Coronavirus

It has become obvious now that the Coronavirus pandemic will affect our cruising plans on Division Belle. While being anchored out in the Bahamas is probably the safest place we could be, we had been planning to come and go from the boat while leaving it in the Exumas. From there, this would involve taking international flights and spending time in international airports, things that people my age have been advised not to do unnecessarily. On my trip home from Bimini a week ago, I took a small seaplane with seven passengers to Sheltair in Fort Lauderdale, the fixed based operator there for private planes. I then rented a car to drive home. I was well-equipped with hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes for the entire trip.

I'm not in any kind of panic, but I am trying to listen carefully to the expert advice that is given. It seems logical that social distancing now will slow the spread, so as not to overwhelm our medical facilities. I'm washing my hands frequently, bumping elbows instead of shaking hands, and reconsidering gatherings and air travel that are not necessary. It just makes sense. One article I just read recommends against almost any social contact such as having friends to dinner in your home. 

I have said many times that I love being on the boat, no matter where it is. It is certainly not necessary to get to the Exumas this year, so I'm now focusing on how to get to Bimini to bring the boat back closer to home. If I can't get there next week, the boat may just sit where it is until I can safely travel. I'll be trying to figure it out over the next few days and watching the weather for a good time to start back. Here's hoping more travel restrictions are not enacted before I can get there.

Bimini Update and Photos

Bimini doesn't change much. The End of the World Bar is still open. I stuck my head in after arrival and it was very dark, with no customers. No doubt it will liven up as spring breakers begin arriving later this month.

I earlier mentioned that the Compleat Angler Hotel had burned down prior to my last visit in 2008. The ruins are still here with a couple of markers attesting to its history. It is sad that it was not rebuilt, as it was the place to go on Bimini for about 70 years. An awful lot of valuable memorabilia was lost in the fire, along with the life of its owner.

Ruins of the Compleat Angler Hotel

Note the list of guests includes Senator Gary Hart. His famous photo with Donna Rice on the yacht Monkey Business was taken right here in Bimini. What happens in Bimini doesn't just stay in Bimini.

This being the Bahamas, it is not unusual to go to odd places to locate goods or services. Years ago in Georgetown, Exuma we inquired where we could purchase fresh fish or Bahamian lobster and were directed to a beauty shop. The owner's husband caught fish and she sold it out of coolers in the back room. Here in Bimini, if you need a propane tank filled, a couple of large tanks and trucks are parked under some trees at the very south end of the island. If the proprietor is there, you will see his white pickup truck. Otherwise he can be found at the liquor store across the street from Brown's marina. I got one of our tanks filled yesterday ($15 for a small two-pound tank).

While here, I have enjoyed catching up with Sean and Louise, owners of my previous boat Steel Magnolia, now named Vector. We both left Florida Wednesday, they from Miami and I from Fort Lauderdale, and we have ended up docked next to each other for a few days.

Division Belle and Vector crossing the Gulf Stream

I will be cleaning up and packing today for my seaplane flight back to the states tomorrow. I hope to get back down here soon to resume travels in the Bahamas.

Isle of Hope

We are at Isle of Hope Marina near Savannah. We left The Ford Plantation at 2:45 pm today, after waiting patiently for the tide to be high enough to depart. Our problem was to try to get down to the Savannah area during daylight, which we did. We arrived here at 6:45 pm, just before sunset.

Isle of Hope is one of our favorite places. We kept our previous boat here for about half a year. It is a secluded little neighborhood very close to metropolitan Savannah, but seemingly a throwback to an earlier era. It is a community of old waterfront houses along a road beside the Intracoastal Waterway. A great place for an evening stroll. Tomorrow we shall press on to Harbourtown Marina on Hilton Head. We will only have tomorrow afternoon and most of Tuesday to enjoy our visit. We plan to rent a car to drive back home Tuesday afternoon for work and meetings. I will return Wednesday afternoon to pick up the boat and bring it back home Thursday. It is a quick getaway, but great to exercise the boat and have a little down time.

After a sub-tropical storm on Saturday, this afternoon was spectacularly beautiful. We travelled down the Ogeechee River and through the marsh grasses to join the Intracoastal Waterway. Pictures do not do justice to the marsh here, but trust me, it was spectacular.

