Palm Coast, FL to Cumberland Island, Georgia

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Well, the repairs took a bit longer yesterday. Seems the new fresh water pump to the engine didn’t quite fit.  Fortunately Rupert had a grinder and was able to shave some metal off the top of the pump. It made us realize that even if we were knowledgeable enough to swap out the pumps we would not have had the tools to get the job done.  Who takes along a grinder?

We left Marina at Hammock Beach about 9 am on Wednesday morning.  My job once we leave the dock is to return the fenders  and lines to their spots on the steel whatever you call the fency thing on the aft deck.  As I was busy with this job, Rusty poked his head through the canvas opening on the fly bridge and with a pained look on his face said, “The autopilot doesn’t work”.

We tried all the switches on the power panel.  The autopilot would not come on.  As it turned out the switch for the autopilot is above the switch for the windlass.  The day before, Rupert had connected the power for the raw water pump out to the windlass.  Perhaps something was jarred.  Rusty called him when we got to St. Augustine around noon.  Rupert offered to come by tomorrow.

After a lunch of homemade beef noodle soup made last night, cheese and crackers, and strawberries, we piled into the dinghy and strolled the historic part of St. Augustine.  It’s a fun and interesting part of the city.  Tomorrow we will try to get in to see the Flagler College.  We came upon a small bookstore and they had a used copy of Master and Commander.  A friend had given me the entire series with the exception of the first book in the series.  What a find! 

Our second dinner out on the trip was to a recommended restaurant OC near the Marina.  Locally owned and our dinners (crab cakes and flounder) were excellent.

We checked our email and our mail forwarding company, St. Brendan’s Isle, left a message that there were was some mail for us including the missing wifi antenna booster and a returned item. Hmmm.

Thursday,  April 14, 2011

We googled St. Brendan’s Isle and found they were located only 27 miles from where we were docked.  We weighed the pros and cons of having the mail fedexed to us, or mailed to a marina up the coast, taking a taxi or renting a car.  We (I) were anxious to get the wifi antennae booster so it boiled down to a taxi or car rental.  The car rental won out.  It was half the cost.   Now this was figured out after we took the dinghy to shore and the person with the driver’s license on them was me so me it was who made the trip.  Rusty ended up spending quality time with Gigi and went back to the OC for lunch.  I lucked out too. 

Of course, because all of this was decided on shore, we didn’t have our Garmin with us.  No one we asked knew where Green Cove Springs was located.  One of the Iphone apps located it for us and when we called St. Brendan’s Isle to let them know we were on our way they informed us that the address on their website is not their physical address.  So we got that sorted out and I set out alone.

The  mail forwarding company was located in a strip plaza.  It was one huge room with rows of stackable bins, the kind that you might find at Walmart or Target.  At the head of each row were number ranges.  Each customer has a numbered bin where the incoming mail is placed.  Customers can either come in and pick it up or more likely, they login to their account and designate which mail they want shredded, scanned, held, or forwarded to another location.

Five minutes and I had all the mail and the package with the antennae booster.  The returned mail was a package to a marine supplier.  It needed more postage.

Green Cove Springs is a small, sleepy kind of town with a bypass a couple blocks away from the main street.  Curious to see the old part of town,   took “Center Street” and within a few blocks appeared a post office.  What luck! 

The local McDonalds was running a special on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 chicken nuggets for $1.  It was Thursday.   This was shaping up to be a good day.

The road signs back to St. Augustine were excellent and before I knew it I was passing the outlet stores.  While I had brought along a dress for the wedding now I had the perfect outfit, purchased within thirty minutes.  It was that kind of a day.

A few grocery purchases, a return of the car to Enterprise, and Rusty just happened to be at the dock when I pulled up.  Sweet.  Rupert had just finished looking at the autopilot.  It seems that there were a couple of loose wires in the panel.  We were all relieved it was nothing more. 

It was a good day.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Today we made it to Fernandina Beach by 5:30. It was one of our longer days so far: nine hours.  Another trawler, Calvadoes, from Toronto  did the same run and we kept in touch by radio periodically during the day as either of us noticed obstacles or tricky passages. 

We had called ahead  to the city marina to get a mooring ball and had been placed on a waiting list.  Fortunately someone left just before we arrived.  We have been putting double lines on our moorings just in case and were glad we did.

Tiger Point Marina had a fedex package for us which meant we would have our credit cards again and we arranged for our broker to pick them up for us as we would be seeing them the next day.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The weather predictions were not good for a trip to Cumberland Island so we stayed put for another day.  The fedex package turned out to be only Rusty’s debit card so we will have to make further arrangements to get the credit cards.  A local farmers market added a chive plant to our herb collection and a local church arts/crafts sale added oatmeal raisin cookies to the pantry.  We noted that the Presbyterian church had a service at 8:30 the following day. Mike and Mary, owner/brokers Paradise Yacht Sales, took us for a provisioning run and then we headed back to the boat.  The wind was picking up.  We tied up the dinghy with three lines but left the motor attached.  Regretable decision.

Our anemometer indicated gusts to 30 MPH but sailboat owners were reporting gust of 40 MPH.

We spent the afternoon reading and hooking up the wifi antennae booster. Gigi was clingy and didn’t quite know what to make of the rolling waves.

About 6 pm, we heard “Cooper, Cooper, this is the Ellie” on the VHF radio.  “Your dinghy turned over” was the message.  Sure enough the dinghy was turned over with the engine still attached and the gas tank floating in the water but tethered to the engine.

We attempted to right the boat but the wind was just too strong and we were just too weak.  (Maybe we should have kept the boom on the boat but we won’t go there as this was a protracted topic of discussion before we left.) We glanced over at the Ellie and the owner was motioning to us to get on the radio.

Ellie recommended that once we get the dinghy up that we needed to put it in a fresh water bath.   Another boat owner joined the conversation.  He was a former mechanic and said the best place for the motor was just where it was until we could service it.  He told us we needed to drain the oil a few times and other stuff but really it was beyond us, at least today.  Rusty found an engine service company that would come out in the morning, put the engine in a barrel of fresh water, and service it on Monday.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

The engine service company was supposed to come at 8:30 am.  Eric had a delay so by noon were beginning to think we might be here another night.  Not going ashore is tough for Gigi. 

By 2:30 our engine had been picked up but the promised loaner engine was not available.  And the water was still a bit too rough to row ashore.  So we  cruised up to Cumberland Island just inside the Georgia border where we had an invitation to have dinner with our broker and an offer to use their dinghy to get to shore.

Oh my goodness!  Cumberland Island is beautiful and has an interesting history.  The National Parks service is now the custodian of this one-time playground of the rich and famous.  Walking trails, wild horses, interpretive center, white deer, tall & wide oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, and only 300 people are allowed on the island per day.

Following a delicious dinner with Mike & Mary on their sundeck trawler, we called it a night.