Bob reading while I'm at the wheel. The air is cool on the water and we had the sides of the enclosure down.Once underway, just before 7 this morning, I took my turn at the wheel while Bob ate, and then after having my own cereal and coffee, I settled down to plan the next couple of days of travel toward Charleston: How many miles would we travel each day? Could I match the miles with good places to stop at the end of the day? Since our stay in the Exumas, we have become used to life at anchor and are more inclined to look for good anchorages than for good marinas. When we've reached a destination, we like not having to pull out and fasten fenders and lines. We like not worrying about getting into a boat slip in strong winds or current. We like not having to pay - and in the morning, if winds are brisk, it's so much easier to up anchor than to get away from a dock. Admittedly, it's still nice to change up now and again and put in at a marina where we have the luxury of stepping off onto a dock.
Our experience anchoring on the ICW for the better part of a week has taught us to add a new criteria when choosing an anchorage - protection from winds and waves is top of the list, of course, not too much current is good, and scenic is nice, but for at least one in two nights, we want an anchorage where there's a spot to land the dinghy and go for a walk. In the Exumas, this wasn't an issue: there was always a sandy spot close by where we could beach the dinghy and go exploring.
Last night we anchored in the Frederica River beside Fort Frederica State Park. From our boat we could see the small stone structure and canons that remained from the original fort. The area itself is lovely - thick with trees and what looks like a walking trail from the fort through the park - but the dock that used to allow anchoring boaters to land their dinghies had been removed. Unless you come in through the front gate (where ever that is! - not any where in sight) and pay
(I assume), you aren't allowed to land. So as lovely as the spot was to look at, this was our 2nd day of not being able to get off the boat. The afternoon before we had taken a mooring ball at Fernandina with the intention of going into the pretty little town for a walk - but the winds were too strong and water too choppy for lowering and riding on the dinghy. As a result, our time to stop today was dictated in part by the location for this anchorage in the Kilkenny River - the river is deep (no worries about sandbars), it's well protected and --- there's a marina here with a dinghy dock. Immediately after putting the hook down, we lowered the dinghy, lowered and attached the motor and headed in. (After all our practice, we can be ready to go in 15 minutes.) There's not a lot around the Kilkenney marina - just a few homes - but there are blocks of land covered with bush and tall trees and among them, majestic Live Oaks with Spanish moss hanging from their branches. It was a beautiful place to walk.
That small boat seen through the trees is Sea Change anchored in the Kilkenny River.
We're in no-see-um season - in no-see-um country and in the late afternoon, the bugs appeared - so having had a brisk walk around Kilkenny, it was quick back to the boat. I now know that I was not being bitten by no-see-ums in the Abacos - the mysterious bugs that were making a meal of me at West End, our first stop in the Bahamas, were sand fleas - a common insect there that bit me intermittently all through the the northern Bahamas but left me alone when we headed south. The little beggars here may be called no-see-ums, but they're quite visible as they circle around us, land, and nip away. Their bites are small but itch just the same. In the evening, we have taken to closing up most of the boat. Fortunately, the nights are fairly cool so we're not left roasting. Bob has used insect propellant to spray the curtain screen that we tie over the companion way and also the screens in 2 ports that we leave open. It seems to be working. Without the spray, ordinary screens won't keep out these pests.
Friday, April 24th: On Our Way to the Marina at Thunderbolt
Our daily entertainment as we chug along is listening to conversations on the VHF. (Everyone does.) For the last couple of days there have been several calls from the coast guard to vessels "in distress". Today, there was a 46 ft. fish boat taking on water that set off an EPURB and was then hailed by the Jacksonville coast guard. The boat was in the Gulf of Mexico but the coast guard here just happened to pick up the signal. Yesterday there was a boat in trouble somewhere off the Florida coast. The coast guard, as usual, put out a call to any vessel in the vicinity to stand by the boat in distress until they could get there. A US warship responded and was waiting until a coast guard helicopter arrived. That would be something wouldn't it? - to have a warship sitting near you while you waited for a helicopter to lift you off your boat.
Another call was a general warning by a cruiser who had gone aground a few miles ahead of us. The captain was advising others to hug the shore on the green side since there was a sandbar "right in the middle of the channel". When we finally passed the grounded catamaran - it was clear that he had been traveling on the wrong side of the red markers. Was he not aware that the middle of the visual channel is not the middle of the path of deeper water marked by navigation aids and also that since he was going north, he should keep red markers to port? Perhaps as a boat with a very shallow draft, he was used to traveling outside of the markers? In any case, from his VHF conversation, he was clearly shook up to be aground but was blaming the paucity of dredging in Georgia and not his own negligence.
(Rarely used words like "paucity" have been popping into my head. I'm not sure where they come from. I have to check their meaning and spelling before I include them as I'm not always sure I'm using them correctly. I used to substitute other words when such esoteric words came to mind - but hey, it's my blog and I think I'll just keep them!)
We've chosen to stay at the Thunderbolt Marina tonight. Bob wants to see about having the boat taken out of the water so as to check the sacrificial zincs (protect other boat metals against salt water corrosion), see how much growth there is on the prop and also have a look at the "cutlass bearing" (??) - he's hearing a mysterious knocking at some engine speeds.
1 comment:
Glad to see that you are making good time! Suggest to Bob that he buy a mechanic's stethoscope [just like a doctor's but without the cup at the end of the probe] and that will assist him to determine from where the knock is coming. Did it get fixed?
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