Dorian Update

Every year at the Lovely Laura Lee's family farm, where her mother and brother and his family live, there is a huge pig roast on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. LL and I were to go there today, and she is on her way now. I stayed behind until early tomorrow to get the boat and house in as good a shape as I can to prepare for Hurricane Dorian, now a Category 4 Hurricane bearing down on the northern Bahamas.

The storm's path is gradually becoming more clear. See https://www.nbcnews.com/video/watch-live-tracking-hurricane-dorian-67486277822. It is now expected to make landfall, or nearly so, Tuesday in south Florida, and turn northward running up the state of Florida very slowly. What is unclear is whether it will be over land or water as it moves north. Over land, the storm would be weakened while over the ocean it could continue to maintain its strength. Officially it is expected to be near Jacksonville, Florida, Wednesday afternoon with 105 mph winds. Jacksonville is roughly 120 miles south of our location near Savannah, Georgia.

It is impossible to overstate the seriousness of this situation. Should a category 4 or 5 hurricane travel up the east coast of Florida just offshore, the devastation could be unimaginable. Should the storm travel north over land, it will be weakened somewhat, but storm surge and wind damage would still be catastrophic.

We are not taking this lightly. We are hopeful the our house and boat will be safe, but we fully expect that we might not be able to get back home for maybe a week. I've battened down the hatches as well as I can. We will just be following the storm to see what happens here and when we can return.

Good luck to everyone in the path of this mess. Worry about your personal safety first and property second.

Saturday 5 AM Update -- The NHS discussion released early this morning shows a remarkable change stating: "The global models the NHC normally uses, along with the regional HWRF and HMON models, have made another shift to the east to the point where none of them forecast Dorian to make landfall in Florida."

Let's hope this eastward trend continues.

Dorian

I had little idea when I wrote in my last post about hurricanes that my decision-making would be tested so soon. And yet here we are, as always, closely following every bit of news we can get on Hurricane Dorian. The National Hurricane Center advisories come out every six hours, at 5 and 11 AM and PM, EDT. This particular hurricane has been a surprise that no one was concerned about five days ago, and it has been very difficult for forecasters to narrow down its future path. The 11 PM advisory has just been released, and here is where we are according to the NHC:

At 1100 PM AST (0300 UTC), the center of Hurricane Dorian was
located near latitude 23.3 North, longitude 68.4 West. Dorian is
moving toward the northwest near 12 mph (19 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue through Friday.  A west-northwestward to westward motion is forecast to begin by Friday night and continue into the weekend.  On this track, Dorian should move over the Atlantic well east of the southeastern and central Bahamas tonight and on Friday, approach the northwestern Bahamas Saturday, and move near or over portions of the northwest Bahamas on Sunday.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 105 mph (165 km/h) with higher gusts.  Dorian is expected to become a major hurricane
on Friday and remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through the weekend.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105
miles (165 km).

The latest minimum central pressure estimated from Hurricane Hunter data is 977 mb (28.85 inches).

What is making this hurricane so difficult to forecast is that its course will be affected by its speed. The storm is expected to turn westerly because of a high pressure ridge north of it that will keep it from going north. However, the ridge is expected to fall apart and stop influencing the storm by Tuesday, allowing it to turn north. If the storm moves quickly, it would likely cross south Florida into the Gulf of Mexico before turning north. However, if the storm moves more slowly, the high ridge could dissipate, allowing it to turn north while over land in Florida or even before reaching the coast of Florida. 

All of this makes planning extremely difficult, and people along the coast all the way from Louisiana to North Carolina could be in the line of fire. The NHC does, however, need to draw a cone. The latest one shows that The Ford Plantation is in an area with less than a 20% chance of having tropical storm force winds.

The more detailed cone showing estimated times has tropical storm force winds reaching our area, if at all, some time around 8 PM Monday. This time has changed from the 11 AM forecast, which had us at an 8 AM arrival time Monday:

As you can see, while we are not on the forecast track, we are just barely outside the cone. Statistics show that in 2/3 of cases, hurricanes make landfall somewhere within the cone. So we are not at all out of the woods yet. However, it's even possible for the storm to really slow down over the weekend and then make a sharp turn north, missing land altogether. Let's hope that's the case. This will come ashore as a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, that can be totally devastating.

A final note on surge. We learned here painfully two years ago that even a tropical storm that travelled up near us from the Gulf coast can cause serious tidal surge when strong offshore winds coincide with high tides. Here, the river rose over its banks, flooding parts of our Club property. Unfortunately, with no surge at all, we are having very high tides right now on the Ogeechee River. Our normal tidal range is from a low of around sea level (0) to a high of six to seven feet. Based on Ft. Mcallister tides that occur about two hours before ours, the Monday tides here are:

1:28 AM High 8.6'

8:23 AM Low -0.8'

2:03 PM High 8.2'

8:52 PM Low -0.5'

So we enter Labor Day weekend on edge. Here's hoping this storm takes a more favorable turn, and that our winds and tides don't conspire against us as they did in 2017.

Home Again

I am home at The Ford Plantation, after a three-day trip alone from John's Island near Charleston to Beaufort Thursday, then to Thunderbolt Friday, and to Ford yesterday.

People I meet, and friends, often ask me where I "keep" the boat. We don't really keep the boat in any single place. So far, I have mostly kept her in boatyards (a total of 134 days this year). But the real answer is that we expect Division Belle to be in Florida and the Bahamas in winter and in New England in summer. This year, as we have continued to get things fixed on the boat, we missed the chance to go north. We fully expect to be heading south after the hurricane season into Florida and on to the Bahamas in January. Other than a few short trips she will likely be here at Ford until late in the hurricane season, which officially ends November 30.

