Category: Sailing

Foggy Mornings

So here we are we are, still in Jacksonville FL. Most mornings it has been easy to wake at sunrise and get started for the day. The last two mornings have been foggy and it seems to be harder than ever to get up and want to do anything. It’s all I can do to keep from sleeping in… lol

So my first thought this morning as I look out my window of the boat – I should get up and go to Dunkin Donuts and get some donuts and coffee. That will help the situation at hand.

*Phone rang*

I have enjoyed our stay on the boat it has been super quiet as in I can only get phone calls from the kids. I do miss them everyday, especially Jacob the Grandson, but the everyday drama and worry isn’t here.

This brings me to my second thought. Is it just me or is the younger group full of drama? I don’t remember there being so much of it when I was that age of the early twenty’s. The new shows on TV, (Yes I bought a tv and hung it on the wall of the boat) are incredibly full of drama. Is it possible that by watching these shows they are learning to act this way? The show we watched was awful and full of drama and some of the others were just sucky I think I will stick to Netflix… lol

I know that TV shows are supply and demand, do people really watch all these reality TV dramas? How about a good old fashioned MASH type show blending facts with reality, humor, and friendship in hard times in the worst of situations.

See everyone this evening!
Wolf

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Two Warm Thoughts

This week has gone by so fast it is incredible, work will do that to you I suppose. We have been working super long hours and trying to finish this motor boat so we can get going on the water again. It has been nice here, a bit chilly – you know fifty degrees – but a lot of the time it’s T-shirts and warm sunshine.

I was told it was fourteen degrees this morning on the farm, so my first thought is wow am I glad I am not there! I really do not want to be that cold or shovel snow or anything that goes along with it. The farm is beautiful this time of year but that’s cool they can send me a photo :}

My second thought this Tuesday is it is really sunny today and it is going to be in the seventies the rest of the week. It is really hard when it is like this to not just walk over start the sailboat and throw the dock lines and go south.

We pulled into this marina to get fuel and wait out a storm for just a few days to find we will be here for two months… It’s funny how life just kinda goes that way. This marina is nice, full of amenities like the gym, sauna, showers, laundry and the best part – floating docks. If you have ever been on the water you know what I am talking about… No climbing up and down the dock to get on and off the boat everything just goes up and down with the tides.

There should have been photos all along but we all know how good I am about that. I am going to take my phone to the boat today and take some photos so I can post them here on the blog.

Only a few more weeks and it will be time to kick the dock and leave, I can’t wait.

Have a great Tuesday,
Wolfbernz

Tags boat work, Sailing, Top Sites Tuesday Meme

Sunny Florida?

Ok, so we thought we had escaped the cold, and we did for some time, but this arctic air has moved in and it is cold today. As I peek out the window of the boat and mutter who the hell wants to go out there… It almost looks like home on the Chesapeake Bay, the water is cold blue and the wind has that cold, slap you in the face feeling. The wind blown froth on the rocks looked frozen this morning.

The first thing I thought of was to use my Weather channel app to find out how long this will continue? Come to find out it will be in the fifties today and tomorrow will be the same and then back to sunny and warm.

Now my thinking is I will happily wear my down jacket and watch the mosquitoes die and the no-see’ems (by the way I saw them) All this cold hoopla crap is relevant to where we are used to living I guess what we think is cold.

My second thought of the day is I have to figure out where to put the TV on the boat, I actually have it working, now to mount it. On a boat location is very important.

I wasn’t going to get a TV because we were going to be on the move constantly so I wouldn’t have time to watch it. We landed in a small port and the third day we were here a nice man asked me to remodel his big wooden boat. Of course being the wood guy I am, most people would not get such an opportunity, and the money was right – so here we are. That’s were the TV came in…lol

This has been a fun trip and now it is getting better, I will upload some photos as we work on this new fun project 🙂

The kicker of the boat remodel is the boat is called Hollywood,I would like them to name it Lots of Wood instead.

Have a great Tuesday
Wolfbernz

New post Sailing Top Sites Tuesday

Two Thoughts, Ok Maybe Three

Post author By Wolfbernz
Post date December 13, 2011
1 Comment on Two Thoughts, Ok Maybe Three

I can’t believe another week has gone by already, time is just flying by with a blur.

The last time I posted we were in Turner Creek, Georgia, and since then we have made it all the way through Georgia and the swamplands full of alligators and snakes to Florida. We made really good time – we arrived here at Beach Marine in Jacksonville Beach on Saturday morning. Although we made good time it seems like weeks have past since Turner Creek.

When we left Turner Creek and headed south, we knew a storm was coming so we had to make plans ahead of time to stop. I had been watching the weather and had a plan to make it to Morningstar Marina just before the storm hit.