Dorian

I had little idea when I wrote in my last post about hurricanes that my decision-making would be tested so soon. And yet here we are, as always, closely following every bit of news we can get on Hurricane Dorian. The National Hurricane Center advisories come out every six hours, at 5 and 11 AM and PM, EDT. This particular hurricane has been a surprise that no one was concerned about five days ago, and it has been very difficult for forecasters to narrow down its future path. The 11 PM advisory has just been released, and here is where we are according to the NHC:

At 1100 PM AST (0300 UTC), the center of Hurricane Dorian was
located near latitude 23.3 North, longitude 68.4 West. Dorian is
moving toward the northwest near 12 mph (19 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue through Friday.  A west-northwestward to westward motion is forecast to begin by Friday night and continue into the weekend.  On this track, Dorian should move over the Atlantic well east of the southeastern and central Bahamas tonight and on Friday, approach the northwestern Bahamas Saturday, and move near or over portions of the northwest Bahamas on Sunday.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 105 mph (165 km/h) with higher gusts.  Dorian is expected to become a major hurricane
on Friday and remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through the weekend.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105
miles (165 km).

The latest minimum central pressure estimated from Hurricane Hunter data is 977 mb (28.85 inches).

What is making this hurricane so difficult to forecast is that its course will be affected by its speed. The storm is expected to turn westerly because of a high pressure ridge north of it that will keep it from going north. However, the ridge is expected to fall apart and stop influencing the storm by Tuesday, allowing it to turn north. If the storm moves quickly, it would likely cross south Florida into the Gulf of Mexico before turning north. However, if the storm moves more slowly, the high ridge could dissipate, allowing it to turn north while over land in Florida or even before reaching the coast of Florida. 

All of this makes planning extremely difficult, and people along the coast all the way from Louisiana to North Carolina could be in the line of fire. The NHC does, however, need to draw a cone. The latest one shows that The Ford Plantation is in an area with less than a 20% chance of having tropical storm force winds.

The more detailed cone showing estimated times has tropical storm force winds reaching our area, if at all, some time around 8 PM Monday. This time has changed from the 11 AM forecast, which had us at an 8 AM arrival time Monday:

As you can see, while we are not on the forecast track, we are just barely outside the cone. Statistics show that in 2/3 of cases, hurricanes make landfall somewhere within the cone. So we are not at all out of the woods yet. However, it's even possible for the storm to really slow down over the weekend and then make a sharp turn north, missing land altogether. Let's hope that's the case. This will come ashore as a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, that can be totally devastating.

A final note on surge. We learned here painfully two years ago that even a tropical storm that travelled up near us from the Gulf coast can cause serious tidal surge when strong offshore winds coincide with high tides. Here, the river rose over its banks, flooding parts of our Club property. Unfortunately, with no surge at all, we are having very high tides right now on the Ogeechee River. Our normal tidal range is from a low of around sea level (0) to a high of six to seven feet. Based on Ft. Mcallister tides that occur about two hours before ours, the Monday tides here are:

1:28 AM High 8.6'

8:23 AM Low -0.8'

2:03 PM High 8.2'

8:52 PM Low -0.5'

So we enter Labor Day weekend on edge. Here's hoping this storm takes a more favorable turn, and that our winds and tides don't conspire against us as they did in 2017.

Home Again

I am home at The Ford Plantation, after a three-day trip alone from John's Island near Charleston to Beaufort Thursday, then to Thunderbolt Friday, and to Ford yesterday.

People I meet, and friends, often ask me where I "keep" the boat. We don't really keep the boat in any single place. So far, I have mostly kept her in boatyards (a total of 134 days this year). But the real answer is that we expect Division Belle to be in Florida and the Bahamas in winter and in New England in summer. This year, as we have continued to get things fixed on the boat, we missed the chance to go north. We fully expect to be heading south after the hurricane season into Florida and on to the Bahamas in January. Other than a few short trips she will likely be here at Ford until late in the hurricane season, which officially ends November 30.

I had two uneventful days of travel alone Friday and yesterday. There were threatening thunderstorms yesterday that caused me to simply stop and wait for about 45 minutes at the mouth of the Little Ogeechee River. The storms eventually moved on or dissipated, allowing me to continue. Friday night my bride drove down to Thunderbolt to join me for dinner. I continue to be amazed that it took her roughly 30 minutes to drive home after dinner but it took me a full five hours yesterday to get the boat home. Here's a view of the path from Thunderbolt to Ford:

