Blewtooth

Greetings from the beautiful city of Savannah.  Today is the 8th anniversary of  Blewtooth's arrival from Rivera Beach Florida.  I have had some fun sailing here from time to time but  Blewtooth's excursions have been woefully far and few between.  I am now recovering from a very painful and discomforting hernia surgery in my groin area and have decided that if I ever get better (seems like forever) I should sail to someplace,,,,,anyplace fun and just keep going.  Maybe,  family and friends hold me here.  Can I break the bonds?  I just don't know.. But the May addition of Sail Magazine had an article by Ray Jason about exploring the wonders of Bocas Del Toro in Panama and as I sit here at my makeshift desk next to my bed (working from home so I can lay down when it becomes too painful to sit) I think,  gosh that is  just a hop skip and a jump from Savannah...first make it down and around the Keys next winter and take my time.  Then get to Key West, rest up and make the crossing after a quick look see at the Dry Tortugas.

OK,  so ...........


Back to work so I can keep my job
So I can pay my bills
I have promises to keep first
I have committed to flying to other places so I can have a quick vacation and then back to my job!
I now have medical bills to pay off....OOOOOOOOFFFFFFF!!!!!

We left around noon to catch the last half of the tide heading through Elba Island cut and outbound on the Savannah.  Great weather and a great bunch of kids!  I say kids????  Sheesh!  they are all in their mid twenties.  What is happening to me!!!!

We motored through the creeks;  fighting the tide but once we were out bound with the current we had enough sea room to raise the sails and the fun began.


We sailed out to the end of the rock jetty and got a good look at Tybee Beach and the South Channel.  The wind was running right up the river for a ways but when we got to Tybee Roads it was coming in from the southeast and we got a good tack.  We kept well out of the way of a couple of freighters who past us going and coming.




Coming back was so fast and relaxing that I was surprised how quickly we made it to the cut.  Here's a video of our return.


I have lots of pictures of Blewtooth sailing but none taken by people in other boats passing or sailing alongside so I will have to make do with her shadow on the water:






And with the wind cooperating all the way we were able to hang a left at the cut without dropping the sails and crossed the south channel and into Saint Augustine Creek before the motor was turned on and the jib was taken down.  Then with main up we had a gusty motor sail through the winding turns of Saint Augustine and dropped the main at Turners Creek.     What a great day!



In calmer water Mike took a trip up the mast to see what he could see.  Those folding steps have proved to be handy and fun to climb (in calm water that is)

We were lucky to have gone on Saturday because even though the weather forecasters had indicated that Sunday would be pretty much the same it turned out to be colder, gloomier and gustier.

All for now,  Good Sailing to all!

Blewtooth motored out of her birth at Sail Harbor this Sunday but the air was so still and thick I felt like we were truly a painted ship on a painted ocean and the paint was just kind of gooey! And...HOT I might add and we were slogging through it. I could hardly catch my breath. We soon changed our mind and chugged back to the dock and I was so drenched with sweat I thought I was going to swamp us!

That was it. Off we went, fleeing any further thought of staying outside. Whimp? Maybe, but better to be a wise wimp than a hero at his own heat stroke funeral.

The weekend before however was much better. Barret, My friend Omert and his daughter Olivia were out with me for a great little sail.









Here's the video

I am having a good time again posting Blewtooth videos.

What a great little boat!

Time goes by so fast when you are having fun!

Labels: Barrett and I on Father's Day 5 Years Ago

Blewtooth Sails at Last!

First time this year.


Well, here I am again! I have just purchased a net book and it is hard getting used to typing on the smaller keyboard.

My friend Omert and I took Blewtooth out to marker 1 of Tybee Roads this Sunday and it was a great day with just the right amount of wind.

Nothing makes you feel so good as a good sailing day!




We had a good breeze pushing us back and all the way up the Savannah River to Elba Island Cut without putting the kicker in the water.

I hired a diver to clean the bottom on Friday and it really made a difference. Blewtooth gave us good speed even with her conservative rig.

Labels: Sailing to Marker 1 from the Savannah River

HOORAY!!!!

I finally saved enough money to get my little Tiger hauled and painted.








I found some damage from when Blewtooth and I decided to kiss a rock in the Savannah River one day. As I recall it had happened on my first trip back out to Tybee Roads and there was almost zero wind. We had turned around with the tide at the mouth of the Savannah and made it a liesurely sail back up the river when the wind died completely. I was feeling too lazy to crank the motor up yet so, because it was such a calm day I let my guard down and started chatting with my guest on board as I let Blewtooth just drift along. I'd had a drink or two and after spending so much time outside I had become stupidly relaxed. Suddenly I heard an ever so slight THUNK! I jumped up and looked up to see the "WARNING...Rocks" sign looming above the bimini. We were next to the Elba Island Cut which crosses the Savannah and then jogs just a little to become Fields Cut going north. I was glad my guest weren't paying too much attention and didn't realize that I could have just holed the boat if we had been going any faster. Because I didn't feel much and or it wasn't too loud I felt like the damage if any would be slight (except to my pride) and I was right. However, "slight" winds up being over a hundred bucks when you are in the yard!




