July 3 4 Parade up NY Harbor with LHermione 60 Miles

The New York Times of July 3 had a full page article on the visit of The Hermione. (We learned that while we pronounce her The Her-my-oh-knee, the French call her LAir-me-own.) A replica of the French square rigged wooden gunboat that ferried Lafayette across the puddle to help us win independence from the Brits. She visited Yorktown VA, where the original boat helped defeat the British resupply and re-enforcement fleet, thus causing General Cornwallis to surrender to General Washington, effectively ending the military aspects of the Revolution. We visited Yorktown on our way south and on our way north. Hermione is doing this as a good will tour, to remind us of our friendship with the French and making stops up the eastern seacoast to Boston. 

As Fleet Captain I put this out as a potential Club adventure and three other members joined us for the parade, though only two of us on  HYC registered boats. My friend since 1972, Marty, joined us at ten a.m. at the Harlem and we got underway at 11. But a failure of communication caused us to spend half an hour, drifting, waiting for "Shanghai," a Pearson 31, the other Harlem boat, with CJ and Jenny, while they had gone ahead. During the wait the NYC police burned off a vast stash of fireworks they had taken.

No problem once communications were restored; we caught up with Shanghai at about 90th Street in the East River, making great speed with the favorable tidal flow and engine.





ILENE, shown here passing 25th St.,used mainsail pretty much the whole way, but the wind was so light that except for a few puffs it mostly just prevented rocking.

 We anchored in Gravesend Bay, off the west end of Coney Island, Brooklyn, On the way we were passed by Gandalf 3, another Saga 43 out of Stamford, which I had visited to study its dinghy davit blocks before connecting ILENEs
Gravesend Bay is huge but exposed. But its very near where the parade was to start and there was very little wind at night, so we anchored out on the flat in 17 feet of water, with 70 feet of snubbed chain. There is a deeper channel, 25 to 27 feet, closer to shore, so we stayed further off. Our new smaller stainless steel snubber hook was deployed and it works like a charm. Finally!

Having left at 11:30, we arrived at 3:00 and lowered the dink. You cant miss the spot, Toys R Us put out a big welcome sign. The boats to the left are among the four French flagged Beneteaus,  Waquies [the key for the last letter of the alphabet is inoperative] and hard chined aluminum sloops "dressed" for the parade with their signal flags. They came in after us and anchored far enough away from us. I had expected more boats.

Then came a few hours rest, except I used the time in an unsuccessful attempt to get the cockpit VHF radio to power up. It is so convenient and useful because VHF Channel 8 was used for communications during the parade, but we had to use the inside radio turned up loud.

A shared dinner aboard ILENE for the five of us: Lene, Roger, Marty and CJ. Thanks for your pictures Jenny!

Everyone had brought food that did not need to be cooked and the menu was varied and delicious, starting with a bottle of champagne and cheese provided by Shanghai. We were together from 6 to 9 before I dinked CJ and Jenny back to Shanghai and everyone had a good nights sleep. Jenny, became infatuated with our cats, and can you blame her.

Sunset under the bridge:

In the morning, mango- sweetpotato pancakes were on the agenda, sweetened by honey that we had, and peanut butter that Jenny brought, not that the pancakes really needed to be sweetened much. And I forgot the bacon as well as the maple syrup! And the final system to seemingly go down was the fresh water pump. I can hear it run but it is not bringing water to the tap. So the dishes were rinsed off in a bucket of soapy seawater and will be properly washed once order is restored.

The parade formed up: about a hundred boats at its peak, all at the sides and rear of Hermione once she turned at the start.

I felt bad that I had not yet purchased a new American flag and flagpole after ours went missing during our winter excursion. But marty wore a sweater during the parade which eased my guilt.

The leader had a fetish about arriving under the Veransano Bridge, and at the Statue of Liberty, at precisely pre-scheduled times

presumably for the coordination of a US Navy flyover by two jets, for the media and for fire boat blasts, center in next photo.

