A Break from Boating

As I write this addition to the blog, I'm at my daughter and son-in-law's (Jenn & Greg) home in Newport News, VA preparing for a Thanksgiving family reunion. This is such an abrupt change in setting for us, but one we'll thoroughly enjoy.

Following the last entry, we left Cumberland Island and traveled south to the St. John's River where we turned west for a couple of miles to the dock of a friend of a friend. While we'd never met these folks before, they came highly recommended from our friends on Tarwathie, Dick and Libby. Larry and Terri do some cruising down in the Keys and were interested in our experiences, so we took them up on the offer to stop by. We had a great visit and will look forward to future meetings with them...perhaps in Marathon next spring. The vista from their deck offered views of ships traveling up and down the St. John's. In the evening, the dolphins came by. We couldn't see them, but we could hear them coming up for air right near the boat.

From there we traveled the last 35 miles or so to St. Augustine and our boat repair. The Camache Cove Yacht Harbor treated us well as did Bo Bohanan at First Mate. Bo and his assistant spent hours exploring all the possible issues with our engine. The final outcome is that we're getting a new engine installed. While the engine hours were not real high, the piston rings and valves were worn enough to require either an overhaul or a replacement. We opted for the replacement, since we'd have to do it at some point before we quit cruising. With this work done now, we shouldn't need this level of work again while we're on the boat.

So while we were in St. Augustine, we decided to do some more touring here. We stop for a bit every time we pass by and are never disappointed Bo offered us tickets on the tourist train which provided us with a history of this first permanent European settlement. A couple of bits of history were of particular interest to us. First, the first Europeon settlement was actually in Pensacola where Sandra was born. Unfortunately the settlement only lasted a year, so it never made the history books. The other tidbit we learned was the fact that one of my ancestors, Sir Francis Drake, came by while the Spanish were still in charge. He attacked with canons and leveled the town, burning it to the ground. They rebuilt, however, so all was not lost. We also learned about Flagler's influence on the town in the late 1800s when he created a winter tourist destination for the wealthy. He also built a hospital, developed the railroad down the east coast of the state and also built homes for workers and more wealthy transplants.

So after a bit of touring, we rented a car and drove north back to where this fall's trip began in Virginia. This was a rather interesting experience as well. The trip south took us nearly four weeks. This return took us one day. We'd drive by sings for different towns and rivers noting how many days ago we'd passed this area heading south. This pace was so different. And we saw so much more at the slower pace. We were reminded of how little we learn about the country when we drive on the interstate highways. Although we'd driven south several times, when traveling down the ICW by boat, we really got to look at the territory for the first time. So there's something to be said for the slow pace of travel by boat.

As mentioned at the beginning of the entry, we're back in Virginia for a family reunion. We'll be back to the slow pace of traveling south once we check out our boat's new engine and leave St. Augustine around the end of the Month. Until then, happy Thanksgiving one and all!

Captain Bob
Carpe Diem

Transiting Georgia 11-11-11

It's been more than a week and a half since I last added to this blog. We have been traveling, but I just didn't get anything down. Part of the reason has been an ongoing and worsening engine problem that we will get addressed in St. Augustine next week. With that clouding my focus, no blog entries were added. Thus endeth the excuses. We're now anchored at Cumberland Island in southern Georgia just about five miles from the Florida line. Because of the engine issue, we chose not to do any overnights in the ocean. Of course, given the weather over the past two weeks, we wouldn't have chosen to go out anyway. This is our fourth trip south and only the first one in which we sailed on the ICW through Georgia as we headed south. In the past we've avoided it because of reported shallow areas with lots of tidal current and tides as high as 9 feet in places. Last spring we did do the inside route, again due to weather on the ocean. But we were in a hurry to get back to Virginia, so we didn't notice much...just plodded along as best we could. This time south we passed through Georgia and took our time – in part because the engine issue caused us to move more slowly and partly because it was important to go through certain areas at mid tide or better. Our days tended to end early, and we took time to see what we were passing through. What a beautiful area, this coastal Georgia. It's as pretty as any of the ICW we've traveled. We go through wild areas with little evidence of civilization. We see lots of birds, and dolphins are daily coming by to say “hi”. I know it sounds silly, but whenever we see them, they are aiming right for the boat. Today we could see them playing in our bow wave. Oh and by the way, the shallow areas, if taken at the right tide, are no worse than many other areas in the Carolinas. Today we went ashore on Cumberland Island after arriving around 1 PM. We walked the beach collecting shells. We saw live welk hiding in the sand and some we thought were empty shells but turned out to be home to hermit crabs. Then we left the beach and headed to marshes where we saw spoonbills, storks, egrets, herons, ibises and other water birds. From there it was across the island where we saw wild turkeys, wild horses and deer. What a great walk! We're finally learning to stop more often to smell the roses along the way. Did I mention we were just north of Florida. I think I may have been mistaken. At 8:45 PM, it's already down to 47 outside. It's a toasty 64 inside but dropping. We have quilts, so we'll be OK. The weekend is supposed to be in the mid 70s. Can't wait. Captain Bob Carpe Diem