Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL : Day 8 : Jacksonville, FL

Cargo Ship Under Guard

Leg 1 : Day 8 (23MAR11)

Big Boy Day

Today we made our way to Ortega Yacht Club Marina..... in Jacksonville, FL! Leg 1 is complete!

The journey was another serious learning curve as we faced new obstacles and challenges.

First big hurdle was communicating with bridge operators (called tenders) to open up to let us pass.

Bridge Closed at Sisters Creek

"Sisters Creek Bridge, Sisters Creek Bridge, Sisters Creek Bridge this is Sailing Vessel Ariel, Ariel, Ariel over" I confidently hailed.

And through the magic of radio, there was a guy on the other end!  We were polite and respectiful, and had zero attitude from the bridge tender.  We had been lead to believe that we could face attitude.

The operator told me to make my way towards the bridge and he would open it.  Taking a deep gulp of air, I plowed forward at 5 knots.  The bridge wasn't going up yet, I just trusted that it would all work.

WOW! It is actually opening on MY request!

As we approached, magically the bridge started to go up.  Am I aligned? Am I centered?

Moment of truth, going through

We made it through!

Once through the bridge, we made our way towards Jacksonville and entered a manatee zone.  Sure enough, we spotted manatees!

Then we went into tug and working boat land. At one point, we had a big tug on our front and each side! Holy Shit! It was intimidating to say the least.  They are big, powerful, noisy, and rough beasts.

Once through the working boat area, we passed the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium.

The glory of going down the waterway through a city was finally ours, with big buildings on either side.

Then we saw it, a big bridge with only 38 feet of clearance! This was the main street bridge, the blue bridge.

The Main Street Bridge is closed! How do we get through?

Do we actually ask the main street bridge to open up?

We did a pass looking things over, and decided that after 4 hours, big tugs, cargo ships, and manatees, what the hell.

"Main street bridge, Main street bridge, Main street bridge, this is Sailing Vessel Ariel, Ariel, Ariel over."

After a few particulars, the bridge actually started to open up and all the traffic began to back up.

Main Street Bridge Going Up!

Yes, we were those folks.... those folks whom stop the traffic to let our boat through. :)

Racing under at 5 knots, we then found we were hemmed in!  There was a 5 foot rail road bridge.  Were we to ask for this rail road bridge to open up separately? Oh shit.

Crap! A train has hemmed us in.

Ding! Ding! Ding!  And the low rumble of a train could be heard.  At the moment we had decided to traverse the bridge, a damn train was making its way.

Boxed in, we motored slowly around in front of Jacksonville Landing, between the now closed Main street bridge and the closed train bridge providing a major part of the ambiance.

Train has passed and now the bridge is going up.

The train passed after what seemed like an hour (it was 20 minutes), and the bridge went up!

We were on our way to the marina, to meet Paul ... the dockmaster.  A totally cool guy whom helped us all the way in.

One last bridge to get down to the marina, the Ortega river bridge.  Damn, this one was more narrow than my car, the tide was going out, and the wind was blowing us sideways.

The final bridge, the Ortega River Bridge.

We made it through and docked just fine! We can't thank Paul enough for the help to get in.

Leg 1, Savannah GA to Jacksonville FL complete.  Time to provision, rest, repair, and enjoy Jacksonville Florida for a few days.

Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL : Day 7 : Submarines

Kings Bay Navel Submarine Base

One of many patrols to pass us

Leg 1 : Day 7 (22MAR11)

Today was a long day, covering 37 miles in 7 hours.

The most fascinating part was transiting the Kings Bay Navel center, the home of 6 Trident Nuclear submarines.  The area is heavily patrolled and

Our navigation system showing Kings Bay as a security zone.

monitored.  We listened as lots of pleasure craft were hailed by the Navy and Coast Guard folks.  We were never called, and I'd like to think this was because my obvious good captaining (and following every channel rule, no erratic course adjustments, and slow speed).

