Hokule ‘a

April 11, 2016 charly Leave a comment

She’s been sailing all over the Pacific for 40 years, since being built in Oahu, and now is working her way up the Eastern Atlantic coast as part of a promotional tour.

The book made a big impression back in the seventies. Hokule’a joined a fleet of other odd craft built in different places around that time… some made from balsa, others of papyrus reeds, The Irish had their Oxhide boats. All these modern projects had the goal of demonstrating how ancient cultures might possibly have traveled great distances around the planet. Multihulls were still a novelty, and Hokule’a did her part to help make them popular.

Note the long steering oar. A simple solution, but it takes some muscle. She probably balances much better though, with those crab-claw sails up. Forget that in this winding river. Definitely not an upwind boat, she is more at home in the “blue desert”, running downhill with the trades.

These photos were taken as she headed North, passing under the Macay river bridge (the same spot we splashed The Spirit of St Simons!). Another remarkable piece of history plies the same water that has seen so much throughout the years.

Hokule’a’s website has many more details and a gps tracker.

Thanks to Max for the heads up and to Harrison for the cool photo.

local history, outings

Cannon’s Point

December 29, 2015 charly Leave a comment

The ruins of the big house at Cannon’s point are visible from the Hampton River, at green marker #19 The foundation and chimney are about all that is left.

Just a few yards away to the west is the tabby floor and chimney where the kitchen stood. It had a huge brick hearth, that is still intact, with multiple ovens and fireplaces for constant meal production.

There are tabby ruins of slave cabin foundations, and an ice pit, lined with tabby, where they packed block ice in sawdust. A long unpaved avenue runs up the center of the peninsula, to the old home site. The dock is long gone, but you can still row ashore at any of several bluffs along Jones Creek on the west side. It is best to go in cool weather when there are no snakes

.
……………………………………………………………

Most of the St Simons Island inhabitants fled the coast during the War for Southern Independence. The following account is from the diary of a Col. Dean, a Union blockader, who was stationed off the Georgia Coast in 1861. It was Copied from T Reed Ferguson’s John Couper Family at Cannon’s Point

… We anchored in the Altamaha Sound in December 1861, after the fall of Port Royal to our cannon.The dark woods on a marshy spine of land could not hide from view a large home on a bluff above the river and, as we had been so long on board our ship and desired to explore this wild mainland, Henry and I took a dingy and rowed ourselves land-ward. We tied up at a dock beneath the house and walked through a large garden. On all sides were what appeared to be palm trees of several kinds, many with dark red fruits growing from spiky projections of a strident yellow.

The first story of the house was constructed of the same rough stone and shell [tabby], we had seen in several coastal buildings, and the wooden house, white painted with green shutters, rose high above this foundation. Crossing a wide piazza, Henry and I entered the front door, and in some haste, for the house, though deserted, seemed full of its former occupants, made a tour of inspection and left. As we departed, I picked up from the library floor several old letters amongst the papers scattered there. Their dates showed to be some 75 years old, and I thought to keep them as souvenirs…

These letters turned out to be correspondence to John Couper. The really remarkable thing about this tale is that it did not end there. Almost 50 years later, In 1909, this same Col. Dean, by then retired and living in New York, made a chance acquaintance at a social gathering, with James Maxwell Couper, John Couper’s great grandson. Upon learning the latter’s name, Col. Dean recalled the letters, went home and found them, and then returned them to the Couper descendants! They are now an invaluable primary source material for historians and authors.

LOGBOOK, outings

More Outing Photos

December 29, 2015 charly Leave a comment

Daysailing the Hampton River with Rhonda, Sonya, Mike, Donnie, Michael and Amanda.

Wind was fresh NNE, good for a nice long reach down river, with only a couple of tacks back up. We saw a large Sturgeon jump near the mouth of Old House Creek.

