Wolftrap to the center of the World and beyond

The above map shows Wolftrap's course on the First day of the trip to the center of the world. It started at Sarra' Creek across the York River from the battle fields of Yorktown. The first Night out was at anchor In the Elizabeth river At Hospital Point.

This is the first of a series of videos on Wolfraps trip from Virginia through the inland waterway and over to the Bahamas and Florida Keys. We spent a total about ten years down that way and 15 years living aboard in all.  We didn't live aboard Wolftrap all that time but also aboard Kate, a Fantaisia sloop.   Wolftrap was far and away the finer sailboat.  Kate was without a doubt the nicer live aboard boat though she had many vices as a sailboat, some unforgivable.  Still there was some affection there. After all you can even learn to love a mean dog.

Sailboats Fair and fine# 55 :read oldest posts first

We sailed into Baileys Marina and spun Wolftrap around a piling on a line scaring the guy on the boat in front of us half to death. He ran back and forth across his boat not sure what to do. I snubbed the line on a midships cleat and we swung in on it hitting the dock kind of hard but with no damage except a couple scuffs on the rub rail. Georgene had the tiller while I handled the spring line. I think it scared her worse than the guy in front of us. We had the wind with us and had dropped the sail so that we were making about one to two knots when we got to the dock. Still that's pretty fast when you don't have an engine to stop you. To the fellow on the boat in front of our long bow sprite must have looked more like a ramming device than a spar.

We tied up and I walked up the Dock to talk to Mr. Bailey about hauling my boat. When I walked in I found myself in Church. The crew of five or six young men were all setting around in a circle and Mr. Bailey was preaching. They invited me in so I came in and sat down on a crate that I was offered. After a bit there was a prayer that no one would get hurt working today and that God would give each of them the wisdom and strength to be a good Christian for just this one day. I for one felt better as I though I might stand a chance of getting away from there in a week or so with out having my pockets filched of all coin.

Mr Bailey and I walked down the dock to look at my boat and he wanted to know what it weighed. “O,” about 9000 lbs. with all our junk aboard I told him.

Then it occurred to me that I didn't see a travel lift. “Got a railway,” I asked.

That's her right over there behind you he said. I stood wordless in astonishment looking at the rustiest worst beat up rusty cabled looking piece of equipment I have ever seen outside a junk yard. In a rather squeaky voice I said, “How much will she lift.”

“Oh about four times what your boat weighs. That's how all these boats got up here. I looked around and there were a couple of sailboats over 40 ft. I then realized why we had been praying a while ago. He went over and started her up her old gasoline engine was as quiet as a new Buick. He moved her toward my boat and the gears rattled and clunked as though the bearings were all worn out and the gears trying to climb on top of each other. He run the boom over Wolftrap and one of the kids climbed the boom and took my triadic stay loose between the masts they slung her and lifted her out of the water and swung her around to the other side of the causeway like dock and had her setting on blocks in less than thirty minutes. I started pulling the engine apart I needed a new exhaust riser, the second one in a thousand miles. I finally allowed myself to decide the engine was just to small for the boat and was working too hard. Since I had her apart and the parts were pretty cheap we decided to replace rings bearings and seals and lap in the valves.

We were waiting for parts and having a good time at Jensen beach it was a reasonable walk to a movie theater shopping center with fast food joints we partook of all their pleasures. We walked the beaches and the bridge across the river. The other side smelled better. We went to church with the crew a few mornings and enjoyed it. I don't think I ever heard preaching and praying that came from quit the same direction. They prayed for my engine they prayed that the keelson in the sailboat one of them was working on would not be rotten when he got the garbor plank off. They prayed for each other, some guy at a lunch stand and a host of others that lived close by. They preyed that the wind would blow the other way and push the rotting sea weed to sea that was along the shore and was stinking to high heaven.

They really were a nice bunch of people.

We met a young lady tall thin and some kind of pretty who was chiseling a plank out of her and her husbands boat. She showed me a couple she had replaced on the other side. She had done a beautiful job and had caulked it herself. She said with a big toothy and georgous grin, that all that praying must of helped. She and I, got to be pretty good friends, a fact not lost on my wife.

