Georgia's on my mind

We have been thinking about our return to the boat lately.  Our time home and mine at work is getting shorter now.  Bill will have his eye surgery this Friday and put that behind us.  October will bring bird hunting and preparation and plans for the trip to Georgia and getting the boat in the water.  Hooray!

Georgia

April 28, 2010 - Wednesday. To all our faithful followers, this is the last episode of Snow Goose Adventures for this year. Snow Goose will be a resident of Georgia on hard while she has a new engine implant, most likely in July, and then she will be hanging out here until we return to her in the fall. We are flying out of Brunswick GA on Friday evening. We should be home on Saturday. In the meantime, we are doing all things necessary to leave the boat in good hands. Thanks for caring about our voyage. We are hoping to see you all soon.

Georgia

April 25, 2010 Sunday Anybody need the phone number for TowBoatUS? I have it memorized. A lot has happened since we left St. Augustine on Wednesday, April 21st. Wednesday went by with smooth sailing after our rebuilt starter was installed. We anchored off the ICW in calm waters. About noon time on Thursday a generator mounting bolt going into the engine block broke off. With no generator or water pump coolant we couldn't run. Thus, we called TowBoatUS who towed us into Jekyll Island, Georgia where we were repaired. Friday AM we are off again but about 3 in the afternoon we lost our transmission. Second call to TowBoatUS - same guys who towed us the first time. After some discussion, they helped us select a marine facility in Darien, GA, Two Way Marine. They have a haul out if we need it, and when Monday comes they have a complete repair facility. So, this weekend we are stuck here in nowhere in rainy weather with lots of bugs, trying to decide how we are going to approach our problem - new transmission or repower. Never a dull moment. Yesterday we took a long walk toward Darien. There was about two miles of waterfowl conservation area supported by the US, Georgia, Ducks Unlimited and Nature Conservancy. A one time the property was all owned by the Butler family who maintained the plantation and rice fields. Very beautiful area, but still lots of bugs. This is definitely a good ole boy part of the world where kareokee is still the Friday night special and all guys drive big pickup trucks. Fun!

Trucking on thru Georgia

4-21-10 Wednesday We pushed the glow plug and then the starter button and it worked!!! and so we left St. Augustine and the Bridge of Lions at 8:30 am. The day was glorious - 75 degrees. We passed our first barges - two of them - since we started the ICW North. We dropped anchor just outside Allegator Creek, and a few miles from Georgia. We put in 9 1/2 hours and 55 miles - yes, we fought the tides the whole way. But we used the jib when we could and did the best we could do. Tomorrow shallow water in Georgia. Wish us good luck!

4-22-10   We are in Jekyll Island tonight.  The day was very warm but with no wind.  We motored our way down the ICW.  We are in a social marina tonight.  There is a 34' Sea Sprite next to us and a 30' Cape Dory down the pier.  Also the cutest tug boat in front of us.  Everyone has stories to tell and wants to show off their boat.  We passed cruising friends on My Whim on our way in, and they came by the say hello.  They are leaving their boat and going home to Chicago for the summer. 

Dolphin at Municipal Marina, St. Augustine

Up and Running Again

The Snow Goose is up and running again with a rebuilt starter and some new wiring thanks to a young gentleman, Mike.  In his off hours from work, Mike stopped in on Saturday and helped Bill get the old starter out (Bill didn't have the right tools), and then on Monday evening, once the starter had been rebuilt by A&D Electric, Mike came by again and he and Bill reinstalled the rebuilt starter and did some rewiring necessary to energize the old wiring.  We will pull out tomorrow AM before the bridge closing at 8:00 AM and continue down the ICW.  As we reiterate our cruise to others, we realize we do miss the Bahamas.  It was a great experience.  The people were so pure and caring.  They spoke very quickly in a British accent with a Bahamian twist.  It was always difficult at first to understand, but the more they conversed with you, the more you understood.  The children were uninhibited and trusting.  They came up to you and spoke with you, answering questions about their school and games.  Bikes were big with them and they rode everywhere.  The children all wear school uniforms and spoke with respect.  I know I have this thing for the dolphins, but they are so much fun.  There is a school of them that live here at the marina, and there is a little black baby dolphin.  Yesterday they were tossing around a redfish, playing a game among themselves with it.  Obviously, they are not hungry!  Today, there was a dolphin right next to our slip, swimming all around the boat.  Missing you all.

Tough week

April 15 Thursday We left Titusville this morning having a heck of a time getting out of the tie up. Snow Goose only likes to back up turning starboard and there was no turnaround room. Convincing her to back out of the marina took some doing, but it happened and we had a good day even if we did fight the tide and wind most of the day. We dropped our anchor outside the Memorial Bridge in Daytona. Dealing with the bridge opening and closing times is always an issue, and this bridge was closed between 4:45 and 5:45 p.m. so we anchored South of the bridge.




April 16 Friday. The bridge opened for boats again at 8:45 am and we were ready. We saw some Manatees today. They certainly are ugly. I wouldn't want to be the boat that hit them. Huge! Today was warmer, less wind and nice until we reached Matanzas Island - South of St. Augustine. There was a red buoy and three temporary green buoys. The temporary green buoys have not been moved close enough to shore, shoaling has moved in, and we were the 6th boat USTowBoat has towed out of there today. Boy were we aground! After our rescue, we motored about 6 miles up the ICW and dropped anchor at 5:30 p.m.



April 17 Saturday. Left our quiet beautiful little anchorage for St. Augustine where we hit the fuel dock first and then pulled into the marina. We had planned to stay a couple of days, but it looks like we will be here a little longer. Snow Goose has starter problems, and this time it involves a replacement. That isn't going to happen until Monday at the earliest. So here we are in the historic city of St. Augustine and will enjoy it and perhaps catch up with some cruising friends, the Coles aboard Moon Wind, with whom we sailed down the ICW for a time.