I had two uneventful days of travel alone Friday and yesterday. There were threatening thunderstorms yesterday that caused me to simply stop and wait for about 45 minutes at the mouth of the Little Ogeechee River. The storms eventually moved on or dissipated, allowing me to continue. Friday night my bride drove down to Thunderbolt to join me for dinner. I continue to be amazed that it took her roughly 30 minutes to drive home after dinner but it took me a full five hours yesterday to get the boat home. Here's a view of the path from Thunderbolt to Ford:

Hurricane preparedness has been an obsession with me of late. I seriously considered keeping the boat at Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, Georgia, advertised as a "hurricane hole",  for the next few months, but I came down in favor of Ford being the safer alternative. My biggest fear is a storm surge that lifts the floating docks above the pilings that hold them. At Ford, the docks are about seven feet below the top of the pilings at high tide, while at Brunswick the distance is about eight feet. Importantly though, Ford is about 15 nautical miles from the ocean as the crow flies, while Brunswick is more like six miles. More important is the height of the pilings above the surrounding land, because once water rises and begins to spread over the surrounding land, it rises much more slowly as it spreads over land. The pilings at Ford are as far above the surrounding ground as those in Brunswick. So here we shall sit and keep our fingers crossed. Obviously in a direct hit from a category five storm, all bets are off for both our home and our boat. But there aren't many options for dealing with that kind of catastrophe.

It's good to be home. Let's hope it stays safe here this season.

Finally ...

I am at Lady's Island Marina, across the river from Beaufort SC. I am finally back on the boat, after it has been in a boatyard since the end of June. I arrived in Beaufort at about 6 pm today.

Today was the first time I have operated Division Belle totally alone. Although I miss my bride, my Bosun Paul Hamilton, and our chef (and valves and fittings guy) Jim Trolinger, I do really enjoy running a boat alone at times, in far more measured doses than when I was young and crazy.  

I once moved my 55-foot Fleming from Key West back to Orange Beach, Alabama totally alone. It was a 500 nautical mile trip due north across the Gulf of Mexico at 10 knots (to have enough fuel). So 50 hours alone at sea, non-stop. My navigation system at the time, a LORAN receiver, had something called a "watch alarm". I would set it to go off every 30 minutes so that I felt free to doze off if there was no traffic around. I am wiser now, or at least older, and I value my sleep much more. This trip is all in the Intracoastal Waterway and should be a day from John's Island near Charleston to Beaufort (completed today), a day to Thunderbolt (Savannah), and a day or two back up the Ogeechee River to The Ford Plantation, depending on the timing of the tides. 

I have made every effort here to avoid writing about maintenance and repairs. This has been a saga of dealing with two particular problems that I have now had fixed for the third time. If anyone really wants the gory details, drop me a note and I'll fill you in. I'm just hoping everything is finally right with my stabilizers and sanitation pump-out system. I have been very pleased with the good work at Ross Marine on John's Island. They seem to have a staff that is experienced and well-trained. It is a third-generation family-owned business, and good people to work with. I'll be back for any work that requires hauling the boat out of the water in the future.

Cruising alone is not at all frightening to me. Rather, it provides the kind of stimulation that keeps me on my toes. With one or two helpers on board, any issue is easier, but there is a challenge to going it alone. And besides, I can operate on any schedule I like and throw together any kind of meal I want at any time. It's not a bad way to spend a few days.

However, today reinforced my belief that it is generally best to have some helpers along. Late this afternoon, in St. Helena Sound, I was confronted with massive thunderstorms to my west, right in my path. There was a bunch of lightening ahead along with strong winds, and I could see on my own radar that my path was blocked for awhile.

As it turns out, I could have simply idled where I was for awhile. The storm passed without hitting me directly. However, being prudent, I thought it best to get near shore and drop the anchor until the storm passed. The problem came when I tried to retrieve the anchor with the windlass and it would come up to a certain point and stop. I thought the chain might be bunched up in the locker, but upon inspection that was not the issue. I also found that some previous owner had put various wire ties on the chain, I suppose marking lengths. I thought maybe these plastic wire ties were somehow jamming things up, so I got some cutters and removed them in the area where the chain was stopping. No luck.

I finally discovered that the anchor chain had come off one of its rollers, so it was jamming between the roller and the bow pulpit. This is not something easily dealt with. The anchor itself weighs nearly 200 pounds, and it was dug into the bottom and attached to the boat with very heavy chain. There is no way to simply lift it by hand. So the solution was to maneuver the boat to where there was some slack, allowing me to get the chain back onto its roller. At one point I put the boat in gear, ran out to the bow, and the boat moved too far forward, so the anchor chain pulled out maybe another 100 feet before I could get back to the pilothouse and put the boat in neutral. All in all, it would have been great to have the lovely Laura Lee, Bosun Paul, or JT to handle the boat or windlass while I did the other.

By the time this episode was over, I had lost more than an hour and the storm had moved on. I suppose it was better to go through this nonsense than to be struck by lightening. So here I am. I've had a shower and a good dinner at the restaurant here. I'm going to bed soon. I continue to think I like moving the boat alone, but truly, I need all the help I can get.

I'll try to get to Thunderbolt or Isle of Hope tomorrow and back to The Ford Plantation Saturday or Sunday depending on the tides. It's good to be using the boat again, and I'll soon get this nonsense of going it alone out of my system.

What is a "trawler"?

Whenever I am asked what kind of boat I have, I describe it as a "trawler". For boat people, this is all that needs to be said. But for everyone else, the term is simply confusing. The best history of this kind of boat can be found at https://oceantrawleryachts.com/history-trawler-yachts/. 

I quote here from the link above liberally at length:

Selene, Nordhavn, Kadey-Krogen; from a historical perspective these and other leading brands of trawler yachts are relative newcomers. The term “trawler” is now universally understood to refer to a power vessel, generally designed for economical, long range, coastal or trans-oceanic cruising. A contemporary pleasure boater contemplating a serious sea voyage will begin with a fundamental choice that wasn’t a serious consideration a mere 50 or 60 years ago- power, or sail?

