The Menagerie

Today was supposed to be really really windy and the reason we decided to stay here another day. The day actually turned out very nice with light wind until about 4pm where it has picked up to nearly 20kts. Fortunately the wind driven waves are not an issue and hopefully won't be.

We went into town this morning late because Karen just had to have some the famous giant onion rings served at MoJo's Old City Barbecue near the old fort. Wow I had forgotten what a tourist magnet this town is. The streets were crowded with a real menagerie of people. There were Harley Davidson groups here, Miami Steel Gym folks with very imposing muscles, and just everything else you could imagine. Lots of beautiful people and a fair number of not so beautiful people.

We made the barbecue place after a long walk and had a fine lunch there. They heap the plates so high that we also have dinner tonight.

We wandered around a little bit but then beat a path back to the boat for the rest of the afternoon. Man I couldn't believe how crowded the streets were with the tourists. They have everything to offer here. Carriage rides, train rides, ghost rides, pirate ship rides, boat rides, the fort, museums, Ripley's Believe it or not, and more specialty shops than you can shake a stick at.

This morning I did have to do a little engineering. One of our super comfortable folding Captains chairs went flat - literally. It would no longer lock in "any position" just flat. These are expensive at $150 each but so comfortable. I decided I had nothing to lose so I removed the upholstery from the chair (fortunately zippered on) And tore some foam to expose the joint that locks. A visual inspection showed that each joint is composed of two geared plates and a spring that locks. In this chair the gear teeth have rounded or sheared off. Nothing to be done. Hmmm I really want to use my chair and tried to figure out a way to repair or make do. Well there was no repair so I positioned the chair mechanism in the most comfortable position and drilled a hole through the locking mechanism and then inserted a machine screw with locking nut to both sides. Voila -- chair usable again!! What a good boy I am and I saved $150 and probably twice that when the other chair fails. They won't fold anymore but they will be comfortable.

I might have to do a YOUTUBE video on how to repair these chairs because they all will fail eventually. The steel used in the locking mechanism is quite soft and that is why I could easily drill them.

Surprise Surprise

Today was just a surprise for traveling. We left Fort George anchorage at 7am. I expected a very slow passage towards Pine Island today because the current would be against us most of the way. Wow with just an hour and half past high tide I still had one spot with only 6.2'. Once in the channel we had a favorable current to the St Johns River. AS we crossed it the current changed and was against us and we were only doing 4.4 kts. The entry back into the ICW has changed completely from 2 years ago. Nothing like I remembered so I just followed the marks and we were in -- easy peezy. However -- we were only doing about 4 knots against the strong ebb tide.

When we got to the Pablo Creek Bridge the current went up to nearly 4kts against us. A sport fisher came in from the side at the last minute and went through the bridge first. That terrific current and his wake raised a 3 - 4 standing wave directly under the bridge. I was losing fine steering control so I spun around and waited for the wave to die down to 2' then tried again. I crawled through at 2.7kts. This current was bad for another 10 miles to the McCormick bridge and then it went above 5kts. A little later we were doing 7.7 - 8.0kts!! We were flying now. We reached Pine Island anchorage right at noon. The current was still favorable so we decided to push on to St Augustine for a mooring ball. Expected arrival around 3 - 4pm.

Wow that current was with us until about the last bridge before the inlet and then we slowed down to 5.7kts. Once across the inlet we went back up to 7+kts and made the 1:30pm opening of the bridge of lions!! Unbelievable.

We got our mooring assignment and Karen handled the boat like a pro to allow an easy pickup of the mooring. All done and it was only 1:45pm.

We went 43 miles in 6.5 hours which gave us an average speed of an incredible (for Temptation)f 6.7kts. All that 4kts stuff was soon forgotten.

The mooring field is almost fully occupied which surprises us. We will stay for the high winds expected tomorrow then push on to Daytona Sunday. If it is not too rough tomorrow we will go to town for lunch.