But this caused me problems because Hermione did not maintain the five knots speed over ground that had been the plan and was repeated via VHF. I had only the small jib up and engine but it is hard to go straight when you slow down to 1.8 knots and when boats are perhaps fifteen feet away on both sides of you. I should have furled that jib but no harm done.    Here is Shanghai:

 The other expected Harlem participants were Gene, not on "Chandi Nerissa", but on a friends boat out of Stamford, which I did not see, and Rear Commodore Peter, not on "Annandale" but on Ricks boat, now in Jersey City who hailed us immediately after the parade formally ended. Several other Harlem boats rafted up in a rendesvous in Oyster Bay these days so there were plenty of guest moorings available.

I felt guilty for not having purchased a replacement for our American flag and pole, which went missing during our winter travels to Florida. But Marty assuaged my  guilt somewhat by wearing an appropriate sweater.

It was too early to go home when the parade ended because the tide in the East River and Hellsgate were adverse. So we drifted slowly down the Hudson from midtown to the Battery under only the small jib and tide.

The wind was down from the 15 knots out of the north that had faced us during the parade: still from the north but perhaps six knots. And a light rain was falling. When we reached the Battery Lene wanted to go home as soon as possible to see the fireworks from our roof so we did what was silly: we went up stream against the tide using motor, full main and small jib. Unlike the eight plus knots we had enjoyed on the way down, we made speeds that got as high as 4.2 knots, briefly, and as low as 1.1 knots at times.  But we were back on the mooring by 7:30, an hour before sundown. If we had waited two hours before starting, I think we would have arrived only fifteen minutes later, having expended a lot less fuel in the process.
A good time was had by all.

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November 13 and 14 Charleston to Tom Point Creek to Beaufort SC 60 6 Miles

Charleston is like New York in at least one way: both were started at the confluence of two rivers, and the point of juncture is a park and called The Battery.

It is surrounded by lovely stately old homes.  But you cant sail by close because a sand spit extends out from the point.

A pretty easy day of it, 9:45 to 3 pm, motoring all the way in the ICW, which was wide and deep. Cold but not unpleasantly. We made a connection with the boat next to us in the Charleston Marina, "Kachina", a Hans Christian 33, with the most beautifully treated teak.

It is sailed by John and Joanna currently from Colorado but originally from Canada and Marthas Vineyard, respectively. We exchanged cell numbers and stayed close to them all day. We had originally selected Steamboat Creek for the midway anchorage to Beaufort, but Lene read about Tom Point Creek after it was recommended by Jim of "Goldie,"

a home made, steel, blue schooner. So the Admiral changed our destination. The two creeks are only about a mile apart.
The only obstacle today was one low bridge that opens every half hour from 9 to 3:30, only about 4.5 miles from the marina. We left when we were ready and the marina had sent a man to help a boat come in, so he stayed and helped us get off. But it was too late for the 10 am opening so we went very slow for the first 4.5 miles and got there in time for the 10:30 opening and still had time to get through Elliot Cut before its very swift tidal flow turned against us at 11:15.  After anchoring,  I lowered the dink and used it as a platform to get some rust stains out and polished some stainless, before being chased inside by the cold. A cold front with stronger winds passed during the period midnight to 2AM, but our anchor held.

Where is Tom Point Creek, you asked? Oh, it flows into the Wadmalaw River. It runs between Stann and Little Britton Islands. Still no help? Well you wont find Tom Point Creek in Google, except for information on the tides there, but it is about 20 feet deep and just wide enough for a single column of boats to anchor, and swing with the tidal change; a strong tidal current runs through it, For the curious, look in Google Earth at 32 degrees, 38.75 minutes North; 80 degrees, 16.86 minutes West.  It is bordered by salt marshes on both sides

and the book said -- and correctly so -- that dolphins swim up the creek, playful looking but looking for food.





In the morning all six of us had mango pancakes before setting off at about 9:30.

Joanne and Jim

Jim and Susan

Both John and Jim are very handy, the former a carpenter and boat builder, the latter a mechanic who built Goldie and who has lived aboard for 40 years. Both are professional delivery captains so they know something about sailing, in fact, a lot!
When we pulled the hook I did the math: with the Ladies Island Bridge, near Beaufort, closed from 4 to 6 and it being dark by six, we needed speed to get to that Bridge, from which is less than 1/4 mile more to the Downtown Marina of Beaufort. We supplemented the engines power with the small jib and trimmed it on every point of sail during the twisting ICW to gain an extra knot or two. We slowed down only in the three "Cuts" between different rivers. The cuts were short but reported to be shallow, though no problem for us today. A passing shrimp boat, its wings out, surrounded by its posse:

 We made the 3 pm opening, with the grace of the kindly bridge tender. The hundred cars and trucks lined up waiting until 3:06 when we passed, may not have thought of her so kindly, though. I think it was Lenes feminine voice that prevailed upon her to wait for us.

