April 2002

St. James Plantation Marina
April 28, 2002

Our trip from__________(see below for quiz) was alternately fast and slow, depending on our relationship to currents coming in through inlets.  At one point, our speed was 3.3 knots prior to an inlet, and ten minutes later almost 9 knots on the other side.  We decided at 7 p.m. that we could not reach St. James before dark.  Therefore, we did the unthinkable.  We anchored off the Intra Coastal Waterway.  Our position was safe, but we decided to keep an all night watch for current and tidal changes, and for potential commercial barges.  During John's watch, about 3:30 a.m., as the tide dropped, Pachamama went aground, and leaned  five degrees to starboard.  Though expected, the lean caused anxiety.  Less than an hour later, the boat again was stable as the tide began to rise.

Last night, we enjoyed dinner with George and Pat Schlecht.  They were our slip mates aboard Lark, a 42 foot Californian motor powered tri-level that is capable of 20 or 30 knots.  Compared to Pachamama, that is like a car at The 500.  They have traveled The Intra Coastal, as well as The Bahammas.  Lots of good stories.  Lots of shared experiences.
 

32-22.008N
079-17.171 W

April 23, 2002

Where are  we?  Answer these questions, email the answer (thotfull@skyenet.net), and win a prize:

1.  What town/county produced more than half the rice produced in America at the end of the 19th century?  Rice then was called "Carolina Gold."

2.  In what town was Sunset Lodge located?  Sunset lodge was a legendary bordello run by "Miss Hazel,"  Hazel Bennett Weiss, born in 1900 at a location between Paoli and English, IN.  The bordello was closed in 1969.

3.  In what town can you have a tour directed by Sandy, who, along the way, will sing once or twice.  For us, it was "Summertime" and "Amazing Grace," both appropriate to the tour.

We sailed here Sunday from Charleston.  Until the last two hours, the winds and waves off our stern gave us a pleasant ride.  But, when we turned west, 24 knots hit us hard from port, an ideal circumstance except in a narrow channel.  We fought like you know what to find enough maneuvering space to bring down the main.  Then we had an awful time finding a place to drop anchor, because every foot of space was occupied by another boat.  At one point, another skipper said:  "these are moments when you wish you had a smaller boat."
 

32-46.568N
079-57.155W

Charleston City Marina
April 19, 2002

A point of stress in the sailing experience is deciding the future route of travel, and preparing for departure.

On Monday (today is Friday), we created a plan to depart for Norfolk, VA., a 400 mile trip.  This will be our most challenging experience yet, because the trip requires 24-hours-per-day of sailing for three or four days. Our plan was to leave yesterday, Thursday.

Preparing for departure requires:

1.  Preparing the boat.  We need to acquire food supplies, and to prepare several meals in advance so that eating is a fairly simple matter during the early hours of passage when we are most likely to feel woozy.  We fill the water tanks, check the engine, and complete any minor maintenance that might be pending.

2.  Preparing the crew:  On the day of departure, we want to be well fed and relaxed.  If we find ourselves working until midnight the night prior to departure, we probably will delay a day to give us a chance to relax.

3.  Preparing to navigate and to understand weather.  Since this will be our first long offshore trip, what for others might be a simple procedure of laying out a route of travel is, for us, a bit nerve racking and time consuming, because the lines we draw on the chart never seem to be quite correct, and a line that terminates on one chart does not seem to start again at the right spot on the next chart.  We must be sure that we are avoiding all dangerous areas.  We must enter way points in our GPS receiver.  Most important on this trip, we must understand The Gulf Stream, a "river in the ocean" that will give us an added push north of between one and two knots, about a 20 % increase in speed over what we can achieve in stationary water.  Then, we must be sure that we know how to access information while we are traveling.  Here is what we did to prepare/educate ourselves on these matters.

   a.  We talked to David Jones of The Caribbean Weather Service (based in Tortolla) to learn about the weather.  The ideal weather for The Gulf Stream is winds from the south or southwest.  Winds from north to northeast usually produce a wild Gulf Stream that is too much to handle.  These north winds clash with the north bound current to produce huge, irregular waves.  Waves outside the Gulf Stream might be 3 or 4 feet; inside the stream, waves might be ten or fifteen feet, and these waves are not orderly--they come at your from all directions.  Conclusion:  if the wind is north, don't go.