Finally!! No more having to work the tides

It was not a great visit to Cumberland Island. The park is closed because of storm damage. They still have rangers there to shoo you away if you try to land. The anchorage was fine till about 1am when unforecast 15 - 20 kts winds from the NW sprang up. They created 1 - 2' waves which were not too bad till the current swung us broadside and then we rolled. The rolling motion is the WORSE. My water tanks start to slosh then and it is noisy.

This morning we had to wait till 10:30am to leave to use the tide to get around the top of the Amelia River. There are 5' and less spots three at low tide. We hit it around 1 hour after low tide and threaded the needle between G1 and R2 with no issue but then we couldn't find the deep water. It appeared to be mostly on the red side near shore. I found one spot with 5.7' and it scared me but then went back to 9'.

With such a late start and having to fight the ebb tide we made slow progress towards Pine Island. We hit Fort George River around 2pm and needed at least 5 hours to make Pine Island so we stopped here. We were first boat in and had the pick of the place. Since then 3 trawlers have come in and are crowding us.

Poor Fernandina Municipal Marina got hit hard by the hurricane. Lots of damaged docks and big signs say closed do not land and do not use the mooring field, do not land dinghys. Other docks along that side were also severely damaged or just GONE.

We will leave early to use the tide to get out of here -- the Fort George River - because at low tide you can't get in or out. After this area we will no longer have to time the tides. The water from here south is pretty good provided you stay in the channel.

Strong winds are forecast for Saturday so we will probably stay put at Pine ISland. There we have some shelter from N, NW, NE winds, little fetch, and great holding.

We were going to take a mooring at St Augustine tomorrow but after last nights experience at Cumberland with only 20kts we decided not too. Too much wind fetch there.

A couple of slices of humble pie

Well my election prognostication yesterday was way off. What can I say -- I'm no worse than all the pundits that were FLOORED by the results. Enough said.

Today we had to work the tide to get through Jekyll Creek. Low was at 10 am so we wanted to hit it around 11am on the rising tide. Thus we tried to leave at 10am since it would take about 1.5 hours to reach it. When we were ready to go I called the marina to get a hand to leave the slip. Everything hit at that time and we had to wait nearly 30 minutes before a dock hand came and they were harried. I had already taken off a couple of lines and ask that they just hold my bow line till I left the slip so I wouldn't swing into the boat next to me. We started out and suddenly my aft swung to port and the bow went towards the boat next to me. They cleated the line to stop the swing and I came forward to straighten out. We tried again and it was WORSE!! Then they noticed I still had the bow line on the starboard side. Me bad - they bad. They took that off and it was an easy exit but I was mortified for not seeing that issue before it became an issue. I still feel bad.

We hit Jekyll Creek about an hour and half past low tide and it was rising. I had mostly 9 and 10 feet of water except near G19 when it dropped to 5.3 feet! I draw 5.2'.

Got through and continued to fight the current all the way to Red 34 out in the ocean and made the turn to Cumberland Island. Just as I passed the red mark the water dropped to 11' then up to 50'. Ahhh no more shallow water till Fernandina now and we finally had a favorable current to push us along on our 40 mile trek today. We held 7+kts for almost 2 hours.

Arrived at the Cumberland Island anchorage only to see yellow do not cross tape on the docks and a PARK CLOSED sign. Hurricane damage had shut it down. Grrrrrrr.

We will spend a nice evening here along with a dozen sailboats and 6 trawlers. Then it's on to Pine Island Anchorage tomorrow and have to pass more shallow water in the Amelia River. Low tide is 9:30am so we will leave here around 9am to enter the Amelia River around 10:30am. Then a long slog to Pine Island.

We enter Florida tomorrow. Right now we are just 3 miles from the Florida boarder. Ya Hoo!

where did the farmers go?

The high point today was supposed to be the Farmers Market at the park next to the Marina. It was a disappointment. Only 2 vendors there and they had the same thing -- tomatoes, cucumbers, pecans, giant persimmons, and one had corn syrup in bottles.

