Hi, Bob, and list,

On Jun 20, 1:50*pm, Bob wrote:
On Jun 20, 6:26*am, Skip Gundlach wrote:

March 14 - On the road again...
As night approached, we thought to come back to the shoreline
area north of the channel, and anchor off Cumberland Island. *I
don't know what the bottom is there,

Did you looka at a chart. Somtimes charts have that info
How abouta crusing guide?
Or god forbid the Coast Pilot!

Well, actually, we did. Only in retrospect, after having gone through
the chartkit, the paper individual chart, the cruising guide (no
comment), the charts on MaxSea and, finally, the Cap'n, did I find,
drilling down to a 0.5mile view in the Cap'n, that it was soft shale.

We usually rely on the charts' little notes for bottom stuff - but
until I did it a couple of days ago, at leisure, I couldn't find it.
No biggie, in any event, as we hove to...


I made the decision
to, instead, heave to for the night.
Given the realities, I made the decision to get well clear of any
potential involvement with hard points. *
*Very
comfortably, we sat there, nearly motionless (other than our
slide to leeward), comfortable and dry, and slept soundly with
the anchor and cockpit lights ablaze.
When we arose to a brilliant day, later, we saw that we'd drifted
nearly 20 miles while hove to. *
Skip

My dear friend Skip................

While bobbing around hove-to did you have a someone responsible for
lookout duties who was actually awake at all times an looking out for
big hard objects?

Im not a very good reader and may have missed that point in you
description.

Nope, you didn't miss anything, other than, perhaps, that before
heaving to, we made sure to get to deep water and out of the potential
way of any hard objects - and by the way, also very far off the beaten
track as to traffic of any sort, let alone shipping.

My current read is "cruising in seraffyn" and whaddya know? On Page
35, off the coast of Isla Guadaloupe, it reads:

"Just before sunset, the afternoon northwesterly caught us, and we
began an exhilarating sleigh ride that continued for the next three
days.

"Larry adjusted the windvane, reefed the main and adjusted the lapper
on the pole. With Helmer (Ed. note: the windvane/steering setup)
completely in control, we settled down for cocktails, steak, lobster,
baked potatoes and a tossed salad while we watched a fiery sunset over
the fast-disappearing island.

"That night we both slept soundly, far from the shipping lanes,
running along at over 5 knots. Morning found us far enough south to
discard our winter clothes and start sunbathing."

I don't know about you, but I rely on the good sense of people like
Lin and Larry, having read much of their later stuff - and if they can
sail full bore while they both sleep, due to their area and heading, I
felt pretty comfy hove to in similarly thought out circumstances :{))
And, for what it's worth, I have yet to see any mention of lights in
the book, whereas we were lit up like a Christmas Tree...


Bob

PS Dave, you don't have to protect me :{))

Tomorrow we leave for Flying Pig; update on our departure in a coming
post as it approaches...

L8R

Skip