Sailboats fair and fine# 54: read oldest posts first

Today is blastoff day for the shuttle. We got up to a buitiful morning the breeze had swung to the east and was light and cool. There was not a cloud in the sky. We unwrapped our sails. The lines we had wrapped arond them had not been needed but when a strong front comes through such as had been expected you never know when a microburst or even a toranado might be in store. I saw a sail come unfurled on a boat in 70 mile per hour winds one time. The boat was knocked down flat. The boat had been left at anchor and took off for the shore. Luckily the sail burst into a couple hundred pieces and several others and myself were able to get to her and reanchor. The weird thing was the owner give me hell for boarding his boat. You have to wonder sometimes what people are thinking.
The launch took place abot 1: 00 in the afternoon. It was a very moving thing for me. I got to thinking about where mankind has come from over thousands of years and here we are sending space ships into the emptyness or maybe crowded reahes of space. Depends on how you look at it I guess. whatching the shuttle sit there with vapor rising from her and listening to the count down on the radio was unforgettable. Finally she was off and we watched her disapear out over the Atlantic. The whole thing brought tears to my eyes. I got some rather strange looks from Georgene. after the launching we upped anchor and saild in a light breeze on down the Indian river.
Later that day I tried to start the engine and it would not turn over. Checking the oil I found water in it. We began looking for a for a plact to tie up for a few days on work on the motor. We could not charge batteries now. We headed on down the Indian River toward Jensen Beach a town that had a couple of marinas.

Sailboats Fair and fine# 53 : Read oldest posts first

Dec 3 , Tuesday

We rolled out of our bunks this morning to a strongish southerly breeze maybe 15 knots. It had been choppy all night and Wolftrap was banging around a little. We had breakfast got our foul weather gear on and prepared for a wet and rough dingy ride to shore. I lined up on some markers I had picked out before we turned in last night. We appeared to be in the same place. The anchors were holding well. Of course we listened to the weather on the marine band which called for a cold front late in the afternoon. We planned to be back before then. But it was going to be a rough ride back. I dropped an extra bailer in the dink for the ride back. The wind would be picking up more as the day wore on. By the time the front got here the wind would be blowing 25 knots along the leading edge from the south.

I got in the dingy and Georgene handed me a couple of coffees and a thermos full. I fired up the little motor George got aboard with life preservers and a couple back packs. With dry cloths just in case and some lunch. Food would be expensive ashore. We started off heading almost into the waves. I throttled back to keep the bow from throwing water and we very slowly made our way to shore.

When we got to shore we pulled the dingy way up amongst some trees , out of sight from the road or the water. I chained the boat to a good size tree took the motor off and carried it about 50 yards into the woods and hit it under an old wind fallen tree. I put it in a plastic bag and covered it up with leaves. I took a pine bough and covered my tracks so there would be nothing to follow. We walked back to the beach and I lined the boat up with the swing section of a bridge if the boat moved with the wind coming from the south I would be able to see it's change in position by the bridge. We were off to the museum and I was some excited. I had a good time and It was fun for my wife too as we saw things I had worked on and she remembered me talking about them. Of course we didn't make the actual articles that went into space but we built prototype models for testing. The equipment that went in space was built by the big companies that had ridged inspection procedure that we couldn't afford. Later in the day we rode out on the bus toward the launch site but not close at all. That was a disappointment as we could actually see the shuttle better from Wolftrap. I guess you can't expect them to take a buss load of tourists out to look with explosive fuels being handled.

I was feeling a little uneasy about our boat and was glad to get back to the dingy.

We got in the dink and put the engine down in the bottom with the engine head setting on top a couple fenders in case we took on water. I preferred to row as I could keep the boat turned stern to the waves . With a little backward rowing I was able to keep us from going too fast. And keep the boat lined up with the waves. All went well, but boarding was a bit wild with Wolftrap pitching and the dink ducking and diveing and trying it's best to go under Wolftrap's stern.. We got a board and had a slightly wildish ride until the front came through. The wind doubled in speed to nearly 50 knots but it was blowing across the river maybe a mile. Lightning cracked in the woods now to our stern thunder rattled the cups in the galley. The wind after the first gusts droped down to about 30 knots and swung farther to the north during the night. All in all it was a wild night and you can imagine how pleased we were with our anchoring job. There were no other boats within a mile of us so there was no worry there. By two A.M. The wind had slacked to about fifteen knots and all was right with the world. I was happy the winds would be light enough for a launch in the morning.

Sailboats Fair and fine# 51 : Read oldest posts first

Last night we lazed around in the cockpit listening to some nice music on a local radio station. The sky is full of stars overhead but there is a city in almost any direction you look. You can see the glow in the sky from each of them. The stars directly overhead are the only ones visible. We heard on the radio there was going to be a shuttle launch in three days which inspired me to gaze at the stars in amazement as sailors have done for thousands of years. I wondered how many and from how many lands and seas they looked up and were nearly over whelmed by the wonder of such a sight.

Well it was a sure thing with a shuttle launching in a few days that we weren't going anywhere until that was seen. I planned to get as close as the law would allow and watch.

Since we had several days we decided to go over to the cape and tour the museum and ride out to the launch pad and see the shuttle. We were very excited about the whole thing so Georgene and I studied the chart book to see how close we could get. We made a decision on an anchorage that would get us close but give us room to drag anchor if a storm moved us. The anchorage was on the east side of the Indian river. Cold fronts and squalls usual come from the west and they would put us on a lee shore if an anchor pulled loose.

