repairs.

Thanks for following us…

Traveling Soul…OUT

Bahamas to North Palm (21 Mar - 6 May)

On 21 March we decided it was time. The weather for crossing the Gulf Stream looked like it was going to be pretty good for at least a week and the weather from Nassau to Bimini – for us that’s about two days – looked good as well. Besides, we had been in the Bahamas for nearly five months. It was time in more ways than one. So, at 9AM on the 21^st we put 300 gallons of fuel in Traveling Soul and took off.

Different people make the jump from Nassau to Florida in different ways. Some leave from Nassau and don’t stop until they arrive at a destination in Florida; that can take them at least two and possibly more than three days. Others go from Nassau to Bimini in one day, then spend a second day crossing through the Gulf Stream to Florida. We are kind of lazy. We like going forty miles from Nassau to Chub Cay in one day, taking a second day to travel the hundred or so miles from Chub to Bimini, then cross the Straits to Florida on day three.

I was initially going to write about these three days separately, but so little happened – the seas were calm and the skies delightful – that I just don’t have that much to say. Suffice to say that while the days were a little long, the cruising was wonderful. The only interesting little tidbit was the push the Gulf Stream gave us. We left Bimini early because we thought it might take us 10+ hours to make it to West Palm Beach. We were wrong. The Gulf Stream gave us a push of two to three knots – we were at times moving at well over 12 knots -- putting us at the Lake Worth Inlet (just outside Palm Beach) at 2:30 PM on March 23^rd. Finally, we were home.

We had arranged to berth in the Old Port Cove Marina. We arrived, checked in with US Customs, then checked on the arrangements we had made for the immediate repair work we needed to have done. The list wasn’t extensive, but it was important. I’ll offer just a few words on each.

·         Radar and electrical connections. Some of you may remember that while crossing over to the Bahamas last December our radar went out. Radar isn’t that important for us unless we are planning to travel in reduced visibility or outside in the ocean. Since we didn’t do either one in the Bahamas, we decided to wait until we got back to the State to have it fixed. Now that we are back, however, we are going to need it.  I was hoping that our problem was a simple loose wire or corroded connection, but alas, that would have been too good to be true. Apparently Garmin (the manufacturer of our radar) allows local technicians to check for bad connections, but any work on the radar itself has to be performed at the factory. They charge a flat $500 for fixing a radar, regardless of whether it is a little problem of a big one. Since we are in a bit of a hurry, to that we would have had to add about $150 express shipments both ways for a total of $800 – and even then it might not be back in time for us. The alternative was to spend $1100 and buy a new radar – which is what we did.

We also had some electrical problems. When Tim and family were here and we were at a marina, one of the outlets through which we connect the boat to shore power started smoking – literally. Now, we have several other connectors so we could live with it, but it was something we wanted to get fixed when we got back to Florida. To make a long story short, that problem is now fixed.

Overall, the Florida marine electronics industry made a little over two boat units on us, baby. That’s two big ones, two grand, 2000 smackers. I guess you get the picture.

·         The second problem we had was the washing machine. It went out a week or two before we started back. Most marinas have Laundromats to it wasn’t THAT big of a deal, but it was certainly inconvenient.  Luckily for us, our washing machine is an apartment-sized Whirlpool, so the repairman could fix it pretty easily. This only cost us about a quarter of a BU.

 

·         Third, we had to get the air conditioners fixed. Although there were a couple of nights in the Bahamas when it would have been nice to have had an air conditioner, we really didn’t need them. That was a good thing because shortly after we arrived in the Abacos last December we learned that three of our four systems were on the fritz. We had some of local experts over and they suggested that we just “gas and go,” meaning they add some Freon (actually R22, a very pricey substitute) and take off. Six hundred dollars later and we did – take off that is.

 

·         And finally, the heads. The master head, the one that Zimmerman’s Boatyard in Deltaville put in, has never worked correctly.  Marine Plumbing Services in the Palm Beach area (out favorite head repair people) believe they have fixed it for us. I sure hope so. Also, the Lectrascan we had put in a year ago is acting up; not so much that we expect Raritan to honor their warranty obligations, but enough so that we got out the paperwork to check on the time period (we still have a year to go).  We haven’t yet received the invoice on the heads.

 

·         The worst thing that happened, however, was that my Achilles tendon is acting up again. Actually, it is not the tendon itself, it seems to be the original surgical site. It has opened up again and appears to be infected. I had an MRI taken last Saturday and have sent the results to my surgeon at Walter Reed. We’ll just have to wait and see what he says. If it is important, I’ll let everyone know. Total cost – ZERO Boat Units. J

In addition, of course, we changed the oil today. We are getting better, it used to be a day-long chore for us. Now it only takes half-a-day. The rest of the time is spent scrubbing ourselves in the shower trying to wash off some of the oil.

Well, the Good Lord willin’ and the Creeks don’t rise (BTW - thanks, Allie, I think of you every time I use that expression!) tomorrow we are heading to sea. We are planning on spending about 30 hours on the high seas heading north. That will let us cover about 300 of the 1100 +/- miles we have to go to get to Deltaville where we plan on leaving the boat and making a trip out west. It will also allow us to miss some of those darn Florida bridges … that slow us down even more than the slow-as-puddin’ sailboats. (Sorry Sailboat Friends, I just had to say it!)

ANN’s NOTES: Sorry, Ann's busy getting ready for the trip tomorrow.

 

Traveling Soul .... Out!