We plan to be on docks, here and in Hilton Head, for several days, using dock power to provide heat until the polar vortex goes away.

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April 15 16 Jekyll to Walburg Creek to Redbird Creek 60 6 and 14 Miles Respectively

We got underway from Jekyll late relative to the tide, at 8:30, due to the need to fuel up. But the first  time we went aground it was solely my fault: Green on the right northbound in the ICW,... I just wasnt thinking. But no biggie; we backed off easily and quickly. The second time it was the fault of the lack of dredging in the ICW: we were in the center of the channel and while we were not stopped, the alarm was ringing and the fathometer said we had only five feet of water so we were dragging the bottom six inches of our keel through eight inches of very soft sediment. But after the first two miles of the days passage, depth was no longer a problem.
St. Simons Sound, gateway to the commercial city of Brunswick, is quite deep. And the tide flowing out, southeast, was favorable, very favorable, so we were motoring at over nine knots. Once clear of the channel we motor sailed during the morning but once the wind came up (a broad starboard reach) we sailed without motor in the afternoon toward St. Catherines Sound. A very pleasant sail under warm and sunny skies. Other than two shrimpers who were working St. Simons Inlet, and a sailboat we were catching up to off St. Catherines Sound, we saw no other boats. We even enjoyed good tide after the jibe, going west into St. Catherines Sound, making eight knots with just the main.
We had started with the plan to go to Wahoo Creek in the Sapelo Inlet. (Most inlets around here are named after the rivers that flow out of them and most are named for Saints: John, Mary, Catherine, Simon -- maybe it was from the period when Spain was influential here?) But while out there, we found that St. Catherines was only ten miles further and we had lots of time to get there before dark, so plan B went into effect.  Nearing arrival, we saw rain clouds gathering to the west, ahead. When we set our anchor in Walburg Creek a light rain had begun and while I was attaching the snubber and securing things it got torrential. Nothing to do when the boat was finally secure but take off all clothing -- everything was saturated -- towel off and put on fresh clothing before dinner.
Walburg Creek is bound by marshes on both sides and sparsely inhabited on land or by boat. We had a scare in the middle of the night when the tide had gone out and we showed only eight feet of water, rather than fourteen, and were dangerously close to the south shore. The wind had come up and the tide was flowing. I got Lene up and she started the engine. I pulled up the anchor, Lene moved us maybe 50 yards to a better spot (there was lots of room) we dropped and set it and, after watching, we went back to sleep. Lene, who edits these posts, criticized me for failing to express our sense of terror while picking up and re-anchoring in inky blackness with current flowing fast and wind howling. She is correct.
In the morning the plan had been to sail to Bull Creek, up in Tybee Roads, which is the entrance to the Savannah River, near Hilton Head. The outside route would have been 43.2 miles as compared to 48.9 via the hairpin turns of the ICW. But the wind was from the north at up to 20 knots and especially for the 20 mile plus outside part of the passage Lene was not enamored of beating into that stuff on a cold grey day with rain forecast. And I was not looking forward to it either. There is a saying to the effect that "Gentlemen do not beat." Beating into strong wind in the ocean beats up the boat and the boaters. So Plan B: inside. But blocking the way was Hell Gate. It is a portion of the ICW, a canal, only .6 miles long, connecting the Ogeechee and Vernon Rivers. But with our draft, we cannot get through except at very near high tide. And the tide was already flowing out and we had a couple more hours to go, so: Plan C: Redbird Creek is a totally uninhabited creek through the marshes and only 4 miles from Hell Gate. It was tricky in Redbird when the strong wind was blowing from the north while the tidal current ran the other way. ILENE did not know how to lie on her anchor. The good news is that the anchor held. No one came through by day or night; it was just us and the kitties. And very dark at night, being for from civilization. We arrived in the late morning with plans to leave in mid afternoon, but stayed the night. The views: N, S, E and W; are impressive for their blandness. At low tide one is six feet lower and sees less other than the banks which are closer.

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