Charleston to Savannah – November 11 to November 30

Click on the above thumbnail for a map of points visited during this time period.

Barb:

Dick and Karen Munson joined us in Charleston and accompanied us on Tusen Takk II to Savannah.  They gave us a gift of a Sudoku puzzle book, which is the latest craze for puzzle lovers.  I was first introduced to Sudoku by Ray Greenlaw in September when we met him in Washington, D.C.  I love doing Sudoku, but have trouble finding them since all newspapers don't carry them.   The Munsons' gift has allowed me to become a full-fledged addict.  They really are a lot of fun.  If you haven't tried them, give it a whirl.

On our way to Savannah, we first stopped in Beaufort, SC for the night.  We had plenty of time to walk around and see the sights of that beautiful and scenic town -- Beaufort is one of our favorite places.  We stopped at an anchorage in Bull Creek just north of Daufuskie Island for the next night -- a warm and peaceful evening where we all relaxed and spent time doing Sudoku.  On Monday, we arrived in Savannah where we planned to spend the next three weeks.  The Munsons headed home but not before they generously offered us the use of their mini-van.  Hooray!  We had transportation to use for all of the provisioning and visiting we needed to do. Thanks Dick and Karen!

The folks installing our SSB (single side band radio) began work shortly after we arrived.  Unfortunately, the installation did not go smoothly.  The SSB worked fine, but transmitting on high power caused our boat GFCI outlets to make all sorts of popping noises and burned out two of them.   The installers added a lot more copper strapping down to almost everything metal in the boat, but that did not solve the problem.  They decided they needed to do one of three things: add 100 sq ft  of copper screening at various locations in the bilge,  which would have to be fiberglassed over; run the grounds into the lead ballast in the keel, which would require drilling down into the bilge at the appropriate but unkown proper spot; or add an external underwater plate (called a dynaplate) and tie the SSB grounding into it.  All three were not trivial tasks, so Chuck sent out a request on the web for advice from other Krogen owners.  We learned that no one else had had the same problems we were having.  One suggestion was to put chocks (or shunts) on the wires leading into the GFCI outlets. 

The installers came back after thinking about it over the week-end and proposed disconnecting the SSB from the boat's bonding system and putting 100 sq ft of copper mesh up in the fly bridge where it would not have to be fiberglassed over.  The reason for disconnecting was the presumption that the RFI was due to the copper strip running down through the same electrical wire chase as the house 120 volt wiring.  We agreed to let them give it a try and thankfully it seemed to work.  The only problem encountered so far is that our carbon monoxide detector goes crazy after we have transmitted on the SSB for a while.  We have been unable to investigate this further, since we have to wait until we receive our call sign from our FCC license before we can do any more transmitting on the SSB.  We also have to get our SailMail (mail sent over the SSB) account set up before leaving the US.  Another email account to manage. :-(

In the meantime we installed the new EPIRB and a new TV camera for the stern of the boat (to see what's behind us in our blind spot).  We picked up the life raft, spare parts for the engine and generator, spare parts for the water maker and for the line cutter on the propeller shaft, and a new 110 lb anchor.  Ed Hope installed new chart lights for the pilot house and a new dome light for the large and dark storage place in the doghouse.  In addition, Chris Weaver built a new battery box to accommodate the new house batteries (replacing 800 amp hours of 8D batteries with 1680 amp hours of L16 batteries).   He also added storage space in the engine room behind the new box, and put in a floor in the lazarette under the cockpit.

Fortunately, our stay in Savannah was not all work.  Barb celebrated an early Thanksgiving lunch with her old department at Southern Company / Savannah Electric.  She really enjoyed catching up with everyone.  Chuck got out to AASU to see folks and to run with "the boys" several times.  He was talked into entering the 10K Savannah Bridge Run on December 3rd. 

We spent many days including Thanksgiving with daughter Danielle and granddaughters Kristen (age 10) and Abigail (age 2).   We celebrated Christmas early and let Kristen and Abigail open their Christmas presents on Thanksgiving day.  They both especially loved their skates and spent a great deal of time practicing.  We had dinner parties with friends, attended our movie group, saw a number of movies, saw doctors and dentists, and Barb had a cracked tooth crowned.  Talk about timing -- the tooth cracked when eating pizza two days after arriving in Savannah.  Abigail decided that our new nickname(s) was PeaPa, so both grandma and grandpa were called PeaPa throughout the visit.  Barb and Kristen spent a day exploring the beautiful Isle of Hope area on bikes.  Barb's birthday was celebrated twice - once on Thanksgiving and once on her actual birthday.   We had initially planned to be out of town on her birthday, so Danielle ended up providing a birthday cake and flowers twice. :-) 

On one of the evenings, we arrived for dinner at friends Anne and Sigmund Hudson's house only to discover the surrounding area was cordoned off by many Savannah police cars.  We had to drive around for some time to park a block from of their house.  On our arrival we discovered that all the police action was taking place at their house.  It seems that two criminals had committed four armed robberies in the previous 30 minutes, and the police had trapped them in front of the Hudsons' house after they crashed into a stop sign during a chase.  The two fellows hopped out of the car with one hiding under a car down the street and the other making a dash for the Hudsons' front door only to discover it was locked.  He ran to the back of the house, jumped the fence and hid in their back yard.  The police and their K-9 dog came through the Hudsons' house to apprehend the guy.  He would not surrender, so the dog got involved and caused him to change his mind.  Fortunately, they were able to take the criminal out of the back yard through the garage, so the police didn't have to bring him through the Hudsons' house.  By that time, we had arrived and were thankful that we were a little late.  We would not have enjoyed arriving at the same time as the criminal.  That was sure enough excitement for an evening.

We plan to spend three weeks to a month each time we pass through Savannah as there is so much to see and do.

We will be Savannah until December 8th and will then head to the Ogeechee River and visit the good folks in our old neighborhood.  We also hope to ride with our bike group on Saturday the 10th before starting south.  We have to stay in Florida until early January since we have ordered a new stainless steel bow roller for our new anchor.  It will be arriving in Stuart, FL on a boat being delivered from Taiwan in early January.  Once it is installed we will head for the Exumas.

 

Captain Dick

Sudoku craze

Karen & Dick

Abigail, Danielle & Kristen

Danielle & Abby

Abby

Abby ready to go to sea

Another Abby

Grandma & Abby

Getting help trying on new skates

Hide & go seek

Having fun

Kristen & Barb

Krissy skating

Granddaughter Kristen

Original battery boxes

Battery stand after boxes removed

Battery box stand stripped

Batteries delivered

Batteries in new box