It isn’t entirely by accident that most trawlers share some design element with workboats. The earliest references to trawlers described a method of commercial fishing rather than a specific boat concept. In the same way that we refer to a variety of boats as “gill netters”, or “purse seiners”, trawlers were, and in some applications remain, vessels used to drag nets across the seafloor in search of flounder, halibut, and other bottom-dwelling species.

As recently as the late 19th Century, most commercial trawlers were sailing vessels. A French shipwright, Benjamin Beneteau, founded a shipyard in 1884 and produced fishing boats. Beneteau built fine sailing vessels, and the company he founded is still engaged in the same enterprise. Beneteau shattered the sailing trawler paradigm when he built a petroleum powered trawler driven by propeller rather than sail. The power trawler immediately began generating more profits than competing sailboats. While the sail fleet was waiting on the wind, Beneteau’s power boat was en route to the fishing grounds. In addition, the power trawler would be first back to port- first to market when the daily prices were highest and with the freshest fish.

Rather than emulate Beneteau’s success and begin building power trawlers, competing shipyards launched a propaganda campaign. Rumors began spreading through European fishing villages. “That oil boat is going to destroy us! It’s scaring away all the fish!”

Rudolf Diesel

As the 19th Century transitioned to the 20th and Benjamin Beneteau was combatting the smear tactics of competing shipyards, mechanical engineer Rudolf Diesel was perfecting his modification of the internal combustion engine. Diesel was aware that over 90% of the fuel used in steam engines was wasted, never converted to mechanical propulsion. Diesel correctly theorized that there would be an incredible demand for an extremely efficient, reliable, internal combustion engine capable of running on commonly available fuels. Rudolph Diesel dreamed that farmers might be able to grow and process their own fuels, and his first engines were fired with peanut oil. When Rudolph Diesel disappeared from a passenger liner in the early 1900’s, conspiracy theorists suggested he came to foul play at the hands of thugs hired by petroleum barons. When we refer to “diesel fuel” today, we normally refer to fuel refined from petroleum.

In the early decades of the 20th Century, the diesel engine became popular in commercial fishing boats. Within a half century, nearly all commercial fishing in North America and Europe relied on power vessels, rather than sail. During those same years, steam engines were supplanted by diesel. Ocean going vessels incorporated smaller, more efficient engines. While the range of a sailing boat remained unlimited, (given favorable winds), smaller and medium size power boats could suddenly carry enough fuel to travel thousands of nautical miles.

Pleasure boaters interested in long range cruising were slower to adopt a charitable attitude toward power boats. In the early 20th Century, only the most financially elite Americans could ever consider owning a large pleasure boat. “Yachtsmen” cruised long distances on elegant sloops, yawls, and schooners- supported by large, typically uniformed crews. Organizations such as the New York Yacht Club, hidebound to tradition, discouraged power boating, and commonly banned power vessels from their fleets. (Although rapidly diminishing among true, bluewater voyagers it is still possible to encounter remnants of anti-power attitudes among a small percentage of sailors).

Trawlers Transition from Sail to PowerThe pleasure boat paradigm began shifting in the middle of the 20th Century. Simultaneous developments in the United States and Great Britain ushered in the era of long range voyaging under power. In southern California, naval architect Arthur DeFever, who designed most of the tuna and sardine fish boats built in the 1950’s, was a member of the Offshore Cruising Club. Virtually every member of the club was a sailor, but a small group of members approached DeFever to discuss designing and building cruising powerboats with the same long range capability, fuel efficiency, and seaworthy design of DeFever’s renowned fish boats. It is possible to frame a valid argument that the custom boats created for members of the Offshore Cruising Club of San Diego were among the first cruising pleasure boats designated “trawler yachts”.

About the same time that Arthur DeFever was applying work boat principles to a new concept of long range offshore cruisers, Great Britain began reducing its fishing fleet in the North Sea. The government extinguished the rights of hundreds of commercial fishers, purchasing the surplus boats in the process. By the mid 1950’s, the mothballed fish boats could be purchased very cheaply- but could no longer be used for fishing in British waters. An initial few trawler yachts were converted to pleasure boats, and proved so successful that within a few years nearly all available surplus North Sea trawlers were converted to long range, offshore, pleasure cruisers.

Throughout the 1950’s, virtually all pleasure trawlers were one-off custom designs or commercial conversions. In the early 1960’s, growing demand for economical, seaworthy, pleasure boats capable of cruising long distances under power inspired some shipyards to begin producing boats built to a standard plan. Certainly among the earliest in this endeavor was American Marine, producing Grand Banks.

Trawlers have continued to evolve. During the 1970’s nearly all production builders switched from wood to fiberglass- although steel, aluminum, and other materials are represented as well. In 1975, Robert Beebe published a book summarizing about 30 years of his own long range cruising experience, “Voyaging Under Power”. For most offshore cruisers, the principles incorporated in “Voyaging Under Power” define the essential characteristics of a serious, seagoing, vessel.


The term “trawler” now refers almost exclusively to power boats. The category didn’t emerge from a vacuum and owes a great deal to the tradition of offshore voyaging under sail. Trawler designs very definitely evolved from time tested, workboat concepts.

Leaving Charleston

The city of Charleston, in the green feathery modesty of its palms, in the certitude of its style, in the economy and stringency of its lines, and the serenity of its mansions South of Broad Street, is a feast for the human eye.

                                           Pat Conroy, The Lords of Discipline.

If I were able to compose a sentence like the one above, I would. My writing is far more pedestrian. I was trained in journalism and was told by the advisor to our college student newspaper to "put the hay down where the mules can reach it". Somehow my simple style  survived the corrupting influence of law school and has served me well. But I am no Pat Conroy.

So here are some thoughts about Charleston. We have spent just over three weeks here. The boat has been at the Charleston Maritime Center, which has proved to be the best possible location for walking the city. All of the other Charleston marinas are not within easy walking distance of the main parts of town. We are a mere block from the grocery and an easy walk to shopping and dining. We are on a busy part of the harbor, just north of where the Carnival Sunshine comes and goes on Bahamas cruises every four days, and just south of the main cargo port facilities. Sightseeing boats come and go from the Maritime Center, and we are at a main stop for the water taxi. Our only minor complaint is the occasional rough water. But we do get rocked to sleep at night.

