Days at St. Augustine, FL - relaxation plus projects

At St. Augusting FL for a few days....   Days of relaxation (from moving each day)...but days are still filled with projects....

Yesterday (Tuesday)was a busy, busy day...here at anchor(mooring) in St. Augustine.

My project list got a real work-over. 

I cleaned up the deck after all the moving South.

1.) flaking, and storing the stays'l, and bagging it...

2.) put the whisker pole back in the rail chocks;

3.) Gased up the dinghy (5 Gallons);

4.) Made about 2 hours worth of R.O. fresh water (at 5 GPH);

5.) Changed the carbon impregnated potable water filter;

6.) Tested the accumulator and found it had a broken bladder... so then substituted the accumulator from the aft head for the main accumulator (tested OK); 

7.) Ordered stuff from West Marine (VHF radio; accumulator; dinghy all around light, etc.)

8.) We called and got a "pump out" for the aft head holding tank... 

9.) I took the dinghy into the marina for non-ethanol gasoline in all the jerry cans ($48).  

10.) When I returned from the "gas run" I washed the grime, and 'diesel butt' off the entire hull at the water line in the late afternoon at slack tide.

We thought about going into town for a nice dinner... but that got completely reversed, as we decided to do marinated porkchops on the grille, with mashed potatoes, and sweet peas....

11.) then we did laundry at the marina lounge last night before NCIS.

Good decision... now we can walk up to West marine, and into town today..without that chore hanging over. 

Going for breakfast WED morning...up at our favorite Greek restaurant near hwy 1.

Dean at San Marcos Fort - with Mortar
(fortunately the one's we had in 'Nam' were smaller)

:)

Visit to Jacksonville - Arnold and Shannon's House

We split from the normal course South this year...and went west to Jacksonville, on the St. John's River.  Our friends Brian and Sheila continued south, on the AICW, toward their winter home at Titusville. 

We were invited to dinner at Shannon, and Arnold Smith's house. 

Sort of a belated Thanksgiving dinner...For two years Arnold (and Shannon last year) had driven down to St. Augustine to see us... so it seemed only fair that we come here... PLUS we wanted to see their gorgeous house.

Arnold showing me all the kitchen do-dads !!!  lots of them!

view of living room from second floor loft

Dean and Arnold getting ready to open wine - and unwind!

waterfall sink in lower bathroom - unique!

 

Dinner, hospitality, and conversations were great...

pond in back yard - with swans (none in this pic)

Stairs down to living room

We anchored just behind Exchange Island, in the Arlington River (only a stones throw from the St. John's river) and  used Arlington Marina as our dinghy landing, and an address for Arnold to come pick us up.

Wonderful way to spend a Sunday.   Monday we pulled the hook and worked our way down to St. Augustine, FL.  Very breezy (22 to 30 knot winds on the nose). 

 

Thanksgiving DAY - Thankful that no one was hurt.

November 24, 2011 – Thanksgiving Day

We indeed have a lot to be thankful for… but this was definitely not the typical St. Mary’s Thanksgiving!

OH WAIT…!!!! It was typical, in a way,…except for the timing of the weather pattern. It seems the NOW CUSTOMARY St. mary’s ‘dance of the boats’ happened right at Thanksgiving dinner time, and not the day before or the day after, as in years past.

For those not familiar with the ‘dance of the boats’… When a very strong wind opposes the tidal currents, you get some very weird resulting anchored vessel movements; … the reason being that sailing vessels can have very different keel configurations, and they are very different from the underside of power-vessels… and as a result the heavier boats with the larger keels react much differently than the others… fin keel sailboats tend to be fast under sail, and do the same thing at anchor (i.e. sail back and forth). Vessels like Autumn Borne (heavy with big keel) tend to be more stationary, and move more slowly…. (Power vessels.. with their relatively flat bottoms just zoom back and forth… “painting at anchor”).

Anyway… just as I was starting to cook the dish to pass for the thanksgiving dinner…the wind was kicking up something fierce and the radio became busy with notifications of boats dragging anchor, or nearly colliding with others as the normal swinging radius was affected by the wind opposing currents. (many boats were literally over or past their anchors, and with the rodes stretched tight backward under the keels).

Susan and I started our main engine, and let it idle… waiting to see if the boats next to us…would be a problem…. We decided that it was much too risky to leave Autumn Borne for a dinner in town. Our anchor was holding fine, and the AB wasn’t moving that much… but the catamaran to our starboard side was moving very differently than we were…and the double ender cutter to our port side was swinging wildly to a very long rode…. SO… No dinner!

But… I did complete the “dish to pass”…. And things did calm down a bit at one point… so we volunteered to bring our ‘dish to pass” to Moonshadow (who also decided not to leave the boat).

