Bump! Again.
23 May 2017
• Fernandina Beach Marina Morring Field
by Mike/ windy, hot
Sheesh!
What a day!
It started off so promising. We slipped our mooring at 0630 in Saint Augustine and headed up the ICW for Fernandina. Everything was going so well; we were riding the tidal current for about 3/4 of the trip so we were averaging about 7 knots and it was starting to look like we would arrive in Fernandina around 1500 vice the 1700 we had estimated. Then the gotcha happened. Here I had been worrying about clearing the Matanzas Inlet and I should have been worrying about the stretch of the Amelia River from 10 miles south of Fernandina. We were within the marked channel when we ran smack into a 4.5' shoal. I don't believe that I have ever been that stuck before. I tried to get the sail to heel us over to pop the keel out. I tried to power our way through as it was, after all, only mud. But, nothing! Thank heavens for TowBoatUS and our insurance package that we bought from them. A $1000 towing job was paid for by a $140 annual fee. Pretty good, eh? Plus Captain Joe, the tow skipper not only pulled us out but also escorted us for the next 5 miles through some really tricky water which bore no resemblance whatsoever to the chart. He told us that this stretch of water had not been dredged in nearly 10 years and in his opinion, mine too, it was overdue. Add to that the hurricane damage from Mathew and there is a whole lotta hurtin' going on here. Until I hear that the ICW here has been dredged I will not be making this trip on this stretch again.
Also, for those of you who might be familiar with the marina, Kevin and Rodger, two of the long time staff are still here just working for the company that the town has leased the marina out to. Also the hurricane damage has completely smashed the long face dock that used to house the fuel pumps, pump out station, and marina office. They only have five transient slips left and a number of the long term boats that were more or less permanently on some of the moorings had been sunk by the storm and the state got a grant from Washington to bring in a crane to fish them all out.
We will be here for two nights waiting out the crappy weather before heading up the coast.
Right now it's pretty bouncy on the mooring.
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