Heather and Mike came to Marathon for Christmas and we all had a good time. They rented paddleboards and we actually tried them. Briefly. Not for us. We'll stick with kayaks. We, once again, went on a sunset sail out of Key West on New Years Eve. It was planned for the weekend before but the weather was horrible an the trip was postponed and upgraded to New Years Eve. Still a nice time.
For the Christmas Season I collected a few items from Waterway Guide and fellow Cruising Editors and auctioned them off on the daily cruisers net to benefit the City Marina Marathon Children's Bicycle fund. Because of the auctions he heard on the net a fellow cruiser donated a very expensive bottle of Scotch. The total raised nearly reached $500. When this was pooled with all the other contributions the Marina staff was able to buy about three dozen bikes and helmets. Close to $4000 worth all together.
We also volunteered at the Celtic Fest which is sponsored by a local Episcopal Church to fund their many community programs. Because of this, I learned to pull beer from a tap and get the right amount of foam. Being able to sample the wares was a small benefit. Because we had unlimited admission we got to watch the concerts of Celtic music. Never thought I'd enjoy bagpipes (not normally a fan), didgeridoos and drums played by guys in skirts. Ya neva know.
After several years of playing softball without injury, my luck ran out this season. Pulled a groin muscle or a hamstring and then had something pop in my thigh. It took a few weeks for the blood to come to the surface and my whole thigh turned some awful colors. After more than a month I still have some soreness. Wonder if I ripped something? I guess I wasn't going to get a try-out with the Mets anyway.
The other interesting thing I participated in was the Women's March on Duval. This was in Key West in conjunction with the march on Washington in protest of the policies of the poor orange excuse of a president we now have.
We started north a couple of weeks earlier than we did last year due to Carol's work schedule. This gave us more time for weather delays and visits. We went outside from Boot Key all the way to the Lake Worth Inlet, Palm Beach on an overnight passage. We intended to go all the way to Fort Pierce but the breeze and seas started to build on the nose so we ducked onto the ICW route. This just changed our arrival time to a couple of hours later. No problem. And much more comfortable.
After about a week visiting in Fort Pierce we restarted north. We had a problem after we crossed the St John's River. The new fixed bridge at Sisters Creek was completely blocked by barges and workers. We had to crawl under the wrong section of the bridge not knowing if we would clear the slightly lower section or go aground while out of the channel. We made it. A while later we were approaching the next fixed bridge when the R.R. bridge right after it started closing with no warning. A current was ripping behind us at 3-4 kts and Carol barely got us out of serious danger without hitting the fenders or the bottom. An EXTREME situation saved by terrific helmsmanship, helmswomanship?. Needless to say, we were not happy and expressed that to Coast Guard. They may have also been gestures and words shouted at the bridge tender.
We were also not very happy when a bit later I put the boat aground in a nasty spot just short of Fernandina Beach. So solidly aground that it took TOWBOAT/US about three hours to get us free after the tide started going back up. A $1300 bill that luckily is totally covered by our insurance.
Our next annoyance was getting stuck at the Ben Sawyer swing bridge just after Charleston Harbor. It closes from 1600 to 1800 and we got there about 15 minutes late. Grrr. The only positive thing was we got to Palm Island Marina where we had reservations well after they closed and left the next morning before they opened. They'll have to catch us the next time we stop there. Maybe never.
We also stopped at Osprey Marina at the southern end of Myrtle Beach for two nights. $1/foot/night got us showers, laundry, cleaning and wi-fi. Also a chance to meet with local friends for lunch. Wi-Fi let us pay bills and watch HBO's special on the UConn Women's Basketball team.
We hoped to stop in Southport to stay at their free dock while bad weather passed. The dock is now damaged beyond safe usage and we went back to our old spot at the Pipeline Canal. This has also become a problem area as it has filled in so even our shallow draft has issues. Don't know what we'll do in the future.
Because of all this we went to Wrightsville Beach much earlier than planned. We did beat the weather which came earlier than forecast and much colder than originally forecast. We had snow!!!! on our boat. This followed by extremely cold weather. Below freezing at night and low 40s in the day. We ended up getting icicles, too. Not fun at all with the wind, too. First March snow there since 1983. 1 inch.
As I write this we're at the end of one week in Wrightsville. Carol goes off to work for two weeks as I do some minor maintenance. It is supposed to get to the 70s before the second week. We'll see.