Our dogs have done well staying on the boat, and tending to their needs has led us to dog-friendly beaches and parks that we would have never discovered without them. They are time-consuming and sometimes sleep-disrupting, but we would not have wanted to be without them for this length of time.

Charleston has been not only a feast for the eyes, but also simply a feast. The spectacular food available here is nothing short of magical for a city this size. We have eaten our way through the city, and if anyone wants a list of recommended restaurants, I will be glad to furnish it.

More important than the sights, shopping, food, and drink have been memorable good times with friends old and new. From The Ford Plantation, Dwight and Jennifer Davies joined us overnight on the boat our second night here to celebrate my birthday at "Chez Nous". They got a quick taste of living on a boat, and we hope they will join us again soon for a longer visit. We got in a lunch and visit with Thomas George, son of Rebecca George Ogden from Ford. We toured the old building he is renovating into a bar and wine club. From Birmingham, our old and dear friends Bob and Ashley Spotswood were in town for four days, and joined us for sightseeing and dining experiences at several of the best restaurants here. Finally, also from Ford, our good friends Austin and Marti Sullivan were in town for just one evening a week ago. We met up with them where they were staying in a friend's charming old home on Meeting Street, proceeded to the private rooftop garden of another friend of theirs for cocktails, where we were joined by another couple, and then our party of eight had an amazing Italian dinner at "Coda del Pesce" on Isle of Palms.

While here, we met up one day for lunch with Brantlee De Brux, my daughter's best friend from college, who is a successful real estate agent in Mt. Pleasant. Her dear parents Sumter and Clydie invited us to join them, their extended family, and several friends and neighbors for a fish fry on Sullivan's Island last night. It was truly a fabulous evening full of charming and interesting people. We haven't laughed as much in a while. A great evening amongst a family full of love.

So now the trip is coming to an end. The lovely Laura Lee leaves tomorrow with our dogs and car. I move the boat Wednesday to a boatyard to have it hauled out for bottom paint, stabilizer service, and a few other needed maintenance items. It should be completed by the end of July.

Charleston is a "feast for the human eye", a mere two-hour drive from home. We shall be back.

A Time for Remembrance

Mother Emanuel AME Church

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church sits just two blocks from where we are staying in Charleston. It was founded in 1816, while Charleston was still a center of the slave trade, and is the oldest AME church in the south, often referred to as "Mother Emanuel". In 1822, one of the church's founders was suspected of planning a slave rebellion. He and 34 others were publicly hanged, and the church itself was burned to the ground. The rebuilt church and the churches of all other black congregations were closed by the city in 1834, and members met in secret until after the end of the Civil War. 

Four years ago yesterday, on the anniversary of the 1822 hanging, Mother Emanuel was the site of another unspeakable crime when a white supremacist named Dylan Roof opened fire during a prayer service, murdering nine innocent people and wounding four others. His actions were motivated by nothing but hatred, and he was convicted of 33 federal charges including murder and hate crimes. In January of 2017 he was sentenced to death.

Tomorrow evening, we will attend a candlelight vigil in the Gaillard Center Memorial Gardens across the street from the church, in remembrance of the lives and legacies of the Emanuel 9 and the four survivors of the shooting. It is sponsored by the Church, the City of Charleston, and other collaborative partners. 

Unfortunately, we live in an era when there are far too many senseless acts of violence. Some are simply insane and aimed at random strangers while others, like this one, are directed at particular groups or individuals. Being close to the site of such tragedy drives it home to us, and we join in the sorrow and grieving of this community.  Amidst such pain, it is right and appropriate to honor those whose lives were lost, and we feel privileged to be able to participate.

Charleston

For two weeks now we have been docked at the Charleston Maritime Center. This is a fabulous location for exploring the city. Both shopping and restaurants are just a short walk away. The only issue is that the marina is sometimes very rough and rolly caused by wind, current, and occasionally by gigantic wakes from ships and inconsiderate boaters. But despite the motion, we have been enjoying things immensely.

At last report I said that the dogs were doing well. They are quite adaptable, with the puppy Belle immediately taking to the artificial turf bathroom put out on the bow for them. We have taken them for lots of walks, and one morning to run free on the beach at Sullivan's Island across the river from us. 

There have been a couple of minor dog issues. Rhett fell into the water once while trying to get from the boat to the dock. Luckily, we were both here. The Lovely Laura Lee jumped into the water and pushed him up, while I lifted him by his harness. All ended well with just a wet wife and dog. The other issue has been caused by the fact that we let Rhett sleep with us at home, where we have a king size bed. It hasn't worked as well with the smaller bed on the boat. We tried for one night to make him sleep on a dog bed outside of our room, but it was a long night of a loving dog letting us know of the injustice. I think it will mean some adjustments to where everyone sleeps. We can't blame anyone but ourselves for the dilemma. 

At the moment though, we are getting a break from the dogs who are at their favorite vacation spot Camp Green Dog. We have guests in town and wanted to be free to hang out with them rather than be concerned with the pets. 

The Samfords and the Spotswoods

Our guests are dear friends Bob and Ashley Spotswood. They are not staying on the boat, but have done so in the past when they visited us in the Exumas and stayed on our previous boat Steel Magnolia. Following the habit of using nicknames for friends on the blog, they were referred to then as "Dahling Ashley" and "Bonefish Bob". We are glad to be able to spend a few days with them exploring Charleston. They are two of the people we dearly miss since we moved away from Birmingham.

One of the more interesting things about our location here is the steady parade of container and other cargo ships that pass us by. We are adjacent to the port facility used by what are called "RORO carriers", which means roll on/roll off car carriers. These massive ships come and go daily at all hours, both delivering foreign-built cars to the U.S. and picking up U.S.-made cars for delivery all over the world. Interestingly, we tend to think of foreign cars being imported to the U.S. But with Volvo, Mercedes, and BMW, among others, all having plants in SC, it is not unusual for these ships to be fully loaded both coming and going from the port of Charleston. Watching them pass close by keeps the size of our boat in perspective.

