Posted by Monty
St. Augustine was great. We showed up in the middle of a week of offshore sailing races. Who knew? I walked around town like I had just won the biggest one of all.
We took a trolley tour. I never realized how much history was packed into this town. Pirates, Catholics, industrialists, Tiffany windows, Martin Luther King, Thomas Edison, miniature castles, and the ever present Mr. Flagler all packed into one town. We spent two days soaking it in while eating great pizza and touring a distillery. No bourbon yet, it's still ageing. I'll wait.
Yesterday we left for a short run to Pine Island, where we spent the night and readied ourselves for the big push today to Cumberland Island. 53 miles up the waterway.
I was feeling pretty good about things. We left at the end of the flood (high) tide this morning, fighting a light current. By the time we got to the inlet, we were cruising with the current draining the water out of the waterway and blasting along. On the other side of the inlet, the tide had turned so we were still making good time with the flood filling the water back in. I was grinning from ear to ear.
Then, we...stopped.
Ran aground in the middle of the channel. DIRECTLY in the middle, and I have the GPS track to prove it. HARD aground, not just a gentle bump.
The first thing I did was look around to see if anyone saw me do it. (This is the first thing I always do when I do something stupid.) No such luck. Between me and the sailboat I had passed at the drawbridge was a trawler, coming up fast. Then there was the boat full of fishermen a couple hundred feet off my bow (I suspect they were there to watch the show. They might have created the shoal for that purpose). So there was no way I was going to pretend this did not happen. But that trawler might prove useful.
I spun the boat on her keel as much as I could. When the trawler passed, I gunned the diesel and...bump...bump...and we were off the shoal! I was back up to speed before the sailboat caught up.
The rest of the trip proved uneventful. Eight and one half short hours after we started, we dropped the hook behind Cumberland Island. Home to a national park featuring deer, horses, unspoiled beaches, and Dungeness, the abandoned Carnegie Steel estate, complete with castles, fountains and gardens being reclaimed by the land. Should be a good couple of days while we wait for the weather to make a decision as to which way we will go around the great State of Georgia, with it's too convoluted Inland Waterway.
Tonight we grilled chicken and are listening to the rain. Should be good sleeping. And, I'm tired.
We have been having trouble with the camera. If it works, I promise pictures.
We took a trolley tour. I never realized how much history was packed into this town. Pirates, Catholics, industrialists, Tiffany windows, Martin Luther King, Thomas Edison, miniature castles, and the ever present Mr. Flagler all packed into one town. We spent two days soaking it in while eating great pizza and touring a distillery. No bourbon yet, it's still ageing. I'll wait.
Yesterday we left for a short run to Pine Island, where we spent the night and readied ourselves for the big push today to Cumberland Island. 53 miles up the waterway.
I was feeling pretty good about things. We left at the end of the flood (high) tide this morning, fighting a light current. By the time we got to the inlet, we were cruising with the current draining the water out of the waterway and blasting along. On the other side of the inlet, the tide had turned so we were still making good time with the flood filling the water back in. I was grinning from ear to ear.
Then, we...stopped.
Ran aground in the middle of the channel. DIRECTLY in the middle, and I have the GPS track to prove it. HARD aground, not just a gentle bump.
The first thing I did was look around to see if anyone saw me do it. (This is the first thing I always do when I do something stupid.) No such luck. Between me and the sailboat I had passed at the drawbridge was a trawler, coming up fast. Then there was the boat full of fishermen a couple hundred feet off my bow (I suspect they were there to watch the show. They might have created the shoal for that purpose). So there was no way I was going to pretend this did not happen. But that trawler might prove useful.
I spun the boat on her keel as much as I could. When the trawler passed, I gunned the diesel and...bump...bump...and we were off the shoal! I was back up to speed before the sailboat caught up.
The rest of the trip proved uneventful. Eight and one half short hours after we started, we dropped the hook behind Cumberland Island. Home to a national park featuring deer, horses, unspoiled beaches, and Dungeness, the abandoned Carnegie Steel estate, complete with castles, fountains and gardens being reclaimed by the land. Should be a good couple of days while we wait for the weather to make a decision as to which way we will go around the great State of Georgia, with it's too convoluted Inland Waterway.
Tonight we grilled chicken and are listening to the rain. Should be good sleeping. And, I'm tired.
We have been having trouble with the camera. If it works, I promise pictures.