Good bye to Right Turn, Lovely St Marys, shallow water, No-See-Ums and Otters

30:42.97N 81:33.19W

30th April 2015

7903 Miles from Ramsgate by log.

 

            We decided to do the full on tourist thing in St Augustine and so after the girls had completed a thorough pamper session, pedicures and champagne by all accounts, we dragged Mike onto a trolley bus tour of St Augustine. >From my perspective the tour was actually pretty good the driver or drivers, we had four of them, were all very enthusiastic and the tour took in the whole of the town. Stop offs included, the old town jail, site of two official executions and a number of lynching’s by all accounts.

 

 

St Augustine main square and a very big gun

 

A Southern avenue with the Spanish moss hanging from the trees.

 

But before that we had only managed to go half way around the town square when Norma and Kate spotted a children’s string band in the park and so off we all trooped to listen for a while, they were actually very good.

 

The string orchestra in the park

 

We then went on to a distillery that has only been running since 2012 situated in the old Ice factory at the edge of town. Their product range includes, Gin, Vodka, Rum and whiskey all of which were on sale apart from the whiskey which has another year or two in the barrels before it is ready. After a speech from the MD and part owner the sampling began and very nice it was too. All of their raw materials come from local farmers and it is a really close knit company. I hope that they do well in the future, if there is one thing this world is short of it is purveyors of alcohol in all of its many wonderful varieties and brands.

 

The guide looked a bit like a pixie but he was very good and super keen

 

So many barrels and so little time

 

This is the first batch of whiskey, distilled in 2012, It will be ready for the bottle in 2016.

 

            After a last sundowners aboard Right Turn we bade Mike and Kate fare well and headed back to Spectra completely forgetting that we would be sailing right by them again in the morning. Next morning as we sailed by we bade Mike and Kate a hearty farewell, they have been great company as our paths have crossed over the last few months and an absolute fountain of good advice on this cruising lark. We will meet again at Kate’s birthday bash in Hythe in July, can’t wait.

            We topped up two containers with petrol or should I say gas at the ever helpful marina to keep the generator fed while we travel and then having requested a bridge opening for 9:30 motored under the Bridge of Lions and departed St Augustine, I liked that place we will return me thinks. Our next leg up the intra coastal was I must admit a bit drab, miles of empty marsh land all around but as always we did have a bit of excitement. Two hours into the trip a bright yellow sea plane suddenly dropped out of the clouds and landed on the lake next to us, he gave a quick wave before accelerating into the air again. Well I thought, that was very sociable of him, but the penny dropped as he completed a big circle and did it again, he was practising, I looked for the L plates but couldn’t see them anywhere.  

 

Our learner pilot roars of into the skies after another landing

 

            All morning the depth had been a healthy 4 meters below the keel and then it changed. Suddenly the depth reduced rapidly until we had less that 0.5 below the keel and were struggling to find any deep water. We got through one shoal patch but the second one got us as we gently touched, I managed to reverse out but it took nearly 20 minutes to find a channel deep enough for us which is no fun at all. Likewise later in the day the plotter didn’t line up with reality, see pics, It was showing us on dry land when we had more than 4 meters below the keel which hardly fills you with confidence, but I suppose I must quote Peter again, “It’s not a holiday, It’s an adventure”.

 

I am sure the yellow stuff is supposed to be dry land?

 

The depth below the keel at the same time?  The charts are all new last year by the way.

 

Having avoided a serious grounding the rest of the day passed without incident and we even added a new species to our list of sightings, White Pelicans, see pics. We spent the night anchored just North of Sister creek bridge which is just about all there is to say about that place and so I shall move on.

 

They are Pelicans and they are white, nuff said I think.

 

Our first railway bridge (behind the 65ft fixed bridge) lies open for us to pass.

 

            Bright and early next morning we found the weather outside to be grey and miserable and so for the first time we kept all of the cockpit covers on as we continued our motor up the river. Leaving the covers on means that driving Spectra is a bit like being in command of a Tiger tank, the whole world is viewed through a slot in front of you, absolutely horrible but it was dry and the rain was bouncing so it would be churlish to complain too loudly.

 

Obergruppenfuehrer Paul driving his little tank

 

That evening we crossed St Marys inlet again struggling to find deep water and turning left away from the ICW worked our way up the St Marys river to drop anchor 100 meters from the dinghy dock on the national park of St Marys island. It was getting dark and the designated anchorage was absolutely littered with crab pot marker buoys and so the inevitable happened. Just as we dropped anchor I felt a thump from behind, the prop had caught a buoy. I peered over the side with some trepidation but was relieved to see two halves of a buoy pop to the surface and float away, a 24” prop with 90 horses behind it and a very sharp rope cutter had saved the day, I did however hide my face in shame when we passed the fishing fleet on our way over in the dinghy the next morning.

 

Marker showing the edge of the channel as if you couldn’t guess that it was shallow over there.

 

            The next morning we visited St Marys by dinghy and it was a real delight. This is our first stop over in Georgia and the greeting was amazing. As we walked up the pontoon we were welcomed to the, “Great State of Georgia”, by the first group of people we met. We were then ushered into Knuckleheads the local water front hangout by Paul the owner, sat down given coffee and free wireless while being interrogated on everything we had ever done and informed of everything all of the locals had ever done. Paul was an ex US Marshal and Pathologist who had also sailed his boat around the Pacific and even gone into Russia single handed, he was now settled in St Marys running Knuckleheads and actually just enjoying life. One of the local hire boat skippers was also an ex marine biologist from the National Park service and we were soon discussing every fish we had nearly caught on the way over. He informed us that Bull sharks were known to come this far up river on a fairly regular basis and so not willing to be a part of the Bull shark, Alligator tug of war spectacular I have kept swimming off my list of things to do this week. So two hours into our trip ashore we hadn’t managed to get beyond the first house but it was a well spent morning, the wifi connection was fast and five coffees cost the grand total of $2. But we had met some very interesting people and a dog called Bubba who stopped off at knuckleheads every morning for a biscuit. For the rest of the day we walked around St Marys which is just what you would expect from a southern town, picture perfect wooden homes with Spanish moss drooping from every tree out front while the locals are just SO friendly. We visited the local museum where we learnt all about the dastardly British who had attacked the 80 troops based here in 1812 with a force of 1500 and unsurprisingly won a rather convincing victory only to loot the place, free the slaves, and sail away again taking the freed slaves with them to Trinidad to start a new life. I offered my sincerest apologies to the curator for my ancestors boorish behaviour which she accepted with grace and southern charm.  

 

Not a bad little place in the country I suppose. So named because it used to be surrounded by Orange trees and nothing to do with the other type of Orange Hall.

 

Another candidate for the cutest house in town award.

 

Later that afternoon we had a look around the local cemetery which may sound strange but it was fascinating. In the oldest section there were lots of graves marked as a soldier of the revolutionary war and slightly later a lot of graves from the American Civil war. One down side was that as the cemetery is pretty close to a patch of marsh land we were both eaten alive by No-See-Ums as we walked around.

 

I would like to describe a No-See-Um, but I can’t as I couldn’t See Um, but we did both Feel-Um that’s for sure.

 

            The final highlight of the day was after walking through the perfectly manicured town park we were blocked from getting to our dingy by an otter busily having a scratch by rolling around on the pontoon. He was a big boy and seeing him made a perfect end to the day.

 

In football parlance he is saying come on over here if you think you are hard enough.

 

Yep we are being seriously dissed by an Otter now

 

With his nose in the air he saunters off for a fish supper

 

One last check to make sure we aren’t following and he was gone.