Taking care of the wheels

One of the most utilitarian features of the Albin-25 is that it is road mobile. This means that in order to get to our next cruise's departure point in Georgetown, SC, we need only back the trailer into the river with my trusty truck, load the boat and drive away. It's going to be about a 4-hour trip. That compares to four days from my dock to Georgetown, should I elect to go by water. This makes it easy to understand the importance of a trailer for long-range Albin-25 cruising.

Some boaters take their trailers for granted. I do not. Ms. Bettencourt's trailer is heavily built of galvanized steel. It's a double-axle model and it weighs about 1,500 pounds. When on the trailer, the boat sits on two bunks, each of which is made of two bolted-together 2x12s. The bunks are carpeted, both to protect the hull of the boat and the underlying wooden timbers.

Here's a shot of the trailer's main bunks.  Click on the photos to enlarge. I have it parked in a clearing carved out of an outlying part of our property. Doesn't that foliage look like a tropical jungle? I believe there are mosquitoes in there the size of condors.

This is a closeup of what's left of the carpet on one of the bunks. The other bunk is just as bad.

The last time the bunks were re-carpeted was in December 2008, so it is time to renew the stuff.







Last week, I towed the trailer over to my friend Major's house, where the mosquitoes are somewhat smaller. I have the new carpet and fasteners. We think the re-carpeting work will take about two days.

Other trailer safety measures we will attend to before loading the boat include checking: tire pressures, wheel hub lubricant, brake fluid, safety chains, the winch and winch strap and the directional and brake lights.

I tow this rig with a carefully maintained full-sized V-8 powered Ford-150 pickup truck.

All of which goes to prove that there is a lot more to boating than just the boat.

Planing begins for next voyage

Yes, there is going to be a next voyage. Next month, sometime. The current plan is for my friend Major and I to trailer Ms. Bettencourt to Georgetown, SC, launch at some location to be determined, then go someplace interesting by water. It should be apparent in this narrative by now, that planning is not far advanced. But the commitment is firm.

Certain preparations have already been made. For example, I have ordered new carpet for the trailer bunks. Major is calling Georgetown to find out where we can launch and where to store the truck and trailer while we cruise. I  filled the boat with diesel fuel Saturday. The cruising gears are beginning to turn.

About words ...

Please recall that I found an old fiddle and installed it on Ms. Bettencourt last week and, at that time, pondered the derivation of the term fiddle to describe a doohicky designed to keep stuff from sliding around in a seaway. A couple of days ago I remembered a book I bought last winter on the recommendation of my friend Andy in Chapel Hill. The Sailor's Word Book, begun in 1858 by the late Admiral W.H. Smyth, RN, contains more than 14,000 nautical and naval terms. Here's what the admiral had to say about a fiddle:

FIDDLE. A contrivance to keep things from rolling off the table in bad weather. It takes its name from its resemblance to a fiddle, being made of small cords passed through wooden bridges, and hauled very taught.

This book is fascinating. Here's another timeless entry, selected at random:

BOX THE COMPASS, To. Not only to repeat the names of the 32 points in order and backwards, but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its divisions.

Perhaps learning how to box the compass would be a worthy personal development goal for the winter of 2012-2013?

The 744-page paperback book is available at a very reasonable $14.96 USD from Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/8r7dkwq

...and painting

Back on Ms. Bettencourt, work continues to advance slowly. If it doesn't get too hot before I get motivated to go to work, the second and final touchup paint coat will be applied in the forward cabin today.

After that, all that remains to be done before the next voyage begins will be to neaten up a bit, move in the bedding, re-provision,  finalize cruise plans, inspect the safety gear, check for hurricanes, fix the trailer bunks, study on boxing the compass...

... and hit the road for Georgetown.

Reflecting on entropy and fitting a fiddle

Ms. Bettencourt's return to active status is proceeding--inexorably, but very slowly.

The aft cabin is cleaned up and re-stowed. The middle cabin bulkheads and the underside of the new top have been repainted. The rest of the middle cabin, including the dash and deck boards are clean, but obviously in need of refurbishment.

I have begun cleaning and re-stowing the forward cabin, including the galley and head. This has revealed  many other things in need of attention. For example, a rash has developed in the paintwork under the windows, a painted plywood deck board is de-laminating and paint is flaking off bulkheads here and there.

All this has me thinking about entropy. If you define the term as the "inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society," and if you accept Ms. Bettencourt as a system (which she surely is), then she is surely beset by entropy. There is only one, albeit temporary, cure for entropy: Try to stay ahead of it. I have fallen behind.

So an afternoon I expected to spend dusting, wiping down painted surfaces, cleaning windows and re-stowing mattresses and linens degenerated into a long session with a paint scraper, sandpaper and masking tape. This is generally unrewarding drudge work which is likely to continue for some days.

But it could be a whole lot worse: In 2004, when I was working to bring the boat back to life after a 12-year abandonment by a previous owner, the forward cabin looked like this:

You can click on the pictures to enlarge. It was not a pretty sight.