Click pics for larger. Back button to continue

local history, LOGBOOK, nature

Francis Moore’s Journal

November 10, 2015 charly Leave a comment

Following are a couple of excerpts from A Voyage to Georgia, Francis Moore’s account of his travels with the English colonists bound for St.Simons Island. We traced part of his route last week on the way up to Blackbeard Island.
………………………………………………………………………..
page 41
leaving Skidaway on the left, an the mouths of the Vernon and Ogeechee rivers on the right, we passed forward,and still kept through Channels,as before,sometimes crossing wide sounds (for the boatmen here call gulphs of the sea which run into the land, and the entrances of the rivers). There are 3 or 4 sounds to be passed, which in blowing weather are dangerous to those open boats. I believe, where we passed, St Catherine’s is above two leagues wide. The tides of flood carried us up along-side the islands and the tides of ebb down to the sea. Mr Ogelthorpe, being in haste, the men rowed night and day, and had no there rest than what they got when a snatch of wind favored us. They were all very willing, though we met with very boisterous weather. The master, Capt Ferguson, is perfectly acquainted with all the water passages, and in the darkest night never missed the way through the woods and marsh, though there are so many channels as to make a perfect labyrinth. The men vied with each other, who should be forwardest to please Mr. Otglethorpe. Indeed, he lightened their fatigue, by giving them refreshments, which he rather spared for himself than let them want. The indians, seeing the men hard labored, desired to take the oars, and rowed as well as any I ever saw, only differing from the others by taking a short and long stroke alternately, which they called the yamassee stroke. I found this was no new thing to the indians, they being accustomed to row their own canoes, boats made of a single tree hollowed, which they manage with great dexterity. When we came near the mouth of the Altamaha, we met a boat with Mr. Mackay and Mr. Cuthbert, (who is lieutenant of the Darien) coming from Darien to Savannah. They were very agreeably surprised to find Mr. Oglethorpe on board us. They returned to the Darien, taking Captain Dunbar with them, whilst we stood the shortest way to St. Simons. Mr Cuthbert told us, that one of the highlanders met with an orange tree on Duboys island; he was charmed with the color, but could not get to them buy reason of the height of the tree, which was so full of thorns, that there was no climbing it, so he cut it down and gathered some dozens….

March 1735-6 p49
These periaugas are flat bottomed boats, carrying from 20-35 tons. They have a kind of forecastle and cabin but the rest open and no deck. They have two masts, which they can strike, and sails like schooners. They row generally with two oars only; but upon this occasion mr Oglethorpe ordered spare oars for each boat, by the addition of which, and the men of the colony rowing, they performed their voyage in five days, which single periaugau is often 14 days in doing.
Mr Oglethorpe accomopanying them with the scout boat, taking up the hinder most in tow, and making them keep together; and expedient for which was the putting all the strong beer on board one boat, which made the rest labour to keep up with that; for if they were not at the rendezvous at night, they lost their beer.

…………………………………………………………………..

It is about 85 statute miles from Frederica to Savannah River on the modern Intracoastal Waterway, or what would have been their inside passage more or less. Five days at 12 hours a day comes out to a little less than 1.5 miles per hour. Seventy five years later, John Couper’s slaves could row it in a day, in smaller boats and probably with more oarsmen- about 7 miles per hour. (faster than we in the Spirit of St Simons could motor it !)

I think the Orange tree story is interesting, having read that oranges were introduced into the Americas by the Spanish, and later established themselves naturally, though they are fragile in these parts because of the occasional hard winters. My question is: how did the tree that the Scotsman cut down in 1735 get to Doboy Island? Spanish missionaries? Indians? French? Another question is where did the name “Doboy” come from? Was Moore’s spelling “Duboys” a misspelling of Doboy or did the current spelling evolve from it? One could spend a lifetime just digging up the origin of the many curious names in this small piece of the world.

There is a nice anchorage
in the Back River that runs past Doboy Island, where it forks off of the ICW. It is open to the breezes and is relatively bug-free, with a clear view of Sapelo light to the Northeast. We saw a Bald Eagle in a tree on the southern tip of the island. You can anchor anywhere along there that is out of the waterway, but mind the strong current- especially the ebb. In a contrary wind it could get complicated.

