Nature's Visitors

We are continuing our way up the coast. This leg of the trip took us from Hammock Beach, Florida to Hilton Head, South Carolina.  We left Hammock on Sunday morning and motored up the ICW to St. Augustine. There we motored out the inlet and made a beeline for Port Royal Sound. A day and a half later, we arrived at Skull Creek Marina along the northern side of Hilton Head Island.

The trip was mostly uneventful other than the usual inaccuracies of the weather forecasts. The one thing of note was the varied wildlife that came to visit us along the way. Pulling up the fenders in Hammock we found a couple small crabs hanging onto a string that was accidentally left dangling in the water. These were the first of several visitors for the trip.

After making our way out of St. Augustine, we were met by a couple of dolphins that came to play at the front of the boat. This is actually a fairly common occurrence, but this time the water was calm and they hung around long enough I could grab my phone and take some video.

Once the winds picked up and we were making good time under sail, a much larger pod of dolphins came and played in front of our boat for a while. We tried counting, and there must have bee at least a dozen swirling around and jumping in front of the hulls. I can't imagine how they can manage not to crash into each other as they go blazing by the front of the hulls. While dolphin visits aren't all that uncommon, it never seems to get old.

Early the next morning I found a small hitchhiker hanging on to one of the lifelines. Later he found a perch on the genoa sheet. I'm not sure that was the best seat given how the wind-filled sail would bounce the line around, but he hung on there for a while.

Later in the morning we spotted a turtle as we approached the sound. Of course, as is usually the case, he spotted us and dove before we could get a camera.

The last few thousand visitors came as we approached the Port Royal Sound.  The wind had died, and every manner of flying bug seemed to descend upon us.  Moths, flies, no-see-ums, and others that I couldn't identify. My homemade bug spray got a workout and I think it helped with the no-see-ums, but it wasn't perfect.  My wife got out a fly swatter and was playing "Whack-A-Mole" with them until bug carcasses littered the cockpit.  Fortunately the winds did pick back up, and they eventually scattered.

Lots of wildlife encounters, some good and some less so.  All part of the sailing adventure I guess.

Marina "Wildlife"

In case you didn't figure out from the lack of posts the past few days, it has actually been nice here.  From Thanksgiving through yesterday it has been relatively warm during the day (the 60's and low 70's) and not raining.  So we have been working hard trying to get the finish on the top...er...finished. I could tell you how we spent the last several days repeatedly applying gelcoat and then hand-sanding most of it back off, but I won't.  I think I've previously mentioned all the issues with hand-applying gelcoat to make a smooth surface and don't want to bore you with more of the same.

About as smooth as we can apply this gelcoat.

The marina I'm staying at is in a bit more rural part of Virginia.  It isn't the west's version of rural where your nearest neighbor is 50 miles away, but there is some forested land here and there in between the houses. The homes I see on the roads here seem to sit on somewhere between 1 and 50 acres if I were to take a guess and there isn't a lot of empty land wedged in between them and the roads on this peninsula. Farm fields are still a bit further down the main highway and technically I think this is a town, but it isn't as densely packed as bigger cities or their suburbs.

Across the Severn river a couple mornings ago.
Not densely populated, but not that sparse either.

The reason I'm telling you this is because it is hunting season, something we are painfully aware of as we work out in the boatyard.  Off in the not-so-distant distance we hear a regular smattering of gunfire. I think someone mentioned it was deer season, but I don't know what they are hunting for sure.  All I know is that they don't seem to be too good at it. Often the shots are heard in groups of 6 or more, and one time I think I even heard a semi-automatic weapon of some sort being fired. The theory of being a good shot, making a clean kill, and not wanting the animal to suffer seems to be lost here.  And given the proximity of homes, property, and even this marina, I'm a bit concerned with what seems like less than good marksmen nearby. They recently put up no hunting signs at a local city park in the area. Fortunately we are surrounded by boats that should act as shields from most directions.  But it still amazes me how people are hunting on relatively small plots of land in close proximity to civilization.

