Day 200 - Hokule'a — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 107, fuel purchased gallons 0, slip fee $94, daily high temperature 78°f

Sunday night brought on a 2.5 hour battle with Direct TV. We have successfully changed satellites four times during our trip. Each time we move out of satellite range for local channels I call Direct TV and they update our location. Today I had the unfortunate experience to be connected to the Direct TV “customer disservice” rep Rebecca. She told me that for her to update my location would be fraud and I could be arrested. I told her I accepted the risk. I have never read about anyone going to jail for having their Direct TV account updated. After a heated discussion she finally connected me with Carol the expert. Carol the expert had us reconfigure our satellite receiver and we lost all connectivity with the satellite. Nice work Carol. Now we have no TV. After another hour on the phone with Igor the Direct TV boat specialist we still have no TV. I will try again when we get to Savannah. First world problem.

Later that evening the 60′ Polynesian the sailing canoe Hokule’a tied up on the dock across from us. This canoe is a replica of a canoe built in the 700’s. Hokule’a has sailed around the world and most recently sailed from New Zealand to Key West. The sailing canoe has no engine and is true to the original design. They have a chase boat that tows them in and out of marinas. I added more detail regarding Hokule’a at the end of this blog post.

At 3:00 am I heard a scraping sound on the hull. It sounded like fiberglass scraping something hard. That is disturbing because we have six fenders out and there is no wind. I got up, got dressed and went out on the dock. I looked around and saw the boat was several inches from the dock. Then I heard the scraping again. There was a large plastic lid between the boat and the dock. It had floated in and was rubbing against our boat.

We shoved off from the Brunswick Landing Marina at 7:45 am and exited the St Simons Sound into the Atlantic Ocean. We ran up the coast and entered at the Savannah River. It was another 15 miles up the Savannah River to the City of Savannah. We docked at the Westin Hotel Marina at 2:00 pm after cruising 107 miles. The Atlantic Ocean was a bit rolly. These conditions make it hard to move around the boat. When I am off watch my location on the boat is lying in the aft bunk wearing Bose noise suppression ear plugs. Andy sits on the aft deck and goes into a Zen trance and reminds her mind that she took Bonine (sea sickness medicine) and that she is not getting sea sick. Sometimes she can go sleep to sleep but gets woken up when we hit a wave large enough to ring our ships bell. After two hours I go back up and take over the helm from Dale. We slow the boat down for bathroom breaks out of consideration for our crew. Otherwise you would be rolling right off the toilet seat. Perhaps seat belts would be a solution.

The wind had shifted from NE to SE but the waves were still confused. They were mostly 2 – 3 feet on our beam. Once we turned the corner to follow the channel into the Savannah River everything flattened out nicely.

Docking at the Westin Hotel Marina was exciting. The current on the river runs swiftly past the dock. We were told we could tie up on the inside of the dock. However the space between the dock and the concrete wall was narrow. With a strong current I chose to tie up on the outside of the dock so I had lots of room to maneuver. In order to control the boat in the current I had the throttles wide open which was a first time experience. Usually docking is a gentle maneuver with just slight taps of the throttles. We parked that boat just as nice as you please with no drama.

This is a commercial harbor with several car carriers transiting back and forth past us.

We will stay in Savannah for two nights and then cruise to Beaufort on the ICW on Wednesday.

Bonus photo.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.” – George Herbert

George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was a Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest. Herbert’s poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as “a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skilful and important British devotional lyricist.”

Hawaiian double hulled sailing canoe arriving in Honolulu from Tahiti

Hōkūleʻa is a performance-accurate full-scale replica of a waʻa kaulua, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, she is best known for her 1976 Hawaiʻi to Tahiti voyage performed with Polynesian navigation techniques, without modern navigational instruments. The primary goal of the voyage was to further support the anthropological theory of the Asiatic origin of native Oceanic people (Oceania maps:detail, region), of Polynesians and Hawaiians in particular, as the result of purposeful trips through the Pacific, as opposed to passive drifting on currents, or sailing from the Americas. Scientific results of 2008, from DNA analysis, illuminate this theory of Polynesian settlement. ) A secondary goal of the project was to have the canoe and voyage “serve as vehicles for the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians and other Polynesians.” (Finney, Voyage of Rediscovery).