Recently, it occurred to us that there are lots of small items that annoy or are interesting that rarely come up in a conversation (or blog).
1) No one tells you to bring wool socks on these trips. Being backpackers, we always have wool socks and poly pro garments with us. Glad of it, too. When our feet get wet in the dingy or otherwise, it is good to have on "warm when wet" clothing.
2) Lock tenders and bridge tenders are problematic. False! We have encountered NO unpleasant folks in these position so far in our journey. We have, however heard a few " Weeny, Whiney Water Warriors" beg the tenders to break or strech the rules that they have to operate by. " OH Pleeeeeze hold the bridge for us, you have to understand that we have been underway since 6:30 and we are soooooo tired!" Sounds like a real yachting emergency, no?
3) None of the volumes of "Crusing World" or "Sailing" mags have ever mentioned "ranging lights".
In short, these are bright flashing lights that, when aligned one over the other tell you that you are in the middle of the shipping lane. We are talking very bright, daytime or night time lights. It is most reassuring to have your course verified by these navaids and they are much easier to steer by over long distances.
4) Again, the mags never mention the fatigue of going into the "unknown" pretty much each and every day. The up side is that we are learning lots of new skills and meeting many teriffic new people. The down side includes: not knowing some importanate conditions such as: the bottom in the anchorages; not knowing that the tide runs 4 knots at the marina that you have decided to visit tonight (That is nearly 6 ft. per second of drift as you untie your last knot and try to get (into or) out of a slip. We know that people hesitate to leave a slip with this kind of drift combined with a moderate but adverse wind.) Bottom line here is to check the tide tables for time, slack and velocity. Also, in the Carolinas and Georga the tides run (so far) from 4 ft. to 9ft. Up 'til now, Trefoil has not been held up often by tidal conditions but, we have hung around from time to time because of our lack of experience with these issues.
5) People - The folks have been kind and friendly. Most of the time, if we are being overtaken by a powerboat, we back down our throttle and make it clear that we are doing so. This nearly always results in the powerboat doing the same and leaving far less wake for us to deal with. (We wave,too!) When we enter a new (that'd be all of 'em, folks) marina we make it clear that we have little experience with local conditions. The result has been that someone always meets us at the dock and often there will be two (even three) dock hands to assist. Result: no embarrasing crashes or (many) scrapes in Trefoils hull. People on the streets respond in a friendly manner. Hospitality has been great and we love to get out and visit towns. Zero negative (social) experiences to date!
Enough, already!
Dick & Karen
2 comments:
Warm wool socks. It had to be socks. So Mom was right all along. Arrgh! I'll never hear the end of it.
But seriously, many thanks for the myth busting and tips. I hope to cruise myself after I retire and insights like these help me prepare.
I hope y'all have a great Christmas and Happy New Year with friends and family, back there in the great white north.
Tom
I got a new pair of wool socks for Christmas, thanks to Ben.
We arrived back at Ishmael two days ago. I have decided that I really don't miss winter driving and blowing snow.
Let us know when you are back. We are leaving Jekyll on Tuesday, Jan.5th if the weather agrees. George is off on another business trip mid-January so we want to be tied up some place even warmer than this. I sure we'll manage to cross paths sooner or later.
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