After my solo one day cruise from Carabelle to Shell Pt, Fl in which my
engine died, I managed to get the engine to run again but was
immediately distracted by my 14 yr old son getting busted for smoking
pot at school. Having decided to have him with me 24/7 to prevent
recurrences of his pot use slowed me down by a few days. Arrival of
in-laws form the frozen wastes of North Illinois also delayed me. Both
my brother-in-law and 18 yr old daughter wanted to go on the next leg
but I got talked out of sailing from Shell Pt directly to Tarpon
Springs which would have been a 28 hour sail and instead decided to
sail to Steinhatchee which is only 55 miles away so is a day sail.
Monday morning low tide was to be at 8:45 so I decided to leave at 5:30
am. Arrived at the dock at Shell Pt and from the angle of the floating
dock knew we wouldnt get out. The N wind had blown most of the water
out of the bay and she was sitting hard on the bottom. Went home to
get more sleep and decided to simply sail a few miles to St. Marks
later mostly so I wouldnt overstay my welcome at the private dock of
the retired engineer Gil who had allowed me to stay when my engine
crapped out.
At this point, my wife was driving me nuts packing unneeded food and
clothing in my truck for what would only be a day trip but I humored
her. Arrived back at the dock at 1:00 pm and easily got out. Wind
forecast was for 15 kt NE but instead we had about 8 kt S wind. Very
slow sail to east. I knew I was fairly close in to the shore of the
wildlife refuge but we seemed to have good depth and my course seemed
to be good for the sea buoy of St. Marks. I should have realized that
the nearby gunfire from duck blinds built in the bay meant we had made
a lot of leeway toward shore. Dodging falling shot isnt a normal
sailing experience even around here. Finally through the binocs saw
the channel markers went out further than I expected so we started the
engine and went south. Then saw a marker WAAAAAAAAAY out and decided
it must be the sea bouy and motored a long time to clear it. This
turned out to be a large buoy with a light and the number 4 which
according to my GPS and one LOP from the St. Marks light house was
about 2.5 miles too far out to be right. It simply wasn't on my
outdated chart.
Turned N toward markers I could see and easily found the channel but
none of them were marked with anything resembling my chart (OK, I am
cheap and have old charts). Finally passed the St. Marks lighthouse
and entered the river as the sun set with an astonishing display of
radiance in which we could not discern the water from the sky. It got
seriously dark cuz the full moon was not out yet so I stood on the bow
with my 7X50 binocs spotting the markers while my daughter steered. My
brother in law from Chicago said he was cold and went below! It is
amazing how well the binocs allow you to see better in low light
conditions. In spite of the seriously winding channel, we never ran
aground and passed the Riverside Cafe at St. Marks just as my wife and
her parents and my 8 yr old daughter arrived to get us. My wheelchair
bound father-in-law who had gotten out of the car was cold so I decided
that we would not spend any time looking for the rumored available slip
upriver and tied up at the cafe while we all walked up the road to
Nichols Restaurant cuz the Riverside Cafe was too exposed to the
elements for my Northern in-laws.
We all ate dinner while my 8 yr old daughter played iwth a stray cat.
Retrieved my truck from Shell Pt. By this time it was 10:00 pm and
everything was closed and we were going to have trouble getting
permission to stay tied up. However, my 18 yr old daughter found the
owner of the bar next door called Posey's and he said we could tie up
next to his bar for a couple days. I can tell from just a brief
conversation that he will be another of those human reasons that
cruising is so interesting.
I have been thinking of my Chicago in-laws response to the cold and
that they want the house heat turned up to 72 that their attitude
toward cold is different from mine. They constantly fight the cold
because it is necessary for them. My attitude is that I ignore it
because I know that if I do, it will soon go away here.