Another sunny day with a light breeze out of the north. There wasn't enough wind to sail at a decent speed, so we had to use the engine as well as the sails.
Roy had the main and mizzen sails tied out to catch as much wind as possible and not flop around. When we approached the St. Augustine Channel, I furled the headsail, but I didn't want to tackle the others. Roy thought we could sail down the channel, as we'd have the wind abeam, but as soon as we turned into the channel, the wind really picked up. Roy went out to lower the main and mizzen sails, while I steered. Luckily, it was a nice clear day, so I had no problem seeing the channel markers. The St. Augustine Channel is tricky, because it keeps shifting. The channel markers aren't shown on the charts, because they're moved so often. Roy said something to me that I understood as "Head into the wind," which is what he often tells me to do when he's working with the sails. He thought he was telling me to stay on the windward side of the channel, which I was doing anyway. I was afraid that if I headed into the wind, we'd get out of the channel and hit a shoal. After ten minutes of yelling back and forth at each other, the miscommunication finally got straightened out. After that it was easy. For me, that is. Roy still had to wrestle with the sails. But eventually he got them down, and we got behind the break-
water and had no problem after that. We even arrived at the bridge just five minutes before opening.
We wanted to go to a boatyard that had been recommended to us. It's called St. Augustine Marine, so I tried to hail them on the VHF, but they were closed for the day. The guy at Sea Tow responded. His boat is tied at St. Augustine Marine, so he told us how to get there and said we could tie to an end dock. We had to go up the San Sebastian River, but it was well marked and plenty deep. The Sea Tow guy was waiting for us at the dock. He took our bow line and secured it. I was going to get off with the stern line as I usually do, but my toe caught on a line and I lost my balance, so I made a rather ignominious landing on the dock, but no harm done. First time I ever tripped getting off the boat, but the man from Sea Tow probably thinks I'm a clumsy nitwit.
This looks like a really good yard. We're out in the boonies, though. I hope there's a shopping center nearby or a bus that will take us to one. I walked around a few blocks and didn't see any stores, but it's a nice, quiet, residential neighborhood with huge shade trees that spread out a hundred feet or more.
No comments:
Post a Comment