Hurricane preparedness has been an obsession with me of late. I seriously considered keeping the boat at Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, Georgia, advertised as a "hurricane hole",  for the next few months, but I came down in favor of Ford being the safer alternative. My biggest fear is a storm surge that lifts the floating docks above the pilings that hold them. At Ford, the docks are about seven feet below the top of the pilings at high tide, while at Brunswick the distance is about eight feet. Importantly though, Ford is about 15 nautical miles from the ocean as the crow flies, while Brunswick is more like six miles. More important is the height of the pilings above the surrounding land, because once water rises and begins to spread over the surrounding land, it rises much more slowly as it spreads over land. The pilings at Ford are as far above the surrounding ground as those in Brunswick. So here we shall sit and keep our fingers crossed. Obviously in a direct hit from a category five storm, all bets are off for both our home and our boat. But there aren't many options for dealing with that kind of catastrophe.

It's good to be home. Let's hope it stays safe here this season.

Charleston

For two weeks now we have been docked at the Charleston Maritime Center. This is a fabulous location for exploring the city. Both shopping and restaurants are just a short walk away. The only issue is that the marina is sometimes very rough and rolly caused by wind, current, and occasionally by gigantic wakes from ships and inconsiderate boaters. But despite the motion, we have been enjoying things immensely.

At last report I said that the dogs were doing well. They are quite adaptable, with the puppy Belle immediately taking to the artificial turf bathroom put out on the bow for them. We have taken them for lots of walks, and one morning to run free on the beach at Sullivan's Island across the river from us. 

There have been a couple of minor dog issues. Rhett fell into the water once while trying to get from the boat to the dock. Luckily, we were both here. The Lovely Laura Lee jumped into the water and pushed him up, while I lifted him by his harness. All ended well with just a wet wife and dog. The other issue has been caused by the fact that we let Rhett sleep with us at home, where we have a king size bed. It hasn't worked as well with the smaller bed on the boat. We tried for one night to make him sleep on a dog bed outside of our room, but it was a long night of a loving dog letting us know of the injustice. I think it will mean some adjustments to where everyone sleeps. We can't blame anyone but ourselves for the dilemma. 

At the moment though, we are getting a break from the dogs who are at their favorite vacation spot Camp Green Dog. We have guests in town and wanted to be free to hang out with them rather than be concerned with the pets. 

The Samfords and the Spotswoods

Our guests are dear friends Bob and Ashley Spotswood. They are not staying on the boat, but have done so in the past when they visited us in the Exumas and stayed on our previous boat Steel Magnolia. Following the habit of using nicknames for friends on the blog, they were referred to then as "Dahling Ashley" and "Bonefish Bob". We are glad to be able to spend a few days with them exploring Charleston. They are two of the people we dearly miss since we moved away from Birmingham.

One of the more interesting things about our location here is the steady parade of container and other cargo ships that pass us by. We are adjacent to the port facility used by what are called "RORO carriers", which means roll on/roll off car carriers. These massive ships come and go daily at all hours, both delivering foreign-built cars to the U.S. and picking up U.S.-made cars for delivery all over the world. Interestingly, we tend to think of foreign cars being imported to the U.S. But with Volvo, Mercedes, and BMW, among others, all having plants in SC, it is not unusual for these ships to be fully loaded both coming and going from the port of Charleston. Watching them pass close by keeps the size of our boat in perspective.

Division Belle at bottom left

Logbook summary -- and feeling blessed

Now that the boat is in the local area, I am transferring the scratchy log information I make underway to a more organized spreadsheet. The engine passed the 3000-hour mark on the trip home and the onboard mileage log shows it to have covered 19,867 nautical miles since new, measured by the GPS. I have personally run it now some 649 nautical miles in roughly 100 hours, although for more than half of that time either Paul Hamilton or Jim Trolinger was at the helm. This 13-year-old boat has averaged covering around 1,500 nautical miles a year in 230 hours. For both myself and the two previous owners, the average speed seems to work out to about 6.5 knots. The boat cruises at 8 knots, but the slower average is caused by no-wake zones, docking, shallow areas, etc.

The "shakedown cruise" from Herrington Harbor, near Annapolis, Maryland down to Savannah has been a great opportunity to get to know the quirks of the boat and, assisted by my able crew, a number of mysteries have been solved and issues resolved, or at least diagnosed. With some luck, there will be nothing but maintenance and new squawks to deal with after this visit to the boat yard. I plan to have the varnish re-done in the next few weeks. The much-needed paint job for the upper white portion of the boat will have to await another year's budget.