Just after my cooking was done, a large sloop dragged down on a small S/V on a mooring ball…and got the mooring pendant caught in the prop, and rudder. They called for assistance so, as long as Susan was comfortable with me leaving the AB… I took the dinghy down and tried to assist… but the 4 knot current…prevented us from separating the boat… and would make diving on the boats props…very dangerous… so we assisted in rafting the two boats together until the tide would change… That was ONE. Before I could get back to AB… the hand held shouted a call for help… boat aground near the main channel… I was close so I zipped over there…. YEP… they were beginning to heel over…with the outgoing tide… So I volunteered to take a kedge anchor out into deep water (channel)… so that when the water rose again…. They wouldn’t go farther aground, and could pull themselves back to deep water. Did that.

Then on the way back to AB (again)… I saw a Hylas collide with Brian and Sheila (Moonshadow)… and Brian’s secondary anchor was lodged in the stern pulpit of the Hylas…. I got there just in time to see the currents whip the Hylas forward and away from Moonshadow… but it did so taking Brian’s CQR anchor with him… so NOW they’re connected with Moonshadow’s 3/8” chain anchor rode…. Unreal…

So… I assisted the Owner of the Hylas (who, by the way was not on the vessel… at the beginning of all of this… but came after the first contact…. AND the Hylas was swinging to only 30 feet of chain, and a very, very large length of rope rode), in disengaging the anchor from the stern pulpit. Then I got on board Moonshadow and pulled the CQR anchor up… hand over hand… because the regular anchor was on the windlass…. And Brian said he doubted he could pull all that chain AND the anchor up without the windlass….

SO….end of story…. NOT on your life………………… I went back to AB to get the ‘dish to pass’…having just volunteered to bring it, wine, and Susan back to Moonshadow… as long as things were calming down…. Yeah Right….

Brian moved his boat back about 25 feet from the Hylas contact point… by the time we got back with dinner…. After dinner though…. the wind picked up again…and HERE comes the HYLAS again…. Twice it came bow straight for Moonshadow…. And twice the rode tightened and the stern swung clockwise and away from Moonshadow…. The third time the Hylas approached Moonshadow… bow on… the wind caught the stern of the Hylas…and whipped it COUNTERCLOCKWISE… and it spun right around and floated (with the aid of the 3-4 knot current) right down sideways beam-on onto Brian’s bow anchors, and bow pulput.

WELL… I want to tell you… the stern pulput of the HYLAS folded up, and collapsed like it was made of paper…. Not a scratch on Moonshadow….

The owner of the Hylas… (and I can’t believe he did this after the first collsion), actually went back to dinner at Seagle’s Restaurant, in town. How could you leave the boat under conditions when a good percentage of the boats are moving, dragging, re-anchoring in new spots….. etc. ???????

Anyway…. We couldn’t believe it…. This is three years , in a row, where friends have been involved in boat collisions here at St. Mary’s…

Vero Beach Thanksgiving, and their mooring balls are looking better and better!!!!

I did dinghy into the town docks, and go to Seagles just before sundown…and get a few left-overs…

ALL in all… the decision to stay with, or very near Autumn Borne was a prudent one. So it was a very strange Thanksgiving…. And we’re thankful that no one was hurt.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL...
We're here again at St. Mary's GA for this holiday.  We've come here with cruising friends (Brian and Sheila Strutt), and we've met some old cruising friends around the anchorage, and at the happy hours, (and pain-killer party hosted by Jage and Carmen of the s/v Simplicity)

Sunrise - Just gorgeous!!!!

happy hour at Seagle's Saloon - Strutts-Harry-Dean

Anne Stone and John Fazzio (S/v Steelaway)

Schooner "steelaway" - John Anne dean at hard dock - St. Mary's GA

Pretty breezy out here this AM;  we've already had two boats get together....time to get this day started.
.

Wow.... we made it... made it to Florida anyway...AND in time for Thanksgiving at St. Mary's GA. (which was one of the goals, of course).

That is always such a relaxing and enjoyable time.... (well... most of the time - long story there).

Anyway... we pulled anchor in the Cooper River, south of Beaufort, SC yesterday morning (Sunday).  

But...(and here's the blessing and the CURSE of the AICW in SC/GA (7.6 foot tides)), right at the mouth of Fields CUT, just before the Savannah River crossing... Moonshadow took to ground. Autumn Borne was right behind them... and slid by on their starboard side in 8.8 feet of water. Remember that 7.6 foot tide I mentioned...well it was falling like crazy... So IF Brian couldn't get off the mud pile in a few minutes... It might be a long, long while, and a crazy heel to one side...

They were in a place where there was a lot of traffic, and shallows all around them... so we couldn't go and toss them a line...etc. So Brian called Tow Boat US... Susan and I said 'We'll see you down the line' to the s/v Second Wind, who started down the Savannah River toward Tybee Island, and the ocean.

