Cruising with Grace

20 May 2018 | My kitchen, Needham MA
16 May 2018 | Mooring 831, Hewitts Cove, Hingham MA
04 May 2018 | Cape May harbor, off the Coast Guard base
25 April 2018 | Onancock Creek
10 April 2018 | Barefoot Landing Marina, which is free while they are closed
02 April 2018 | Turtle Island, just inside the border with South Carolina
26 March 2018 | St Augustine Municipal Marina, right next to the Bridge of Lions
22 March 2018 | ICW Mile 946
17 March 2018 | Old Bahama Marina, West End, Bahamas
11 March 2018 | Conch Marina, Marsh Harbor
04 March 2018 | Anchored off Russell Island next to Spanish Wells
24 February 2018 | Off Monument Beach, Stocking Island
18 February 2018 | Anchored off Stocking Island, across the harbor from Georgetown
11 February 2018 | Georgetown
04 February 2018 | Nassau Harbor Club Marina
28 January 2018 | In a slip at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina
19 January 2018 | Anchorage between Whale and Bird Cay
15 January 2018 | South of Frazier Hog Island
11 January 2018 | Browns Marina, Bimini, Bahamas
07 January 2018 | No Name Harbor, Key Biscayne

Have I mentioned that traveling the ICW is boorring?

26 March 2018 | St Augustine Municipal Marina, right next to the Bridge of Lions
Grey, wet and windy
(I apologize if this sounds like a whine. My intention with this blog is to share the experience. That I've traveled 225 miles up the ICW since last Monday is a data point. The experience of these miles is that the ICW is boring - at least for the helmsman, which I am 100% of the time.)

The ICW in Florida is mostly straight. Straight through the wide, shallow stretches like the Indian River, straight through cuts like Fox Cut. But even though it is straight, you have to constantly pay attention to the course, and make steering adjustments. Even with the autopilot, I can only leave my station by the wheel (such as getting some food) for at most 1 minute - which I relearned the hard way this week (see below). It's so boring doing this that I've taken to hand-steering most of the way, finding that making all the little adjustments to keep in the channel is more engaging than telling the autopilot to make them.

If you had someone else on board, they might find the trek relaxing. They can watch the scenery or read or something else. And they can spell the helmsman so that he doesn't get bug-eyed after 9 hours of this. It's all a motor, and the constant 'thrumming' of the engine is wearing when you can't do anything else.

My run north is a little different from when I came down the ICW last November and
December. Then it was early winter, and now it is the height of spring here. The trees along the way have their spring colors. There's a lot more birds - terns, flocks of cormorants, ospreys, birds I can't identify, and I think I've seen bald eagles and their nests. And, if the days are warm, there are more people on the side of the waterway swimming and sunning, and more fishermen and kayakers on the water. I've seen the smoke of brush fires several times - thick, billowing, grey and mauve clouds, and I can smell the smoke when I'm down-wind of them.

I've seen very few boats heading north. I'm earlier than most snow-birds, which is probably a small hint that I should have stayed in the Bahamas longer!

Since my last update, I've spent a night anchored off Cocoa Beach, and another south of New Smyrna. The day I left New Smyrna was not a good day. I needed to get diesel, and went to find a fuel dock that my charts showed.. The fuel dock wasn't answering the radio when I asked for directions in, and I ran aground trying to get to the dock. Since I was going slow, I could back off. Then I called another marina, who didn't have a fuel dock and they suggested another marina about 1/2 mile along the channel. I called them on the radio, and they were out of diesel, and suggested another 'right close by'. That one didn't show on my charts and didn't answer the radio (and of course, nobody has signs indicating their fuel dock). So I called the other marina and asked if I could tie up to their dock while I transferred fuel from my spare canister into the tank. They said yes, and as I was motoring into where I thought it was, a man can running down the dock waving me off. I threw the boat into reverse, and as I backed out, the current forced Grace into the dock very hard. Another black mark on the side of the hull of poor Grace. Anyways, the 'other' diesel dock is right next to the dock that didn't have diesel - I thought it was all one marina, but it wasn't. After I got fuel, I had to wait until the close-by bridge had their scheduled opening. A late start to the day.

Later as I was motoring along, a pretty 40+ sailboat came by heading south. I waved at them, they waved back, and as I watched, their bow went down, their stern went up - and they were aground! I called them on the radio and they said they would just wait for the tide to float them off. 'There, but for the grace of God' I thought. Hubris.

That afternoon, I was motoring along a straight stretch, with the autopilot on, and ran below to mix up some iced tea and put it into the refrigerator. When I am below and next to the running motor, I can't hear my depth sounder's shallow water alarm - and when I came up and could hear it, it was too late. I was hard aground 25 ft off the channel. I tried unsuccessfully to motor out, then to use my spinnaker pole to push the bow around. I checked the tide - it was low, but with only a 1 ft range - so it wasn't going to float me out. Finally, I called TowBoat US. They could have a boat come and pull me off in 2 hours. At this point it was 3:00, and I still had 20 miles to go.

Well, I sat, and then decided to try kedging Grace off. 'Kedging' is using the anchor to pull the boat. I got the anchor into the dinghy, rowed it out to the side to the edge of the channel, got back to the boat, started the engine, ran forward to use the anchor windless to pull the boat around, got the anchor up, ran back to the wheel as the current was pushing me back to the shoal, threw the engine into gear, and Grace pushed her way out of the mud and back to the channel. Whew! A challenge of being a single-hander is you have to do everything - this whole procedure would have been easy with two on board.

I spent that night anchored off of Fort Matanzas (which is not a fort, as far as I could see from the channel). The next morning I watched as a tugboat came up the channel, ran aground, backed off, tried again, and finally was able to continue on. The ICW is very shoaled up in spots.

Yesterday I came into St Augustine, which I had visited with the Sail To The Sun Rally folks last fall. I'm now in the municipal marina. Not sure as to my plans today, as the weather is iffy.

I find myself constantly torn between putting on the miles to get back north - with all the wear on me that means, and taking it a bit more slowly.
Comments
Vessel Name: Grace
Vessel Make/Model: Catalina 320
Hailing Port: Needham MA
Crew: Alex Cullen
Extra: This trip will be my 'transition to retirement'
Grace's Photos - Main
44 Photos
Created 22 March 2018
From Dec 29th thru until March
100 Photos
Created 31 December 2017
September to December
93 Photos
Created 29 September 2017