I am having a blast and feel incredibly blessed to be doing this again. Given my age, it seems to make sense to pursue something I love this much while I am still capable. Now that the boat is back from the cold Maryland winter, I am looking forward to enjoying it with my bride, who has graciously embraced this quest along with me. We began boating together before we were married, and some of our fondest memories are the many great boating trips we have enjoyed from the Gulf coast to the Bahamas to Maine. I have no doubt that new memories will be made on this boat as well. As the song said, "Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon, though down this road we've been so many times".

I have added a few more photos to the album. I will report back when we move the boat up the Ogeechee River to Ford, which should be in a few weeks. Thanks for tuning in.

Back in Georgia

Just a quick note that we have safely delivered the boat to Savannah. We arrived right at noon at the Hinckley Boat Yard in Thunderbolt after spending last night at the Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head. It is good to be home.

The ocean is way more fun than the Intracoastal Waterway

We arrived safely at the Charleston City Marina yesterday afternoon around 5:30. It was a spectacular day at sea, and very relaxing compared to the constant attention required to drive in the Waterway, with twists and turns, bridges, and shallow spots to look out for. With another day of calm seas promised today, we decided to change our plans and go to sea again. We are headed now to Port Royal Sound at the north end of Hilton Head, so we are bypassing Beaufort altogether, and giving us a short run tomorrow to Savannah. We should get inside the sound and somewhere to anchor or tie up before dark today.

Check out the photo album, as I have added a few this trip. 

First time at sea

It is 10 am Wednesday morning, February 6, 2019, and we are officially at sea for the first time on Division Belle. Seas are very calm with gentle swells of less than two feet. The wind is from the east at six knots. We left Georgetown, SC this morning at 8 am and came down the river to enter the ocean from Winyah Bay. We are headed for Charleston and should reach the ship channel there by around 4 pm.

Our first two days have been outstanding with beautiful weather and only a few shallow spots to navigate in the Intracoastal Waterway. Monday night was spent in North Myrtle Beach at a friendly marina called Barefoot Resort. A guy there runs a "concierge" service and for less than the price of Uber he took Paul Hamilton to Walmart to purchase a mount for our new salon TV. It is now installed with satellite TV working, but only a temporary antenna stuck to the window (purchased for $15 to allow us to watch the Super Bowl Sunday night, such as it was). There was no restaurant open on the property so we dined onboard.

Yesterday, Tuesday, we spent the entire day in t-shirts driving from the flying bridge. We departed Myrtle Beach at 9:45 and arrived at 4 pm in Georgetown, a historic and quaint little town with houses dating to before the American revolution. We had dinner last night at the "River Room", which was excellent. 

The high in Georgetown today is expected to be 74 degrees, and Charleston will be even warmer as we continue to move south. We expect to travel from Charleston to Beaufort, SC tomorrow and on to Savannah Friday.

Starting Home

This morning started out chilly and raining as we began our journey to bring Division Belle home to Georgia. But the weather had actually warmed in the last 24 hours. It was in the low 40's today compared to yesterday morning when it was around 30 degrees with icy spots on the docks. We departed from Herrington Harbor North Marina in Deale, MD at 7:15 am, and we are now underway in the Chesapeake Bay. We plan to stop at Reedville, VA this afternoon, about 2/3 of the way to Norfolk, our destination tomorrow.

I actually thought about turning back this morning, due to fog. Visibility was less than one mile and I am not an expert on the radar on this boat. However, we decided to run for awhile and the fog gradually lifted as we moved south. The weather is clearing now, but wind has picked up to 15 to 20 knots from the west, so it's a little bumpy in the bay. 

It seems a very long time since spending my first few nights on the boat in October. I have promised to avoid writing about maintenance and repairs because they are boring subjects -- but let's just say a lot has been done to the boat, including a shiny new paint job for the hull. The paint work and numerous other tasks were handled by Zimmerman Marine at their Herrington Harbor location. They did beautiful work and were a pleasure to work with.

The lovely Laura Lee and I drove a rental car from Savannah to Annapolis last weekend so that we could bring more "stuff" to the boat. We spent the New Year's holiday in Annapolis and the boat was launched on Wednesday, January 2. After a couple of days provisioning, and one brief sea trial, we are finally underway.

The plan is for Laura Lee to fly home from Norfolk and my friends Jim Trolinger and Paul Hamilton will join me there on January 11 for about a week to help bring Division Belle part of the way home to Georgia. It is the nature of traveling confined on a boat that we shall either be much better friends after the trip or not like each other at all. I predict the former. 

