Rough Start

Rough Start

Tuesday March 23, 2021

I fumbled around in the lazarette this morning to find the hose we use for washing the anchor and chain.  When I walked up to the bow to attach the hose, to my surprise, about four feet off our bow was the stern of another boat.  Much excitement ensued.  Fenders were placed all around.  Then, ever so carefully, we started to pull up the anchor.  At one point our bow swung toward the other vessel.  Mike was able to lean over the pulpit and push the stern away.  Once there was some separation between the boats, we finished hauling up the anchor and got underway.  There was no one aboard the other boat and we think it was perhaps just drifting around the anchorage. Happily, the rest of the day went rather better.

Much of the ICW in Florida is marked by pilings with attached placards that are either red or green and numbered.  Where there is a direction change, a light is affixed to the top of the piling as an indicator.  As much time as I have spent motoring up and down the waterway, it’s only recently that I realized that the pilings that are lighted also have a ladder attached.  This presumably allows maintenance crews to access the lights and do repairs (replace lenses, bulbs—whatever).  While motoring along today, I pondered what it might be like to have the job of working on these lights in the ICW. As it turns out these pilings are the favorite perches of many birds including the lesser-loved cormorant.  I started to think that climbing up these rickety ladders might be the good part of the job!  Certainly a strong stomach would be required (not to mention the need for a shower in bleach at the end of the day)!  Perhaps it’s not the job for me.  

Now after eight hours on the water, at times fighting against currents of 2 knots, we are once again anchored in Rockhouse Creek near Ponce deLeon inlet. Interestingly, the boat “Sails Call” is still anchored here—it was here when we came through in December.  Also present is the sailing vessel “Bees Knees” that we last encountered in Awendaw Creek, SC and then Beaufort, SC. We are happy to be on the ICW because there are still substantial swells offshore, despite the winds having abated. We can see surf breaking in the inlet from our anchorage … we touched bottom coming in Ponce de Leon back in 2012 and have no intention of transiting that inlet again!

Gloria

29 03.673 N, 80 55.895 W    

Looking back down the ICW to the bridge at Cocoa

The sun finally appears through the clouds after a foggy start to the day

Motoring up the ICW in near calm conditions - but note Gloria has on her foul weather jacket. It seems cold the last couple of days, an incredible contrast to the weather down in the Keys

Passing through the NASA Causeway bridge - that opens "on demand". Many of the bridges on the ICW are on a schedule such as every half hour and some have rush-hour restrictions

"Bees Knees" in Rockhouse Creek - the Ponce de Leon Inlet is barely visible in the background