Susan and I then put Autumn Borne into the "wait mode"...(fwd at idle, facing into the 2.0 knot current in the Savannah River, and waited for Tow Boat US to rescue Moonshadow).

Ah... now for the Blessing part of the 7.6 foot tide: While waiting we checked weather, tides at St. Mary's, and we got a call from the s/v Second Wind...saying the ocean at large swells but looked good.

SO...........when Brian, and Sheila were 'free' we cruised out into the Atlantic, and headed SOUTH toward St. Mary's; anticiapated arrival time 2300 hours (right at the beginning of flood tide into the river).

An decent "outside" passage is so much nicer than worrying all day long about bridge openings, going aground, traffic, etc. on the AICW.   (The blessing of the ICW is that you can move south or north 99% of the time without worrying about weather).

the passage was a bit rocky...with 6+ swells from abeam, but other wise, wonderful, and we did get here right on time (2300 hours).  The wind was a little light, but you have to "be careful what you WISH for"! (Like "I wish there was more wind... and Wham! you get 46 knot winds)

While on one of my walk-abouts, around the boat yesterday, during passage I did discover two areas of chafe damage on the running and standing rigging: the topping lift line is starting to come apart (probably years of UV damage), and the mains'l sheet is suffering some chafe, and will have to be re-rove or reversed).

While in the Atlantic, and the water was clear, we made water for several hours, and did some other chores; all in all a nice passage... Granted coming in the St. Mary's river at night leaves a little to be desired, but we're now safely anchored just off Fernandina, Florida. 

 

After putting some fuel on board, we'll be going north to St. Mary's GA, and some 'rest-and relaxation' time.

Double Yeah!

Ocean hop terminated early - Wild Winds and Seas

WELL... today didn't quite work out as predicted... or forecasted...

The wind was supposed to be 10 to 15 knots dropping in the late morning...

The sea state was supposed to be 3 to 4 feet dropping to 2 to 3 feet...

WELL....we left the South Edisto River this morning with the s/v Second Wind, and Moonshadow.

As we made the turn down-wind it was pretty obvious that the seas were larger than predicted already...

As time went on.. the wind built to 18 to 20 knots with much higher gusts... (our max reading was 29.9 knots on the wind instrument)...

and the seas were building at the same time... We were doing 10.0 knots when surfing down the face of the waves... I could look horizontally at the tops of the waves... from the AB cockpit... That's a tall bit of water!

Anyway... Second Wind called and said they'd "had it" and were heading into Port Royal Sound...

We were looking forward to being in St. Mary's GA on Sunday Morning... but if you'll pardon the pun, the "Sound" idea sounded good to us...

BUT... running downwind was easy compared to the 7 mile stretch back to the shoreline...on a beam-reach. That run was really nasty... with 8 to 10 foot waves hitting us from the side... while running down a narrow inlet channel... with shoals on both sides...

Anyway..... we did enter Port Royal Sound, below Beaufort SC, and pick up the AICW as it crossed the sound. We're now anchored in The COOPER River...(Nice anchorage...quite a current, but good holding, and quiet).

Tomorrow we'll continue down the AICW until we can see the weather change, and/or get an opportunity to get out into the Ocean for another try.

 Nigel (the windvane) did a great job running just off "dead-down"... it's been a long time since we've needed "him"... The electric autopilot "Rosie" is a god-send while cruising the AICW.

Leaving South Edisto River tomorrow - ocean hop

Wow... haven't posted here in a while.... 
We've been through Charleston Harbor now.... and are now anchored in the St. Pierre's Creek, just off the South Edisto River....
WE'll leave tomorrow on a 24 hour hop in the Atlantic to St. Mary's GA...
Then... rest time... and Thanksgiving....
Then FL... Yeah !!!!

At Mile Hammock Bay - Camp LeJune NC this evening

We pulled the hook in the South River this morning at 0700 (well past sunrise).

By 0900 we had motored back into the Neuse River, and then down Adams Creek, past Cedar Creek (which is our normal anchorage spot)...

We could have done that portion of the trip the afternoon, of the day before...which would have put us 2 hours closer to Beaufort, NC at the time of weighing anchor, this morning.

BUT.... the disadvantage would have been... that two hours saved would have put us at the Atlantic Beach Bridge in Moorehead city at high tide, and Brian, and Sheila (s/v Moonshadow) would NOT have made it under the bridge... with their 63+ foot mast. UG!!!!

SO.... it was a trade off....   (which would later make us very late at the decision point of Swansboro, NC).

Even waiting for a falling tide... there were two boats anchored there...waiting for more tide to fall.... Makes us glad that our rig is only 60'-9" tall.

We're still dragging the dinghy, which makes it easy to visit friends at anchorages... but costs us fuel, and speed every day...

