Managing nautical charts

My friend Jim and I are going to trailer Ms. Bettencourt to Savannah for a short cruise next month. We will launch from a little marina up a creek on Wilmington Island, then proceed circuitously to Beaufort, SC, and back. We expect be gone two or three days.

Checking and updating chart inventories ranks high on my list of stuff that needs to be done in preparation for a cruise. While Ms. Bettencourt has an excellent fixed-mount chartplotter, I still like to have the paper charts aboard in case of an electronic failure. For this trip we will need NOAA chart numbers 11507 and 11518. I have the charts, but they were issued in 2004 and 2006 respectively. It is time to update.

There are many choices for paper charts-- ranging from various free and paid printable Internet downloads to retail purchases from chandleries and other sources. I have come to appreciate "print on demand" charts from OceanGrafix  http://www.oceangrafix.com/. The firm constantly monitors NOAA updates of chart data. They only print a chart after an order is received. This means each order they print includes the latest NOAA chart changes, up to the time of printing. This is good.

But, from my perspective, there is one troublesome problem with this product: The charts come rolled up in a tube. They must be flattened and folded to be serviceable on a small boat.

Charts 11507 and 11518 came to me printed one-side only on 42 x 67 inch sheets. I folded 11518 first and made a mess. Look carefully at the folds in this photo and you can see they are unequal. The more I folded, the worse it got. The result was decidedly not neat, but it's usable. The final folded dimensions for this chart worked out to be 8 1/2 x 15 inches.

I got some help with 11507 and the result was somewhat neater. We worked for crisp, aligned edges and achieved a final folded size of 9 x 14 inches.

As is often the case, we figured out how to do the job just about the time was work was finished.



Anyway, it is now possible to open both the neat and the sloppily folded charts one fold panel at a time, which will yield a convenient size to work with in the limited dashboard space on the boat.

In addition to being up to date, these charts are very easy to read and are printed on substantial, durable paper. Because they are printed on only one side, the new charts make a bigger, bulkier package than do the NOAA printed versions. Both chart versions are pictured below to show the size contrast.

I think package size is an acceptable trade-off for getting the freshest chart accuracy available.

And it was speedy too.

I placed my order through the West Marine website about 1700 January 15. The imprint on the charts shipped to me said they were printed January 16 at about 1600.

The Postal Service delivered my charts about 1300 on January 18. Amazing.

Finally, here's  how the chart collection is stowed on board:

A heavy duty 20 x 24 inch storage bag is the perfect size for Ms. Bettencourt's chart library.







With the charts inside, I press the air out from the bottom, seal the top and fold the flap over.

Then the whole package goes in a locker under a bunk in the forward cabin, ready for use when needed.

It's in the log; it must be true

I have been reading lately about the utility of  a vessel's log book as a legal document. While the U.S. Coast Guard apparently has no regulation requiring pleasure boaters to keep such records, many writers believe that keeping a "proper deck log" can offer some legal protection.

The issue arose recently in a discussion on a trawler Internet list that I follow. Someone was asking advice about using a deck log to prove his vessel's whereabouts. (He was trying to dodge a tax bill from a jurisdiction in which he had lingered only briefly). The thread eventually devolved into a exchange about what constituted the "right way" to keep a log.  One writer cited an insurance rule issued by Lloyd's in the 1980s that says a "proper" deck long consists of:

Materially factually related events and conditions recorded as occurring in a hard bound log or notebook that would be on its face hard to alter after the  fact.

Another recalled requirements from his career as a commercial vessel operator that included:

Use a journal with numbered pages. Never tear out a page. Use a pen, not a pencil. Initial entries. Sign daily. If something is written incorrectly, cross out with a single line, so still legible, correct and initial.

The same writer noted that, as a pleasure boat operator, his deck log is "slightly less anal" than his commercial record keeping. He went on then to write that his trawler log reflected:

...safety drills, who was present, when underway and when anchor lights are turned on and off....When horn and fog signals are tested....When underway offshore I record position speed and bearing every 20 minutes, at which time I also make sure all gauges are checked, bilges are checked (and)...carefully scan the horizon by binoculars and radar.

He also wrote that at the same 20 minute intervals, he performs a count of persons and dogs aboard... He concluded with the observation that "Consistent, logged practices speak a wealth of information if ever involved in legal proceedings."

All this seriously contrasts with my own practices. I have reviewed Ms. Bettencourt's log books going back to 2004. Here's what I found:

• Consistent records of dates, destinations, departure times and arrival times
• Faithful accounts of persons and dogs aboard
• Engine and running gear maintenance notes with engine hour meter readings
• Mostly correct fuel consumption calculations
• Locations and dates of holding tank pump outs 
• One man overboard drill in anticipation of a Bahamas excursion that was aborted due to weather
• One soft grounding requiring Towboat US assistance
• One grounding beyond the tidal reach of a towboat (freed by returning tide)
• One late-night anchor dragging, discovered by a sleepless crewman
• One engine overheat episode, remedied at anchor
• A single report of an anchor and rode nearly lost due to failure to secure the bitter end
• Numerous rants about wakes and ski boats
• Significant numbers of illegible entries, written in a familiar hand (mine).

