On the water after dark

A prudent mariner will not venture forth  into darkness unnecessarily.

So, prudently, Ms. Bettencourt left the dock a little before sundown last night; (the old nautical maxim being silent on the matter of returning after dark).

The mission was to have a look at a part of the Savannah River we see most often in daylight. It became very dark, very soon. It was black out there, but not as black as expected.

The promenade along the top of the levee was lighted brightly, as were the aisles leading upwards to the arbor at the top of the Jessye Norman Amphitheatre

Looking downstream, the brightest light in the middle of the photo at the right illuminates the area outside the gift shop at the marina.

The 6th Street railroad bridge crosses the river about there, but it's hard to see from this distance.

Downtown Augusta reflects on the river in this photo, shot from a point downstream from the marina.

There's not much nighttime action in this part of town, though a new downtown Convention Center, due to open soon, could liven things up.


The lighting along the Georgia side is so bright that glare makes it difficult to see anything from the water.

Reflections from the tall street lights approaching the the Augusta Rowing Club's Boat House facility make it hard to judge the distance between the riverbank and a row of submerged pilings that I know extend down the middle of the river around here.




I find I can see better with my glasses off. I have also learned that Ms. Bettencourt's instrument panel lights wipe out my night vision. They were turned off shortly after nightfall.

The rest of the night patrol was unremarkable. We just followed the GPS track south towards Ms. Bettencourt's home berth...

...where this apparition was photographed from the dock ramp.

Adding flash to the photo (right) reveals the identity of the looming lurker pictured above.













Lessons learned: The GPS and depth sounder were important aids for piloting. Glare on the water was a problem. Something needs to be done about the over-bright instrument lights.

Note: Click a photo to enlarge and improve detail (maybe somewhat).

Cold, wet, rocky, shallow...

... end of the line

This is about as far from the sea as you can go in a propeller-driven boat on the Savannah River.

Ms. Bettecourt's depth sounder was showing three feet when I snapped this shot in an upstream direction from a point on the river north of North Augusta, SC.

If you click the photo to enlarge it, you should be able to see rapids.

Had you been there with me, you could have looked down through surprisingly clear water to see big rocks, some patches of sand and streamers of weed. This is as close as Ms. Bettencourt would go to the rapids on this trip.

 I ventured closer several decades ago. One blade from the bronze propeller on the houseboat I had then didn't make it back from that excursion.

Yesterday we were at the rapids, on an outing to test a long-unused backup chart plotter. It still works.

I was also seeking some peaceful solitude to contemplate upgrades to this 12-volt mare's nest behind Ms. Bettencourt's instrument panel.



Ten years ago, this was a very neat installation, replacing a 30-year-old jumble of un-labeled wires, glass fuses and rusty connectors.

This modernized 12-volt distribution system is still fully functional today, but I think it needs a capacity expansion and a lot of neatening up.

Perhaps I will work on this instead of starting on the next set of curtains.

More curtains? No worries!

Start with a roll of butcher paper, some tape and a felt-tip marker.

Make a template for each window, showing gasket outlines and where the rods go through bulkhead brackets.

Make the first cut of the fabric fearlessly (after measuring and re-measuring).

Stitch up the hems, headers, footers and rod pockets.

Hang'em up.

Deploy a 3-pound hammer and a chisel to crack two epoxied rod brackets off the bulkhead so they
can be re-positioned correctly.

Curtains for one window completed. Five more sets to go.

Unfortunately, this installation was not as easy as it may appear to be.

My friend Erena made the two-panel curtain set pictured here from the template we traced for the port window in the forward cabin.

But, the curtains would not fit the port window at all. I tried them on the other side and they didn't fit there either -- until I whacked those rod brackets loose. (Click the photo to enlarge so you can see how far the brackets had to move).

So what happened? The cabin's side windows are not rectangular. They are wedge-shaped, with the taller ends toward the aft end of the cabin. Our curtain panels are rectangles. It seems to me that we must have accidentally fitted the curtain rod pockets to the shorter end of the window opening.

Chalk up another learning experience!

On the  positive side, this pair worked out anyway and I like the look of the result. But, we will probably try something different on the next set of panels.

Please stay tuned for more exciting developments.

About those curtains...

Regular readers know that I have been dithering over Ms. Bettencourt's new curtains for months, beginning here: http://tinyurl.com/aoc8vca

To recap the back story: After a lengthy search, I had special-ordered a quantity of very expensive fabric. I then turned complete coward when it came time to start (irreversibly) cutting the stuff for sewing. 

My friend Erena Creighton, a celebrated interior designer, and sewing person without peer, had generously offered to help me through the process. But still, I waffled. More time slipped away.

Erena called last week -- to set a date to begin the sewing. No place for me to hide. "Bring the fabric," she said. "Bring the window dimensions. Only six windows. This will be easy." 

So my roll of fabric and I show up at Paul and Erena's on the appointed day. Then the project stalled yet again. We found that my carefully-drawn windows dimensions were not completely understandable.

Somewhat legible but, unfortunately, incomplete

Of course, my dimensioned drawings seemed perfectly understandable to me--until I was asked to explain why none of the curtain rods were parallel and why the ceilings were so low.

We needed to know how much room we have to work with above and below the window openings.

We needed to know the precise locations of the curtain rods above and below the window openings.

I could not provide this information with any degree of certainty.

It was decided that the cutting and sewing must await answers to these vital questions. I was given assignments: Go and make paper templates; one for each window, with each showing where the rods are located. And take a lot of pictures of the areas above and below the window openings.

So that is what I am doing this weekend. We are to reconvene with the templates, the pictures and the still un-cut fabric next Tuesday morning. 

There may be more progress to report after that session.

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.