Father and Son – The Trip of a Lifetime
Saturday 3rd April 2021
As we arrived in our dinghy at the “Ice House” dock on Cumberland Island we noticed that there was a sailboat called “Dreamcatcher” already tied up. This was the name of our previous boat – a 16ft Wayfarer day-sailor that we had lots of adventures in. We went over to say hello to the people on board and that’s how we met Keith and Eli. During this year afloat we have definitely felt isolated at times because we have deliberately avoided other people due to Covid, so it seemed really great to meet them. Since Eli was very young Keith has nurtured this plan that when Eli was ten years old they would make a boat trip together and now they are actually doing it. Keith bought “Dreamcatcher”, a 26 foot sail-boat, on the west coast of Florida a couple of weeks ago and brought it by trailer to the East coast. I think they started their cruise together in Titusville and they are now making their way up the Intra Coastal Waterway to Savannah. Keith tells Eli he should pay attention to everything around him because this is a trip of a lifetime and in so many ways it is. I think it is fantastic that they are making this voyage together, a complete adventure with a new boat and crossing waters that they have never travelled before. I truly hope that they go on to have many more adventures together, but Eli will never be ten again (actually I think he’s only nine) and it will always be their first cruise together so in that sense it really is the trip of a lifetime.
Gloria and I wandered along trails in the magnificent Cumberland Island National Park looking at birds and soaking up the atmosphere. We bumped into Keith and Eli many times during the day and it was great to see the enthusiasm of a young child on the beach poking jellyfish with a stick and collecting shells and pieces of driftwood. Earlier in the day they had seen an armadillo and Eli was convinced that a piece of shell he picked up on the beach was from the shell of an armadillo. At lunchtime Keith ended up eating the carrot that they bought for the wild horses because they wouldn’t touch it and Eli ate his peanut butter sandwich.
Tomorrow we will all move on up the ICW. At the north end of Cumberland Island is St Andrews sound that we must cross. It has a fearsome reputation for large, steep and breaking waves under strong wind conditions. Keith and Eli will take an alternative, slightly long cut that avoids this section. However, their route is too shallow for us (“Dreamcatcher” only drafts 2 feet whilst “Cotinga” drafts 6 feet) so we have to take the standard route and are hoping that the winds and seas will have subsided enough to make this section reasonable. I guess we will find out tomorrow!
Mike
30 45.334 N, 81 28.553 W
Great story. I enjoy the enthusiasm in their faces. Love to know what kind of boat too. Happy Easter and hope you had a good passage. Cool here in Vero.
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