Friday, April 29, 2016

Wow.. I can't believe I forgot to post this video on this blog.. This was back in November 2015 not long after I purchased the boat. This shows the 80 mile trip bringing transporting my boat home. It's also the first time I actually saw the boat (besides pictures)..

(The following is from my description on youtube back then, about the trip)

Transport of my recently purchased Grampian 26 sailboat from Sapelo Island to Tybee Island in Georgia. (about 80 miles).
I purchased the boat from Fred Hay for $950,, who is the head biologist and manager of Sapelo Island (he works for the DNR). I had found it on Craigslist.

Since I'm currently completely inexperienced with boating such a distance, my friend George volunteered to captain the trip, and he brought along his friend Toni as well. Emill, a retired WWII veteran, (another friend of mine) drove us all down to Meridian where I met up with Freds wife, saw the boat for the first time and paid for the boat and motor and received the bill of sale. Next , Emil took us to the grocery store, where I lost my mind and bought way more groceries than we could ever possibly eat.. it was $118 dollars at the register, we were all shocked! We considered putting some of it back, but we had already took so much of Emils time, and it was already 2pm, and didn't feel like sorting through it all, so I said "screw it" and paid for it..

Emil then drove us to the gas station.. where I realized I had mistakenly given Freds wife $1,000 for the boat (the other $50 I had in the envelope for the gas). So didn't have enough money left for gas!... sigh.. Well, George paid, and we filled 3 or 4 gas cans, and there was already some gas in the boat. Finally Emil dropped us off at the boat, and he loaned me his GPS,... (It was a Garmin, the kind you use in a car, and it came in quiet handy. It showed exactly where we were in the intracoastal waterway, and where we had been, the current speed and direction, and it told me a couple of times that I was not on the road!)

We had to kind of maneuver the boat around the back of a Ferry which had docked there preparing to pick up some group, and finally we were on our way..

Although an acceptable set of sails (a main and a jib),  and all rigging was included, we have never sailed, - no one knew how, so we motored the entire trip with an older Honda 9.9 which I purchased from an associate of Fred's for $500 - The motor ran flawlessly the entire trip as the sails lay lonely, unused on the deck and in the head! I gave Fred a call to inform him I had given his wife the extra $50, and to ask him about the new covers for the cushions that weren't there.. He explained he does have them and we'll get together soon so I can get them.

Anyway, It was late in the afternoon on Friday, November 21, 2015, at about 3pm when we left the Sapelo Island Ferry dock in Meridan,  We traveled until it got dark somewhere in the vicinity of St. Catherines Sound, and that's where we anchored for the night.

George and Toni took the Vberth, and I folded down the table of the dinette, it was very comfortable, but I didn't sleep much at all.. I repeatedly would get up and check to make sure the anchor wasn't dragging,.. it never did.. (George later told me I had a big anchor for a boat this size.. I don't know, but I take his word for it)
My mind raced with ideas and plans of upgrades and cosmetic alterations I will do next summer when I have some cash flow again. Oh, and yeah, I obviously need to learn to sail! We pulled anchor shortly after daybreak Saturday, Most of the day was overcast, but it never rained, a little chilly with the strong Northeaster, but a pleasant ride anyway. My video camera went dead about halfway through the trip, mainly because I unknowingly had it in my pocket filming for about 20 minutes! (I filmed some more of the trip using my el-cheapo android tablet, but the video and sound was terrible! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0TmN_Q4yIA so I gave up on that).

After a few hours I went below and took a hard nap in the aft berth. When I awoke we were getting close to Wilmington Island, and we made it all the way there by dark.
The original plan was to dock it at George's house on Wilmington (the next island over from Tybee) but unfortunately turned out to be an insufficient draft at low tide.
So we temporarily docked it at a friend of Toni's nearby.

This weekend (it actually ended up being three weeks later) we're going to anchor it across the back river at Tybee where it'll be close to me for the rest of the winter. I bought a cheap inflatable boat from Walmart (was about $20 with oars and a foot pump) to get back and forth to it, until spring, when I'll have more income, at which point I'll probably dock it at Tybee Marina - Right now I simply can't afford the extra $320 a month it cost to dock there.

I've wanted a sailboat for years, - an RV on the water, and now I finally have one, and I really love this boat!
I know a couple people who are sailors or have sailed that are going to assist me a little bit on learning to sail, and I really am looking forward to it... I'm actually going to use it frequently.
Eventually I'll take some long cruises.

The boat seems to be very sound, no soft spots, keel bolts are good,  recent deck hull joints rebed, bulkheads good, electrical good, new cabin sole,  however, the hatch cover hinges are in poor condition and needs repair or replacement, and the boat needs a good cleaning, paint, hull needs to be scraped and painted, but nothing major. I bought Don Casey' "This Old Boat" book, a highly regarded Chilton manual of sorts specifically written for old boats  like this, and have already read most of it.. No old boat owner should be without it!

So that's my story, and here is the video of my first trip on my new old sailboat
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