It is normal in a deep-draft seaworthy boat to want to get out in the ocean on delivery trips. There are few worries about shallow spots, it is not necessary to hand steer all day, and there is little traffic to dodge. The boat can be set on autopilot and it is a relaxing journey just keeping a lookout. But moving down the coast from Norfolk, Virginia into the Carolinas presents three significant obstacles to traveling offshore: Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, and Cape Fear. Each of them juts out into the Atlantic and requires getting well offshore to go around. The outside trip also requires long legs with nowhere to take shelter if the winds and seas pick up. As a result, the inside route is preferable to most people, and it is shorter by about 50 nautical miles from Norfolk to Southport, NC, south of Cape Fear.

There are a few options that can be considered on the inside routes. Norfolk is Mile Zero of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), and one can just follow it for the entire route, or if the weather is good, it shortens the route a bit to go outside from Morehead City to Wrightsville Beach and rejoin the waterway to Southport, just south of Cape Fear. At the beginning of the trip south, it is also possible to shave some distance by going outside by Virginia Beach and back into the sounds at Oregon Inlet, but the inlet is notorious for shifting shoals and shallow spots. Finally, from the Albemarle Sound, there is a shortcut across the sounds to rejoin the ICW in the Neuse River. If the weather is good, our route will be down the waterway from Norfolk to the Albemarle Sound, the shortcut across the Albemarle, Croatan, and Pamlico Sounds, and then rejoining the waterway at the Neuse River and down to Morehead City/Beaufort, NC. From there, weather permitting, it will be out in the ocean to Wrightsville Beach and then back inside to Southport. That would put us almost to South Carolina and close to home.

I have no idea how far we will get in a week, but the joy of a slow 8-knot boat is that it doesn't really matter. It's all about the journey, and we shall enjoy every minute of it.

Was ignorance bliss?

The first boat I ever owned that was large enough to travel and sleep on was a 38-foot Californian that I bought in 1990 through a shady broker near Mobile, Alabama. I was 40 years old and newly single, and a boat that I could travel on had been a lifetime fantasy. The internet and its ability to search the world for every boat listing was not in existence. I just saw a boat in a marina with a "for sale" sign. I liked it, especially for the price. 

I had never heard of a survey or an engine survey, much less a full-blown pre-buy inspection, but the broker assured me he had done a survey and everything was perfect. He asked if I wanted to see the engine room, but I told him no. After all, I wouldn’t learn anything from seeing an engine room. The one thing I had going for me with boats was that I was a pilot and knew how to navigate and read charts. There was no GPS back then. I assumed any boat was like a car or the ski boat I had owned and wouldn't need much attention.

We did a sea trial that I called a “test drive” with the owner, a half-crazy Cajun from Louisiana. It was a Saturday morning and the broker brought his girlfriend along. She started drinking at around 9:00 am and continued all day, maintaining a perfect balance right along the edge of consciousness. 

When I closed on the boat, the owner said it was owned by various members of his family and requested several checks to different names, each under the $10,000 reporting amount. I was contacted about this a year later by the IRS and gave them the requested list of checks and amounts. I’m surprised no one from Louisiana came after me.

There were a lot of interesting features to that first boat. The sinks and shower drains had been cut off below and went straight into the bilge of the engine room. The broker told me it was a great system as the soapy water kept the engine room bilges clean. It sounded perfectly logical to me, but it was really pretty nasty. The previous owner also said it was unnecessary to use the “black water tank” and marina pumpouts for sewage, and to just leave the valve set to have the toilets flush straight overboard. I came to find out this is not exactly a legal or recommended practice, except when one is far out to sea.

Not long after I bought the Californian, while cruising, one of the engines started accelerating on its own, even as I pulled back the throttle, something I now know is called a “diesel engine runaway”. I was in the Intracoastal Waterway with my three children on board. I pulled the throttle all the way back while it kept accelerating. I pressed the "Stop" button and turned the ignition switch off, to no avail. I had no choice but to put it in neutral, as we were spinning around in a circle on one fast engine in the waterway. Being in neutral allowed the engine to accelerate even more, pegging the tachometer. It seemed to take a very long time running all out until it “threw a rod”, or whatever, and came apart internally. It stopped, with smoke billowing out of the engine room. 