The whole area there- the Back River, and both sides of Commodore Island as well as the shore of the North River, is strewn with small ballast Islands from the days of the timber ships. the ships would pitch the stones from within their holds prior to taking on cargo. Over time these piles of stone became wooded islands.

outings

A Month in Pictures

November 8, 2015 charly Leave a comment

click on photo for larger. Use back button to continue

LOGBOOK, nature, outings

Blackbeard Island

November 4, 2015 charly Leave a comment

The entrance to Blackbeard Creek has plenty of water. Going in, keep green day marker number “11”, which is part of the Sapelo entrance marker system, to STARBOARD. Depth there is 10 feet or so between it and the beach. We felt our way in after that, as there are no markers in the creek. It narrows down in places, but even with a 23 foot beam, we had no issues. The daggers were down six inches or so, which gives us a total draft of about two feet. It was low water at the time, and we only touched bottom in one place, where the passage runs up close against Sapelo Island and turns. From there you can see Nelson’s bluff straight ahead. the chart says four feet, but there is a bar there at the mouth of a branch creek that runs to the left, or north. At high water you should have no problems as the tide range is at least six feet. We dropped the hook just past the Ranger station dock at the bluff. The creek widens back out there, so there is room to swing with the tide on one anchor. It is very protected once you get in, but the entrance is wide open to the north and the whole fetch of Sapelo Sound, so that spot might get exciting in a blow.

Along the creek bluff there is a trail that runs eastward through the woods. It is only a few hundred yards to the ocean. We walked there the next morning and then turned north towards the Sapelo Sound entrance. The beach is in an erosion phase, with fifteen foot high sand cliffs, where hundreds of mature oaks and pines have toppled into the surf. At ebb tide the walking is not too bad, but when it comes back in you are often forced to wade around or climb over them. The island must be young, as islands go. We didn’t see much diversity in tree species, mostly palms, live oak and pines, with an occasional holly. The forest is a series of accreted ridges, or old dune lines separated by fresh water sloughs and/or valleys.

Blackbeard is very quiet, especially at night. The thump of the surf lulled us to sleep. Next time I might try going a little farther down past the Ranger dock, as the lights there are the only interruption in an otherwise perfect darkness.

Good reading re Blackbeard and Sapelo history.

Can anyone identify this plant?

boatbuilding

The Birth of “Gordalita”

October 16, 2015 charly Leave a comment

She was conceived by Richard Woods, and born on a picnic table in our garage.

Richard Woods is the real deal. He is a lifelong designer, sailor and builder who has forgotten more than most of us will ever know of the esoteric world of designing, building and sailing boats.

We needed a smaller lighter tender, that can be hoisted by hand, up onto the new aft platform being installed on the big boat. The idea is to avoid towing the thing around, which presents obvious problems. A decent dingy needs to be able to carry a load, meaning at least three people and their gear, and needs to be light, but must be stable and row comfortably. Richard Woods “Crayfish” design (ours is to be named Gordalita ) seems to fit the bill, as she weighs in at about 50 lbs., and is only 8 ft. long. A little plump no doubt- hence the name, but still quite graceful. I think she is beautemous!

Gordalita will replace Caddywhampus, which has been a delight to row, and a generally good all round workhorse, with a nice figure to boot. When the time comes that you have to row out an anchor to kedge off when on the beach or aground, you really appreciate something that is maneuverable and sturdy . She was Designed by Dave Gerr , as a “nester”, which is a type of boat that is built in two parts that can be unbolted and nested, one piece inside the other, in order to save storage space. In the old days, they used nesting dorys ,which had the same idea. Whalers and cod-fishermen simply stacked one inside the other when stored on the schooner deck. Anyway, Caddywhampus has her place but she is a still bit too large for most of our purposes.