All good plans – or should I say best laid plans – don’t seem to always work out. About twelve o’clock mid day the sky turned ugly with dark clouds the high winds going one way and the low wind going right in our face, no sailing today. Trina and I talked about how bad it was starting to look and decided we would go a bit further and checked the charts for an “out” if it got real bad. Of course it got bad before they predicted, we should have had until three in the afternoon but not to our surprise at two o’clock the sky was dark as just before nightfall and the wind had picked up to thirty knots with super high gusts.

The boat started to feel real small as it was tossed around like a toy boat in a bath tub. We decided we would not make it to the first choice destination at this point we were getting slammed. We decided to go up a river,the South Altamaha, about four miles inland, even though it had cautions of high currents and that it is almost impossible to go in or out against the current. There was no choice at this point, we had heard over the radio the transmission of the boat called the Blue Moon that they were at the scene of another boat that had flipped and capsized – they were picking people out of the water.

If you have never been out there, the sheer terror of all this going on and you are in the same water listening to it unfold makes one realize the decisions we make can save a life. We were glad to be in the river for sure. The entrance to the river was an ugly one and I wasn’t sure we were supposed to go in there, to our luck we made it into the river at slack tide, no current. We were relieved to a degree, it seemed to be the longest four miles of the whole trip. We traveled turning the nose of the sailboat into the wind as the high gusts seem to want to put us on our side. I was very happy to see the marina up ahead after that last turn as the rain started to fall and the wind was gusting to fifty four miles an hour. The dock hands ran to the boat and helped us tie it in, it was safe and so were we. Then it was done – over just like that- in three hours the front had passed and we were sitting in the restaurant having a sandwich it was still windy but the sun even tried to come out.

This brings me to my first thought can you imagine what those guys on the other boat were thinking when they landed in the water? OMG… I couldn’t even guess myself.

We were told to head out as soon as we could in the morning to beat the tide or we would have to wait for the next tide that would occur on the next day. We gathered our things and headed out down the river the tide was high and it looked so different. We were headed out the same way we went in but it kept getting too shallow – at two points we just touched the bottom, almost ran aground, and then we realized just how lucky we were the day before, or was it luck?

This brings me to my next thought, earlier I mentioned what good time we had made and about the decisions that we make. We almost didn’t leave that morning but something said leave so we did, we made it to a perfect anchorage with the dolphins coming right to the sailboat and in just a couple days we were putting out dock lines here at Beach Marine, Jacksonville Beach, Florida, just before the next big storm. So my second thought is – It’s good to follow that gut instinct and I am glad we did the next storm lasted for three days with high winds and four inches of rain every twenty four hours!

So we are safe and sound and the sun has returned we will be here for the week and fly home next Tuesday for the holidays with the kids. Driving the car back so we can have wheels while we are here.

Wolfbernz

Tags BlogDumps, Top Sites Tuesday, Top Sites Tuesday Meme

Atlantic ICW New post Sailing

Stono River SC. To Beaufort SC. And Off To Herb Creek Georgia

Post author By Wolfbernz
Post date December 5, 2011
No Comments on Stono River SC. To Beaufort SC. And Off To Herb Creek Georgia

So it was smooth sailing all the way to Beaufort South Carolina…

This is a beautiful town with a lot of old history. They have a day dock that you can grab a spot and stay from six am to one in the morning but no overnight stays. I was really glad because we didn’t have to dingy in to do anything and the dock was free.

This was a good stop for us we were able to use all of the marina facilities and were able to get groceries. We walked to the store but had to get a cab back we had to much to carry. I wish I had known the cab was so cheap we would not have walked in the first place but in retrospect it was a good walk we saw so much history in this area it was cool.

So we did some laundry and a few other needed chores and stayed a couple days, we even managed to do some motor work – we adjusted the carburetor, the oil pressure and installed a direct read oil pressure gauge on the motor. We managed to work it out that the gauge in the cockpit would still work too. It’s nice to have a direct gauge because electronic gauges can fool you. We also put an rpm and dwell meter on the motor and set the timing it was a few degrees off and so was the rpm gauge. Gotta love it – zero RPMs is five hundred and five hundred is really thirteen hundred, now that we have that figured out it makes sense why the sweet spot on the motor was so low.

We left just before it was light this morning, about an hour early, but the channel was well lit with markers. It was a hard call whether to leave or not because it was raining. I watched the weather radar and kept looking at the charts and figured if we could get down the river and to the Port Royal Sound early it would stop raining and we would have wind and maybe a hint of sunshine. My calculations were almost right we were soaked by the time we got to the Sound but I guess that’s why we have foul weather gear. We got to Port Royal Sound and the rain stopped as I thought it would but they called for light winds… Wrong, it was blowing strong and we sailed with just a small jib sale and were moving along nicely.