It hasbeen over 4 years! But at last she is clean and painted with two coats of Pettite Trinidad.



I don't like ablative paint because of the bad experience I had with Pettite Ultima on Narenba.





Well, after all of that hauling and expensive yard bill, she was put back in the water and I was ready to motor her back up the creeks and through the bridges to her dock on Whitemarsh and wouldn't you know it; the Tohatsu 9.8 finally decided to take a huge crap! I shouldn't complain too much because it has been a very faithful little engine up until the last couple of months. I think it might be because of this ethanol in the gas. I had to clean the carberator in the spring after it stalled out and there was allot of jellified gunk in it.

At any rate, I have taken it to the shop and they say it will be at least two weeks, maybe three before they can order the parts needed ie..water pump kit and probably another carb kit and install them. I am just replacing the water pump because I think I should after five years of service but am concerned that there might be allot of corrosion in the water jacket because of all of the years it was left mounted on the back of the boat with very few freshwater flushings.

I am now going to have to pay for her docking at the boatyard/marina docks as well...ouch!! but at least I will be able to hang out on her and do some cleaning. Also will be nice to tie up next to cruisers and their boats again for a change.

I have done little sailing and am worried about this hurricane season as every boater on the SE coast is. We have been lucky so far and am praying our luck holds yet another season.

Not much else is new.....but ....OH by the way, I did manage to get my Coast Guard Captain's license while rotting here in port. So, with Blewtooth with her new bottom and reworked engine I hope to get back out there again soon!

All the best and happy sailing,
Rocko

Here are a few more links:

USGS Georgia Water Science Center

I recently read the new book about Wanderer by Eric Colonius
Interviews with Wanderer and Clotilde survivors

Archive boat data from Yachtsnet Ltd. online UK yacht brokers - yacht brokerage and boat sales

Small boats, long distances... sailFar.net

Savannah’s Port is the fastest growing port in the USA at the moment. Container ship after container ship constantly comes in and goes out of Tybee Roads. It generates over sixty five billion dollars a year in revenue……That’s right…..THIRTY FIVE BILLION!
It appears the dredge of globalization has put allot of cash in the State’s and Federal Governments pockets.

Just imagine, our comparatively small little river; the Savannah River which when General Oglethorpe and the original Georgia colonist arrived in 1733, was only nine feet deep in some places and averaged about eighteen feet, now accommodates huge container ships and LNG ships that have drafts of well over forty feet. The Savannah has of course been dredged many times; so much so, that the silt that has been pulled from it’s bottom has created allot of high ground on the South Carolina side and the State of South Carolina is now planning to use it for it’s southern most port. It is presently being used as a bird sanctuary. I guess they are just going to squeeze the birds over a little.

Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, problems with river deepening

But there seems to be a problem looming on the horizon. There is apparently, a new. even bigger container ship now plying the waters of the world that has a draft of almost fifty feet. The fear I imagine of the Port of Savannah is that these newer, faster and bigger and deeper ships will become dominant and eventually replace the ones who are using our river now and therefore the Georgia and the new South Carolina ports will loose the business to the deeper harbors of the country so they are planning to dredge the river again to at least fifty feet..

Common Ground - Conservation Partnerships - Savannah River Basin

This has generated allot of concern from environmentalist. The Savannah has the greatest number of native fish species (108) of any river draining into the Atlantic (that info taken from the above link). They say the silt that will be stirred up will do bad things to the fish in the area and I have a friend who is concerned about what it will do to the aquifer. As I understand it, the City of Savannah and surrounding area’s water needs are in large part, fulfilled by an aquifer that stretches all the way up from Florida. My parents own well pulls from it. Theirs goes down eighty feet and the land is about twelve feet above sea level. If their well goes down only eighty feet and they are only twelve or so feet above sea level and just a mile or so from the Savannah river, won’t dredging that originally nine foot river further to almost fifty feet bring us dangerously close to hitting that aquifer?

Floridan Aquifer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One could only imagine the terrible things that could happen if twenty miles of river was dredged right into an aquifer that supplied some of the drinking water needs for three states (Florida, Georgia and South Carolina)!





Also I wonder about Tybee Roads. This is the area extending several miles off shore that has to be dredged as well and kept dredged or the giant new ships will not even be able to get to the mouth of the Savannah. If you look at the above map those soundings you see are suppose to be in feet, not fathoms! How are they going to keep that area dredged and just how far out will they have to go to accommodate these new leviathans? Will they have to race through only on a certain tide?

There is also concern about the loss of beach sand from Tybee Island. Dredging may worsen this problem.