Here's a photo of the galley, taken at about the same time. Notice the clutter of containers behind the two horizontal dowels to the left. That retaining structure is called a "fiddle," a nautical term of uncertain origin.

Can you believe I actually saved that primitive fiddle when I gutted the interior?

I not only saved it, but I was able to find it yesterday, after only a brief search






Here it is, back in place for a trial fitting. I will have to set it somewhat lower than it was before to work around a strut that holds up a microwave shelf  I added above the space during renovation.

I think my old/new fiddle is going to be a neat and functional addition to the galley space.










In case you are curious, that  blue stuff shown on the bulkheads in the old photos was indoor-outdoor carpeting. The previous owner had applied the stuff over the original hull liner with two-sided tape. I tore all that out in 2003-04, as well as all the degraded original hull liner. I painted the entire interior with Interlux Bilgekote. It has held up well, except for previously mentioned rash under the windows.

And, concluding this reflection on entropy, it's important to note the degradations that had me worried in Ms. Bettercourt yesterday, pale in comparison to the end stage entropy I faced on the same vessel in 2003.

Afloat again; rolling enclosure curtains

My brother Boris emailed from his home in New Mexico this morning, wanting to know if the boat was launched on schedule or if some other disaster had occurred. This caused me to conclude that if there is such sincere interest in the matter in the American desert Southwest, the rest of the world probably needs to know what happened as well. Thanks Boris. Here's the report:

Ms Bettencourt came off her trailer almost too easily at the North Augusta ramp yesterday morning. The ramp is so steep and the river so low that the boat's anchor nearly caught on the trailer winch stand. Though my policy is that "a millimeter is as good as a kilometer," I'll watch this clearance closer in future launches.

Transit from the ramp to my dock was uneventful. The long-silent old 3-cylinder Kubota engine started easily and ran flawlessly. We clocked 6.6 knots by GPS at 1900 RPM downstream.

A cleaning frenzy has begun. Except for two road trips to Charleston and back, the boat has been parked 100 yards downwind from a steel fabricating plant since July 24. There is a gritty film all over, inside and out.

After the cleanup, I will recommission the pressure water system, the water heater and the fresh water head. I also need to make sure that my GPS is still talking with my DSC-enabled VHF radio transceiver.

And a few minor changes will be made to the newly installed cabin enclosure. The way the side curtains roll up will be improved. I shortened and reinforced the belaying straps on the port side curtain today and the changes were definitely an improvement.

If you  click to enlarge this picture you will get a perspective on the opening size with the side curtain rolled up to the outside. Ideally, one would want the curtain bundle rolled as tightly as possible up under the roof overhang.

But, I am told that can damage the clear vinyl window material. so we are rolling loosely, but lifting the roll higher than it was when it came out of the canvas shop.

Here's what it looks like from the outside. I like the opening size.

And here's the inside view. Incidentally, it is also possible to roll the curtains up with the roll on the inside of the cabin instead of outside under the roof overhang. I tried it both ways. I like the roll to the outside better.



I will probably do the starboard side curtain the same way. The back curtain will stay the way it is, because I think I will be rolling the back curtain up only infrequently.

Next week, I'm planning a day cruise down river to Gum Swamp and back. My friends Major and Wendell will be coming over for that trip. Everything should be shipshape before then.

Dirt scouting

My friend Paul and I drove down to Savannah yesterday, stopping at a number of  landings on either side of the Savannah River. I wanted to reassure myself that the on-line automated river gauges were telling the truth. I am thinking increasingly of a fall cruise down river to Savannah, thence to Beaufort, SC. It would not be a happy trip if I had to bring a shovel and dig my own channels.

Why, you might ask, would there ever be a sufficient water issue? The answer is the drought. The upstream lake levels are at historic lows. Thurmond Lake, from whence the Savannah River now issues, has a normal pool level of about 330 feet above mean sea level. Now it stands at 318 above MSL. Some people are walking around their grounded lakeside boat docks pushing lawnmowers.

The US Army Corps of Engineers tries to manage recreational water water storage demands and still let enough water go downstream from dams at the lakes to prevent saltwater intrusion into the aquifer at Savannah harbor.

Here's a link that seeks to explain how they do it.

 http://water.sas.usace.army.mil/home/IndexDU.htm

The schematic on the left will lead you to river gauge readings at various locations. If you click on "Morning report" at the top of the page and scroll down to Thurmond, you will get a tabular snapshot showing levels, inflows, outflows and other data over time.

The Engineers have reduced the flow to 3800 cubic feet per second. This is worrisome because low flow contributes to channel silting. Savannah River channels have not been dredged since the 1970s. I may still bring a shovel.

However, our reconnoiter indicates there is sufficient water in the river now to float Ms. Bettencourt down to the sea. And, we had an enjoyable time finding that out.