Division Belle at bottom left

Dogs and Boats, and a Distant Relative

I've always thought that dogs and boats don't mix well. This was reinforced back in the 1990's when I moved my boat up the west coast of Florida accompanied only by our young Lab "Moose". My trip plans constantly revolved around getting the dog out for his walks. It seemed annoying, much as I loved the dog. Then one evening I went out for dinner and left him alone on the boat for an hour or two. He found two large bags of potato chips on the counter and ripped them open, eating what he wanted. When I returned to the boat, it looked like it had snowed potato chips in the saloon. And of course the dog got ill later that night, causing other unspeakable problems. The next night when I went to dinner, Moose bit into a plastic gallon jug of bilge cleaner, a very strong soap that poured out and ruined the saloon rug.

But I am older and softer now, and I really can't love my dogs and my boat as much as I do, and somehow try to make them mutually exclusive. So we boarded the dogs while we got the boat from Beaufort to Charleston last Friday and Saturday and while we had friends Dwight and Jennifer Davies staying aboard Sunday night to celebrate my birthday. Then yesterday, the lovely Laura Lee picked them up. Last night was our first night with two dogs living with us on board.

I must say that it requires some planning, and consumes a lot of each day. But the dogs are remarkably adaptable. So far so good. The puppy, "Belle Watling", is actually somewhat easier to manage on the boat than at home because she can't wander out of sight around a big house getting into trouble, and she can't leave the property. The older dog, "Rhett Butler", is pretty cool most anywhere as long as he gets walks, water, and food. We are all adjusting. If they can handle living aboard in a marina, we will move to the next step to trying to travel with them on some trip where we have short hops. Just in case, we have a strip of astroturf available on the bow for times when we can't get the dogs ashore.

While walking the dogs this morning, we started chatting with the owner of the boat next to us in the marina. At some point I introduced myself, and he said "Wait, your name is John Samford?" I said yes and he replied "The friend on my boat helping me move it is also John Samford". As it turns out, it is a distant cousin from Albany, GA that I first met at Auburn in 1968 when we were assigned to ROTC platoons by alphabetical order. The two of us were standing next to one another and both answered the roll call when our name was called. The instructor thought the roll he had been given contained a mistake, and John and I briefly considered taking turns attending drill. I ran into John on occasion while at Auburn, and I understand he lived in Birmingham for some period in the 70's, but I don't think I was aware of that at the time. It was good to catch up. There aren't many of us in the world.

John Samford and John Samford

Church Creek

 Last night was our first opportunity to spend a night anchored out 
on Division Belle. We are about 20 miles south of Charleston in a beautiful anchorage called "Church Creek". The Waterway Guide says that the name derived from the practice of going to church on the flood tide and returning home on the ebb. The tidal currents here are certainly strong enough to require travel to be carefully timed.

The area we traversed yesterday and our anchorage are stunningly beautiful, and match every description of the marshes ever written. It is hard to capture in a photograph, but the vast grasses are greening for summer close to the water and still a delightful straw color behind. The currents and many shallow areas of the Intracoastal Waterway made some of the going very tough yesterday. We departed Beaufort at slack tide around 

7:30 am, and had the current with us much of the day. But at one point approaching low tide we were literally touching bottom in the middle of the channel, meaning depths at low tide were right at six feet.

We stopped here at 1:45 pm yesterday. We could have made it to Charleston, but our slip is reserved for the month of June begining today, and we also wanted to be able to arrive at the Charleston Maritime Center at slack tide this afternoon, to make docking easiest. 

A cold front passed through yesterday, bringing late afternoon severe storms that passed north of us and caused some damage in Charleston, and late evening huge storms that fortunately passed to our south. The storms and strong current led to a fitful night of sleep, checking the holding power of a new anchor and watching the location of strong storms.

We enjoyed a fine dinner on the aft deck prepared by the Lovely Laura Lee. We will take our time this morning departing to arrive in Charleston just after lunch time. This is pretty much what it is all about.


Update: We departed Church Creek at 10 am and arrived safely at The Charleston Maritime Center at 1:45 pm. While the marina here is exposed to wind and wakes, we are tucked into the best spot it has, and the only one that will accommodate our boat. We will get our sea legs quickly and be prepared to rock and roll for most of a month.

Heading to Charleston

I first met Captain Mike Lamson in around 2001, in my early days of having a boat at The Ford Plantation. He was a fishing guide who owned an older Bertram fishing boat that he had restored. He took some of my family members on a couple of fishing trips, and offered to help take care of my boat, primarily with periodic washing and detailing. Mike's nickname is "Lumpy", which I understand was bestowed upon him in his younger poker playing days. He won so much money one evening that a friend changed "Lamson" to "Lump Sum", and the name was further corrupted to just "Lump" or "Lumpy".

Lumpy has little time to fish these days, as his boat care business has flourished. He employs his son and stepson, and several others, and takes on cleaning, painting and varnishing projects for both individuals and various boatyards in the area. Some customers are so pleased with his work that he or his employees will travel to great distances to take care of their boats. He has maintained two previous boats for me: the big Fleming named Suladan and Steel Magnolia, now called Vector by its owners. He also maintains the lovely Laura Lee's small fishing boat "Blossom". And so it is that the varnish issue on Division Belle was turned over to Lumpy.

When teak rails (or brightwork) on a boat are properly varnished, they simply need to have a new coat or two added once or twice a year to be kept beautiful, depending on climate and where the boat is located. But on my boat, the varnish had gone for years without maintenance and then had varnish added on top of the mess that was there. Lumpy and his crew removed all of the old varnish down to bare wood, and methodically added 11 new coats, fighting love bugs that landed in the varnish whenever they added a coat. It is finished now, and is a work of art. I cannot imagine a more beautiful job. I'll do my best not to scratch it up.

