Functional Artwork

At the Gibbs Museum in Charleston, they had on display an old sign for a dentist.

Now, back in the old days, the remedy for any painful tooth was to extract it. This left you with a toothless mouth! This dentist commissioned a wood carver to create a sign for his practice that would advertise that he would put your teeth back (in the form of dentures).  

Maddie, an artist and art teacher, has made it very clear that for something to be "art" it must only meet the purpose of being art. If it has any other purpose, then it is that thing and not "art". That being said, it was fun to see how history can look away from the fact that this piece of art was actually a sign board used to attract paying patients to this dentists office and hang it on the museum wall displaying it as "art with a past purpose" even though now it is merely a piece of art. 

South Carolina

Traveling down the east coast of the United States has been interesting, but it all still felt rather familiar to us. Then we got to South Carolina!

Gardens at Middleton Plantation

When we reached Charleston, we took a tour of a nearby plantation. This place was amazing! Now, plantation is just a fancy word for "Huge Farm", meaning that everything here had its purpose. 

The animals that were kept on the plantation all offered some form of economical advantage. The goats were used for their fur, milk, and meat. The birds were kept for their feathers, eggs, and meat. The water buffalo were kept because they are docile, strong workers, and for their meat. Then there came the fields, and plantations have a reputation for what happened on the fields. 

This plantation was one of 19 owned by the Middleton Family. Most of these plantations were used to make lots of money, but this one was used as the headquarters where business deals took place. Therefore, this plantation home was lavish and gorgeous with immaculate gardens on the property. 

This pool, for example, is one of many pools and ponds in the garden. The sights with the trees overhanging the water and the Spanish Moss hanging down from the branches just takes away all your thoughts as you stare off into the perfectly orchestrated design. 

This was our first day in Charleston and we have been thoroughly impressed!

Pros and Cons of Electric Propulsion

After having cruised part time for several years and now full time for several months, we have compiled a list of advantages and disadvantages for electric propulsion. This list is not meant to sway you towards or away from electric propulsion, but merely to educate you on its potential advantages and drawbacks that way you can make the most informed choice for your own yacht. 

Let's start with the disadvantages, as people who have diesel motors tend to pick on this system quite intensely; later we will go over the advantages. 

Disadvantages: 

Range is limited to the size of the battery bank.
Weight of the battery bank can add up quickly.
Range can be supplemented by using a generator, but your speed will be limited by the size of the battery charger.
Electronic components on a boat are prone to corrosion caused failure.
Parts are not readily available, as they are not common components.
Skilled and qualified labor is hard to find.
Battery technology has a long way to go to provide the amount of range of a fuel tank.
You can't charge your batteries by running the motor.
Deep discharging is damaging to the batteries.
When it fails, the culprit is not always obvious.

Advantages: 

Nearly no noise.
It is very small in size.
It is light weight.
It starts up immediately without needing to warm up.
There is no exhaust smell.
No risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
There is no need to winterize the motor.
It provides instant torque and has very fast throttle response.
You can install and service the motor yourself with basic tools.
There is no risk of oil leaks or oil spills.
Enviromentally friendly since it uses no oil or fossil fuels.
You can recharge it with solar panels and wind generators.
It acts as a hydrogenerator when sailing.
The motor is air cooled so you don't have to worry about clogged strainers or sand in the waterpump.
No fuel filter to clog.
Less moving parts to fail.
Nearly maintenance free (only two Zerk fittings to grease once a year).
No oil changes needed.
You don't have to worry about fuel quality or water contamination in the fuel.
You don't have to polish your fuel.
Long and short term costs are less:
The cost of replacing dead batteries is less than the cost of fuel consumed over the same distance.
You will save a lot of money on fuel costs.
The electric motor is cheaper to buy and the parts are also innexpensive when compared to a similarly powered diesel motor.

Anchoring Stars

Part of cruising is experiencing new places, but these places could easily (and probably much more easily) be visited by land or air. While the sights at the destination are identical, there is a time when cruising will set its sights apart from any other method of reaching this destination. 

This shirt was developed to embody the wonder of an anchorage, where the mast head anchor lights blend into the night sky as extra stars. The yachts beneath them disappear into the darkness of the night, with only a small light high above them quietly displaying their presence.

You can purchase this shirt at Teespring by following the link below: https://teespring.com/anchoring-stars?tsmac=store&tsmic=rigging-doctor#pid=2&cid=2397&sid=front

Sailing from Georgetown to Charleston, SC

Georgetown is a small port town, Charleston is a large port city! While we had just made it to Georgetown, we really wanted to get to Charleston, and the winds looked like they would be favorable for this journey. 

Charleston is located about 40 miles south of Georgetown, inlet to inlet, but the distance from anchorage to anchorage is around 67 miles. The added distance comes from navigating the inlets and avoiding the offshore shoals before you can finally head to the next inlet. 

Now, the issue is the prevailing winds blow from the South, meaning that this journey would usually require beating for 40 miles to windward. Instead of slogging along, the alternative is to wait for a cold front to come through and reverse the winds. This is a delicate subject, as not all fronts are created equally.  

You would not want to head out into a powerful cold front, but at the same time, a weak front might not generate enough winds for you to actually sail. 

The way the weather was looking, the current cold front was creating winds of 30 knots from the North and massive seas; not exactly ideal to head out in. As the front passed, the winds began to die down, we then headed out and rode the tail end of the storm. The winds were on the light side, but still enough to motor sail at a very slow pace of 2-3 knots. 

The light winds meant that we needed to listen to our generator for 23 hours straight, as we motor sailed along the coast, but they also meant that the seas were calm and the voyage was uneventful. 

Aside from the winds, the next consideration to take into account is the tides. The tidal currents in these inlets can be quite dramatic, so it is best to time your passage of the inlets at slack water, when the tides are lightest. 

To accomplish this, we raised anchor at 4:30 AM, and left the anchorage by 5:30 AM. We were heading down the river for 16 miles as the current was pushing us back up. This meant that we were slowly moving, but we did manage to reach the inlet at slack water. Slack water is especially important when navigating weird inlets that have sand bars and breakers. You might think you are steering clear of an obstruction, but the current will take you right onto the shoal and pummel you with breaking waves! Slack water takes this fear out and gives you a short window of time to scoot through easily. 

Once we made it out into the ocean, we were faced with the leftover slop from the previous storm. The seas were merely 6 foot swells that were causing us to toss around; a stark distinction to our still time on the ICW. Had there been a strong current, these seas would have been even more miserable for us as we transitioned from river to ocean sailing. 

Motor sailing with an electric motor and generator is very uneventful. Every effort is taken to alleviate the slating of the sails in the windless patches, and any puff of wind is welcomed as it grants you a speed push. 

As we reached Charleston, the sun was setting and fog was rolling in. Charleston is not an easy inlet due to the rock jetties and all the confusing lights that exist as you enter. The fog actually made this simpler, as it obscured the city lights and only allowed visibility of the next lighted buoy. Since fog was present and this is a major shipping port, I made my presence known on CH 16. The local tug boat captain conversed with me to make sure we would not have any close calls. He found us on his radar, I found his navigation lights on the horizon. As he approached, I stayed to the right of the channel and we had a very peaceful passing in the night. Had we not communicated, this situation would have been much more stressful.  

While I don't like to rely on electronics, having Navionics on my phone made entry to the port and anchorage possible. When the channels divide, the blue line on the screen tells you which is the correct way to go.  

We left Georgetown at 5:30 am and arrived at Charleston at 5:00 am. This made for a very long day, but it got us to a new city with benign weather.