  b.  We talked to Jane Clark of Jane Clark's Gulf Stream, who gave us a satellite image of the stream, and who suggested that we enter and exit the stream at specific points.  The stream is about 60 to 70 miles east of Charleston, but only 10 to 20 miles east of Cape Hatteras which is the most easterly point of our trip prior to a north westerly turn toward the entrance to The Chesapeake Bay.

  c.  To learn about these experts, to contact them, to receive their information, and to converse with them about the information, required four days.  We did not complete the job until yesterday.  Meanwhile, we were learning how to access resources while in route through our single side band radio and our weather fax.  Doing all this was stressful and surprisingly time consuming.  Often, we learned something from one of our resources that required us to go back to the navigation charts and to change our course lines.   Yuk.

Finally, this irony:  conditions were perfect to sail to Norfolk through yesterday, possibly even through today. But, we are not ready, and a cold front will hit Hatteras Sunday and Monday, producing impossible conditions.  When will conditions again be favorable? Next Thursday?  Maybe.  We will see.  The result is that we will have another few wonderful days in Charleston, and that we probably will move a bit farther north, perhaps to Georgetown, before we take on the challenge of the  big sea and the big stream.
 

32-46.568N
079-57.155W

Charleston City Marina
April 14, 2002

For a person who spent the first 15 years of life as an only child, a visit by my step family was a very special and important occasion.  They arrived Friday afternoon.  They are:

John and Sandy Stanicek of Aurora, Illinois
Frank Stanicek of Park Forest, Illinois
Blair and Arlene Stanicek of Salem, South Carolina
Jean (Stanicek) and Hud Labaree, of Steamboat Spring, Colorado

To celebrate this visit, Chichi christened Pachamama, Friday evening, April 12th  After explaining why we chose the name "Pachamama," Chichi swung a bottle of champagne against the fluke of our port side anchor, broke the bottle, and poured what remained over the bow sprit. (We were to have christened our boat in Ft. Lauderdale on September 11, 2001, but decided to postpone out of respect for victims of The World Trade Center attack.)

"Pachamama" means "Mother Earth" in the Quechua language of the South American altiplano.  When Chichi worked her "ano de provincia" (a year of service required of all graduated medical and nursing students) in Guaqui, Bolivia, she saw that Pachamama remains the most significant deity of this ancient people.  This deity precedes The Inca, and has survived The Inca. Chichi and I also wish to survive and to prosper, and we want always to return to "Mother Earth."

Our family enjoyed outstanding meals at Charleston Place, Ansons, and Cafe Cafe.  We also saw the insides of some of Charleston's most elegant homes as we walked the annual home and garden tour. But most important of all were the laughter, the catching up, and the renewal of perhaps the most important connection of my life, that occurred when Dorothy Guy married Frank Stanicek in 1956. This was my first experience with a large and very happy family.  (This only child's life expanded even further when I married Chichi, inheriting her six siblings, countless aunts, and not a few uncles, one of whom produced 16 cousins. As of today, I probably am related to everyone in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.)

The time to move on is upon us.  Chichi and I will discuss our sailing plans in the next few days.

[Special thanks to Pam Wall of West Marine, Ft. Lauderdale, who gave us ceremonial champagne for the christening of Pachamama.]
 

 32-46.548N
079-57.155 W

Charleston City Marina
April 7, 2002

Visits by friends, and three sailing experiences, made this one of our best weeks.  The friends are:

Carl Grow and Judy Reed, friends since the 80s, with whom we have shared fine evenings at the IRT, Jimmy Buffet concerts, good food, and several professional tasks.

Bill and Jane Sprague.  We have known  Bill since we visited their home during the visit of The Tall Ships to Newport Rhode Island in June 2000.  For years, Bill and Jane operated the Jamestown to Newport Ferry.  They spent many springs, summers and falls living aboard their sail boat.  Jane's friendship with John extends back to the 60s when they were student reporters at The Indianapolis News, and both attended DePauw University.

