 |
| our bird friends were back! |
  |
| ...Arghhh Maties! |
 |
| Connor catching 'dinner' |
We finally made it to Florida. We pulled anchor this morning and made it over to the dock at the marina for fuel and water. The dockmaster was telling us of all the locations we should hit along the way. The first was only a short distance away - Cumberland Island. It is supposed to be beautiful and have wild horses (If you are lucky to spot some). But, the thought of being in Florida today, made us want to push on. It was only another 30 miles. The water was a little tricky today. We had passed one boat that made a wrong turn, missing a marker, and was high and dry in the shallow water. He would have to wait about 4 hours until the tides could lift him off. The boat we were following also grounded - so we did well, I suppose, for making it all the way without incident! Connor actually took a turn at the wheel again during an especially wavy period. He handled it so well riding up and down waves keeping his heading and checking for the next marker on the GPS. Kerry was, of course, right there monitoring/guiding the whole thing...but, he was so impressed with the control Connor had at the helm. We had to get back to school, so our little captain came back in. The day was relatively short. We called ahead to the marina and reserved a spot on the dock. Now and again, its great to pull up to a dock, have a shower, do some laundry (without loading up the 'ol bike trailer) and just walk around without having to load up the dinghy. What a treat.
From Silverheels III Congrats on your arrival in Florida. To save your sanity, recommend that you stay off the ICW in Fla. on holidays and weekends, especially Thanksgiving. Also when transiting from one ICW marker to the next, maintain a watch on the marker behind you to make sure that you're not being swept sideways out of the centre portion of the channel by crosswinds and current. Florida authorities will stop you while underway for an inspection of your head and sanitary system. Fines for pumping sewage overboard are high, so make sure that all valves are in "holding tank" mode and handles secured tightly by plastic cable ties. Peck Lake anchorage is one of our fav Florida stops. Watch the depth when going in...follow Skipper Bob's directions implicitly and back down hard on plenty of scope in the soft mud. You'll be rewarded with a nice quiet anchorage. A dinghy ride to shore and a 100m walk brings you to a wonderful natural sand swimming and picnicking beach on the Atlantic. Great snorkeling here in shallow water!
ReplyDeleteBTW, Peck Lake is just north of Jupiter inlet.
ReplyDeleteWe toured the Cape Canaveral space centre on US Thanksgiving Day in 2009 and we practically had the place to ourselves! This year it's on Thurs Nov 24
Fair winds...SH III
from HI-5 - Thanks Silverheels for the info on Peck Lake. We looked at it on the chart and it looks great. It just needs to warm up soon as we would love to take in the beach and do some snorkling! Hope you are having fun! Julie and Kerry
ReplyDelete