Toews ‘r Us — a family sailing adventure

Last weekend I passed my General Ham exam. I’m no longer just a Technician class Ham, I’m now generally a Ham. I’m pretty sure that I could have been grand-fathered in had I just showed the examiner my birth certificate with my Dad’s name on it.  We have a lot of ham in our blood.  Thankfully I passed. It wasn’t due to all the studying I’ve done, because I didn’t do a whole lot.

Just a little while ago I sent and received my first emails via the Ham Radio. And now I’m sending my first Post via the Radio. We should be able to keep in touch better with the new setup and licenses. We’ll see how it works.

The Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) puts on a Gam every year in Melbourne, FL. My Dad called it a drifters convention, not quite sure how to take that. We were close by this year, so we decided to go.

It was a great weekend, lots of information, and meetings. Jimmy Cornell was the keynote speaker and gave a great talk.

We learned some sail repair from the experts - Doyle.  We also gave him our screecher to do some repairs on.

I met the guys from Dockside Radio. Gary came out to the boat and checked over my SSB radio to make sure it was all working fine before I added the Pactor modem. What service. He also took the SSB radio with him to “clone it”. Basically update the settings, and channels. I’ve got more capability now and more modes of communication.  I also bought a Pactor kit and have that installed now.

Thanks to the guys from the Waterway Radio & Cruising Club, I took my General Ham test and passed, thankfully.  Now I have the ability to use some High Frequency Communication.

We bought some used stuff at the flea market.

It was a pretty productive three days, well worth the trip.

St. Augustine is the oldest city in the new world. They’ve used that time to perfect the art of tourism.

It was nice to visit; we liked the architecture, enjoyed the history, but just couldn’t get past the commercialism. There must be a way to see this town without all the tourist hype, I just wasn’t able to find it.

I think St. Augustine was my biggest disappointment so far.

They say you can tell you’re in New Hampshire by all the snowmobiles up on blocks in the front yards.

In South Carolina is it boats in the front yard?

Strange but true: there are islands right off Beaufort, NC that have wild horses on them. The islands are part of a park reserve area and protected. The horses roam free, grazing and doing, well, what all wild horses do.

The kids were ecstatic that we could go on the islands and search out the horses.

I dug deep in the memory banks to remember the training that Kenny gave me while we were kids on his farm: stay near the trees, don’t run, and don’t pee on the electric fence (I didn’t need this one on the island, but it’s still good advice).

Calen and I went during school one day to check it out. We saw two horses fairly close. I had the dog and Calen to contend with so we didn’t get too close. The next day we all went. The herd was off in the marsh grazing. Later on about sunset, we saw one from the boat, just at the tip of the island.

I know horses aren’t native to North America, but it’s still neat that there’s a place where they run free and wild.

The North Carolina Maritime Museum is a nice place to visit the next time you find yourself in Beaufort, NC. It’s not the biggest museum I’ve ever been to, but still a neat place to visit.

Marah and I got the opportunity to hear a musician/storyteller give some history on the area as well as sing some sea-shanties. Later on, we all went through the museum and filled our brains up.

While we were sailing from New Rochelle, NY to New York City we got a pretty good gust of wind under our furled up Screecher sail. The Screecher is an invaluable light air sail, but it needs some added protection in high winds when furled up. Basically it should be taken down, which we didn’t do.

In less than 15 knot winds this sail allows us to move a couple of knots faster and almost doubles our speed. So when the wind ripped it, we were bummed. That means more motor time, just what I hate.

When we got to Annapolis we got the material to fix it with. It’s not a perfect repair, but It’ll do for us. It was much easier to repair than Debi expected. I, of course, had full confidence in Debi’s abilities.

Latitude: 40°47'13.10"N, Longitude: 73°59'09.57"W
Location: Hudson River, New York City, Map It

One of the places that we all were excited to see was New York City. The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and of course the best of all - American Girl.

We did all the tourist stuff in New York. Double decker bus tour, Miss Liberty, City Lights Tour, Times Square. New York City is definitely a place that never sleeps.

We stayed at the 79th Street Marina, a city owned park, reasonably priced at $30 a night. Sparse amenities, but a nice place to stay. The current in the Hudson River is pretty spectacular, not a place I would have wanted to anchor. The subway was two or three blocks away, from there the city is just a few minutes.

New York is a nice place to visit, but It’s a little busy for our taste.

Off we go and we’re flying, we’ve got a strong 4 knot wind behind us and we’re cruising at a whopping 2 knots. All the other sailboats don’t have their sails up and they’re passing us, why aren’t they using their sails? We’re the cheapskates with nowhere to be at no particular time - so we’re sailing. We’ll save that diesel for another time.

First stop: Ipswich, Mass to say goodbye to Debi’s family. We made the 30 odd mile trip in just under 8 hours, it helped that the wind picked up in the afternoon.

The guide book we’ve been using, The Cruising Guide to the New England Coast, says that Plumb Island Sound is a challenge to get into because of the shifting sands. It quotes, “One local authority states flatly that if you follow the buoys, you are sure to go aground. Another adds that at half-tide or better you can cross the bar anywhere, even where the buoys are.” We talked to Debi’s Dad and got the lowdown on the buoy situation. He said that they’re fine and not to worry about it.

“It’s getting pretty shallow, five feet, four and a half feet.” “Beep, beep, beep, beep, shallow water” the alarms are going off and we are crossing the bar. I cut the engines to a crawl. Debi’s out front looking for some depth. “Three and a half feet, three feet, two and a half feet… Where’s the water? “I yell up. Debi’s looking and she can’t find anything deep. “Two feet, TWO FEET!” Thankfully it’s all sand. “One and a half, ONE AND A HALF FEET!” Are we going to be resting here for the next few hours until the tide floods again? “Two feet, Two and a half feet, three feet.” We made it.

Our boat draws only a couple of feet, so we were able to get through with a foot and a half to spare. Yes we did follow the buoys but it was close to low tide. Next time we’ll go with the water a little higher and watch the color of the bottom a little better. If you draw a few feet, beware and watch the depth.

Let the visiting begin.