Kinvara left the dock today by 7:30 and we looked forward to a 65 mile trip on the ICW to St. Augustine. There were 3 other boats leaving with us, all crew joined us at some point on Thanksgiving Day. First was s/v Voyager, then s/v Kinvara, then s/v Safari of Howth, finally s/v Persephone.
It turned out to be a day well remembered. All our cruising guides and word of mouth have been negative towards ICW travel in Georgia but we found out today that northern Florida far exceeds the Georgia difficulties. We went through some very shallow spots-registering less than 8' of water and getting down to 6.5 to 7' in some spots. Our boat is 5.5 feet under water so we need at least 6'. We also found that the GPS track went over shoal areas and so we had to adjust our course. Sometimes it was zig-zagging in the channel to find deeper water.
If that wasn't bad enough we found a dredging operation non-responsive on VHF so we had no clear indication of when and where to pass. It was almost blocking the channel. As we approached it the dredge started closing in on us so Peter had to go into a fast reverse. It then moved away and he gunned the engine to get through. Peter called the Coast Guard to report the incident and they were very responsive. Boats behind us were listening in to our conversation and the dredge finally responded to them on VHF radio.
All was not well behind us though. Voyager and Persephone made the trip without any grounding but s/v Safari of Howth went aground 3 times, once having to be towed off by Tow Boat US. They had a seven foot draft! Unfortunately they turned around, going into Jacksonville for the night. They will probably go outside the ICW. If it had been mid to high tide they might have been fine. We will have to look at the tides again before leaving here!
We arrived in St Augustine Municipal Marina by 4PM and watched the sunset over a Corona, listening to Christmas music coming from 3 motor (party) boats beside us. They already have their lights (and palm trees) decorating their boat. It's another long underwear night though since the morning temps are predicted to be in the low 30's.
1 comment:
Still following your exploits. I have been getting in the Christmas mood this weekend, visiting local garden centres, looking at all the trees and decorations. I bought some plants to pot up for some Christmas arrangements and have been cooking the salt dough wreaths (pictures on my blog) which my class made in school on Friday. I have got a final year teaching practice student in my class at the moment, so am feeling quite relaxed as she is doing the majority of the teaching, preparation and marking! What a difference it is making, I can tell you! We are doing the Victorians in history at the moment so all our class, cards, decorations etc. are going to be on that theme. We are even going to play Victorian parlour games when it is our class party. I am off to a local church one afternoon this week with the school choir, (as my student will be in charge of my class) to sing to the old folks. How many more days do you think it is going to take you to get home? I am not sure, looking at the map, where you are actually going to moor Kinvara. Keep on trucking!
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