We weighed anchor and headed on over there in a light breeze and we ghosted along at about two knots and marveled at how good it felt to not feel we needed to make five or six knots.

We sailed into our chosen anchorage and dropped three hooks. Wolftrap set right in the middle of them. We were in a fairly large body of water and we would be leaving her for for long periods of time during the days. I put down a Danforth to the north west and the plow to the southwest. To the East I put out an old Heshoff yachtsman about 25 lbs.

We were anchored in mud and the yachtsman though it might drag in mud would not let go. So if she moved it would be very, very slowly and the other two would have ample opportunity to pull in again. I felt pretty good about how we were anchored and I expected that the anchorage would be full of boats watching the launching. I hoped everyone else would do a good job anchoring their boats. We put the sail covers on and wrapped lines around them to be sure they couldn't blow free. It's not unusual to get gusts of wind to 70 knots in winter frontal thunderstorms. Feeling secure we took the dingy and headed for shore and a two mile walk to the Museum

We were really excited about going to see the space port. I had worked for years doing work for Nasa and felt I was a part of all this and it a part of me. My part was very small but it was big for in my mind.

Sailboats fair and fine# 50 : read older posts first

Just want to thank everyone for being patient and I should be posting regular again. I still can't post with Linux to blogger as I had hopped I'd be able to do. I would really like to stay off line with the computer I am doing video with.

Doug

Dec.1,Monday Georgenes Log

We were up early and had breakfast before we got underway. We waited until 8 A.M. To get some fuel at the marina across from us. We tied up at the fuel dock at the Anchorage Yacht Basin right across from the big dragon on the point. A man in the boat across the dock from us gave us a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs. The dock master let us stay at the dock long enough to let us stay at the grocery store about a block away.

We managed to get to the Esau Gollie ( Oh Golly )bridge just in time for it's opening at 9:15 and off we go- South on the Indian River again. The first stretch this morning was straight down the middle of this beautiful river. Just before noon the channel started to have a few zig zags because of the many little islands. We passed through the Pelican Island Wildlife Refuge and saw the tiny Pelican Island a mile or so away from the channel with dozens and dozens of Pelicans and lots of other birds watching us go buy. It has really been a beautiful day. We found another nice anchorage just off the waterway behind a little island at mile 945. We stopped around 4 P.M. And both took a short nap. I washed my hair and started supper and Doug took the dingy for a little sight seeing tour.

Having sailed most of the day and only having run the engine about 30 minutes I thought I had better check the battery charge. Sure enough it was down pretty good. We ran the engine another hour. We had run enough to bring the house battery up. But not the starting battery. With days now shorter some reading lights were nice in the evenings. Having it to do over again I would have put a larger alternator on Wolf trap as the one that came on the engine was only 15 amp. When we got to Ft Lauderdale . I run up on a fellow who had a nice 30 amp alternator that he was replacing with a 100 amp and really fancy charging system. I gave him $10.00 It had a bad diode in it and I got one for $15.00 and put it on the little Yanmar. I could detect a little slowdown for about twenty minutes if the batteries were down some but as the alternator load lightened Wolftrap was back up to speed again. There is no end to this more and more electricity thing I would have been just as happy had I stuck with the 15 amp alternator. It jut meant running under power a little longer. I do believe that when charging batteries at anchor the heavier load on the engine from a bigger alternator is better for the engine as long as you never charge batteries under about 1600 RPM's. For a fellow who builds his own stuff It's not a hard thing to but a small refrigerator on board run off a small rotary automotive air conditioner compressor. If you have to run the engine to charge batteries you may as well run a small refrigerator. Even the little 8 hp Yanmar will pull a thirty amp alternator and refrigerator while anchored. You can't run both while motoring If the little refrigerator is really well insulated say 6 inches you don't have to run it but about twice a week for one hour in hot summer time. Unless you are going to live aboard for long periods. I used in our sailboat Kate, the refrigerant that they sell in the automotive stores.

Us men are mostly fools. We take a girl off sailing who has been used to all the modern convinces and expect her to cook, serve meals and a few other jobs in blissful happiness with a kerosene stove that is contrary. No refrigeration, hardly any electricity minimal heat and not even a decent mirror to put her makeup on. You and I can't saw out a new hatch board without an eclectic jigsaw a couple of Rather manly wood planes, chisels

WE can't even read a chart without a chart table. No frilly curtains no flowery bedspreads. Except for one rather large problem we should take only men sailing.

Sailboats Fair and fine; Read oldest posts first

Sorry folks this may take a few days. I am working onWolftrap Video of the trip south and to the Bahamas. My computer kept locking up and some of the programs quit working. I have had this problem before and have now set up a dual boot system with Linux on one drive and Xp on the other to do only video on using Premier. I will do all my on line work in Lenux. That should keep Xp free of trash. Anyway it will take a few days to get things straight again and start posting. Sorry about that!
Doug