Both tenders are built with the simple “stitch and glue” method, which entails cutting panels for the sides, bottom, and transoms, and lacing them together with wires that are threaded through holes cut along the edges of the seams. As the wires are tightened, the boat comes into shape. Then they are permanently joined by adding epoxy “filets”, which is just a bead of thickened goo, that is coved out with a popsicle stick or a tongue depressor and overlaid with epoxy saturated cloth for reinforcement. This design would be a great starter boat for someone that wanted to get their feet wet. In just a couple of days a complete novice could have a nice functional tender or creek boat. You could also power her up with an electric trolling motor or a 2 hp kicker if you want.

To build one, first, panel dimensions are taken off the plans and drawn out on the plywood (4mm marine, okume ply)

The plywood panels are cut out and faired so they are exactly the same on each side of the boat

Panels are then simply wired together at the seams. For this one I used 14 gauge household wire. Zoom in and you can see how the wires are twist tied. I just leave the wires in and epoxy over them. The pigtails are later cut off flush when the boat is flipped over for glassing the outside seams.

The boat magically takes shape when the wires are tightened at all the seams. Use a temporary brace to get the correct distance across at the gunnels.

You can use anything for the seats. The lighter the better. I used two inch thick foam from home depot, sandwiched and glued between pieces of 4mm ply leftovers. It is stronger if the panel face-grain runs athwartships. Also, foam gives positive floatation and when located at the seat level- up high, the floatation will tend to keep the boat in a stable posture if she is ever swamped.

Laminated gunnels are sprung into place and all glued up

It only takes two or three sessions to get to this point. According to the bathroom scales she weighs 60 lbs. Not too bad, but a couple of pounds more than I had hoped. I think I will skip the paint for now, and see how things go.

Comfortable to carry

I was able to lift her up on deck from the dock without problems. Very encouraging. If anyone wants to build one of these let me know. It would be fun, and less expensive, to do a “workshop” and turn out several.

geekery

True Virgins Make Dull Company add Whiskey

October 7, 2015 charly Leave a comment

If your boat driver’s license has expired “beyond grace”. That means that in order to renew it, you must go back to square one and re- submit all the paperwork, and re-take the dreaded exam. Some folks say it has gotten harder since I took it last century. Anyway, I have been installing a compass in the boat, which prompted some of the schooling from my earlier years to bubble back up. I guess it would be a good thing to write some of it out for practice, since I will be re-taking the test. One thing I learned at sea school and did not forget:

“True Virgins Make Dull Company add Whiskey”

As Father Guido Sarducci, of Saturday Night Live fame would say, “and that’s all-a you need-a to know about-a that”.

OK, but if you are curious or masochistic, read on.

The nautical chart shows True north and Magnetic North on a thing called the “compass rose” (see above photo). It is a circular pattern with the degrees of a circle and a few other things marked on it. Compass roses are put there to help you figure out which way to steer the boat. They are scattered about on the chart in convenient places for quick reference. First, you have to realize there is a difference between true headings and magnetic headings. You might know one, but need to know the other. The Compass Rose shows both.

The North Pole, is located at the axis of the Earth’s rotation, on top of the world. Its direction is known as True North

The Magnetic North Pole, is a different thing entirely, and is located several hundred miles away from the North Pole. At present it lies somewhere inside the arctic circle. A magnetic compass only points to the magnetic north Pole.

The Variation is the the difference in degrees between True North’s bearing from an observer, say a sea traveler, and what a magnetic compass would point to- the Magnetic North Pole. My brain hurts already.

A Magnetic compass will always point to whichever direction the magnetic pole is in. However, it will only point towards True North, if and only when the North Pole happens to line up with the Magnetic North Pole. It could even point to a southerly direction. For instance, If a traveling person was way up in the arctic, and happened to be exactly between the North Pole and the Magnetic Pole, his magnetic compass would point to the Magnetic Pole- due South! You can see this with an orange or a tennis ball or something, and a couple of pins. The Variation for the travelers location in that rare case would be 180 degrees. To find true north, he would add 180 degrees, (the variation) to his magnetic compass heading.