We also crossed a number of commercial traffic lanes, a first for us. Watching the ferry go back and forth, plus seeing tugs go back and forth was really cool.  We also saw some awesome looking dredgers, with 4 smoke stacks. We were a part of the water way show today, and it felt good.

Great Lakes Dredge And Rock Company Dredging Vessel

As the hours drew long, we decided to find an anchorage just off the ICW, marker 55.  The little place we tucked ourselves into is very very shallow. We are totally taking advantage of our 18 inch draft tonight!  In the water we can hear all sorts of creatures..... ones we've not heard before. They sound like underwater wood peckers. I sure hope they don't eat through the hull.

Tomorrow our plan is to make landfall in Jacksonville Florida.

Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL : Day 6 : Land Ho!

Todays workout - see Ariel waaaay back there?

Leg 1 : Day 6 (21MAR11)

Today was a land excursion day, the first day the family has touched
land in 6 days.  Everyone was excited about going to Cumberland island
and exploring.  The plan was for me to take them over in the dinghy
and then for me to return to the boat and wait until 1pm.  At that
time, I was to return to the drop off point and pick them up.
Everything went to plan!

When I dropped off the family, we were near the camp site of those sea
kayakers .... they had stayed the night.  On the way back to the boat,
I decided to bring the dinghy back gondola style.  Standing up like I
was riding a surf board, I took the long oar and slowly worked from
side to side propelling the dinghy and myself half way back to the
boat.  Then I elected to start up the dinghy's engine and enjoy fossil
fuels.  Rendezvousing back with Ariel was nearly perfect.  I had come
up behind Ariel (going into the current) and the dinghy engine cut off
as planned.... I glided to within 3 inches of the grab point!  I just

KJ and her field journal

missed, so as I floated back away, I started the engine back up and made another pass.  Perfect amount of throttle this time as I just drifted into reach of the boat's boarding ladder.

After the girls returned to the boat, I got the run down of the days adventure. I had asked KJ to draw pictures for me of the things she saw.  These were to be drawn in her field book.  I required 1 animal,
1 flower, and 1 building.  From KJ's pictures and her description, my job was to guess, for example, what animal she elected to chronicle.

Working water pump on Cumberland Island

My guess was wrong today, but it was a lot of fun. KJ had highlighted an Armadillo.  I was surprised to learn that those little buggers have made their way onto this island! I remember them making their way
across Texas, but how did they get here?  There are no bridges to this place.  Anyway, today was a good adventure day.

Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL : Day 5 : By the Numbers

Is the bridge high enough?

Leg 1 : Day 5 (20MAR11)

26.2 miles covered (a marathon!)
2 bridges
1 catamaran
3 islands
2 sounds
1 horse
7 sea kayakers
12 dolphins
83 pelicans
171 seagulls

It was listed as 65 feet!

On the way over, we crossed under 2 bridges. That was a first for us.
The bridges listed their clearance as 65 feet, and our above water
mast height is 45 feet.  Regardless, it was still one of those pucker
moments as we went under.  Talk about a potential disaster!


Cumberland Island is one of those islands with horses roaming free. We
were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of one of the horses grazing
near the banks.  Quite a treat.

On the look out for horses on Cumberland Island

Tonight we are anchoring up behind Cumberland Island.  The Atlantic is

just on the other side and we can hear its low rumble.  The moon is

full and providing an amazing dark orange glow.

After anchoring for the day, at around 4pm, 7 sea kayaks, with their
pilots in them, slowly paddled by.  I nearly offered them a drink, but
they were doing their own thing.  They pulled their kayaks up on shore
and are spending the night.  Pretty cool for them!

Tomorrow the plan is to stay put for the day and rest.  We need to do
some more schooling with KJ, plus we want to go explore the island
ourselves.

Breakfast was, you guessed it, oatmeal! :) Plus Frosted Flakes.  Lunch
was Asian pasta (e.g. ramien noodles). Dinner was burritos.

Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL : Day 4 : Sailing in my underwear

Leg 1 : Day 4 (19MAR11)

After pulling anchor, we headed out of Tom Sawyer land further down
south.  We had to make it through Little Mud River during high tide,
otherwise the depth would have made it possible for us to run aground
(even in our catamaran).