We now know why most people skip Georgia it is very tight, skinny, and shallow. We went across many shallow spots that many sailboats would not be able to make it through at time it was only four foot and we draw four foot three inches, I swear I think we hopped across a few spots with just a bit of luck. We were told not to count on making the draw bridge at Causton Bluff before Herb creek and would have to stop for the night and wait for it to open in the morning but we made record time and arrived at one thirty pm and was able to head south and go up Turner creek to get some ice and a few gallons of fuel and still had time to backtrack a mile or so to a nice spot to anchor in called Herb river.

The best part of the day was all the dolphins that were with us a good portion of the day, we even got a bump from one on the starboard bow, I think he was playing with the boat at least I want to believe this… LOL

So dinner and a sunset one more night and we start again in the morning headed toward Florida via the ICW in Georgia the state that seems to have plenty of wild life.

Wolfbernz

Atlantic ICW New post Sailing

Georgetown SC To Stono River SC

Post author By Wolfbernz
Post date December 1, 2011
No Comments on Georgetown SC To Stono River SC

So we left Southport, SC. and made it to Georgetown, South Carolina, to the anchorage with a fellow sailboater we seem to be traveling the same way with.

Talk about crowded! Georgetown was packed with boats, some of them just dead boats left there on a mooring to wither away in the sun and salt. We looked around for a good spot and we thought we had found one. Well, I should have known better. The current was swift and the bottom where we set our anchor went from ten feet to twenty in no time so the anchor was set on a bank and when we swung around it worked it’s way loose and fell into deep water so we drug the anchor. Thank God we missed every other boat, we noticed it when Trina heard a bilge pump from a big motor yacht go off and we should not have heard it. It’s a darn good thing she looked to see what the strange noise was, we were ten feet from landing on the boat at the dock. The anchor had re grabbed so it stopped us just in time. We had heard on the radio that others had drug anchor up to three time but we have a big anchor and plenty of chain and line so we just knew we were fine. We pulled up the anchor, motored around the harbor up toward the paper mill more to find that this was a much better place but it was stinky and noisy all night long. Since this was a problem harbor we took anchor watch, this means no sleep even when you try you just are waiting for it so we got out of there as fast as possible. I felt like I had smoked six packs of cigarettes from the nasty paper mill this is one place I would skip and not stop again.

We only went about thirty five miles South and hit a nice quiet anchorage and called it a day – kicked back and got some much needed rest, we were both exhausted from the Chinese fire drill all night.

This morning we left super early since we had such good rest it was easy to get up and get a move on. What a great day. It was cold in the morning but it warmed up as the day went on. I say it was a good day because we had fair winds and tides all day, the boat went seven to eight knots at times and made a great distance South we made it through Charleston and through Elliot’s Cut.

Elliot’s Cut was fun it is a very narrow channel that connects the ICW and the current is four knots or better and tries to turn your boat around as you go through, we did just fine though I had it holding at thirteen hundred RPMs and she was doing three knots against the current I was very happy with the performance she gave us this afternoon.

Our fellow sail-boater needed fuel so he went into the marina and filled up while I scoped out the anchorage. I found a great spot and then went in to grab some fuel myself when he was finished and then off to the spot I scoped out earlier.

So the sun is setting on another fine day and it’s off to bed to get some rest and do it again tomorrow.

Wolfbernz

Atlantic ICW New post Sailing Top Sites Tuesday

Tuesday’s Two Thoughts

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Its hard to only express two thoughts today. I have so much on my mind, I know you find that hard to believe…lol!

I have missed posting on our trip south for some days now. All is well and we are in South Carolina, it has been very adventures and fun. So many things to see and so many navigational hazards – one cannot take things lightly on this trip.

This brings me to my first thought. We traveled through an area today that back in the eighteen hundreds they blasted the rock to connect the ICW here in South Carolina, the only issue is they did not clear out all the rock so they call this the rock pile… Many boats have been lost here to unseen rocks and the narrow channel. One must make a security call to make sure there is not another vessel coming the opposite direction because you cannot pass in this area. I was glad we made it through just fine and we were able to get in and get tied up before this big cold front comes through tonight just south of Myrtle Beach SC.

My second thought of today is, I received a call from one of my Sensais that my other Sensai had passed away yesterday. He was my Sensai for 12 years. Why is it that the good guys – some of the finest – have to be the ones that get hit the hardest. He was the man, not only just in the martial arts way, he was there for everyone teaching football at the local high school, the girls softball team, and held a karate class for twenty years or more and he was a great family man. It’s hard to understand at times. As I wrote earlier on my Facebook wall…

You taught me respect, you taught me how to be humble and compassionate towards others and to show them a better way. I learned how to accept constructive criticism and grow to be a better person. I am so glad I was your friend and even more you were my teacher- My Sensai. You will be dearly missed by us all… Rest in peace Sensai Sheets.

Wolf

Tags Life, martial arts, Sailing, Top Sites Tuesday Meme