The Variation of a given area on the chart, is printed on the chart inside the compass rose. It also “varies”, depending on where you happen to be on the Earths surface, in relation to these two poles. To make matters even more complex, the variation changes from year to year, in small increments, because the magnetic north pole and the magnetic field of the earth wanders around. The Magnetic North Pole is at the axis of the earths magnetic field, where it exits the Earth in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is not fixed in one place like the True North Pole (the axis of the earth’s rotation) is. The magnetic pole is affected by the Iron composition of the Earth’s interior, which moves around because the Earth’s core is liquid below and the Earths crust floats on top of it. In geologic history, the magnetic poles have even flipped. That would be a real calamity if that happened again, which it probably will ( and if it does, Virgins will no longer be dull company).

So, for example, the compass rose on your chart might have something printed in it like “Variation 3 deg West, annual increase 5’, 1999’ “ . The annual increase is the amount of change, measured in degrees, based on past history, of the actual physical location on the Earth of the Magnetic North Pole, each year, since 1999. Now, this is where the “add whiskey” comes in.

True Variation Magnetic Deviation Compass add Westerly

So, moving left to right, TVMDC, just like it reads, you always add (+) westerly. If the Variation is 3 deg W, you add that to the true heading to find the magnetic heading, OR, now get this, if you are reading it right to left, i.e. Magnetic to True, you would SUBTRACT the westerly variation, so if your magnetic reading is, say, 000 deg., and you want to know where true North is, then subtracting 3 deg, would give you 357 deg- the bearing of True North.

Stated differently, the “Variation”, is a number that is applied to the True heading to find the magnetic heading, or applied to the magnetic heading to find the true heading. If you know two, you can find the third with this formula. Add westerly variation going left to right, subtract Easterly variation, going left to right. OR subtract westerly variation going right to left, ADD easterly variation going right to left. The annual increase of the Variation mentioned above should also be tallied up and applied to the number. If the annual increase is 5’ when the chart was printed in 1999 and it is the year 2001, then add 10’ (two years). Year 2005, add 30’, etc. Needless to say it gets trickier and more important as you go north because the relative positions to the observer of the two poles (the Variation) can become more and more pronounced as one gets closer to them.

This stuff is often inconsequential in the real world, but it depends on where you are, and how much the variation is, and how accurate you need to be. A half degree (30’), is negligible in most circumstances on a small boat. You couldn’t physically steer with nearly that much accuracy. A steering error of one degree will put you one mile off course after about 57 miles.

Ready for some whiskey?

Not so fast. What about Deviation?

So, Variation then, is a corrective number applied between True North and Magnetic North, that is used to find the bearing of the other. Using the formula above, all you need are two values and you can calculate the other. Just remember to ADD Westerly, or Subtract Easterly, when moving left to right.,or vice-versa moving right to left in the equation.
The Deviation, is the same kind of number, between the Magnetic and the actual Compass bearing, (TVMDC), that is applied to one, to find the value of the other.

Magnetic compasses are affected by all things ferrous, whether it is the earths iron ore deposits or a sack of nuts and bolts left carelessly on the bridge deck, and also by all things electrical, since electrical fields are really the same as magnetic fields. Depending on the amount of Iron on the boat, and electronics, and their proximity to the compass, any of these can have a disastrous effect on the accuracy of the instrument. In a perfect world, without any local interference, a Magnetic Compass would give a bearing from an observer to the Magnetic North Pole. End of story. But every Boat is different. The distribution of iron implements, fasteners, rigging, chain, radios, etc will uniquely affect the compass. So, just as Variation must be applied to compensate for difference between True North and Magnetic North, Deviation must be applied to compensate for the difference between Magnetic North, i.e., where the compass should be pointing- Magnetic-and where it actually is pointing- Compass due to local interference, or stuff on the boat.