We find ourselves at Thunderbolt Marina this morning, after a six-hour trip here yesterday. By car, it would have been a 30 to 40-minute drive, but we were taking our time down the Ogeechee River and the sometimes tricky passage to connect to the Intracoastal Waterway. I am with my dear friend Paul Hamilton again, helping out on his third trip with me. He calls himself the "Bosun". We could have spent the night most anywhere in the area, but Thunderbolt Marina has a tradition of delivering fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts to every transient boat docked here. So this was our first choice.

The Bosun and the doughnuts

We will shove off later this morning heading for Beaufort, SC, where Paul will head home tomorrow and the lovely Laura Lee will join me later in the week to move the boat to Charleston. I don't mind spending a couple of nights in Beaufort, as it is one of my favorite spots. To get ready for the visit, I have pulled out the classic Beaufort movie, and will watch it while there.

Update: We arrived in Beaufort at 4 pm after an uneventful six-hour trip. I decided to run our "wing engine" or "get home engine" for a couple of hours today in gear and under a load. I did everything to turn it off properly, but when we arrived at Beaufort and shut everything else off, it turned out that it was still running. Something seems to be wrong with the pilothouse shutdown button. A friendly mechanic who lives on a boat in the marina came by and showed me how to shut it down at the engine. The shutdown solenoid works at the engine, but not from the control in the pilothouse. Thankfully, I don't anticipate needing this engine at all on this trip, and if I do, it is better that it will start and not stop rather than vice versa.

It is 9 pm now, and the temperature has dropped from near 100 at our arrival to about 86 degrees now, a blessed relief. We are in a record-breaking hot spell, but the breeze on the water makes everything more bearable. It is great to be out enjoying the boat, regardless of the temperature.

Varnish Finally Being Applied

While I try not to write much about maintenance, there is one significant project underway. Division Belle's teak rails had been sadly neglected for years when we bought her. The damage was way beyond anything that could be varnished over. 

So after two weeks of removing all of the old varnish with heat guns and sandpaper, the first of about 12 coats of new varnish went on today. It's beautiful wood, and looking good already.

Home at The Ford Plantation

After a long journey, and many repairs in many boatyards, Division Belle is finally docked just a block from our home at The Ford Plantation. We left Hilton Head just after noon today, timed to arrive at Ford close to high tide this evening. Unfortunately, that meant a departure near low tide at Hilton Head. So, rather than risk shallow water at low tide in the Intracoastal Waterway, we went out the Calibogue Sound channel at the south end of Hilton Head and joined the Savannah ship channel to come up the Savannah River and join the waterway later in the day. While it was a rough day out in the ocean, we only had a mild chop going out a couple of miles and back inland via the Savannah ship channel. Our timing worked perfectly, and we arrived at Ford at 8 pm. High tide here was at approximately 8:30, so we had good deep water and the current behind us all the way home.

The trip covered 55 nautical miles which took eight hours, at an average of about 6.875 knots. It's a slow boat, but an extremely comfortable one. It was a great weekend and a great day, but we are very, very tired tonight. Next steps are to get the boat cleaned up after seven weeks in a boatyard, get the varnish redone, and make plans to start enjoying it this summer.

A word about tides, boat draft, and boat speed is in order here. The difference between high and low tide in this area is normally about six feet. Our boat has a six-foot draft. The tide not only affects where we can go at certain times, but also what kinds of currents will be helping or hurting our progress. With the current behind us, our eight-knot boat sometimes travels at up to 10 or 11 knots. We planned for today working backwards from a high tide at Ford at around 8:30 pm this evening. This meant we wanted to start coming upriver on the Little Ogeechee at around 6-ish, with the tide helping our progress and giving us plenty of deep water through the sometimes treacherously shallow low country waterways. This schedule dictated leaving Harbour Town Marina at around noon, at dead low tide. Given that, it made little sense to start out immediately joining the ICW through a shallow area named "Field's Cut" at low tide. Thus, we headed out to sea from the south end of Hilton Head, turned up the usually 50-foot-deep ship channel with the current behind us, and rejoined the waterway at around 3 pm, or mid-tide. The plan worked beautifully, and we arrived on schedule and unscathed by shallow waters and opposing currents.

It is good to be home. As with all boats, there is always much work to be done. But what could be more fun?

Underway Again

After seven weeks in the boatyard, we finally got underway again Friday afternoon. Rather than taking the boat directly to The Ford Plantation, we opted to make a quick run 17 miles north to Hilton Head, where we have spent a quiet weekend at the Harbour Town Yacht Basin. We are directly across from the 18th hole of the Harbour Town Golf Links where they are already constructing the stands for the RBC Heritage tournament that begins here in two weeks.

The boat was quite dirty, as happens in boatyards, so I spent most of Saturday just getting the first layer of grunge off until we can get it back home for a real cleanup. 

We would love to go outside in the Atlantic for most of the trip home today, but alas, the weather doesn't appear to be cooperating. It's not going to be awful, but a cold front passes through during the day, kicking up wind and perhaps some squalls. Going south on the waterway is also a bit challenging because of the timing of tides. An arrival at Ford for the best tides late this afternoon has us crossing some shallow areas up here at low tides. We are thinking we can leave here at about about 1 pm, an hour after low tide, and have rising water as we make our way south. We hope to arrive home around sunset and close to high tide at Ford. 

It's been a great weekend.

Sea Level

A few weeks ago, I went to check on my boat at the Hinckley Marine boatyard in Thunderbolt, just east of Savannah. When I arrived, the entry road to the yard was under water. All of the employee cars were parked along the road a few hundred yards from the entrance, and one employee was directing traffic. He told me the tide had gone down already and that I could probably get through and find a dry parking spot, but getting to the dock and my boat might be a challenge. He also recommended a quick car wash that afternoon to get the salt off.

