O’ dark thirty in the land of dolphins and pelicans and I’m up early for a couple of reasons not immediately related to the gale warning.
Primarily, I was roused from my warm bunk by an abiding curiosity about the cabin temperature. Although I’ve woken comfortably on a couple of still and frosty mornings, I haven’t been on the boat enough in cold weather to have confidence in how comfortable I will be aboard in near and sub freezing temperatures accompanied by wind. This has a major bearing on whether I will have the option of staying up in the wilder and more interesting regions of Georgia and northern Florida or will be forced down into the long ditches filled with big powerboats.
I had the cabin heater on its lowest setting all night with the radiator circulating. (Details of system here: http://www.cruisingonstrider.us/10Winter.htm) At 0500 when I turned out, the thermometer I tied to the lifelines read 30 F and a brisk NW wind was blowing. The thermometer in the barometer screwed to the hanging locker bulkhead read 60 F. That was a little disappointing but the cabin didn’t feel chilly. The back of the bulkhead is on a space heat doesn’t circulate well to and is close to the hull. I bumped up the cabin heater setting and got out my new travel alarm with built in thermometer.
The cabin heater has never burned well when I have tried it at higher settings which has been one of my concerns. However, when it is good and hot after running all night, it burns quite well with a big flame and a bit of fan for the first ten minutes while it warms up to provide enough draft for the higher fuel flow. By the time I could turn the fan off, the temperature on the cabin table was up to 68 F. Forty five minutes later, as I write this, it is 70 on the cabin table and I have turned the heater back down a bit and turned off the radiator to direct all the water coil heat to the water heater. It’s 82 F. at the ceiling and only 62 F. on the cabin floor but I have a 12 volt electric fan and length of ducting to deal with that if it ever becomes an issue. My bare feet in slippers are not uncomfortably cold and I’m still sitting in pajamas.
I think I’m good for whatever weather is likely to come this far south. I’ll only need to go on into Florida if it strikes my fancy after I reach Saint Mary’s and can start working my way north again fairly early.
The other reason for my early rising was a good night’s sleep. I turned in at cruiser’s midnight (2100). Although I woke briefly in the stronger gusts, it was just to think a contented thought and go back to sleep. Good anchors are better than sleeping pills.
I picked my anchorage in anticipation of the strong NW winds since there is a high bluff of trees close at hand in that direction. The wind however stayed stubbornly just south of west which brought it right up the channel. After some impressive heeling and sailing around yesterday afternoon, I realized that I did not want to be dealing with an anchoring emergency in the middle of the night if the coming gale winds failed to veer. There is a very strong ebb in this spot and a deep hole behind me with a steep bank at the bend in the creek so dragging would not be pretty.
Yesterday was a day of rest for my back which had not taken kindly to my over enthusiastic jib cranking while beating to windward the day before. All this power boating has me pretty out of shape. Rowing an anchor out in the dinghy was out of the question and all anchor handling was going to need to be done very carefully to avoid having the memory of the day linger for a long time.
I got the pieces of the big Guardian anchor out of the bilge and assembled it in the cockpit. It’s rated for a 47 foot boat and, being a Danforth type, is good for the muddy sand of these creeks. I also carry about 150 feet of chain in the bilge as ballast and for times like this so I fed a 25 foot length in a canvas tote bag and carefully carried that up to the foredeck. My other short length of chain was on the Fortress anchor which was out astern to hold me straight into the wind against the strong flood tide current. This stern anchor was a complication to the whole upcoming procedure in which I wanted to get the Guardian out about 40 degrees from my main anchor.
I attached the chain and nylon rode to the Guardian on the foredeck. I then tied a piece of 3/16” braided line about six feet long to the bow cleat , ran it through the anchor shackle, and made the end fast to the cleat. I then eased the anchor out through the bow pulpit so it hung just low enough to avoid banging on the hull. The chain was piled on deck next to the cleat and the rode run through the bow chock and back to the 5 gallon bucket I keep my spare rode flaked down in.
The stern anchor rode was almost all the way out so I flaked a 100 foot line into another bucket and tied it onto the end. Once all this was set up, the rest of the job took only about five minutes.
I started the engine, cast off the stern anchor, and started motoring around the radius of my main anchor. The trick with this maneuver is to turn away from the rode just enough to keep some tension on it and let the line steer the bow around. You can see the rode streaming out abeam so there is no risk of overrunning and fouling it. The stern anchor line ran out without difficulty and it was easy to bring the boat up nearly even with the main anchor and the length of the scope to one side.
I then ran forward , cast off the 3/16” braid, and eased the chain clear over the side. As the boat drifted back, the rode ran easily out of the bucket and I went back to pull in the slack of the stern anchor.
I went back forward and snubbed the Guardian rode just before the main anchor rode looked like it would come taut. I got a good firm set and then let out enough rode on the Guardian set the boat comfortably. A final tensioning on the stern anchor and I was ready to go back to my excellent book (“Passage To Juneau", Jonathan Raban, an absolute must read for anyone with time and inclination to have read this far in my post.) and give no further thought to ground tackle until sitting down to write this. No strain or sweat at all and my back feels fine this morning.
