The Georgia Milk Run

It started off innocently enough. Three guys in a tub--rub-a-dub-dub--down the ICW to deliver a sailboat from Annapolis to Fort Pierce Florida. It's been done a thousand times but sometimes a new wrinkle is added. This time the wrinkle cracked. The tub was actually a well founded and sound 38 Classic Dufour with all suitable gear and equipment for the inland trip. The three guys were: the owner with some Chesapeake Bay experience; a newly licensed captain (friend and crew) with little sailing experience but lots of boating hours and exceptional marine knowledge; and another long-time licensed captain (friend and crew) who had already made a number of ICW trips to serve as the primary navigator. Together, we had the readiness to handle the trip easily all other things considered well. It was in this considering well that the tale unfolds. Other than the cold weather expected with a trip starting out in the middle of November, proceeding down the Bay, through Norfolk and the ICW ditch on into South Carolina went fine. However, moving at 6-7 miles/hour only during the daylight hours, finding a nightly anchorage, waiting out the opening of bridges and the movement of dredges, dodging the tugs and tows, and the encountering the occasional bumping and grounding becomes somewhat exasperating after a while. Oh, to be offshore! Will we get the weather picture for that? The main travel concern was the owner's health status. He had a serious heart condition and only recently had undergone two separate surgical procedures and was still recuperating from those. He is a blithe spirit, however, and was handling his health needs adequately while continuing to keep the vessel ship shape and on course. The wrinkle developed when he began to have pains related to kidney stones, which he had previously endured. He felt he could medicate to ease that situation and wanted to get the boat to Florida. Now the question became: Did we want to hasten the trip south by sailing offshore or continue the slow drudgery of the ICW where medical help was more available? We mulled this over as we continued on into Charleston and berthed there with the owner making an emergency room visit. His physician in Annapolis was contacted and the decision was made to proceed with the trip with appropriate pain control but to get back to Annapolis as soon as possible. The crew checked the weather status and received a NOAA fax to the extent the NW winds and moderate seas would be suitable for the next three days for a sail/power run off the Georgia coast (hence the inadvertent designation, Milk Run) that could save at least three days to destination. Owner and crew decided to do this. Ah, the wrinkle deepens. We departed Charleston harbor bright and early on a 190 degree heading that would take us well off-shore but also would find us again inshore in two days when the land form of Florida curved back out to our longitude. All went well all day but that night the wind backed to the west, the seas mounted and we found we were being driven southeasterly with current, waves, and distance offshore building against us. Reefed sails were giving us little drive so we doused them and powered up to the max to at least quarter the sea. The next morning found us over 110 miles offshore with no let up. The waves were 12-14 feet; the wind was 30-33 with gusts over 35. So much for the weather fax information…or had we miss-read it? We powered on through the day and the next night finally getting a contact made with the Coast Guard through a freighter we spotted and informing them that we were making insufficient progress but getting short of fuel. We did have an extra fifteen gals in reserve containers but did not know how long we might have to fight the seas to get to shore. In the early morning, the CG sent a helicopter out to check on us and to make a direct radio contact. We informed them of out plight and were told that a Navy ship was close-by and would be making a fuel delivery to us as soon as they could get to our location. In a couple of hours a Navy helicopter was overhead informing us that a ship would be approaching. Very shortly, FFG 29, USS Stephen W. Groves, a Navy frigate hove into view and was she a lovely sight! We cannot say enough about the royal treatment they gave us. They came over to us by inflatable with fuel, filled our tanks and returned again with filled containers they left with us insisting also that we accept some beverages, canned food, bread, and even fresh cookies they brought. The highlight of their gifts was an official Navy deck cap with their vessel identification for each of us. Boy, do we treasure those caps and wear them with pride. Our very grateful thanks continue to be extended to the Captain, other officers, enlisted personnel, gentlemen and ladies of Frigate 29. With their assistance, we were able to continue on toward shore planning to make it to the St. Mary's River entrance and proceed down into the Florida ICW, but that was not to be. We were later intercepted by the CG helicopter again and informed that a CG cutter/tug would be meeting us to escort us to the Savannah River station. About 30 miles offshore, the cutter/tug, Tonga, radioed us that they would follow us as escort with instructions to take up a heading toward the Savannah. Now we were heading NW into the Georgia coast and losing all of the southing we had made. What goes round comes around it seems. The upshot of this was the cutter put out a team to board us as part of Homeland Security (who were these persons coming across the Atlantic in these conditions), investigated and inspected us, and with minor resolve, let us continue up the Savannah River to again enjoin the ICW for the rest of our trip, which we completed successfully. Good fortune prevailed, the owner had no additional complications, and he was able to fly back to Maryland to get treatment from his own physician. Yet, we digress. The primary intent of this piece is to point out the mistakes made in this journey. First of all, relying on one source of weather information is fallible. The weather looked good and we wanted to go sailing. However, weather conditions can change drasticly in only a few hours and even the CG acknowledged the rough weather was not expected. Setting a course so far offshore was poor judgement in any extent even if excellent conditions had prevailed. The owner's health concerns and getting to destination ASAP were driving the decisions that lead to unnecessary risks and travail. Although the boat was sound and met the test in every way, the vessel had not been fully rigged for heavy weather, most notably, the second and third reefing lines had not been run and checked; no drogue or extra warps aboard should we have needed them; no fore-and-aft line had been secured so foredeck work was notably risky; and we lost wind direction and speed indicators so could rely only on our experienced estimates for this. Other limitations included: Type 2 PFD's were aboard and worn but the full jacket Type 1 was needed for increased safety at sea; although we had extra fuel and a fuel-conservative engine, there was not adequate reserve for an offshore extingency; we had no radar or liferaft. Radar as well as a careful lookout is a needed application for powering and sailing at night. We did have a small dinghy but it was stowed. We also had a small two-person inflatable dinghy folded into it's secured bag topside with the pump stored below. Usability, if needed, for each of these was compromised. The installed autopilot had not been functional the entire trip and we were without other self-steering mechanisms. Extensive manual steering increases fatigue and attention to other details. There was no man overboard pole or MOB recovery gear, no EPIRB, and only VHF radios. SSB or other long-range radio signals are very essential in such situations. We did have adequate charts and dual GPS, so once we had additional fuel we were able to proceed safely on our own. Fortunately, none of the negative items came into drastic play. The moral of this tale is to never venture offshore without careful and complete preparation. With the help of the Navy and Coast Guard seamen we were able to avoid hazardous or dire circumstances. We consider our experiences educational, informative, and clear reminders of what could have been. We resolve to better equip the vessel and to exercise better judgement in the future using these experiences as our guiding beacons. We encourage all to do the same.