It was a pretty comfortable night until 5am when the tide changed and tried to push the boat north against the 20mph winds. The boat ended up sideways to the wind (and small waves) that made the boat heel-over a little with the wind blowing on our masts. When I got out of bed, it was a slightly uphill walk to the bathroom.
It rained on and off through the night and around 7am it seemed to calm a bit so I decided to pull up the anchor and get going. After normal morning engine checks, starting the engine and turning on all the electronics, I put on my raingear top and went outside to run the anchor windlass. Laura's job is to squeeze up to (into?) the anchor locker and make sure the chain doesn't jam as I'm pulling in the hook.
As soon as I went out on the deck, it seemed like the wind and rain really picked up. I was getting pelted with horizontal rain that kept blowing the jacket hook off my head. I finally gave up trying to keep it on and just put up with the rain.
I used the anchor windlass to pull up the chain enough to detach our anchor snubber. This is a 5/8" line attached to the bow at the waterline. There is a special hook that attaches the other end to our anchor chain. The purpose is so the anchor and chain hold the boat at a lower angle (water line instead of anchor pulpit) which makes it stronger and the boat moves less at anchor.
Unfortunately, the wind and currents had the boat sideways to our anchor chain and the chain-hook at the end of the snubber would jam as I was trying to pull it on board. I eventually had to go back inside and put the transmission in reverse so the engine would pull the boat backwards and move the anchor chain in front of the boat. A short time later I had the snubber line removed and stowed away.
Then I had to go back in and take the transmission out of reverse so the windlass could pull in the chain. Our windlass couldn't overcome the combined pull of the wind, tidal current and engine trying to move the boat backwards. I was able to pull in about 20 feet (out of 100) but then the wind and current pushed the boat sideways again to the chain and it wouldn't come in. I yelled as loud as I could to Laura who was only about 5 feet below me in the chain locker. She needed to come up on the helm and put the boat in reverse again.
She eventually heard me and came up into the cockpit. I pointed towards the back of the boat so show what I needed - put the boat in reverse and move backwards. By alternating reverse and neutral, I was able to get in about another 50 feet of chain. I then motioned for her to go back to the chain locker to prevent any jams in the chain coming on board. About 10 minutes later I had all the chain up and the anchor stowed on the bow.
This was probably the worst time we've had getting the anchor up in 13 years we've sailed Second Wind. It took us 1/2 hour for a normally 5 minute job and I was soaked from head to sneakers. Once we were underway with the rain coming down in buckets and the wind howling, I checked the weather radar on my cell phone. We were right in the middle of yellow and red shit. Of course, I should have checked this before starting to leave. Even now I don't know why I didn't.
When I went out to pull the anchor, I unzipped and opened the clear plastic panel on the back of our cockpit - we had the full enclosure up to keep the weather out and be a little warmer driving. Through all the shenanigans of pulling up the anchor and coming back in a few times, the wind had blown hard enough to pull the zipper apart. Now we couldn't close that panel and the rain was coming in. Laura spent the next 15-20 minutes working on keeping it closed against the wind and rain.
Lastly, the top on our bimini is 8 years old and near the end of it's life. As marine canvas gets older, it becomes brittle and the threads holding it together deteriorate from the UV. The threads right over my head had shrunk and deteriorated enough that it was dripping all around me while driving the boat. It was a miserable next couple hours for the Captain.
Over the next hour or two, the rain finally quit and the north wind died a bit. We crossed the St. Johns River (near Jacksonville) in much clearer weather and enjoyed the tidal current pushing us down the inside of Jacksonville Beach toward St. Augustine. I finally changed into dry clothes because it didn't make sense to put on dry clothes while I was getting dripped on constantly. When I took off my sneakers, the water was dripping out of them.
All along this section are huge, beautiful houses. I took a picture of this one because it has a putting green on the right side of the waterside lawn. I thought that was pretty cool.
The rest of the day was uneventful and we tied up to a mooring at St. Augustine Municipal Marina at 2:30pm.
Laura helped me drop the dinghy and put the motor on. I went into the marina and paid our mooring for 2 nights ($50) and took a short walk around the waterfront. Laura decided to stay on the boat and clean up a bit from all the crappy weather. She also made chicken soup for dinner. Yumm.
We watched a movie on Netflix and I hit the sack around 9pm. Tomorrow should be an easier day.
Saturday, November 16th (Day 51)
Around 10am I got tired of being cold so started the Honda generator and turned on our heat. It quickly warmed up the boat and became very comfortable. We had planned on leaving tomorrow so wanted to walk to the grocery store (about 2 miles) and would Uber back with the groceries. I went out 3 or 4 times to check the weather and it drizzled all day. Not a good day for a walk and very unusual for St. Augustine in November.
Between the drizzle, howling wind and cold temps, we decided to bag the walk and take the day off. We worked a few boat projects, Laura took out one of her 3 sewing machines to sew a bit and we watched TV from our iPhone and a couple movies from the computer. It was a nice relaxing day considering how nasty it was outside.
I called the marina office and extended our stay for another night. We'll be here until Monday when the weather is supposed to be much nicer for traveling. We'll also try to repair some of the leaks in our bimini top to make it last until this winter when we will make a new one.
Slow Cruisin' came through the harbor in the late afternoon and picked up a mooring on the other side of the bridge. We had planned on going out to dinner together in town but made a group decision to stay put because of the weather. Laura grilled a couple pork chops and almost the last of our veggies for dinner. Gotta get to the grocery store tomorrow!
Sunday, November 17th (Day 52)
Another morning begins with me filling up the gas tank in the Honda generator and running it to get the boat warm. It was 61 inside the boat this morning. Not nasty but cool - especially for St. Augustine.
It was supposed to be cloudy this morning then partly cloudy this afternoon. That didn't work as we never saw the Sun all day - I think it's been 4 days now.
Just before noon, we dropped the dinghy and went into town. I had on 2 shirts, a hooded sweatshirt and a jacket. Laura also wore gloves but I decided not to. We were both a little stir-crazy and Laura hadn't been off the boat since Brunswick 4 days ago. It was a brisk walk to Winn Dixie and West Marine (they are in the same little mall) but we stopped at the Metro Diner for lunch first. I guess we both forgot it was Sunday and the place was packed. We waited about 1/2 hour for a table. Lunch was so-so. I had a fish sandwich while Laura had the tomato-fan salad. It was pretty inexpensive at $25 including tip.
I spent about $60 at West Marine and we spent $170 at Winn Dixie. We Uper'd (is that a word now?) back to the marina and barged all our groceries back to the boat in the dink. A short while later I had the dinghy hauled up on the davits and Laura had the groceries put away.
Not much going on the rest of the day. Sometime after dark the winds finally started to calm down and I could see the stars for the first time in quite a while when I grilled burgers for dinner.
At lunch today, Laura drank her ice water a little fast and felt a pain in her forehead. I jokingly said, "Maybe it's a tumor?" She followed with the Arnold Schwarzenegger accent, "It's not a tumor!" So, back at the boat, we had to watch Kindergarten Cop (where that line comes from) followed by True Lies (one of my favorite action movies.)
Tomorrow we will head to Daytona and anchor for at least one night. It's supposed to be in the low 70s there tomorrow. Yea!
Our short-term goal is to make Stuart for Thanksgiving then look for a weather-window for an overnight down the coast to Biscayne Bay and The Keys around December 1st.
No comments:
Post a Comment