DrBeach.Org

Well, I’m sure that bigger minds than mine are considering this problem so perhaps I should just go back to sleep. Yawn….

So here are some more sailing links.

Good Sailing,
Rocko

Here's a way to look up some of the Maersk shipping going and coming from a harbor that you might be leaving or entering. Could this possibly come in handy? Especially since these ships are now booming along at twenty plus knots nowadays it might be a good idea to get an idea of what's coming your way just out of radar range.
Maersk Line shipping containers worldwide

I like their idea of a virtual ship:
The Marine Society & Sea Cadets


Yikes! another broken keel:
Hooligan V - full report.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Salvatore has created another website for his Tiger. I think he loves his Tiger as much as I do mine:
westerly.tiger - Westerly Tiger - Dudùdue

Looks like fun....wish I had the bucks:
MAXI YACHT ROLEX CUP 2007

Download the manual for your Tohatsu!
Tohatsu Outboard Technical Information

Looks like unsinkable boats have been around for a long time!
Abora 3 - Sind Sie dabei?

YouTube - Franck Desboyaux tracté par un trimaran

Now this is interesting! Imagine the possibilities for yacht designers. They will be able to put the power plants anywhere in the boat they like and possibly sink that electric motor and prop deeper than any old engine attached to a prop shaft. No more props spinning wildly when the boat comes out of the water in the rough?
Diesel-electric marine propulsion systems and accessories.Diesel-electric marine propulsion systems and accessories.

Ahh! the wonderful and interesting things we like to drop in our own bathtubs:
The Tybee Bomb---Is it a real danger or is the Tybee Island Nuclear Bomb a figment of our government's imagination?

From NOOA:

HURRICANE FELIX FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER  12
AT 5 AM EDT...0900 UTC...THE GOVERNMENT OF HONDURAS HAS ISSUED A
HURRICANE WARNING FROM LIMON HONDURAS EASTWARD TO THE
HONDURAS/NICARAGUA BORDER...AND A HURRICANE WATCH FROM WEST OF
LIMON WESTWARD TO THE HONDURAS/GUATEMALA BORDER.
THE WESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA SHOULD CLOSELY
MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE.
HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 14.1N  75.9W AT 03/0900Z
PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE WEST OR 280 DEGREES AT  18 KT

Very little sailing or boating except once to explore the Bull River bridge area. Anchored and rowed the dinghy under the bridge to the Bull River Marina and tied up long enough to walk to a convenience store. It was on the way back that we experienced engine trouble. The current was pushing us home so I decided to use an oar to help. Just like the last time I had motor trouble several boaters in runabouts immediately motored up to offer a tow when they saw me with the oar. I declined the first offer but when we got to a back eddie in the current and were proceeding very slowly I changed my mind and the next time I was offered a tow I took it. They towed us just a half mile or so until we could get well past the eddies and then we continued with the main and oar. It was a slow but languid sail down the creek.

I had just the main up with only a five knot breeze and because the tidal creeks meander this way and that it was sometimes working for me and sometimes not. Blewtooth is around six thousand pounds with all the junk I have in her so basically this idea to move or "maneuver" is certainly doable but not without reservations. Joshua Slocum describes using a sweep in his book and he was on a forty footer with no motor so of course it is a practical idea but one I have had trouble implementing due in large part to not having a long enough oar or "sweep".

I bought an eight foot oar which I have realized is about four feet too short. I paddled with it at first off of the bow, basically changing my direction by simply making enough of a splash to push/pull the bow which ever way but I found it much easier to sit in the cockpit and use sweeping motions. It appears the rudder still had some effect in spite of the fact the current was keeping almost no water flow over it. Or, perhaps it is just the way Blewtooth is balanced and the way she sits in the water that gives better control.

So, my plan now is to buy a twelve foot oar and try it again. Also considering a yulow but I think it would be too difficult to stow. It will be hard enough with an oar.

It will provide something to use for emergency steering as well as auxlillary power. Another good reason for not having too large a boat. The more I know Blewtooth will be able to move whether the motor is running or not will add to my overall confidence and embolden me to sail to more places.

Here are more links I have been collecting:

I'd like to have one made specifically for a Westerly Tiger but would probably be too expensive?
Welcome to Sawyer Paddles and Oars

http://www.brownellboat.com/stands.htm

Bateaux autour du monde - Sail The World - L'Univers de la grande croisière en voilier - STW

Welcome to AIWA

Not trying to be sarcastic in showing this one but it just seems to reveal the contrast between two worlds:
YouTube - The Love Boat

NOAA Graphical Forecast for CONUS Area

Six garçons dans le vent !

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before, by Tony Horwitz

I wonder if my back would be able to handle one of these? Just looks like so much fun:
Olimpic Sailing 470 Class Video

Funny! What a classic:
YouTube - What About Bob Clip 3

Greatest Blunders In Boating, Yachting, Shipping, Sailing. Video

Labels: sailing