Ziggy showing off the latest in canine wear
Leaving St Augustine
10/28 We spent an entire day in St. Mary’s resting up from our overnight trip from Charleston. Even though we were across the river from the Florida border it was dropping into the upper 30’s at night, so John and I ventured off to get jackets gloves and food for the next few days. We had been talking to a retired man who was trying to net shrimp for bait and asked him for directions. After 10 minutes of talking he suggested that we hop in his truck and he would give us a ride into shopping district which was a mile or so down the road. He dropped us off at a clothing store about 3 miles away.
We got our clothing needs plus a fleece blanket and walked a few blocks to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store. Our intention was to buy a few items but we ended up with about 40 lbs of provisions and decided to catch cab back to the marina.
When we got back we found out that Rick had a change of plans. Instead of accepting a ride to Jacksonville from the 2 guys who were mooring next to us, one of which had a car, he was going to have to rent a car and drive to Raleigh for a business meeting. The closest car rental place was a few miles up river, down a channel running south in the town of Fernandina, FL. He had to leave early, as did we for our trek to St. Augustine, so we motored over mid afternoon.
As seems to becoming our standard, the wind started picking up just as we came in to dock. Fortunately, the wind was pushing us towards the dock so I just came to a stop a couple of feet away from the dock and we drifted in. Unfortunately, the wind was whipping up some decent size waves and really pushing and bouncing us against the dock.
With the help of the dock master we found a local marine store a few blocks away. John and I went to find another fender while Rick and Julie went off to find someplace to have a drink. The store was small and cramped with all sort of odds and ends for boats but they did have 1 large fender. The proprietor of the store appeared to be in his mid 60’s and sported a toupee that had to look just great in the 70’s when he bought it judging by the cut style. We succeeded to get the fender and the obligatory “couple of other things” we just had to have without bursting out laughing and headed back to the boat to mount the fender and catch up with Rick and Julie.
We had a drink at a couple of bars, one was too expensive, the second was too smoky, the 3rd was an Irish place which worked out great as we had couple pints and headed back to the boat for dinner and a private showing of Blazing Saddles. Soon after we all retired for the evening. As we get more acclimated to life aboard the clock becomes less important and the sun and moon rule our schedules.
The only time that time really matters is when we are going into a shallow inlet or harbor and we have to watch the tide. Tides in the Carolinas had varied up to 5 feet from low to high. Along with the change in water height at low and high tide comes the tidal current between these extremes. As the tide is rising the water from the ocean flows thru the narrow inlets to fill the bay, harbor and rivers that are beyond it. Some of these currents run at speeds up to 5 knots which can be extreme with a boat that only goes 7 knots under full throttle.
10/29 The next morning Rick took off after hugs and handshakes, his experience, knowledge and bullheaded determination to figure something out will be missed. As difficult as this first leg had been it would have been a lot worse without his help.
We shoved off and set sail towards St. Augustine Florida which happens to be the oldest city in the US. The sail down was uneventful, winds mostly behind us, some waves and the motor droning as always.
We arrived and set anchor in the harbor after flipping the dinghy off of the deck, lowering the Johnson and mounting it we ran Ziggy ashore for a little relief and play. We cooked dinner aboard, relaxed and talked for awhile about what to do the following day as we had decided to take a day off to sightsee and to celebrate Julie’s 37th birthday.
10/30 We awoke in the morning, took Ziggy in to do his thing, brought him back to the boat and headed out for a day on the town. We saw some sights, went to a hardware store and got more pieces and parts to fix/improve the boat and wandered some more. We were going to another section of town and decided to head down to the waterfront so we could look at the boat and make sure all was well. Ziggy does not like being left alone and back home he had the devious habit of finding a piece of paper, tearing it up and leaving it by the front door. We were not sure what he might do aboard the boat, scuttle it, sail off with it or just pull up the anchor and set the boat adrift J .
It turns out he chose the latter, as the boat had moved a few hundred feet down the channel being pushed by the wind and tidal current towards a handful of anchored boats and the bridge.. John and I ran back to the marina where the dinghy was docked and sped off to grab the boat. We moved to a new spot and decided to drop a second anchor, which we did off of the stern of the boat using the dinghy to carry it far enough away to get some slope to the anchor line to counter the current when it reversed. Instead of going to shore for dinner we cooked on board and decided to reschedule Julie’s birthday for sometime when we were on dock.
We set the drift alarm on the GPS and it went off at about 2:00 am. The front anchor had dragged with the incoming tidal current as we had spun closer to shore and run aground. The bad news was that we were stuck, the good news was that we were at low tide and we would float free. The bad news was that we didn’t know when we would be free so we took turns on deck for the rest of the night. Just before dawn the boat was free, we pulled the second anchor and were under way.
10/31 This day was fairly nondescript as we motor sailed down towards Ponce de Leon, it was a fairly long trip and we arrived right about dusk with the wind picking up again. The only real thing of note was the fact it was Halloween and John was sea sick, he looked like he was in costume as a zombie, looking grey as hell and half dead.