Our new cat friend resting on her favorite
scratching post.

Back at the marina there isn't much in the way of wildlife (out of the water).  There is the kitty that has adopted me and my project and I think has taken up residence in the tent when I am gone.  She is definitely more comfortable with us than she was, and a guy with a boat two down from our project in the yard is trying to befriend and adopt the stray.  That same guy painted his boat a couple days ago and ran afoul of the other bit of wildlife we've encountered in the yard: bugs.  I don't know how these beetles did it, but they managed to get their backs stuck to his paint...which begs the question of how these bugs fly that they get stuck to a vertical surface on their backs.

It's hard to take pictures of the stupid bugs
with their backs/wings stuck in the paint.

Today it is cold and rainy so I don't know how much work will be done...and I had time to write a post.  We have a couple spots we sanded too thin and will need to reapply some gelcoat at least one more time.  After that, we just need to apply the non-skid gelcoat pattern to the topside body of the hardtop and we should be ready to move it to the boat.  So close, yet so far away.

My Stowaway

I haven't seen my stowaway since shortly after we arrived in Southport.  Either he has found a good hiding place or has decided he had enough of sailing.  Thought I'd post one more picture of him.  While I was at the helm he came over and climbed up on the winch, changed from his green to a more brownish color (still not good camouflage on the gray self-tailer on the winch) and took a nap.  Or maybe he was feeling a bit seasick, who knows.  In any case it he seemed pretty brave given how close he was to me at the time.

Is the Boat Dissolving?

This actually started just after we bought the boat, but I haven't managed telling the story until now.  When my wife and I bought the boat, we didn't actually stay on it until after we moved it to the marina at Hammock Beach.

Well, the first night at the marina we climb into the berth and turn off the lights.  It was a good temperature so we didn't have AC, heat, or fans running.  In the quiet of the dark, we started hearing a crackling sound. We both thought it was a bit strange and just a little concerning. In our limited time staying on boats, we had never heard anything like it so I got up and listened intently trying to locate the sound.  It appeared to be coming from the lower hull.  Not sure what the sound was, I pulled up the floorboards to look into the bilge. I didn't see a thing out of the ordinary.  With the floorboards up, I once again listened and the sound seemed to come from all around on the hull.  And with the floorboards up it sounded a bit like the fiberglass was cracking.

I sat there and listened, tapped on the hull (which I know is about 5/8" solid fiberglass at the bottom) and pondered what the noise could be.  Is the somewhat cool water causing the fiberglass to expand and contract unevenly?  Is something eating through the hull?  Is this just a "normal" sound that I've never heard before?  After staring at the dry fiberglass hull for a while, it was getting late and I decided that the boat wasn't sinking so we just put the floorboards back and went to sleep.  Hopefully the rush of water will wake us up if the hull gives way.  The next days the boat remained afloat but the crackling sound could be heard anytime the boat was quiet.

Now, fast forward to a week or two after I get back to the boat.  I still hear the noise but, while I have no explanation for it, have dismissed it as a "normal boat noise".  Talking to one of my dock neighbors, they were telling me how they were hearing a noise like crackling or water leaking into their boat.  They invite me to come listen and, sure enough, it is the same noise that I've been hearing all along.  They hadn't noticed it until they started doing some work near the hull (they are a motor yacht and their hulls are covered with cabinets and other things that mask the sound).  I told them I had been hearing the same thing since I've owned the boat and had dismissed it.  They couldn't believe it was the same noise so I invited them to come listen.  Sure enough, they agreed it was the same noise.

As we were standing on the dock discussing the strange sound that we both hear, one of the locals wandered by and offered an explanation.  Apparently, when it gets a bit cooler, some small shrimp tend to come out and they are the cause of the noise.  Neither of us had every heard of such a thing, but sure enough, a quick Google search reveals it is quite common.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheidae

Or for an over-dramatic video explanation...



In any case, it is fascinating...and good to know that my fiberglass boat isn't dissolving.