We stayed today mainly because the forecast was for a 60% chance of rain it turned into a very nice day with no rain. Arrrgh weatherman is costing me money!

I took my free Marina bike to Autozone to get some spray adhesive to repair one of our couch foam inserts. On the way back my front tire went FLAT. Fortunately I only had to walk it about a half mile back.

Karen did a couple of loads of laundry at the free laundry and that worked out okay. Big commercial machines.

Later in the day I went to "my Yacht Club" and poured a couple of free draft beers -- it was working today.

As I was leaving I ran into Margaret from Margarita. We met her and Bill in the Bahamas in 2008 and found them to be neighbors at Northwest Creek Marina. I went back to their boat and we chatted awhile. They ask me to say HEY to Vic and Gigi and want their 2016/17 boat card from them. They said they will see you in the Bahamas this winter.

Not much else. Plan to work the tide in the morning to get through Jekyll Creek then on to Cumberland Island for a full day's visit there. It is just Beautiful there especially when an Armadillo crosses your path.

No free beer!

Not much happening today. But today was supposed to be a "lay" day and it was. Just some light cleaning, a repair to a step tread and a little exploration of the town -- looked for Adams Grocery. It's a small grocery. Nothing fancy but you won't starve.

I found one of the community bikes (this means that it is available to anyone here, thus you might ride it to the shower, use the facility, and when you come out the bike is gone). this morning and rode it around exploring the Yacht Club Facilities and the entire lay of the Marina here. This marina has 14 different docks that have space for about 20 boats at each dock and each dock has a T-head for a couple of boats. This place is BIG.

The facilities are very clean and well maintained. They offer free draft beer in the Yacht Club and a wine party on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

This afternoon around 3:30pm I went to the "club" for a free draft beer and to shoot the breeze with the some of the cruisers. I found 2 cruisers in the club both engrossed with Facebook, tried the draft beer tap and just as my usual experience, found only foam come out and there was little of that. Oh well not as earth shattering like what happens tomorrow -- will be the worst Presidential election in US history!

I predict that in spite of all the media hoopla that this is a close race, Hillary will win with a landslide (not necessarily an endorsement from me). Just an example of how the media is playing all of us. What can you believe anymore.

The outcome should be that the Republican party dissolves itself since it is so ineffective and cannot read the will of the people. I'm just disgusted.

Tonight is one of the free wine parties so we will check it out. Probably a good thing that I write this before or I will really stand on my soapbox later.

Not to worry if we voted or not. We did with absentee ballots. There is more at stake than just Donald and Hillary.

Ohhh the high point today. While riding the community bike I explored the farmers Market next door which will be active tomorrow and when I left I had to stop for a train to go by -- well just a diesel locomotive but it doesn't take much to give me train joy. There is a set of tracks that runs between the marina parking lot and the highway. It is not real busy but you do get to enjoy the melodious whistle from the engine.

Made a new friend - just like in the ad for Brunswick Landing Marina

Change of plans this morning. The forecasts had Small Craft advisory up, Rain in Fernandina, and lots of NE wind for a few days. NE wind makes the crossing of St Andrew sound treacherous especially since you have to motor out into the ocean to round the furthest buoy. Even active captain warns of potentially dangerous waves here in 20+ NE winds.

So we decided to go the Marina near here called Brunswick Landing. I've heard great things and we thought we would check it out and explore the historical city of Brunswick, GA.

Had to work around a dredge to get here, Fueled up, pumped out then into an easy slip.

After lunch we went to town to look for a little grocery store for fresh veggies. While standing on a corner scratching our heads and looking at the map a woman stops up and asks if she can help us. She looked like a cruiser. We told her our issue with the map and she says "would you like to go to Publix instead"? We said OKAY.

She and her husband are cruisers and keep their boat here until time to go South. They are from near Winnipeg, Canada.

Wow what a gracious thing to offer. We had only been here less than 3 hours.

As they say in their ad here: "free WiFi, Free Laundry, Free Beer, Free wine, free water, and free friends."