We got our clothing needs plus a fleece blanket and walked a few blocks to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store. Our intention was to buy a few items but we ended up with about 40 lbs of provisions and decided to catch cab back to the marina.
When we got back we found out that Rick had a change of plans. Instead of accepting a ride to Jacksonville from the 2 guys who were mooring next to us, one of which had a car, he was going to have to rent a car and drive to Raleigh for a business meeting. The closest car rental place was a few miles up river, down a channel running south in the town of Fernandina, FL. He had to leave early, as did we for our trek to St. Augustine, so we motored over mid afternoon.
As seems to becoming our standard, the wind started picking up just as we came in to dock. Fortunately, the wind was pushing us towards the dock so I just came to a stop a couple of feet away from the dock and we drifted in. Unfortunately, the wind was whipping up some decent size waves and really pushing and bouncing us against the dock.
With the help of the dock master we found a local marine store a few blocks away. John and I went to find another fender while Rick and Julie went off to find someplace to have a drink. The store was small and cramped with all sort of odds and ends for boats but they did have 1 large fender. The proprietor of the store appeared to be in his mid 60’s and sported a toupee that had to look just great in the 70’s when he bought it judging by the cut style. We succeeded to get the fender and the obligatory “couple of other things” we just had to have without bursting out laughing and headed back to the boat to mount the fender and catch up with Rick and Julie.
We had a drink at a couple of bars, one was too expensive, the second was too smoky, the 3rd was an Irish place which worked out great as we had couple pints and headed back to the boat for dinner and a private showing of Blazing Saddles. Soon after we all retired for the evening. As we get more acclimated to life aboard the clock becomes less important and the sun and moon rule our schedules.
The only time that time really matters is when we are going into a shallow inlet or harbor and we have to watch the tide. Tides in the Carolinas had varied up to 5 feet from low to high. Along with the change in water height at low and high tide comes the tidal current between these extremes. As the tide is rising the water from the ocean flows thru the narrow inlets to fill the bay, harbor and rivers that are beyond it. Some of these currents run at speeds up to 5 knots which can be extreme with a boat that only goes 7 knots under full throttle.
10/29 The next morning Rick took off after hugs and handshakes, his experience, knowledge and bullheaded determination to figure something out will be missed. As difficult as this first leg had been it would have been a lot worse without his help.
We shoved off and set sail towards St. Augustine Florida which happens to be the oldest city in the US. The sail down was uneventful, winds mostly behind us, some waves and the motor droning as always.
We arrived and set anchor in the harbor after flipping the dinghy off of the deck, lowering the Johnson and mounting it we ran Ziggy ashore for a little relief and play. We cooked dinner aboard, relaxed and talked for awhile about what to do the following day as we had decided to take a day off to sightsee and to celebrate Julie’s 37th birthday.
10/30 We awoke in the morning, took Ziggy in to do his thing, brought him back to the boat and headed out for a day on the town. We saw some sights, went to a hardware store and got more pieces and parts to fix/improve the boat and wandered some more. We were going to another section of town and decided to head down to the waterfront so we could look at the boat and make sure all was well. Ziggy does not like being left alone and back home he had the devious habit of finding a piece of paper, tearing it up and leaving it by the front door. We were not sure what he might do aboard the boat, scuttle it, sail off with it or just pull up the anchor and set the boat adrift J .
It turns out he chose the latter, as the boat had moved a few hundred feet down the channel being pushed by the wind and tidal current towards a handful of anchored boats and the bridge.. John and I ran back to the marina where the dinghy was docked and sped off to grab the boat. We moved to a new spot and decided to drop a second anchor, which we did off of the stern of the boat using the dinghy to carry it far enough away to get some slope to the anchor line to counter the current when it reversed. Instead of going to shore for dinner we cooked on board and decided to reschedule Julie’s birthday for sometime when we were on dock.
We set the drift alarm on the GPS and it went off at about 2:00 am. The front anchor had dragged with the incoming tidal current as we had spun closer to shore and run aground. The bad news was that we were stuck, the good news was that we were at low tide and we would float free. The bad news was that we didn’t know when we would be free so we took turns on deck for the rest of the night. Just before dawn the boat was free, we pulled the second anchor and were under way.
10/31 This day was fairly nondescript as we motor sailed down towards Ponce de Leon, it was a fairly long trip and we arrived right about dusk with the wind picking up again. The only real thing of note was the fact it was Halloween and John was sea sick, he looked like he was in costume as a zombie, looking grey as hell and half dead.
3 comments:
Julie,
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y !!
(belated)
If I was there, I would have made you a.....
Delicious "Dinty Moore" Dinner!
The blog is great!
Why aren't you here? I would love a nice home cooked Dinty Moore dinner! You should meet us in New Orleans. I can make jambalaya. Unfortunately I’ll have to use Andouille sausage. Not so many pollocks in Louisiana.
wrote this 11/6
Mark
REally appreciate the updates! Keep them coming...
But, Those of us up here in North country, who really know you and Julie, we want to hear from Julie as to this "pride in my Johnson" thing. What does she have to say about "your Johnson"?
B
and please elaborate on "lowering the johnson and mounting it.
Happyt Birthday Julie
B & J
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