Busy Tuesday

My apologies for slacking!

I was going to finish the post below, but my stupid HP photo program would not let me take a block of photos from an email and republish on this blog. I am going to carry out the threat to buy a Mac in the next few weeks. I have really had it with HP and their proprietary BS. Back to yesterday's entry:

Tuesday, 05 May 09

Busy and more busy at the j o b, so I regret not getting on with the St Augustine trip.

We last left the Barco in the Cabbage Swamp area, just passing some anchored sailboats and continuing on to St Augustine...

The bugs were starting up. There are these brown deer flies that are bigger than some bee's, and will land, check out the situation on your skin and then the sharp sting as they commence dining operations.

Only one bite, then they fly off before you turn them into skin spackle. After feeling a couple of the nibbles, I became a lunatic with a newspaper.

We finally came upon this sailboat, stuck in the exact place we had run aground, nine years ago. He was running the engine and you could see the water churning in futility behind the boat.

I called him on the VHF and suggested that they raise sail and let the boat lean over in the wind and then hit the throttle. It had worked for us.

"No, thanks. Appreciate the advice..."

So I told them that the tide was incoming, that they would be on their way in the next hour, or so.




TINS Alert!:

The brave Wildebeest III was heading north on the Intracoastal waterway, The Spousal Unit and myself were feeling mighty froggy, heading up smooth brown waters in the warm May sun of North Florida, not unlike Saturday. We felt sooo safe and soooo confident that we were playing Cribbage and drinking hot coffee, while "Otto" drove us north in the channel. I looked up as I made a left turn and saw that the green marks were on the right side, sort of like these signs:



We drifted to the right and ran firmly aground. What I didn't know was that we would be stuck for about three hours as the power boats passed, I knew they were laughing. We deployed the dinghy, raised full sails and I used the dinghy as a pusher tug, pushing the bow off of the mud until we were in deep water.

Lesson? Pay attention and don't play games in shallow water, even if you have traveled this stretch many times before.

Back to the present;

I called the boat back and wished them luck.

This is the next view, the Vilano Bridge about five miles away!



The Final Stretch!

The last turns on the ICW started getting easier, but there was more traffic to contend with, namely Personal Water Craft. They are like mosquitoes, buzzing around and making noise, jumping our little wake.

Winds were really picking up, about 20 gusting to 25 out of the Southeast, making our ICW decision the best one. I made the radio call to Camachee Cove, letting them know we were fifteen minutes out.

I made the turn to the east into the narrow entry channel, just prior to passing under the Vilano bridge, we made our way to the face dock where two line handler's
assisted our docking. I looked like a real pro!

Two welcome committee types hopped aboard and we shared a Pabst nad chatted about the great trip. Then we checked into the Marina and paid the 97 bucks for the night.




The engine compartment was opened and I attempted to figure out the Generator malfunction. It would start, run for five minutes and shut down. Water was flowing so that means fuel issues, and I think it will be another filter. I was not going to mess with it, so I had a beer, instead. Saves my sanity, makes me feel superior to the problem and most important; Nothing is irrepairably broken. This is a theme, here.

I had a couple of beers and secured for an hour's nap before checking in to the big Barbecue by the pool. Much dolfin fish and steaks and meeting friends. I even became reacquainted with a customer from work. Small world.

Taps was held by 2100.

Sunday came and we were up at the crack of seven. Cleaned up the boat, checked over the fluids and went to breakfast by the pool.

Sorry Bob, I didn't have a car to get me to Castillo San Marco. Next trip we will be sure to visit the castle.

We had a nice poolside breakfast and then began preparations for departure. I will continue this later.