It seems to me  this audit shows Ms. Bettencourt's deck log practices serve her needs, though we fail to meet Lloyd's higher standards.

LESSONS LEARNED from this review: Write more legibly. Don't run aground. Always secure the bitter end.

Foggy morning sortie

Last night was clear, temperatures remained in the 60s and the air was still. I predicted fog on the river in the morning. I was right.

Visibility was very limited  at 0730 today.

South Carolina looked spooky from the Georgia side of the river.

The water temperature was 55F. The air temperature was 61.

From a quarter-mile away, the I-520 bridge appeared as just a phantom in the distance.





The soup thickened approaching downtown. We could hear outboard motors. A rapidly moving pontoon boat, showing no lights, materialized about 50 feet off our starboard bow.

The driver appeared surprised to see Ms. Bettencourt. He waved.

Other motors were heard nearby. We came about and fled downstream -- at 3 knots-- groping along the South Carolina bank.

The sun became barely visible above Red Buoy 100. (Click a photo to enlarge).










Just drifting, we eventually fetched up on a bank at the mouth of Horse Creek, a little tributary flowing out of Mill Valley in Aiken County, SC.

A spikey deadfall blocked passage up the creek. A breeze sprang up. And the air began to clear ...













... so Ms. Bettencourt backed out and motored downstream in a long, lazy loop back to her home dock on the Georgia side. She was secure in her berth at 0900.

Total cruise time 90 minutes. Present visibility is unlimited.

No destination (maybe not)

I noticed yesterday that there were no cattle on the dirt beach at N33.24.434, W81.56.228. This discovery is in keeping with my New Year's resolution which calls for paying more attention to the journey than to the destination. I am learning that what you see and experience when you're not focused on the end of the trip,  is often gratifying and sometimes surprising.

For example, here's an interesting place on the Georgia side of  the Savannah River. I nosed Ms. Bettencourt up to the bank here because I wanted to look more closely at the cypress tree in the middle of the picture.

Loggers took most of the cypress trees from this area 75 years or so ago. Today's cypress trees must have just been saplings then.

Anyway, when I drifted up close to this tree, there were at least a few surprises: First, I thought that the Spanish moss, which I had not noticed from afar, was draped rather nicely. Then I saw the mostly-overgrown stone riprap on the bank. Where did this rock come from? (You can probably see it better if you click to enlarge the photos). The riprap has been there for a long time. The stone appears to be granite. In some places it is applied symmetrically, bringing to mind the ballast stones around River Street in Savannah. I have also seen stone applied like this between Front Street and the Mississippi River at Memphis.

Another surprise was the depth of the water so close to the bank. I was expecting to touch bottom, not drift through nearly 30 feet of slow-current fluid.

The bottom number on this instrument is the surface water temperature. The air temperature was in the 40s.




Another noteworthy sight from my afternoon meander included the beginnings of an accumulation of buzzards on this power line transmission tower.

By dark, this tower will be nearly black with birds. I wonder what attracts them to this roost? In other seasons I have seen them select a transmission tower directly opposite this one, on the South Carolina side of the river. There's a power plant over there...

...that would be hard to miss even if one were passing by in a hurry. Perhaps the birds find useful thermal air currents around the plant's smoke stacks.

Incidentally, this is a South Carolina Electric & Gas plant that converted from coal to natural gas a couple of years ago. It's about a mile downstream from my dock. I still get black soot deposits on Ms. Bettencourt's top and decks when the wind is from the south, though the accumulations are not as thick and gritty as they were when the plant was coal fired.

This railroad bridge is a few hundred feet upstream from the power plant. There is another just like it near the Augusta waterfront and several more cross the river between here and Savannah. This type is called a single leaf bascule bridge. The gray structure you can see rising above the bridge tender's cabin is a giant block of poured concrete. The concrete serves as a counterweight, allowing a very small engine to do the work of raising and lowering the span.

I am told these bridges are tested from time to time and that they still work, though their days of housing bridge tenders and opening for barge traffic are but a distant memory. The railroad may have run out of paint some time ago too. I imagine clouds of rust enveloping the bridge when a freight clatters through.

Meanwhile, Ms. Bettencourt continues her  pokey progress, generally southward, through most of the afternoon. I have one of the side curtains rolled up to make it easier to shoot photos and to exhaust whatever carbon monoxide might be generated by my propane heater.

It was somewhat less than toasty warm in the cabin, but the little heater kept my feet warm enough.

I found myself wondering if this guy's feet were cold. Would he be longing to capture supper, then get back to the nest and sit on his feet? I think this is a juvenile little grey heron.







Eventually, Ms. Bettencourt comes  to a place where she can go no farther: The Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam, which requires an appointment for opening.

Since we had no destination, no appointment had been made. Nothing to do, but turn around and go home.

This means there is now a destination. I suppose this also means destinations are concepts cruisers can only try to ignore.

Destinations may be inescapable. I must accept the idea of  destination if  I am to be home for supper.