Sailboats fair and Fine # 46 : read older posts first

Here comes a barge with a missle on deck. Headed for Cape Canaveral . If you meet one of these in a bend in the river a deep keel sailboat is nice. Wolftrap with her shallow draft will run aground if you move over to much. My deep draft Fantaisa sloop wont, you just put the wheel over and she moves to the side until the keel begins to feel the side of the channel. No mater how hard you push over on the wheel she won't get any closer to the shallows. I have on occasion in a straight stretch of channel, let go of the wheel and let her find her own way. She will slowly wonder from one side to the other but never touching bottom.

Nov. 28-Friday

We went through the bridge of lions at 7;30 A.M. and after a brief stop at the city marina for fuel and Ice. We were on our way South again. St Augustine was really a nice place to stop- a beautiful harbor. At the town marina, Doug met a man that remembered us from Swansboro. Thats where we did the engine repairs. His boat, I think is the “Sempaytico”. They talked a while when we were getting fuel and he said he would see us on down the line. We waved good by as we backed away from the dock into the wind.

It has been cloudy and overcast all day but no rain. Temp around 70 degrees. Our trip has mostly been a long straight stretch today. The last feww weeks, we've been zig-zagging in and out of rivers- to the edge of the ocean and back again, away from the inlets. Today we passed one inlet and the rest has been a long straight run behind Florida's outer banks. It's more populated now in along the beaches,but some stretches are sandstone banks and real thick palm trees. Still see a lot of flat marsh land, but another change of scenery.

We stopped early today- 4 P.M. Anchorages are in shorter supply than farther North and we slipped into a long, shallow basin behind a little island and anchored. The next anchorage is another ten miles and we probably wouldn't have made it before dark. Besides we were both tired and this place is very pretty. It's barely off the water way and only about 4 ft of water. We are at about mile 820.

I really like these floating docks for Wolftrap. If the wind is pressing her against the dock we take the lines loose except for a bow line. With the dock low to the water Georgene puts the boat in forward the bow line comes tight and the stern swings out. The bowsprit swings over the low dock and when Georgene has the stern straight out. I take the dock line loose swing up onto the bowsprit by the head stay and George backs Wolftrap away swings around and passes by the end of the dock and were off. Any man that don't teach is wife to handle the boat is missing half the pleasures of cruising. Not only that but if the boat looks like it's going to hit a piling they are likely to try and stop it. I know one lady who has never set foot on a boat again after she smashed her toes between the rub rail and a dock. They just can't stand to see the varnish get scrubbed off against something. Besides that your probably stronger, let her do the one finger thing on the throttle while you do the heavy lifting. Every one in the marina will admire you for letting your wife get the praise for a nice docking job and believe me everyone will notice. With a little patience from you, she will learn to handle the boat. It's not that hard, no matter how hard most of us try to make it look that way. Doug