I was standing there at the helm dumbfounded, with no idea what had just happened or what to do. Some kind and experienced souls from another boat rafted up beside me and a guy jumped on board with a fire extinguisher in hand to check the engine room, while another got my three kids into life jackets and moved them to his boat. Thank God someone knew what to do. There was no fire, but the engine was shot. I had not handled the emergency at all well, but everyone was fine. They pushed us over to the nearby marina dock, where we spent the night and figured out what to do next.

A few months after having the engine repaired, I got an unrelated call from my insurance company one day saying that they wanted to survey the boat the next time I had it hauled out of the water. I don’t think I even knew I needed to have it hauled out periodically, but told them I would set something up. Around the same time someone introduced me to the late Sonny Middleton, who was owner of Mobile Hatteras, A&M Yacht Sales, and the Dog River Marina (boatyard) in Mobile. I took the boat over to him and asked that he contact the insurance company to have their surveyor there and haul the boat out, fixing anything that needed to be done in the process. While I wasn’t there, it was reported to me that when the boat was lifted out, the hull was “flexing” under its own weight in the straps of the lift. The insurance company pronounced it not seaworthy and it was confined to port until the hull could be strengthened to the company’s satisfaction.

It’s a long story, but Sonny became a dear and trusted friend. He somehow got the hull strengthened with new “stringers”, got the boat put back together, and sold it to someone for me at quite a loss, but it was a cheap boat to begin with. He sold me a good 43-foot Hatteras that I used for about three years, and also sold me the next boat I owned: a Fleming 55’. That was followed in 2000 when I purchased a Fleming 72’. The Flemings were great long-range oceangoing boats, but their semi-planing hulls allowed them to cruise at around 16 knots. I came to love seaworthy boats with a long range, and the adventure of lengthy offshore passages.

Sonny also introduced me to Captain Alvin Stacey, who accompanied me on my first crossing of the Gulf of Mexico in the Hatteras, went on several trips with me on the Fleming 55’, and oversaw the commissioning of the Fleming 72’ in California. Alvin travelled with me on the Fleming 72’ up the coast of California, down to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, and then with two mates brought it through the Panama Canal and delivered it to me in the Bahamas. Everything I know about running and maintaining boats came from my relationships with Sonny and Alvin, along with learning the hard way from mishaps I had along the way. Sadly, Sonny passed away last year, although I was not aware of it until very recently.

Among the mishaps, I have suffered a small engine room fire, failure of a "shaft coupler" so that the engine was disconnected from the shaft and prop, several groundings, broken bow thrusters right when you need them to dock, crab trap entanglements, a boat sinking in the boatyard from a loose seawater pump hose, and a stabilizer fin knocked off. I spent a night on the Hatteras in Marker One Marina in Clearwater, Florida and was rescued by the Coast Guard there the next morning after the marina docks were destroyed in the "No Name Storm" or “Storm of the Century” in 1993. I’ve pretty much had every calamity you can imagine, but none of them have been life-threatening.

Today I am certainly no mechanic, but I have spent a lot of time in engine rooms figuring out problems and making small repairs on boats. Along the way I gained a captain’s license, and I have spent countless months cruising along the Gulf coast, in the Florida Keys, and from Maine to the Bahamas on the east coast. I do think I have learned to ask the right questions, to get expert help when I need it, and to deal with people I trust. For Division Belle, I dealt with Ray Currey as the broker, whom I have known for years at Burr Yacht Sales in Annapolis. I had a good survey and engine survey, and the most amazing inspection one could imagine done by Steve D’Antonio. 

Steve is well-known in the industry for his published articles in trade magazines, his seminars for boat owners on systems and maintenance, and for his very thorough pre-purchase inspections of boats. These inspections typically require two days, full-time on the boat. They cover every single component and system. I received a report with 168 observations and recommendations and 877 photographs of important components of the boat. The recommendations are divided up into the following sections: Cabin & Decks, Electrical System, Engine, Peripherals & Running Gear, Hull, Plumbing, and Systems. They are also placed into four categories ranging from urgent matters to more long-term issues. I would never purchase another boat without an inspection by Steve D'Antonio. While not inexpensive, it is a small price to pay to avoid very costly mistakes, and to help negotiate a price that is fair in view of the boat's condition. It has already saved me money and future trouble. The results not only tell the purchaser what needs to be fixed to be safe and reliable immediately, but also provide a blueprint for future maintenance and long-term improvement of the boat.

So I believe I have done this purchase correctly. This is a great boat with great systems, but it is 12-years-old and there are things that have not been maintained and needed attention. I think I now know most of the issues. I have spent the time since purchase sorting and assigning the list of projects. The most important safety and reliability issues will be fixed before I begin moving the boat south in January. The boat will be safer and more reliable as a result. But the question arises: is it more fun being blissfully ignorant or having the experience and knowledge to do it right?