A Deviation table is printed up on a Compass Card, by a compass adjuster, who “swings” the instrument, after it is installed, by tweaking the adjustment screws found on the compass. The screws are supposed to allow the adjuster to calibrate for Deviation, which he usually can do, but sometimes he cannot, and so he prints up a card that shows how much to add or subtract from any given heading. Usually it is divided up into the different points of the compass. It might say for instance, N,+2, NNE-1, NE-0, ENE+1, etc. The closest relevant Deviation number, taken from the Compass card, supplied by the compass adjuster, then is also plugged into the equation TVMDC, and the same rules apply- ADD westerly going left to right SUBTRACT westerly going right to left.SUBTRACT easterly going left to right, ADD easterly going right to left.

Cheers.

update Jan 2019

Uncategorized

Voices

October 5, 2015 charly Leave a comment

Tenderly, he looked into the rushing water, into the transparent green, into the crystal lines of its drawing, so rich in secrets. Bright pearls he saw rising from the deep, quiet bubbles of air floating on the reflecting surface, the blue of the sky being depicted in it. With a thousand eyes, the river looked at him, with green ones, with white ones, with crystal ones, with sky-blue ones. How did he love this water, how did it delight him, how grateful was he to it! In his heart he heard the voice talking, which was newly awaking, and it told him: Love this water! Stay near it! Learn from it! Oh yes, he wanted to learn from it, he wanted to listen to it. He who would understand this water and its secrets, so it seemed to him, would also understand many other things, many secrets, all secrets.
But out of all secrets of the river, he today only saw one, this one touched his soul. He saw: this water ran and ran, incessantly it ran, and was nevertheless always there, was always at all times the same and yet new in every moment! Great be he who would grasp this, understand this! He understood and grasped it not, only felt some idea of it stirring, a distant memory, divine voices.

Siddhartha

LOGBOOK

Brunswick Landing Marina

September 28, 2015 charly Leave a comment

We’ve been holed up since mid- August here in Brunswick. It was the best hurricane plan we could think of. If you look at the map, we are located on the western-most part of the continental US Atlantic coast. The bight formed by the sea coast here gives the area a little more protection, so we seem to have better odds against a direct hit. Not that it doesn’t happen There is a lot of real estate though, between the East River and the open ocean further east. To the southwest, there is Andrews island, which is very high elevation, because it is mostly man made from dredge spoil. We feel reasonably safe here. This year’s storm season has been very tame so far.

The local weather is more tolerable now. Summer afternoon thunderstorms have given way to a general northeasterly flow. The monarchs are beginning to trickle through, and the sunlight is changing hue. So there is hope.

We have at least managed to get out for a few afternoon sails in the last week or so. The East River is wide and protected, with plenty of sea room to hoist the sails as soon as we are clear of the dock. It is a thrill to glide past the town waterfront under sail alone. Catamarans are generally quicker, but we had a humbling experience on Saturday out in the sound, when a production monohull smoked past us on a close reach, as we fiddled with the outhaul and the lazy jacks. There is much to learn yet about tuning and sailing this boat!

A small community of live-aboards tie up here, mostly waiting for cooler weather to head south. Speaking of that, we saw two more spoonbills roosting on quarantine island on Sept 19th, and several more in the Turtle River since then. I had no idea they stayed around this long. We have noticed more of these beautiful pink birds around here this year than I can remember. Last November on the trip to Merritt Island, we didn’t see any until we got into Mosquito Lagoon.

You can see quarantine Island just east of the Sydney Lanier Bridge.It is that small clump of trees on the north side of the Brunswick river. They used to detain inbound sailors there around the turn of the twentieth century. Earlier, it was a popular dumping ground for ship’s ballast stones before taking on cargo in the port. There is a private house there now, and a dock.

Just across the river at the marina is a good level spot to dry out at low tide, and the price is right! We had a pretty good mess of barnacles to scrape off after eleven months. It is hard to believe she has been in the water almost a year.

LOGBOOK: THE SPIRIT OF ST SIMONS