Brian and Shiela decided that they would anchor at Swansboro, upstream of the low bridge.... I (dean) hate that anchorage and would only anchor there again if I had no choice.... Susan and I decided we would take the last two hours of daylight and run like heck for Mile Hammock Bay... some 14 miles farther on down the AICW.   We'd also take our chances with the Onslow Beach Bridge, right before Mile Hammock Bay.

We made it 20 minutes before sundown.... and guess who's anchored next to us.... s/v "Second Wind" (Bill and Laura... charterboat people from Hop-0-Nose).  How wierd... They had an interuption in their trip south, as well... Laura's dad passed away... and necessitated a trip home.

The last time we saw the s/v "Second Wind" was off the coast of NJ. We had weighed anchor with Second Wind at Atlantic Highlands and set out for Delaware Bay.

But, about midnight, Susan and I opted to stop at Atlantic City; Bill and Laura decided to press-ON to Delaware Bay.

SO...............anyway.... the weather is not really cooperating with respect to 'jumping outside'.... storm coming.... and the ocean is still a wreck from TS "SEAN" out there...

The end result is we continue to slog along in the AICW....for a while until we get a weather window...

OH... we got that first "ICW-grounding" out of the way today.... 

you always worry about the " first one..".

WELL....we it a mud-mound at about 7.8 knots.... while motoring right in the middle of the channel.... Whooomp!!! UP and over.... must have raised the AB about a foot out of the water.... then we slid down the back side, but going a whole lot slower....

We had to laugh.... We joked about that being the JOE POOLER (s/v C-Note) school of bottom cleaning.... Joe used say..."there !!!!... that'll take care of the pesky barnacles on the bottom... CRUNCH!!!"

Down the AICW - Near Oriental NC

wow....  I just realized it's been along time since I posted to this blog... I guess we've been busy...  
We did finally get away from Great Bridge VA...   Brian and Sheila got their boat sorted out, after being away from it most of the Summer 2011.  We did some shopping (provisioning) while there.... and some small projects... 

We did get to see Bill Rice, and his friend Paul on Paul's katy-krogen trawler, "Bull Dog Sally". Nice visit.

dean - paul - Bill on the p/v Bull Dog Sally at Great Bridge, VA

It's now November 8th... and we've had one more delay... with the replacement of the main engine's heat exchanger.   We started to get "HOT" water in the bilge... (very unusual, and not a good sign)... but the good thing.. the engine was still COOL.... which obviously meant that the raw water pump was pumping sea water through the engine block, and with a pressure that exceeded the 7 PSIG of the radiator cap....  (we had a solid stream of hot water exiting the overflow tube from the cap fitting... at over 1400 rpm of the engine.   ;(

Heat Exchanger - Sea water cooling.

So..we ordered a heat exchanger (TAD1405) from Trans-Atlantic Diesel, and it arrived in Washington NC the next day.... Morris and Elizabeth Thorpe brought it down to us at Belhaven, NC.... and we installed that next day... Friday.

Completing that day of being "social butterflies".... we had lunch with Earl and Kathy Payne-Davis... (S/v Seeker).  They were visiting relatives in Fayetteville NC... about 1.5 hours away, and decided to drive up and see us....  wow... NICE!

So... today (Saturday) we took off from Belhaven, and motor-sailed to the South River, across the Neuse River from Oriental NC.   Tomorrow we'll be in Beaufort, our normal point of decision making.... (whether or not to jump off-shore to Charleston, SC, and St. Mary's GA).

So...we'll now check the weather and sea conditions....  take care.

Finally OUT of the Chesapeake Bay - Wow

We picked up the hook at Deltaville, VA Monday  morning....

I'm writing this from our anchorage at MILE Zero, in Norfolk /Portsmouth (Monday PM).
However.... the forecast of 5 to 10 knot winds... and 1 to 2 foot seas turned out to be a bit OFF !!!!

The reality was 12 to 23 knot winds from the EAST, and 3 to 5 foot chop....

We carried a double reefed main, stays'l, and 3/4 of the Yankee most of the day....

but we kept the engine running at just above idle....
(mainly because the winds would shift to JUST into that area, of close reaching, where you could only motor/sail, or start to TACK).
I can can say that the engine had 'an easy day of it'.... because the sails did most of the work... it just kept the batteries charged'.

It's busy here in the Elizabeth River (Mile Zero of the ICW).... the anchorage is FULL...

The restrictions on the bridges, to the south are now extensive...with rush hour lockouts, and hour or half hour openings.... that boats go through in giant "packets" 

The most thrilling part of this leg... was Norfolk Harbor, and the Elizabeth river.... upon entering the harbor, we had to dodge around a US Navy cruiser trying to dock.... (very slowly)... then avoid two container ships, and a bunch of tug/barges... busy place!!!!!

SO.... anyway... Today (November 1st) begins the slog down the ICW...

The nice thing.... you can "go" almost regardless of the weather.... and the scenery is, for the most part, gorgeous.