Ship’s Log: Days 41-45
October 12 - 16, 1999
Tuesday, Oct. 12
I awoke to yet another cloudy day. The temperature was pleasant enough, but the humidity was still very high. Muggy. I had Telesis underway by 9:15 A.M., motoring south on the Mobile River. The rivers in southern Alabama are very remote and there is almost no cell phone service, so it is very solitary travel. The river is wider and quieter here but the recent rains have provided enough water to push a moderate current. As I close in on the last ten miles of the river above Mobile Bay, I notice the wake is outlined with more foam, an indication that the water is becoming brackish from mixing with the saltwater tides of the bay. One must also watch the charts carefully as there are intersections and cut-offs to other coastal rivers along the route and it would be easy to make a wrong turn. The last five miles of the Mobile River is the industrial ship channel at downtown Mobile. On either side of the river are docks, power plants, boat yards and barge fleets. As if I had planned to do so, I passed by mile mark 0 at exactly noon. The church bells of Mobile rang in the distance and a group of elementary-age school children along the waterfront waved to Telesis as we passed. I felt as if we were being acknowledged for having completed our river voyage. It was all by happenstance but I still felt special. We were into the big waters now.
There was a brisk breeze on the bay and the clouds were broken, allowing sunshine to peak through on occasion, but the wind was directly on the bow and I needed to stay in the narrow ships channel, so sailing was out of the question. I followed the ships channel south to marker 72, then east or 90 degrees for 1 nautical mile to clear the spoil shallows along the ships channel, then steered to 125 degrees. After covering 6.5 nautical miles, I was at the entrance to Eastern Shore Marina at Fairhope, AL. I took on 10.6 gallons of fuel (that quantity of gasoline has reoccurred several times) into the tank and was into a slip by 3:00 P.M. It was still very muggy, so I plugged into shore power and fired up the AC unit aboard.
The engine hour meter registered 596.7 hours. I left Atchison, KS at 383.9 hours. The old Atomic 4 had completed 212.8 hours on the rivers. My original estimate was 200 hours, so it was very close. I had not calculated in the morning warm-up time in my estimate, which probably accounts for the difference.
That evening I used the marina’s courtesy pickup truck and went into town for Mexican food.
I was off the rivers!! Now Telesis can become a sailboat again!! I need to get her ready for the big water!
CSX railroad swing bridge just above Mobile.
Wednesday, Oct. 13
This was another boat maintenance day. My main concern was getting the GPS mounted on the steering pedestal and interfaced it into the autopilot. Both systems are promoted as being able to communicate such that the Garmin 48 hand held GPS will direct the Navico Wheelpilot 300 to specific way points, very helpful in the big water jumps such as across the gulf from Apalachicola, FL, to Tarpon Springs, FL. Having been a lake sailor and bare boat charterer for 1-week coastal cruises has not given me much cause to use such electronics. I pulled wire, drilled mounting holes and got the interface hooked up, or at least I hope I did it correctly. I also went into town for some supplies including some more inline fuel filters, although the amount of dirty crud from the fuel tank seems to be greatly reduced.
I visited with some of the other boaters during the day. John and Dianne McDowell and I had shared other marinas and anchorages over the past several weeks, but we hadn’t really talked too much. They are from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, aboard Island Prince I, a very interesting boat. John calls it a 42-foot lobster yacht because he bought a new professional lobster boat bare hull and finished the tops side himself into a pleasure craft. He spent five years in the building. It is much like a single engine trawler, yet quite unique. He and Dianne are in the second year of cruising aboard.
That evening I ate aboard and for the first time on board hooked up the TV and watched Law and Order and surfed the baseball playoff game occasionally.
Telesis in the ship channel at Mobile Bay
Thursday, Oct. 14
I was up and finished a few things on board, checked out of the marina and visited with some of the other folks about the marina before casting off at about 11:00 A.M.
All distances will now be in nautical miles and speeds will be in knots per hour as I’m now working on ocean charts. River charts are listed in statute miles the same as roads. I have reset my GPS to register in knots and nautical miles. A nautical mile is 1/60 of a degree at the earth’s equator, about 6,080 feet or 1.2 statute miles. A statute mile is an English adaptation on an ancient Roman measure of 1,000 paces equal to 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet. Boy, I’ll bet that’s more than you wanted to know about the differences in “miles.” Anyway, when I give distances in the future, they will be different measures than before.