Mikal and Ginny Forbes, neighbors in North Willow Farms.  Mike is an avid sailor who owns a charming and resilient Catalina 25, docked at Lake Monroe.
Ginny and Chichi are bridge and walking buddies.  We have sailed on Lake Michigan together, as well as The Gulf Stream to Bimini and Freeport, and we have shared more than a few meals in our homes.

Highlights of the week:

Fine restaurants:  Magnolias, Carolinas, 82 Queen.
Charleston tours by bus and by carriage
Visits to museums and to The Hunley
Superb Chichi-made meals on  board

and, Sailing, three day trips:

All day trips began mid morning.  We sailed out The Ashley River, past Fort Sumter, and through the channel, to the ocean.  The channel runs approximately two  miles through two jetties.  Charleston is one of the largest commercial ports in the country; large vessels (we call them "Big Guys") move in and out hourly, requiring a good lookout and diligence.

From the first trip to the third, winds increased from about 8 knots to over 22 knots, meaning that sailing  became progressively more challenging as the week went on.  The first trip out was pleasant and relaxed, mostly by motor, and we enjoyed lunch with little motion.  Unfortunately, our comeuppance occurred at the final moment, entering our slip.  The current and John's misjudgment caused our starboard shrouds and two starboard stanchions to make contact with the Chris Craft next door.  While the sound of metal against metal was enough to prompt a heart attack, permanent damage appears to have been limited to two bent stanchions.

We were able to sail most of the second trip, including our passage through the harbor and out through the jetties.  The wind was boisterous, but waves were only in the 2-4 foot range, and most of the sailing was just plain fun. Bill Sprague gave us excellent instruction on sail management, for which we will be forever grateful.

On the third trip, winds were 15-22 knots, but waves had built to 4-6 feet, and the wind direction was east of north, just slightly north of our course out.  We tacked four or five times, and we were forced to tack twice when the bow unintentionally came through the wind, backwinding the genoa, and forcing us either to tack, or to put on full motor power to get back to the appropriate angle to the wind.  The ideal sailing angle would have caused us to sail into the south jetty, a situation with only one solution:  motor power.  On leaving the jetty, we were getting tired, and we decided to return.  The plan was to bring in the genoa, and to return under main and motor.  On coming into the wind, John could not furl the genoa.  On walking forward to the bow sprit, he learned that the furling line was trapped under itself on the drum.  Chichi released the line at the cockpit, and John slowly unwound it, while rising and falling four or five feet with each wave.  After this "fix," we again tried to furl on the wind, only to again encounter resistance.  The problem was that dummy John fed the furling line in the wrong position relative to the port genoa sheet, causing a royal mix up with both the sheet and a bow cleat.  After still another trip to the bow, he did it right, and we finally furled the genoa.  The return trip, thank you, was smooth and uneventful, but the result of all this effort was a dire need for a two-hour nap, followed by wine, pork chops, good conversation, and sleep.

A word about The Hunley.  At first, this civil war relic seemed just another place to visit, another attraction of histo-tourism, the business of using history to attract visitors to a location.  My view changed immediately upon learning about this vessel, and personally observing the feelings it generates.  For example, our bus tour guide, a 20 year veteran of the submarine service, allowed us to see the personal emotions he feels toward the Hunley.  At the restoration site, hundreds of volunteers work to bring it alive.  Some of the volunteers are civil war reenactors who provide a continuous honor guard for the remains of the seven crew members and one officer who died aboard.  The Hunley is more than a submarine.  It is a focus of state pride.

The Hunley is the first submarine to successfully sink a war ship.  In 1864, it attacked and sank the Union square-rigged cruiser Housatonic that was anchored about two miles off Charleston Harbor.  An as-yet-to-be-determined incident caused the Hunley to sink after the attack.  Author-adventurer Clive Cussler found the boat in 1995.  It was raised in 1999.  Inside, researchers found the remains of all crew members and many personal artifacts such as buttons from civil war uniforms.
The remains are preserved at the restoration site, pending a formal military burial in 2003. The Hunley presently resides in a large fresh-water tank. Upon completion of restoration, years from now, the United States Navy and the state of South Carolina will place the boat on permanent public display.