The Dinghy Butt Crunch … Sunday November 25th
We are now moored in St Augustine, Fl. This morning we decided again to take the outside route and caught the start of the ebb to take us back out of the St Johns river and then headed south for 30 nautical miles to the St Augustine Inlet. Although we had the main sail up almost immediately, the light winds dictated that we motor sailed the whole way, but it was still a very pleasant trip. Lots of dolphins, gannets, terns and pelicans - but sadly no right whales. There appears to be no detailed chart information available for St Augustine inlet (presumably because it changes so frequently), so we had phoned ahead to SeaTow in St Augustine to get specific advice on navigating the inlet. They were extremely helpful and provided guidance that was right on the mark. Despite this we still failed to see one pair of buoys off-shore and took a more direct line than intended, thankfully with no consequences. However, you can see breakers either side of the channel so you wouldn't want to go too far off course. Once we arrived we picked up a mooring and took the dinghy off the foredeck ready to go ashore.
One of the things we were unsure about before we left was how we would get a decent amount of exercise. As it turns out the opportunities are many and varied. We are doing a fair bit of walking and cycling - there's nothing like the lack of a car to get you moving. Then there are other fairly obvious sources of exercise - rowing, grinding the winches, all the lifting of stuff on and off the boat. The most surprising activity comes from our inflatable dinghy "the dumb dog". Every so often we need to pump up the tubes, the inflatable floor and keel tube. We have a bellows pump and on land you would put this on the floor and pump vigorously with your leg. On the water, and in particular in the dinghy, there are few firm places to put the pump. So we have devised a method whereby you put the pump on the seat of the dinghy and then squeeze it by crunching down with your backside. This works very well and provides an excellent source of exercise, but you have to be careful, the dangers of self-inflation are significant. After some thought we decided it would be a kindness not to show you the do-it-yourself photo.
We plan to be here for 3 nights - haven't yet figured out the best route from here.
Mike
29 53 03.4 N, 81 18 19.0 W
Views from the St Johns River
The St Augustine Mooring field in the evening light
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