I motored out of the harbor and set sail! YES, I SET SAIL! I was able to sail south southeast down Mobile Bay on first a broad reach and then a wing and wing, dead down wind run for about three hours in a moderate breeze of about 10 knots. During the sail, Telesis was visited by her first pod of porpoises. They crossed her bow then turned and swam along side for a distance before turning back on their original coarse. It was another exciting first for this boat. The wind clocked around to the east and we had to head due east into the intracoastal waterway so the sails came down and it was back to motoring.
I tested the interface between the GPS and the autopilot and it did not work. I was confident – well pretty confident – I had wired them together correctly, so there must be some problem with the software connection or configuration.
Once back in the intracoastal waterway, I continued east and near the Alabama-Florida border anchored in Ingram Bayou at coordinates N 30 19.202, W 87 33.490, just west of Perdido Bay and Pensacola having made 34.3 nautical miles on the day.
To my surprise, Island Prince I was also anchored there as was another powerboat and I was soon followed by another sailboat. The bayou is an interesting and a rare place on the gulf coast because it has a decent water depth of about 8 or 9 feet, is well protected, yet has no development along its shores.
I got out the manuals on the instruments and studied them. I found what I thought was the probable problem in the configuration of the GPS. I reconfigured the interface language of the GPS and hoped that an on-the-water test tomorrow would reveal that the GPS and autopilot were talking to each other.
I fixed a steak and a baked potato and retired to read before sleep. A cold front finally moved through earlier in the day and it was cool and dry making it a very pleasant evening to sleep aboard at anchor. A new weather consideration had presented itself. Hurricane Irene was off Cuba, where would it head?
Friday, Oct. 15
Another fifteenth of the month and no paycheck (see entry on September 15). I’m still glad I’m out here.
Fishing boats, shrimpers I think, that run at night came into the bayou after sunrise and anchored at the far end, I presume for the day. I rowed Teletubbie out with my camera and took photos of Telesis. I then rowed over and spoke with John and Dianne aboard Island Prince I. They invited me aboard and gave me a tour. I was amazed. This vessel did not appear home built in any fashion. The detail and workmanship was first rate. WOW! They are planning to return up the East Coast next spring so I invited them to stop over in Jax. We exchanged addresses and wished each other a safe journey. We talked about Hurricane Irene and the indications were that it would stay well to the east of our current position. I rowed back to Telesis and was underway by 11:00 A.M.
I quickly checked the interface on the GPS and autopilot and it worked properly. YEAH! We sailors do like to be self-efficient. I had only a short distance to go today, east on the intracoastal to Perdido Key. The wind was from the east and pretty brisk, so no sailing as I motored directly into the breeze. I did motor sail with the Genoa on one stretch that turned southeasterly, but that was only a short distance.
I checked into Perdido Key Oyster Bar Marina for over a week, as I will be returning to Jacksonville for the next week as per my planned itinerary. I began taking off all the items needed only for river travel such as river charts, extra fuel cans, extra fenders used in locks and all non-essential spare parts and equipment not needed for the balance of the trip. Late in the day I picked up a rental car and loaded the above equipment. I also pulled the dinghy out of the water, cleaned it and placed it on the bow of Telesis. I made Telesis secure in preparation for over a week unattended at the marina.
Late in the afternoon, Journey, the 57-foot power yacht with professional crew that had come into Marina Cove on the rivers, tied off near Telesis. That evening I was in the restaurant at the marina and ended up setting at the bar next to Journey’s captain and crew. They had to make repairs in Mobile and were now waiting for Hurricane Irene to clear south Florida before crossing the gulf. Journey is being taken to the Miami boat show where it will be offered for sale at a price of $1.3 million. It is the first time I’ve ever spoken with the professional paid crews of such a yacht. They were interesting people, but from what they were discussing with each other and myself, their jobs seem a world of politics and rich people bull shit. I don’t think I’ll rush to get my Coast Guard Captains license and look for a career in driving rich people’s boats.
I sat at the bar, enjoying oysters, shrimp and red wine until an unrespectable hour before returning to Telesis for the night.
Saturday, Oct. 16
Directly across the pier from Telesis a deep-sea charter boat was stationed. Well before daylight the crew showed up to begin preparations for the day. It provided an early wake up call for me. I left Telesis at about 7:00 A.M. and drove back to Jacksonville. The weather was perfect in the Pensacola area, but by the time I got to Jacksonville more than six hours later, I was on the northwestern edge of Hurricane Irene in heavy rain and winds to 40 mph. Telesis was secure back at Perdido Key and I would be home for a week. I’ll return to continue the adventure on Monday, October 25.