During the transit through Little Mud River, we experienced our first
Ship to Ship hail.  Someone heading northbound asked if we had a
reflector at the top of our mast, or perhaps did we leave the anchor
light on.  A quick check of our circuit panel showed that the anchor
light was off, so we suggested it was just the angle of the light.
This back and forth helped assure us that our radio system works as it
should.

Our intent today was to make it to Altahama river to anchor for the
night, a nice 16 mile boating day (just on the other side of
Buttermilk Sound).  However, we had made such good time through that
we elected to keep going and make it down to Fort Frederica, on the
North end of Saint Simon's island.

At ICW Mile Marker 666, flashing green 229 shows up indicating our
river to the fort.  We went port, around the sand bar, and made it
into the river.  We wound our way back near the fort and anchored up
around 1pm.  The river is muddy making anchoring really nice and easy.
 The current was running pretty strong when we set up.

There are lots of homes along this water way, some are incredible.
Along with homes, of course, come the other boats and we've been
buzzed by many of them.

The big meal today was burritos.  They were fantastic.

I wanted to wear shorts today, but the "clean" shorts are packed way
deep so into underwear mode I went.  I boated for about 2.5 miles
wearing wonderful black underwear.  Very liberating for sure.... and
there really isn't much difference between underwear and shorts other
than how we choose to label it.   As the Coast Guard patrol boat went
by, I was sure my underwearniss was completely obvious as we all waved
as we passed.  Lots of smiles, and looks of awe, from the coast guard
folks. ;)

Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL : Day 3 : Tom Sawyer

Leg 1 : Day 3 (18MAR11)

Anchor up at 8:30 without a hitch and off we went down the
Intercoastal Waterway, a water highway that runs from Virginia down to
the Florida Keys and over to New Orleans.

We wove our way down and around numerous marshes, wrecks, and shoals.
At many points it felt like we were on a Tom Sawyer type raft
exploring the little rivers off the mighty Mississippi.

We poked along at around 4.7 knots, covering maybe 5 miles every hour.  The nice
leisurely pace allowed everyone to enjoy the scenery.  There was no
rough water to speak of, and blue skies all day long.  We past a few
boats going the other way, headed North.

At the end of the day, we made our destination of New Kettle Creek.  The
anchor set nicely in the mud, in about 10 feet of water (at low tide).
 We all sat on the deck of the boat and admired the beautiful day.

For showers tonight, we decided to do them on deck at the front of the
boat (rather than in the head).  Each kid went into a bucket and got a
nice refreshing outdoor shower out in the middle of nowhere. Dad did too. :)

Tonight for dinner we are having ham, beans, and macaroni and cheese.
Lunch was hot dogs, and breakfast was Frosted Flakes and Oatmeal
(maple and brown sugar).  Snacks today included an orange, mixed nuts,
and some Pringles chips.

Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL : Day 2 : Rest, Rest, Rest

Dinghy Ride

Leg 1 : Day 2 (17MAR11):

Breakfast: Maple and brown sugar oatmeal + bananas
Lunch: Salami + baby swiss cheese sandwiches, Pringles Chips, and pickles
Dinner: Mashed potatoes topped with chili and cheese
Treats: M&Ms
Snacks: Oranges, Apple Jacks cereal

We stayed anchored off of St. Catherines Island on Walburg Creek.

KJ and I exercised on the deck, and the whole family spent a lot of
time on deck watching dolphins swimming by and watching and listening
to bird calls.

Thanks to its special climate, the he island is used by the New York Zoological society to breed colonies of rare and endangered animals like gazells, parrots, and Madagascar turtles although we never saw any of them.

We took the dinghy out for a ride, testing the engine repairs Val and
her dad made. PERFECT!

Todays most over used daddy refrain: "Girls, clean up your room!"

Tonight's sunset was gorgeous.

Savannah, GA to Jacksonville, FL : Day 1 : Bump, Pee, Puke

Day 1(16MAR11):


This day isn't at all what we wanted in our first day.  