I tentatively made my way in and found all of the employees wearing tall rubber boots and sloshing around the soaked boatyard. I did manage to park in a dry spot and made my way along a narrow wall to get to the docks. While we all know that sea levels are rising, the experience led me to some reading on the subject. This is not a discussion of the causes of climate change, nor is it political. I simply wanted to find out what is happening right here where I live.

There are tremendous tides in our area, and on the day of this experience, they were much higher than average. In Thunderbolt, the high tide that day, February 20, was 9.8 feet while the low tide was -2.1 feet, a big day to be sure. But the measurement of tides is in relation to mean sea level, a number that is constantly rising. The tide gauge at Fort Pulaski is the only official measurement in the state. It was commissioned in 1935 and, since that time, the sea level has risen more than nine inches, a rate of more than a foot every hundred years. And the rate of rise is increasing. The low projections show a sea level rise of two feet by the end of this century while the most extreme show a rise of more than 10 feet in the same period. Almost all of the increase is attributable to the water rising rather than land sinking.

Someone asked me recently why the sea level would rise when glaciers melt that are already in the sea. It doesn't. Sea level rise is caused by runoff from the melting of glaciers that are on land, and by the expansion of sea water as its temperature increases. There are conflicting estimates of how much is caused by each of these factors, but there seems to be a developing consensus that thermal expansion of sea water will play the larger role long term.

Around here, there are signs everywhere of the issues that sea level increase is already causing. More and more frequently, U.S. Highway 80 to Tybee Island has to be closed as it is under water. Low areas along the Thunderbolt area are also routinely disrupted. A portion of President Street in Savannah is being elevated five to eight feet to prevent flooding.

Projecting the exact time that any area of the country succumbs to what is called "chronic inundation" is extremely difficult, as it involves estimating how trends change in the future. But we do know now that Savannah, along with Miami and New Orleans are high on the list of cities that will be affected the most quickly. For a more detailed study by the Union of Concerned Scientists pointing this out, see "When Rising Seas Hit Home". An interesting exercise is an interactive map published online by NOAA where you can zoom into an area of interest and slide the sea level up as much as 10 feet above its current level. For our area of the world, it looks pretty scary even to see the effect of a one or two foot rise.

Work has progressed slowly on the few projects for the boat. I hope to have it out of the boatyard this week or next.

Where's the Boat?

Our boat came equipped with an Automatic Identification System ("AIS") receiver, a device I have never had on a previous boat. The  electronic chart display includes a symbol for every commercial vessel and many other boats within radio range, each with a velocity vector (indicating speed and heading). Each ship symbol on the chart can reflect the actual size of the ship, and its GPS position. By "clicking" on a ship symbol, I can learn the ship name, course and speed, classification, call sign, registration number, Maritime Mobile Service Identity ("MMSI") number, and other information. Maneuvering information, closest point of approach (CPA), time to closest point of approach (TCPA) and other navigation information, more accurate and more timely than information available from radar plotting, can also be available. If I wish to make radio contact with the vessel, I can call it on the radio by name. This information is available to every AIS receiver user, and is also available to the public at www.marinetraffic.com. A zoomed out picture from that website of ships all over the world generally looks like this: 

AIS transmitters are only required on commercial ships, but any boat can have a simple receiver or a transceiver. The ability to see other ships, plot them, and stay out of their way is an invaluable safety device. Equally important is the ability to not only see but be seen. Thankfully, the costs of what are called "Class B" AIS transceivers (for non-commercial vessels voluntarily equipped) has become very affordable for non-commercial boat owners. And so it is that as of yesterday, Division Belle is equipped with an AIS transceiver. The link above on the blog called "Where's the boat?" will now take readers to the marinetraffic.com website for real-time information on the location of Division Belle. 

I won't be able to get away with anything anymore, but I can always just turn it off if I wish to hide. See the boat's current location here.

