local history

Pedro de Quejo

 

 

 

Shot in the right front leg by a musket, this dog must have suffered greatly before succumbing to infection and being buried in a small grave in an indian village on the northern end of St Simons Island.

 

X-rays of the dogs legs reveal the damage done by the musket ball. Archaeologists believe  the dog was killed  by crew members of Pedro de Quejo, who was in the vicinity in advance of the 1526 Lucas Vasquez de Allyon expedition.- Jerald T. Milanich

Pedro de Quejo was an early Spanish explorer, trader and slaver in these parts, around the same time as Ponce de Leon’s voyages.  He was commissioned by Lucas Vasquez de Allyon to help find a suitable spot for a colony,  In 1526 Allyon left the Dominican Republic with six ships and about 600 men, women, friars, and cattle. They settled somewhere in this area, though the exact site hasn’t been positively identified.The colony didn’t last but a few months. Some scholars theorize that the colony, called San Miguel de Gualdape, was on Sapelo Island.

The above photos are from Jerald T Milanich’s book Laboring in the Fields of the Lord

boatbuilding

A Brand New Daggerboard

The old starboard one broke clean into. I was wondering why the boat was handling so funny. Then one night at the dock, the bottom half just floated up next to the topside. Another “Maalox moment”.  It was a learning experience though. An autopsy showed that it had significant water intrusion into the balsa core right close to  the fulcrum point. Not good. When I did the layup, I thought I could seal the  heavy triax with a thickened resin as a flow coat. Those pinholes are hard to spot though, and it doesnt take but one. So the lesson is:  wet out a layer of light cloth first in the mold to help seal out the water! then do the layup.

The truth is,  the broken board took a few pretty hard whacks. One was in a lateral current up against a hard oyster bar. I think that one did it in.


This is the female mold. It has to be dead nuts flat. I used some old truss joists for the table. This time I couldn’t find a formica sheet to use for the mold so I bought one of those PVC sheets and used that (to the left in photo). DONT do it! It isn’t rigid enough and the board will come out wavy. then you have to spend all this extra time fairing the thing.

Here are the two halves being squashed together. Weights and spanish windlass.  I am too cheap to make the whole thing up and then cut out the hole for the lifting block. It is more work though. I used an old lay-up leftover from my composite boat cleats, instead of a ss eyebolt. Pour in place, two part foam goes on the tip.

 

The Black stuff is graphite mixed in with some resin and phenolic microballons. Actually that goes down first on the mold, then the 6 oz cloth to seal the pinholes, then the triax etc. The graphite is supposed to lube the thing up so it won’t bind up so easy. I put in on there in case I have to sand it down a little bit if it is too big for the hole. It is hard to get it just right. My new crash block won’t fit that good either, this time. Once the oysters start growing inside the trunk It is a nightmare to get it clean enough for the crashbock to slide down to where it needs to be.

 

boatbuilding, LOGBOOK

More COI photos

 

The Certificate of Inspection. process is thorough. To date we have done a preliminary inspection,  a rigging inspection (pulling the mast), a haul out inspection, a weight strength inspection of the bow webbing (the “tramps’), a deadweight survey ( measuring the depth of keel so the designer can compute  the volume of displacement, and hence the weight of the boat) and some drills: man overboard, fire drill and abandon ship.

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Meet “Oscar”.  A real dummy.

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The man overboard drill was an eye opener. Oscar is heavy. Getting an unconscious person into the boat after a calamity is a challenge. We worked out a  retrieval  system after doing the needed maneuvers to get the boat quickly back to the victim. It is a good exercise.

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boatbuilding, LOGBOOK

Weight Test

We are getting closer to being awarded a Certificate of Inspection! Today’s inspection  was another milestone, after the initial inspection, then the mast pulling inspection, then the haul out inspection. This was to make sure the bow nets  (made of seatbelt webbing) and their attachment points, were sound. The  procedure called for figuring the allowable number of  passengers for each net, using a square foot allowance, then multiplying the total by 180 lbs per person, then doubling that, and adding an equivalent weight to see what happens.  Fortunately nothing happened.

 

We used  a gasoline pump and 20 of those 30 gallon totes from Home Depot, ten per side, filled with 20+ gallons of seawater each.  3770 lbs total.

Next thing is the deadweight survey, which is a measure of the boats displacement. Then we have a couple of plan submissions yet to be returned from Washington DC. Then the final inspection, where they will count the lifejackets etc.  

LOGBOOK

Thunderbolt Haulout

An out of the water inspection by the Coast Guard is part of the process for securing a Certificate of Inspection, which will allow us to charter the boat for more than six persons.  At this time, the only place left in Georgia to haul out a 23′ beam  is at Thunderbolt Marine in Savannah.


Who should I tie up next to but my old friend Dave Reidel, from the Key Largo days . It was great to have a beer with him and catch up . Next morning he came over to “supervise”

Coasties found no issues, so we checked another milestone off the list

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The way home I was weathered in at Kilkenney Creek. Kilkenney is a beautiful bluff overlooking Ossabaw Island. It was a cotton and timber plantation back in the 1800’s. The marina sells fuel, beer and ice , and moon pies. It is a colorful place, and worth a stop.  Well sheltered from the west. It is quiet.

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Evidently the Marina is always for sale lol

 

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The “Big House” commands a priceless view of Ossabaw,  the north end of St Catherines and the creeks in between.  Union gunboats shelled it during the blockade. The guy at the marina told me there are still holes in the walls on the inside ,that were never fixed, where the cannonballs went through. To the left is the detached kitchen,  with a huge fireplace, where the cook lived upstairs in the loft.

APRIL 16 2019-

0645 underway

1700 tied up Kilkenney Marina

17th

0700 underway

1215 Thunderbolt

18th

0830 haulout for inspection

0930 underway

1500 Kilkenney

20th 0630 underway

1800 tied up Morningstar

motored nearly whole trip

Found that skinny spot  just inside the channel there at marker 208, just west of Dolbow Island, Altamaha River. . The chart clearly shows it. Its there alright.  Don’t cut that turn  too close and you’ll be fine.

Kilkenney Creek, Lincoln Creek, Big Tom or Newell all are fine anchorages. The Ossabow area there looks like a great place to explore by dingy.

 

local history

Taylor Mound

“Excavations at  the Taylor Mound, a late Savannah phase burial mound, on St Simons Island Georgia, resulted in the discovery of several intrusive burials containing material of European origin. These artifacts produced specific 16th century dates and represent what are among the earliest historic remains recovered from coastal Georgia.

The Taylor mound (9GN-55), is located on northeastern St Simons island, Georgia, on a tract of land known as Lawrence plantation … the site is situated on  sloping ground at the head of a shallow fresh water slough which drains into the salt marsh about 150 m to the southeast. The areas to the north, west and south, of the mound have been under cultivation for a considerable period of time and are currently in pasture. The mound itself