11/28/14, The Day after Thanksgiving, “We’re so Sorry, Uncle Albert”

Yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving, we moved from St. Marys, GA (STM (Statute Mile) 712), where we spent the holiday, to a small anchorage in Florida at STM 765, just over 50 miles away.

Typical view in GA, along the Intracoastal Waterway

It was very cold, so we spent our first day in FL in ski clothes, complete with ski pants, ski jackets, gloves and hats!

Sandy

Chuck

Crossing the St. Johns River, we passed through a very busy shipping channel, with a ship the size of my former office building, named “Delhi Highway,” heading toward us.

Delhi Highway, approaching, as we crossed the channel toward the canal.

Delhi Highway

Delhi Highway looks like a building, from a distance

We entered the 10 mile “Cabbage Swamp Canal” with elegant mansions, complete with screened in swimming pools. The screen rooms were at least 2 stories high. The beautiful houses more than made up for the inelegant canal name.

We stopped early, at 3PM, because that was when we reached Pine Island Anchorage, the best anchorage for us. By 3PM each afternoon, we usually make a firm decision about where we want to anchor for the night. On these short days, we need to reach the anchorage by 4PM, to allow a little time before dark to make sure we select a good spot – far enough from shore and other boats – and to make sure that we are firmly tied to the ground, with room to swing as needed, when the wind or current push us. So it was an early finish day.

Except for moving the boat south about 50 miles, we did almost nothing yesterday. (Remember the Beatles song? “We’re so sorry, Uncle Albert, we're so sorry, but we haven’t done a thing all day!” On many a day this is our unofficial theme song.) We didn’t call a "Mayday," like another boat did when they unfortunately miscalculated the path away from a big open area, and ran aground. We didn’t cancel the Mayday, as they did, when the incoming tide released them. (This is still close to GA. With a 9 ft tidal range it doesn’t take long for the "rising tide to lift all boats".)  We also didn’t get boarded by the Coast Guard, as the same hapless boat did, for who-knows-what reason. Did you know that the Coast Guard doesn’t even need a reason?

We were very thankful for our uneventful day aboard Summer Wind.

We continued our sloth by doing no cooking whatsoever. Instead we re-heated leftovers for both lunch and dinner, and went to sleep early.  We didn’t even take a picture of the anchorage.

Layers of warm clothes, and “hat hair”

Perhaps most significantly, on the day after Thanksgiving, aka “Black Friday,” we didn’t even think of doing any shopping!  I guess we really are becoming out of touch with “the real world.”

Sandy & Chuck on s/v Summer Wind