Primarily, I was roused from my warm bunk by an abiding curiosity about the cabin temperature. Although I’ve woken comfortably on a couple of still and frosty mornings, I haven’t been on the boat enough in cold weather to have confidence in how comfortable I will be aboard in near and sub freezing temperatures accompanied by wind. This has a major bearing on whether I will have the option of staying up in the wilder and more interesting regions of Georgia and northern Florida or will be forced down into the long ditches filled with big powerboats.
I had the cabin heater on its lowest setting all night with the radiator circulating. (Details of system here: http://www.cruisingonstrider.us/10Winter.htm) At 0500 when I turned out, the thermometer I tied to the lifelines read 30 F and a brisk NW wind was blowing. The thermometer in the barometer screwed to the hanging locker bulkhead read 60 F. That was a little disappointing but the cabin didn’t feel chilly. The back of the bulkhead is on a space heat doesn’t circulate well to and is close to the hull. I bumped up the cabin heater setting and got out my new travel alarm with built in thermometer.
The cabin heater has never burned well when I have tried it at higher settings which has been one of my concerns. However, when it is good and hot after running all night, it burns quite well with a big flame and a bit of fan for the first ten minutes while it warms up to provide enough draft for the higher fuel flow. By the time I could turn the fan off, the temperature on the cabin table was up to 68 F. Forty five minutes later, as I write this, it is 70 on the cabin table and I have turned the heater back down a bit and turned off the radiator to direct all the water coil heat to the water heater. It’s 82 F. at the ceiling and only 62 F. on the cabin floor but I have a 12 volt electric fan and length of ducting to deal with that if it ever becomes an issue. My bare feet in slippers are not uncomfortably cold and I’m still sitting in pajamas.
I think I’m good for whatever weather is likely to come this far south. I’ll only need to go on into Florida if it strikes my fancy after I reach Saint Mary’s and can start working my way north again fairly early.
The other reason for my early rising was a good night’s sleep. I turned in at cruiser’s midnight (2100). Although I woke briefly in the stronger gusts, it was just to think a contented thought and go back to sleep. Good anchors are better than sleeping pills.
I picked my anchorage in anticipation of the strong NW winds since there is a high bluff of trees close at hand in that direction. The wind however stayed stubbornly just south of west which brought it right up the channel. After some impressive heeling and sailing around yesterday afternoon, I realized that I did not want to be dealing with an anchoring emergency in the middle of the night if the coming gale winds failed to veer. There is a very strong ebb in this spot and a deep hole behind me with a steep bank at the bend in the creek so dragging would not be pretty.
Yesterday was a day of rest for my back which had not taken kindly to my over enthusiastic jib cranking while beating to windward the day before. All this power boating has me pretty out of shape. Rowing an anchor out in the dinghy was out of the question and all anchor handling was going to need to be done very carefully to avoid having the memory of the day linger for a long time.
I got the pieces of the big Guardian anchor out of the bilge and assembled it in the cockpit. It’s rated for a 47 foot boat and, being a Danforth type, is good for the muddy sand of these creeks. I also carry about 150 feet of chain in the bilge as ballast and for times like this so I fed a 25 foot length in a canvas tote bag and carefully carried that up to the foredeck. My other short length of chain was on the Fortress anchor which was out astern to hold me straight into the wind against the strong flood tide current. This stern anchor was a complication to the whole upcoming procedure in which I wanted to get the Guardian out about 40 degrees from my main anchor.
I attached the chain and nylon rode to the Guardian on the foredeck. I then tied a piece of 3/16” braided line about six feet long to the bow cleat , ran it through the anchor shackle, and made the end fast to the cleat. I then eased the anchor out through the bow pulpit so it hung just low enough to avoid banging on the hull. The chain was piled on deck next to the cleat and the rode run through the bow chock and back to the 5 gallon bucket I keep my spare rode flaked down in.
The stern anchor rode was almost all the way out so I flaked a 100 foot line into another bucket and tied it onto the end. Once all this was set up, the rest of the job took only about five minutes.
I started the engine, cast off the stern anchor, and started motoring around the radius of my main anchor. The trick with this maneuver is to turn away from the rode just enough to keep some tension on it and let the line steer the bow around. You can see the rode streaming out abeam so there is no risk of overrunning and fouling it. The stern anchor line ran out without difficulty and it was easy to bring the boat up nearly even with the main anchor and the length of the scope to one side.
I then ran forward , cast off the 3/16” braid, and eased the chain clear over the side. As the boat drifted back, the rode ran easily out of the bucket and I went back to pull in the slack of the stern anchor.
I went back forward and snubbed the Guardian rode just before the main anchor rode looked like it would come taut. I got a good firm set and then let out enough rode on the Guardian set the boat comfortably. A final tensioning on the stern anchor and I was ready to go back to my excellent book (“Passage To Juneau", Jonathan Raban, an absolute must read for anyone with time and inclination to have read this far in my post.) and give no further thought to ground tackle until sitting down to write this. No strain or sweat at all and my back feels fine this morning.