Appreciation for the U.S. Coast Guard

Multimedia Release U.S. Coast Guard 5th District Mid-Atlantic Contact: 5th District Public Affairs Office: (757) 398-6272 After Hours: (757) 434-7712 5th District online newsroom The shipwreck that changed the Coast Guard forever   Editors' Note: Click on images to download high resolution version. Story and artwork by Petty Officer 2nd Class Corinne Zilnicki When the clock tolled 12 a.m. on Feb. 12, 1983, the 605-foot cargo ship Marine Electric trekked northward 30 miles off Virginia's Eastern Shore, plowing slowly through the gale-force winds and waves stirred up by a winter storm. An able-bodied seaman relieved the watch and peered forward, noticing for the first time that the ship's bow seemed to be riding unusually low in the water. Dense curls of green ocean rushed over the bow, some of them arching 10 feet over the deck before crashing back down. The crew had been battling 25-foot waves for hours, but until now, the bow had bucked and dipped as normal. Now it seemed only to dip. Over the next two hours, the waves intruded with increasing vigor. The entire foredeck was swallowed in 6 feet of water. The main deck was completely awash. At 2:30 a.m., the ship's master, Phillip Corl, summoned his chief mate, Robert Cusick, to the bridge and shared his fears: the bow was settling, they were taking on too much water, and the crew was in real trouble. At 2:51 a.m., the captain made the first radio distress call to the Coast Guard. "I seem to be taking on water forward," Corl said. "We need someone to come out and give us some assistance, if possible." By the time assistance arrived, the Marine Electric had listed, rolled violently to starboard, and capsized, hurling most of its 34 crew into the 37-degree water. Chaos ensued. Chief mate Cusick surfaced with a gasp, managed to get his bearings, and spotted a partially-submerged lifeboat nearby. After swimming through towering waves for 30 minutes, he pulled himself into the swamped boat and started thrashing his legs to stay warm. "All the time I kept looking out and yelling out, 'lifeboat here,' just continually yelling out to keep myself going," the chief mate said. "Then I waited and prayed for daylight to come." The Coast Guard had long since dispatched an HH-3F Pelican helicopter crew from Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and directed the crews of several cutters to the Marine Electric's position, but the tumultuous weather conditions slowed the rescuers' progress. Naval Air Station Oceana had to recall available personnel before launching a helicopter crew, including rescue swimmer Petty Officer 2nd Class James McCann. At 5:20 a.m., the Coast Guard helicopter crew was the first to arrive on scene. They had expected to find the Marine Electric's sailors tucked into lifeboats and rafts, but instead, they found a blinking sea of strobe lights, empty lifeboats, and bodies strewn below. The Navy aircrew arrived and deployed McCann, who tore through the oil-slicked waves, searching for survivors. He managed to recover five unresponsive sailors before hypothermia incapacitated him. The Coast Guard crew scoured the southern end of the search area and discovered one man, Paul Dewey, alone in a life raft. They dropped the rescue basket so he could clamber inside, then hoisted him into the helicopter. About 30 yards away, they spotted Eugene Kelly, the ship's third mate, clinging to a life ring, and lowered the basket to retrieve him. Cusick remained huddled in his lifeboat until the sailors aboard the Berganger, a Norwegian merchant vessel whose crew was helping search the area, sighted him and notified the Coast Guard. The helicopter crew retrieved him in the rescue basket, then took off for Salisbury, Maryland, to bring the three survivors to Peninsula Regional Medical Center. Meanwhile, more Coast Guard and Navy rescue crews converged on the scene to search for survivors. Coast Guard Capt. Mont Smith, the operations officer at Air Station Elizabeth City, had piloted a second Pelican helicopter through turbulent headwinds for over an hour in order to reach the site. He and his crew scanned the debris field below for signs of life. The people they saw were motionless, and it was difficult to determine whether they were simply too hypothermic to move, or deceased. Smith spotted one man and hovered over him, squinting through the whipping snow, trying to decide what to do. "We all felt helpless," Smith said. "There was no way to know if the man was dead or alive. We had to try something." Petty Officer 2nd Class Greg Pesch, the avionics electrical technician aboard the helicopter, volunteered to go down on the hoist cable. After some deliberation, Smith agreed. Pesch's descent in the rescue basket was a harrowing one. "The whole world seemed to be churning," Smith said. "I struggled to maintain a smooth hoist, but I know it was erratic." Once in the water, Pesch grappled with the basket, trying to hold it steady as he guided the unresponsive man inside. It took several attempts, and then he scrambled into the basket himself and ascended back to the helicopter alongside the victim. The aircrew spotted another potential survivor, and although Pesch attempted to descend again, the hoist cable spooled back on itself on the drum. The crew was forced to abort their mission and departed for nearby Salisbury Airport, where the man they had pulled from the water was pronounced dead on arrival by paramedics. Dewey, Kelly and Cusick were the only men pulled from the ocean alive that morning. Their 31 shipmates had either succumbed to hypothermia or drowned. All told, Coast Guard, Navy, and merchant vessel crews recovered 24 bodies from the scene of the capsizing. Seven were never found. It is likely the ship's engineers were trapped belowdecks when the vessel capsized. "Throughout Coast Guard history, the missions of the service have been written in blood," said Dr. William Thiesen, historian, Coast Guard Atlantic Area. "Such was the case with the loss of the Marine Electric. This tragic event led to stricter marine safety regulations and the establishment of the Coast Guard's premiere rescue swimmer program." While the incident itself served as the catalyst for the major changes to the Coast Guard and maritime community at large, the rigorous efforts of Coast Guard Capt. Domenic Calicchio brought the necessity for such changes into sharper focus. Calicchio was one of the three marine safety officers charged with investigating the capsizing and sinking of the Marine Electric. The board of inquiry launched their investigation on July 25, 1984, and examined every aspect of the WWII-era cargo ship, its upkeep, the events leading up to its demise, and the Coast Guard's rescue efforts on that morning. The investigation revealed that although the Marine Electric had been recently inspected several times by both the American Bureau of Shipping and the Coast Guard, marine inspectors had failed to note several discrepancies or recommend needed repairs. Investigators concluded that the casualty had most likely been caused by inadequate cargo hatches and deck plating, which allowed the crashing waves to flood the vessel's forward spaces. Calicchio felt the Coast Guard needed to revamp its marine safety procedures and demand more of maritime companies, but more importantly, that the Coast Guard needed to demand more of itself. His push for reform resulted in several additions to the Coast Guard's marine safety protocol, including guidance on hatch cover inspections, and new requirements for enclosed lifeboats and their launching systems, for ships' owners to provide crews with cold water survival suits, and for flooding alarms to be installed in unmanned spaces on vessels. The Coast Guard also tightened its inspections of 20-year or older ships, which led to the near-immediate scrapping of 70 similar WWII-era vessels. "Calicchio embodied the service's core values of honor, respect, and devotion to duty," said Thiesen. "He championed marine safety and pursued the truth even at the risk of his career of a Coast Guard officer." While the Coast Guard changed many policies to make a safer marine environment after the the sinking of the Marine Electric, the service continues to make improvements on its marine safety program today. By 2025, it is estimated that the demand for waterborne commerce worldwide will more than double. The Coast Guard has published its Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook in preparation for the increasing demand.  The Marine Electric shipwreck also served as the genesis of another crucial development: the Coast Guard rescue swimmer program, which was established in 1984. The program's physical fitness standards, training and organizational structure were developed over a five-year implementation period, and in March of 1985, Air Station Elizabeth City became the first unit to receive rescue swimmers. The first life was saved two months later. -USCG-    Questions for the Coast Guard?     Contact Us For more Coast Guard news, visit our online newsroom here.  STAY CONNECTED: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES:  Manage Preferences  |  Unsubscribe  |  Help Privacy Policy | GovDelivery is providing this information on behalf of U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and may not use the information for any other purposes. This email was sent to john@samfordemail.com This email was sent to john@samfordemail.com using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: U.S. Coast Guard · U.S. Department of Homeland Security · Washington, DC 20528 · 800-439-1420