It all started with the cast off .... it was horrendous! The tide we wanted to
ride out pushed us so hard that we almost side swiped another boat. 
As we went sliding toward the other boat I yelled, "Oh shit Val we are
going to hit her!" and I, like a jackass, went over to try to stop the
collision with my arms.  The result was that my shoulder popped out.


Pushing the arm back in, Val and I did some quick maneuvers with the throttle and we were able to get out of the situation.  No damage to any other boats, but in the process of pushing off we bent 2 of our side stantions, and the base of one stations
fiberglass backing cracked.  


We were not going to stop now, it was time to lick our wounds and go.
As we motored out of Wassaw sound, we were making a good clip thanks
to the tide.  Before we knew it, we were at the mouth of the sound
ready to face the big pond.


Sails up and it is time to motor-sail out.

"IT'S NOT PEEING!" Val yelled out.  Looking down, I could see that our
main engines cooling mechanism wasn't working. Oh shit.  This was the
damn thing we had fixed back in port.  Was this another sign to turn
back?  If the engine doesn't cool, it will lock up leaving us
engineless.  Sure we have sails, but in and out of small confined
areas, an engine sure is handy ... especially if there is no wind.

We had to do a serious gut check... multiple options were thrown out
then Val went down to the engine and pushed a rod up the pee hole.
Some water started to trickle out .... that was good, that would help
the engine cool some.  BUZZZ! The engine temperature alarm went off.
We were hitting critical, Val kept shoving the rod up that hole.
Trickle trickle ... up went the sails to try to help us move forward
so we could get out of the main channel.  Trickle trickle.  In what
seemed like 30 minutes of BUZZZ on BUZZZ off, trickle trickle, and
trying to catch wind, Val's voice trumped, "SHES PEEING LIKE A RACE
HORSE!" HUZAH!

"Let's push on" I declared.

We aimed Ariel and got out of the 3 mile ring buoy and the channel, and we
shut off the engine ... sails fully deployed.

After a few hours of motor sailing, we elected to go back to just engine mode.
We could see that we were not getting enough South bound direction to
make it to St. Catherines, which was today's goal. The wind was coming
directly from the South.

We fired the engine back up and the pee flowed like Niagra Falls.

"Ughhhhhhh mmmugahhhlyaahhhh", "MOMMY!" out came a deep shrill cry...
I looked in and saw Val looking up at me... Dy got sea sick and shared
her breakfast all over herself and Val's clothes.

Val cleaned up Dy and everyone sat in the cockpit.  We rode South and
listened to the radio chatter.  We heard someone calling for Sea Tow
asking for help because they had grounded their Catamaran (42 footer)
on "Ossawaw" sound.  Val and I looked at each other ... ugh.

Continuing South, we pushed on...

Plotting as we went, we approached the 6 hour mark, a full 2 hours
past when we had planed on making to St. Catherines Island.  We still
had about another hour to go.  Both girls were asleep in the cockpit.

Finally we made it to St. Catherines sound.  We watched diligently for
the green can number 9 to help guide us in.  The can was gone! As we
approached where it should have been, we could see that someone had
hit it and knocked it off.  Dangerous as the rest of the can's
apparatus was still there, just submerged.

Turning in, we made our way back behind St. Catherines, found another
boat anchored, passed it a ways, and then sent down our anchor. We
don't have a windlass, electric or mechanical, so it is all brute
force strength.

After it felt like it set, Val went about shutting the boat down and
the kids danced and played.  They were happy that we stopped.  We were tired.

At this moment (as I write this), Val is cooking dinner (Chinese food) and I just heard
KJ say, "Oh look, wieners!" followed by giggles. They are looking at a
human anatomy book we brought along.

Today was a very stressful day.  We are glad we've gone for the trip.
Today did test our resolve.  Living the moments in real time make for
lots of pressure.  For years we dreamed of this day, it is finally
here, and we are exhausted.

Tomorrow will be a new day.  We will get to choose what we do.  Stay
here, enjoy the island, go North or go South.  Which will it be?  We
shall see.