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| Cappy and Mike enjoying a gourmet (NOT) lunch in the cockpit |
The trip from Charleston to Fernandina Beach should
have been a relatively uneventful one for us. The winds were favorable and we were thankful to have our friend Mike on board to help with the
sailing and especially for the night watches. Plus, he's just great company and so much fun. AND he loves cars just about as much as Elliott does, and Elliott was thrilled to have another carmudgeon on board.
The sail during the day was quite nice; I had
pre-pared foods for us to eat along the way, so my duties were mostly below
decks serving up the grub and then cleaning up after. Nothing like a messy galley after dark, so I
attempt to keep things shipshape.
The cold weather seems to be following us South
(imagine that!), but it was a few degrees warmer for this sail. At one point, we saw a fluffy blob floating
along and we couldn't see a head; it must be a duck or goose that had been
decapitated, poor thing. Leaning over
the side of the boat, we felt sad at the sight, but then, all of a sudden, a
head and neck appeared from out of the wings and it flew off to find a quieter
place to snooze. Shocked us a bit. And it was neither duck or goose, but some large sea bird.
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| "Play with me!" |
Later in the day, Gary noticed some dolphins
swimming alongside us; we all went to the bow to watch them frolic and tease
the bow of the boat with their hijinx for about 20 minutes.
It was a beautiful experience, especially when one of them flipped into
the air like an acrobat doing a flip.
Wow; just wow. Pure muscle and effortless-looking swimming.
Night came on and it got colder, so we all donned
foul weather gear and harnesses for the night watches. Have I told you I hate night sailing? All was well until Gary was snoozing away and
the guys had just started a short break down below when we felt a wind shift
and BOOM!!!!! Crap; what was that?
Gary ran out of the cabin to the cockpit to check
and all guys were on deck in a few seconds. My heart was pounding as I envisioned a big hole in the side of the boat from hitting a whale or something. It was the boom that made the BOOM! It had flown over to the other side of the boat with such power
that it had brushed against the bimini and knocked a few holding screws out,
but the worst part was that the traveler (for bringing the mainsail in) had
popped completely off the track, spewing bits of ball bearings everywhere. (We're stilling finding pieces . . . .)
In a few minutes, the mainsail was brought under
control and tied off in a rudimentary way and we were sailing on course
again. Seems our autopilot likes to shut
down at the most inopportune times (like when the crew is belowdecks, argh) and
had turned us away from the wind and made chaos and broken bits for a few
minutes. Good teamwork brought
everything back to sailability and we continued on our way, adrenaline coursing
through our bodies, meaning that sleep would be a little harder to come by.
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| Stanky |
We made the turn at the St. Mary's Inlet and headed
south into the Amelia River (nice name, eh?)
After radioing the marina letting them know we were on the way, we
noticed that, while the scenery on the starboard side of the boat was gorgeous,
it was very industrial with factories spewing smoke and making great noise on
the port side, where we would be staying.
Yikes. These were paper mills, so
yes, the odor was very sulfur heavy. And
they work around the clock, moving things by train past the marina, blaring the
safety horns for all those who might dare walk across the tracks at the wrong
time. And the marina was crowded and we
had to, in essence, parallel park the boat on the floating seawall. "Like a glove!" was my thought as
Gary slid us right in (do you remember that scene from "Ace
Ventura"? Yes, it was like that.
He's really getting the hang of the bowthruster.)
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| "Like a Glove" |
All this to say that little did I know how much I
would come to love this little town on Amelia Island.
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