July 18th - Oh, Savannah!

Oh, Savannah, oh, don't you cry for me. For I've gone to go to
Charleston,
the techie for to see!

We headed out the channel at 7:30, and turned the corner for Savannah.
The
breeze was light, so we - again! - motored toward our destination of
Savannah at 23 degrees. As I was already very up and awake (see below)
I
took the first watch and Lydia went back below to sleep. Soon, the
wind
moved around a bit so I could put up the sails. There was a trawler in
front
of me that caused some concern, as I'd have to change direction so
that I'd
be in front of him. However, as I proceeded to put up the main under
idling
autopilot, I saw that he was anchored. No problems! Even better, as I
came
around on my port tack, and passed him, I saw what must have been 25
porpoises milling around the boat. Perhaps the shrimpers threw off by-
catch,
attracting them, or maybe
the porpoises just wanted to show off, but they were all around the
boat,
and their
blowing as they surfaced was clearly visible from the half mile away
or so
that I was. Perhaps, one day at anchor, we'll be fortunate enough to
have
our boat surrounded by porpoises, too!

The wind was still low enough that I motorsailed, but at least it was
in a
position to do some good to our speed. Whenever the sails are useful
for
sailing, they also stiffen the boat, so the ride was very comfortable.
By
the time Lydia returned, just before our new, 4-hour shift change, the
wind
had moderated, but still was providing some lift. I suggested that we
continue to motorsail at a relatively high rpm in order to fully
charge our
batteries in case we found some wind and wanted to turn it off.

Of course, I reviewed where we were, and identified the various
vessels in
the area. Three of them were warships - a submarine in the middle of
what
may have been supply ships, as they didn't look like fighting craft.
As we
were moving out of the area of our chartbook of the East Coast of
Florida, I
went to the back of the book where there was a larger scale chart.
Imagine
my surprise when I saw that Charleston was actually very close to
Savannah,
in relative terms, Better yet, the coastline was curving so that we
would
have relatively even less extra to go there. As our kids were not able
to
come to Savannah, we quickly agreed that Charleston it was.

There is an overriding reason to hurry to Charleston, as well. It's
where
the guy I know from the internet - the one who got me started down the
road
to ship's internet connectivity - who loves to work on boat
electronics, and
is component-level qualified, making his living as a theater and
church
electronic organ repair professional. While he can't leave Charleston,
if I
bring the boat to him...

Before we went to bed last night, I troubleshot the refrigerator to
being a
low-voltage problem. We'd not had what I thought was low voltage, but
apparently the computer which controls the refrigerator does. Once we
ran
the engine, and the sun came out, we quickly recharged our (rather
large)
battery bank to "full", and the refrigerator continued to run until we
shut
off the engine.

Once again, it stopped cooling, and the freezer and refrigerator temps
rose,
even though the battery monitor shows "full." I'll have to run the
engine
again, apparently, to raise the voltage. We need to resolve this
quickly, as
it's crucial to our ability to live long term without shopping
continuously.

Meanwhile, we'd been referred to an anchoring spot up the river as we
were
leaving our kind hosts' dock. It proved to be nearly impossible (it
was, for
us) to get a hook into what sounded and felt like hard rock and
pebbles over
it. At least we got a polished anchor from the experience!

We looked at the charts of the river and moved much closer to the
inlet.
That proved to be excellent holding, and while disconcerting to find
ourselves so close to shore if the wind and current were just right,
it
never got shallower than 12 feet, and was mostly closer to 20. Two
tidal
shifts later, we'd slept soundly and woke to head out again.

So, as I write, we're on a starboard tack, the wind having shifted
nearly
opposite to what it was when we started, and it's picked up a bit,
too.
We're
moving right along on a broad reach, with an easy and comfortable
motion. In
the meantime, I've pulled the two most recent satellite pictures, with
another due in an hour or so. The most recent (last and upcoming) show
the
area where we are, but also from Savannah out to past Mexico City, and
from
Hudson Bay to Columbia. The next one will show from Texas to about 500
miles
from the African coast, and from Columbia and Venezuela to nearly the
tip of
Greenland. This particular piece of electronic gear is very certainly
a
bright spot in our otherwise mostly-frustrating electronic array.

Meanwhile, the wind has shifted, and picked up, so we're on a broad
reach,
making 7 knots in 10-12 knots of wind. We just had a real treat of
what
appeared to be a family of porpoises starting at the side of our boat,
but
then going to the bow for about 15 minutes of fun. The little ones
were
shepherded by a much larger one - don't know if it was Daddy or Mommy
- but
they swam so as to look at us, as if to say, "Please, take our
pictures."
So, of course, we obliged. Unfortunately, the water's not perfectly
clear,
and the speed of our boat (and them, of course) made it such that
there was
a lot of blur in the pictures. However, we believe we have many lovely
shots
of as many as 6 together, playing under my feet as I sat on the bow
seat. It
doesn't get much better than this...

My maritime net checkin was successful tonight, and we left a message
for
the internet buddy who's also a ham, but only has his rig in his car,
as
that's where he is most of the time. Also tonight we finished off the
last
of the fish. Our master fisherman had failed to catch anything at all,
let
alone something we could eat - but, boy, did we eat fish for the first
4
days! Of course, it's now our turn to become self-sufficient, so we'll
have
to practice. Now, however, darkness looms, and we have to secure for
unseen
circumstances, so I'll stop here. Next stop, Charleston!

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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