Our first stop, on the South Carolina side of the river, was at Little Hell Landing. Some years ago the owner of a farm nearby drilled an artesian well by a slough off the main river. It is still bubbling away prodigiously. The water temperature at the fountain is about 60F. The last time Paul and I came here by boat we spotted a couple of alligators swimming across the slough. I had to be the first to wade ashore to assure Paul a gator free zone.

Little Hell is actually a fairly inviting place. The cold water from the well makes it a popular site for a shocking plunge on a hot summer day. Judging from many recently used campfire sites, it must be a destination for outings too. It is picturesque.

Continuing South from Little Hell, we drove up to a couple of lesser landings, both most notable for biting insect populations. Then, crossing the River on old US Highway 301, we visited Burton's Ferry Landing. Burton's Ferry, also known as Millhaven,  is at about the halfway point on the river between Augusta and Savannah Harbor. There is plenty of water here.

The above photo is looking down river. Back in the days of river commerce, Burton's Ferry was a stopping place for tugs and barges. The bundle of pilings in the following picture is first in a row of several "camels" where towboats and barges tied up.

Highway 301 was a four-lane highway over the river here, with a high swing bridge and full-time bridge tenders. The bridge was de-activated and locked open a couple decades ago and the two lanes of the highway that once passed over the swing span have been re-routed.




The latticed pilings and swing bridge structure remain in place and seem to be as ready now as they were when the bridge was working.

Our final scouting stop of the day was also on the Georgia side of the river. Ebenezer Landing is a place with a fascinating history: The first Europeans to inhabit this area were the Salzburgers, a group of devout Protestants fleeing persecution in Austria and Germany. This building has been in continuous use as a place of worship since 1734. There was a thriving fortified community here until the Revolutionary War, when the town was destroyed by the British. The church, a large churchyard cemetery and a retreat center remain today.

Before its destruction, Ebenezer was know for its silk production. And,  briefly, the town served as capital of the Georgia colony.







We checked a privately owned. boat ramp on the river nearby, staying just long enough to confirm a healthy water flow past the place. I remember this area from my last river trip. It will be a tricky passage. The channel is mostly on the South Carolina side. Water access to the Ebenezer Landing ramp is limited to very small boats. We won't be stopping here.

Meanwhile, back in Augusta, the current plan is to launch Ms. Bettencourt into the river at the North Augusta ramp next Tuesday. We trailered her to Charleston and back last Wednesday for final modifications to the new enclosure. We are more than ready now for some time on the water.

Marooned!

I would really like to launch Ms Bettencourt back into the Savannah River for a return to my home dock. I want to give her a thorough cleanup inside, re-stow gear and provisions, bring the bedding back aboard and do about a dozen other things that need to be done before I can go cruising again. There are two main obstacles in the way of this objective: The US Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Augusta, Ga.

Actually, the Army is more at fault. The City just bumbled a design decades ago and probably doesn't even know yet that a chicken has come home to roost.

The Army Engineers get it first. River gauge data for the 13-mile long stretch between the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam upstream past my dock to the rapids at North Augusta shows the Engineers are holding this pool at less than 115 feet above mean sea level. They say it is a foot lower than usual, but I think it is actually much lower.

The water rings on a piling at my dock are what I use for a river gauge, and it doesn't agree with the drop the Engineers claim. I make the high-to-low water level span on my piling to be about two feet, not 12 inches.

I use the brace board attached to the back of the piling as a guide in making my estimate. It is a 3" x 12" timber. The size of this board helps me judge the distance from the present water level to the usual level, the top ring on the piling. I say it's about two feet.












The spokesperson for the Engineers in Savannah says the water level has been lowered to reduce stress on the gates at the 74-year-old New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. Not everyone believes that explanation, but it is possible since the Engineers have done almost no maintenance work on the lock and dam since the 1970s.

Anyway, what the City of Augusta is going to learn soon is that it's main boat ramp on our upper pool part of the river has been rendered useless for all but small boats by a combination of bad design and the Engineers' river depth reduction.

Here's the City's Boathouse Ramp

A quick look suggests an inviting launch point, but a closer inspection reveals a major flaw. This ramp, while it is paved more than 50 feet out into the river, has almost no slope.

At the current river water level, water depth at the ramp is only about waist-deep--all the way to the end.

This "ramp" is more like a shelf. There is not enough water here to float Ms. Bettencourt off her trailer.



Fortunately, there is an alternative. The North Augusta ramp on the South Carolina side of the river is about five miles farther upstream at the end of a circuitous urban neighborhood route. Trailering there will have to be very carefully done, due to foliage hanging over roadways. And once I get there, turning the rig around to launch will not be easy. Here's the North Augusta ramp

I think it can be done, but only early in the morning on a weekday when the ramp parking lot is likely to be empty.










So, that's what I am thinking about doing now. Later this week, Dia and I will be trailering the boat back to the canvas guy in Charleston for some minor adjustments to the new enclosure.

Perhaps it will be possible to launch into the river at North Augusta early next week.