The poet Thomas Gray said that: "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." There was a pure rush that I felt when I first bought a boat, learned to dock it properly, first crossed the big bend of Florida from Apalachicola to Clearwater, crossed it from Clearwater back to Apalachicola with only our dog Moose aboard with me, and ran the Fleming 55' non-stop, alone, 500 nautical miles due north from Key West to Orange Beach, Alabama in 50 hours. No doubt part of the pure thrill in the early days was having no worries. What could possibly go wrong? But while ignorance might have been bliss, there is a kind of peace that comes with knowledge and experience, and a feeling the one has done everything possible to prevent mishaps.

Work continues on Division Belle, and the first primer has been applied to areas of the hull that were repaired. Those areas will be further sanded before applying primer to the entire hull, and after more sanding, top coats will be applied. We seem to be on a schedule to get the boat back in the water January 2. Can’t wait.

The lady is having some work done

Many friends have asked when I will actually begin using the new boat. I should just politely say that the lady is having some minor surgery. Owning a boat simply means moving it from one place to another to have repairs done.

I spent all of last week working with Mick Shove, one of the partners at Burr Yacht Sales, to troubleshoot some of the many things that were found not to work during the initial survey and inspections. Mick is very good at tracking down a lot of mysteries, and many items have now been checked off or we have determined what parts or work are needed. Importantly, I found the loose wires that were causing the satellite dish not to work, and Mick put them back together. It will now need a new receiver box to replace the ancient one on board. Friday, the engine mechanics from a company called ShorePower arrived and began draining all of the fluids from the engine and removing big parts like the turbo after-cooler to take to the shop to clean or refurbish. They are expected to complete their tasks by the end of next week. 

Next Friday or the following Monday the boat will be moved to Zimmerman Marine, a boatyard within the gigantic Herrington Harbor Marina. There it will be hauled out of the water on a travel lift and the 100,000-pound boat will be driven into a shed where the hull will be painted and the varnish stripped down to bare wood and redone with about a dozen coats. This is expected to take approximately six weeks with a target completion date of November 30. While it is there, there are roughly 20 items to be repaired that require the boat to be out of the water, and the interior upholstery will also be recovered as specified by the lovely Laura Lee. Division Belle should emerge looking much better after her facelift, and with her new name and Richmond Hill, Georgia painted in gold on the stern.

So far, I took the wheel for about five minutes during the initial sea trial, but otherwise I have not driven the boat at all. It's a project.
I don't expect to be posting anything here until December, because maintenance is essentially boring. And besides, it is not polite to disclose details of work a lady has had done to maintain her lovely and young appearance.

Many thanks to those of you who are following this adventure. If you haven't done so, please click at the right to add your email address and receive any updates. And feel free to click below if you wish to publish comments.

First night on Division Belle

Saturday I drove some 10 1/2 hours from Richmond Hill, GA to Edgewater, MD with my car loaded down with tools and a few necessities for the boat. I spent Saturday night at a nearby motel and arrived at the boat Sunday morning around 6 am. Yesterday (Sunday) was for unloading gear and stowing equipment while today was devoted to making things livable and providing for necessities such as coffee in the morning. All the while, I have interrupted myself figuring out how everything works on this boat.

While I was exhausted last night, it was fun spending a night on the boat just to experience it all. For example, because this boat has been in a cold climate, the freshwater tank had anti-freeze added to it, so it was necessary to empty the tank, fill it with fresh water and some kind of treatment, empty it again and refill it. The process took about eight hours. It takes a long time to run sinks wide open and use up 480 gallons of contaminated water.

Sleep was fitful last night with all of the usual boat noises. Pumps turn off and on to run heater/air conditioners, boats go by, the boat rocks. There are new and strange noises. But it really does feel amazing to be doing this again.

My shopping costs in Savannah and here have been helped enormously by the Sears expected bankruptcy filing which has now occurred. The Savannah Sears is closing and I picked up boat tools at around half price. Here near Annapolis, I bought some basics yesterday and today from K-Mart, which might face a similar fate since it is owned by Sears. It's a sad and sorry end to a great brand. But hey, who can argue with buying a couple of decent coffee mugs for 89 cents each today?

