Crazy day to Jacksonville Beach

12/16/14
Jacksonville Beach FL
Position: 30 17.424N, 81 25.866W
Posted by Bill

First a confession….they say that there are 2 types of people cruising the ICW, those that run aground, and those that lie about it. I don’t want to be a liar so I confess. Yesterday we were making the run from Jekyll Sound to St Mary’s Sound and I was following a boat in front of me. With all of the distractions of using Active Captain, the Waterway Guide and trying to keep track of the shoal areas, I didn’t realize we got out of the channel at one of the shoal areas. I called on the radio to pass the boat in front of us and realized we were way out of the channel, and quickly diverted 90 degrees back into the channel. We dragged the bottom for about 100 feet. Thank God we were there at high tide or it would have been ugly. Today we ran aground again, but according to our charts we where in the middle of the channel. Sometimes the charts are wrong and they were in this case. It was not a hard grounding, the same for yesterday, so we powered through it, but just the same…we did go aground and do some dredging. Actually it is very tedious watching the navigation markers, the chart plotter (Garmin map for you land lubbers), the depth sounder, and the paper charts, and trying to find deep enough water to make it through. I also use Iphone apps that tell me the tides, winds, waves and hazard areas. Sometimes all of that is more of a distraction than an aid, much like texting and driving. So…full disclosure, we did touch bottom a few times.

First things first, not getting ahead of myself…I coined a new term yesterday after I posted the blog for the day. It was inspired by a boat that grabbed the mooring ball behind us. The term is “Ass Captain”. Take that where ever you want and you will be spot on, trust me. First, for you non-boaters, the way a mooring buoy works: It is a floating ball with a chain attached to it that secures it to the sea bed with either a big ass weight, or a permanent attachment. At the top it has a ring for you to grab or a length of rope called a “pennant”. You use your lines to attach to the pennant or the ring and then secure your boat to the mooring. Typically you need to add a line that has enough length to give the proper “scope” to the mooring so that it does not pull out of the sea bed. In light winds, you don’t need much scope or length of rope attached, but in strong current or strong winds, you need to add scope to keep the mooring secured. The Ass Captain award recipient of the day grabbed the pennant and pulled it up to the bow of his boat without any scope.
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I have never seen anyone do this before.

Stayed tuned for future Ass Captain awards as people do stupid shit.

That being said, we learned a lesson from some other boats that did not allow much scope to their mooring (although none quite as crazy as the Ass Captain). There was no wind overnight or even during the day. As the tide reverses, it turns the boat around the mooring. As we got ready to leave, we realized our lines were wrapped around the mooring buoy and we couldn’t get them loose. We had already secured the dinghy, which takes some effort, but after trying to break free I realized we needed to launch the dinghy again so that I could try to free the lines. The lines had become wrapped around the buoy from the shifting tide and were fouled around the chain that holds the buoy to the sea bed. After about 30 minutes of man-handling the buoy, and getting cuts and abrasions from the barnacles, I was able to free the line. We secured the dink (dinghy) and were off, late according to our plan. Next time if there is no wind, I will pull the pennant up closer to the bow of the boat so it cannot foul.

During our transit we went through another draw bridge.
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We also passed some Navy war ships being worked on.
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And saw a shit load of dolphins…more than ever before.
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We docked at Palm Cove Marina at Jacksonville Beach. It was 74 degrees and I wore shorts…yeah baby!!

Boat name of the day….Nice Aft.
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On to St Augustine tomorrow, where we plan to spend a couple of days.

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