Trawling the ICW, day 2
Two really great things happened on the second day of my trip. For one thing, it warmed up a little. The other great thing was that I discovered the "flying bridge"; the upper level steering station on Sea Smoke. There are lots of comfortable seats up there, whether you are steering the boat (which Frank usually did) or goofing off (which I excelled at). The other great thing about being on the flying bridge is the visibility; far better than any sailboat I have ever been on (unless you are at the top of the sailboat's mast). Frank's boat had an added feature to this already decadent form of water travel: "plastic"! His boat had an assortment of Sunbrella fabric and clear plastic, all of it cleverly attached to itself with snap-on buttons and zippers over an aluminum frame. On a warm day, this design allowed you to open up the flying bridge for as much cooling breeze and fresh air as you could want. In colder weather, or in wet weather, you could zip everything up and turn the flying bridge into a little "hot house", and not loose any of your visibility. The engine controls were obviously available at either the upper or lower steering stations, and most of the navigational toys could also be taken upstairs. Sea Smoke's flying bridge was "way cool".Another neat thing about Frank's boat was his electronic charts. His laptop computer sits right next to him as he steers, and a nautical chart is displayed on the computer screen. The laptop is connected to a gps, so you not only see the chart as you motor along, but you see a little boat symbol on the chart that moves along as the boat moves along. It's the classic "you are here" sort of thing, with constant updates direct from outer space. I have personally stuck with paper charts over the years (Frank also has paper charts on Sea Smoke). I've just been too cheap to fork out the extra bucks for electronic charts. But, I have to admit that when ever I'm on a boat with electronic charts, I feel my paper-chart-purity start to weaken. I think you have to be a slightly more skilled navigator if you are using paper charts, but like the tv remote control, it is just sooo much easier to use electronic charts. Typically, when you are driving the boat, you only refer to the chart occasionally. With paper charts, every time you refer to the chart, you have to first figure out where the hell you are. THEN you can go about finding out whatever it is that you wish to learn from the chart. You do this little "where am I" dance EVERY time you look at the paper chart. With electronic charts, the computer/gps combination does the "where am I" dance for you, constantly, many times per second. So, when you refer to an electronic chart, you can immediately start concentrating on what ever it is that you are trying to learn from the chart. You extract the desired information faster, no dance required. I guess the dance is not a big deal if you are out in the middle of a large body of water, since you are not referring to the chart that often. On the ICW, however, you are looking at the chart a LOT! If you choose to forgo electronic charts on the ICW, you better be good at dancing.
But, like anything else, electronic charts have their drawbacks. Electronics can fail, and when they do, you better have the paper charts handy (no batteries required). Another subtlety about electronic charts bit me in the ass on our second day of travel while I was driving. The electronic charts are based on paper charts, so eventually you get right to the edge of one digital chart on your laptop display before the computer automatically brings up the next chart. I really didn't fully appreciate the implications of this "edge of chart" thing until I got in a situation where the chart edge ended right at the end of a channel in the ICW. I steered the boat to the end of the channel, looked down at the laptop screen to see where I was supposed to go next, and all I saw was the edge of the chart. I had absolutely no idea whether I was supposed to turn left or right (you could do either at this particular location). I should have been looking ahead on the paper chart to see what my next move would be, but I was hopelessly behind the navigational power curve. I throttled back the engine, Frank and I consulted the paper chart, and then we continued on our way. Another pop quiz in the school of hard knocks.
We pulled into Isle Of Hope in the afternoon. This was a pretty cool town. Many of the waterfront homes near the marina were beautiful southern style homes. There were HUGE trees all over the place, and they were all draped with veils of hanging moss. Frank and I had a nice walk around the neighborhood, gawking at all the beautiful real estate.
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