If there are any readers of this new blog, please sign up to your right on this page to receive email updates. Also, you can see a map of where I am at each posting by clicking the location shown at the bottom of the post. I'm hoping to make it interesting reading, but you can be the judge of that.

While I plan to stay away from discussions of boat maintenance, I can't help but note that one of my blog entries about my last boat was called "What was wrong with Steel Magnolia". This is a well-built boat, but it has had little maintenance. The systems are elegant, but they don't all work. Our plan involves four steps. First, a representative from Burr Yacht Sales where I bought the boat will be here tomorrow for about two days of troubleshooting minor problems. These are things like the horn works from the pilothouse but not from the bridge, the washing machine has no hot water, etc. Second, mechanics will be on board beginning Friday to bring all of the engine room maintenance up to date, and fix a few problems. Third, we will go to a nearby boatyard to deal with things where the boat needs to be hauled out of the water. And finally, there are cosmetic issues including paint, varnish, cushion and sofa coverings, etc. that we will have done wherever we can achieve the best results either here, along the way home, or in Savannah.

There is much to be done, but as my mother used to say, "God, grant me the serenity to endure my blessings". I never thought I would own another boat, and I am forever grateful for this opportunity to follow my dreams once more. As Alfred, Lord Tennyson said in Ulysses:

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

"Dragged by the force of some inner tide"

I have today agreed to the final terms of a contract to purchase a "new" (12-year-old) boat. I thought I had this out of my system, but a clue as to why we are purchasing another boat at this stage in my life can be found in the boat name we have selected. She will be called “Division Belle”. Obscure? Yes, but perhaps I can explain.

         A division bell is rung in and around British Parliament to summon members when there is a “division”, a parliamentary term explained by Wikipedia as follows:

In parliamentary procedure, a division of the assembly, division of the house, or simply division is a method for taking a better estimate of a vote than a voice vote. Typically, a division is taken when the result of a voice vote is challenged or when a two-thirds vote is required.  

Historically, and often still today, members are literally divided into physically separate groups. This was the method used in the Roman Senate, and occasionally in Athenian democracy. Westminster system parliament chambers have separate division lobbies for the "Ayes" and "Noes" to facilitate physical division. In several assemblies, a division bell is rung throughout the building when a division is happening, in order to alert members not present in the chamber.

The term "division bell" has taken on a much broader meaning, and has been used in poetry and literature to symbolize any separation or division of people into groups. “Division Bell” also became the title of Pink Floyd’s fourteenth studio album, released in 1994. The album initially received mixed reviews, but it quickly became number one on both sides of the Atlantic and went "triple platinum", selling more than three million copies (back when musicians could actually sell their music). Among many die-hard Pink Floyd fans like myself, it is a classic. The album deals mostly with themes of communication resolving difficult problems. One overly-enthusiastic radio host said that it presented “the very real possibility of transcending it all, through shivering moments of grace”. Pink Floyd’s drummer Nick Mason said of the title: "It does have some meaning. It's about people making choices, yeas or nays.”

The only song on the album that uses the term “division bell” is the final track, entitled “High Hopes”, which contains the phrase "The ringing of the Division Bell had begun". Buying another boat and setting out again at my age is explained in the following lines of the song:

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many times

As we discussed boat names, the lovely Laura Lee, being a southern belle herself, suggested we should perhaps call her “Division Belle”, with an "e" added to the end, because boats are always feminine. The name was used for a blimp (or airship) purchased by Pink Floyd as a promotional stunt for the band’s Division Bell tour. In searching around, I have found it also used for a Thoroughbred race horse (whose dam was named Multiplication), a book, a racing sailboat in England, a type of daffodil sold in New Zealand, and as a nickname for a female mathematician. So "Division Belle" is not as original as we first thought. On the other hand, several names that we discussed are in use by literally hundreds of documented boats in the United States. We prefer not to be totally unoriginal. There are no other U.S. documented boats at present named “Division Belle”.

So we went with it. I expect it will start conversations along the way, and I like the ring of it. The complete lyrics to “High Hopes” follow, and I hope you will click here to see David Gilmour in an incredible performance of the song in 2016, in the Pompeii amphitheater in Italy. Gilmour's 2016 concert was the first public performance in the arena since it was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. 

“High Hopes”

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begun

Along the long road and on down the causeway
Do they still meet there by the Cut

There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some inner tide

At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river

Forever and ever

Songwriters: Polly Annie Samson / David Jon Gilmour / Polly Anne Samson 

          High Hopes lyrics © Barton Music Corporation