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Griffin Update #8: Today's excitement - Anchoring
at Night in the Rain. Tomorrow it's bungee jumping from the Flying Bridge.
At Anchor, Fort George River near Jacksonville, Florida, 1745 hours,
Thursday, December 4th, 1997, Onboard M/V Griffin.
Wendy, Russell and I are sitting in the cabin, allowing our pulse rates to subside after an exciting anchoring evolution. It's dark and stormy outside but we are riding to a massive Bruce Anchor and 90 feet of chain in 13 feet of water with plenty of swing room so we are safe, again. More on that later. Back to where we left off.
Wendy joined the happy Griffin crew in Thunderbolt, Georgia last night at about 7:00 pm. Thomas Black, an old friend from the 60's and 70's, came to our aid when called and picked Wendy up at the airport and delivered her to the boat. We all went to dinner and caught up on old times and current adventures.
After dinner, Thomas offered to take us to a grocery store, and as Wendy had seen the state of our provisions, she jumped on that.
We returned to the boat and turned in as we had another pre-dawn departure scheduled.
Palmer Johnson is famous for delivering the Savannah Paper and a box of Krispy Kream glazed donuts to each boat in port. We got our allotment, disconnected shore power, took in our lines, and headed out for another exciting day on the waterway.
Last night as we started to mentally prepare this update, we were considering an update subject line, "Andrew leaves, Emergencies cease; correlation or coincidence?" Shouldn't have even thought that.
We woke up to find that Russell's ankles were swollen. I wanted to jump in a cab for the nearest emergency room, but Russell said not so fast. He felt fine in all respects. Maybe it was because he had stood at the helm for almost the entire 7 hour, 110 mile run from Charleston.
Wendy checked out the minor swelling and asked Russell what he had been eating for the last 6 days. His answer: Fried Oysters, Cheese Nips, Diet Coke and Oreo Cookies. "Anything else", Wendy asked? "Oh yes, M&Ms".
Wendy has put Russell on a 2 Banana a day ration and we are eating much better now. Proper Breakfasts and Lunches, etc. We are expecting the swelling to respond quickly to a good diet or we will take further measures. Russell says he feels great in all respects so we are watching the situation.
Back to the waterway. Georgia was very similar to the South Carolina
low country. Long expanses of marsh grasses. We made good time today
as we didn't encounter many speed zones. South of Jekyll Island, Georgia,
the ICW loops out to the Atlantic. As we headed out the inlet, the windshield
was filled from side to side with nothing but views of the vast ocean.
We turned back to the coast after rounding our channel buoy right into
a fleet of Bubba-Gump shrimp boats. A bunch of sea gulls peeled off the
shrimpers and followed us looking for scraps in our wake. You should
see the cloud of birds around the shrimpers! Pelicans, sea gulls, cormorants,
and who knows what else!
We are now at mile 735 on the ICW. To put that in perspective, here's the mileage for all our other stops:
Friday Morning, Home, Mile minus 150
Friday Night, Hampton, VA, Mile minus 15
The ICW officially starts at Mile O in Norfolk Harbor.
Saturday Night, Alligator River Marina, N.C., Mile 84
Sunday Night, Beaufort, N.C., Mile 201
Monday Night, North Myrtle Beach, N.C., Mile 348
Tuesday Night, Charleston, S.C., Mile 469
Wednesday Night, Thunderbolt, GA, Mile 583
Thursday Night, Jacksonville, FL, Mile 735
Our goal is to make it to Mile 1000, Stuart, Florida, by Saturday Night.
That is going to really depend on how many speed restricted areas we
go through. We have been averaging 15 mph, which is a blend of 18-20
cruise and 6-7 mph no-wake speeds.
That brings us to tonight's night-time anchoring in the rain. Russell and I both remember it being the others suggestion about 3 hours ago that it would be fun to spice up the trip with a night swinging on the anchor instead of moored snugly in a marina. We looked at our guide book and it showed three anchorages that were within range. We were trying to get as far south as possible before dark, so we passed up the first anchorage. Russell WILL admit that was his call. We started to pull into the second anchorage listed in our guide. It is a "bight" in the river. That is the small loop of river that is left over when the Corps of Engineers cuts a channel straight through to avoid a wide hairpin curve in the river. They cut a straight channel through and leave the loop to silt-up or whatever.
The chart and guidebook showed deep water at both ends of the bight. We approached the first opening. It wasn't just silted up, you could see a sand bar sticking up 2 or 3 feet above the water from end to end! We headed to the other end. The chart showed 14 feet of water at the entrance, and 22 feet at the proposed anchorage.
We started in, and ran aground AGAIN. We made it off in a few minutes without damage, but were now down to 2 minutes of daylight and the next anchorage was 15 minutes away. We kicked it and roared down the river, trying to make it before we lost our twilight.
Black storm clouds that we hadn't noticed before, started rolling in from the west. I don't think I'd mentioned in our updates, because it sure surprised Wendy, but we burned out the drivers side windshield wiper motor during our exploits on the Pungo and Neuse Rivers.
The rain started coming down, then in torrents. We went into our peer ahead like maniacs mode and made it to the mouth of the Fort George River just as a fog bank rolled up the waterway and cut vis to nothing.
We found 4 other boats already at anchor so we dropped the hook in the mouth of the river, and here we sit.
The Bruce anchor we have was designed to hold North Sea oil rigs so I think we will be O.K.
That's it for now. Andrew made it home safely. Amtrak had a power outlet next to his seat so he laptopped it all the way home.
More tomorrow!
Russell, Jon & Wendy