Monthly Archives: September 2022

Not Just Another Rainy Day – September 29, 2022, Jekyll Island, GA USA

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Not Just Another Rainy Day – September 29, 2022, Jekyll Island, GA USA

Our time was up at the Airbnb in St. Augustine Beach, and we had to move again (which of course made us realize we have entirely TOO much stuff)!  Anyway, the plan was to visit Mom and Dad for a few days and head to Columbus to see the kids Wednesday morning.  Well, Hurricane Ian changed our plans.  Mom and Dad had decided to ride out the storm so we decided to stay as well in case anything happened, we could help clean it up.  They have quite a few mature trees not only in their yard but on the island in general. 

We went to bed Wednesday evening and woke up Thursday morning to no power and a downed power line across the driveway.  I remember seeing the flash when the power went out at 11:30pm so I was none too surprised.  We soon learned that half a dozen houses down, a tree had snapped breaking three high voltage lines.  I was impressed the crews were there by 8:00am to not only clear the tree but also to fix the lines.  We were supposed to have power back by noon Thursday.

So, like any family ruffing it during the hurricane, we drove to the other side of the island where they still had power and went out to breakfast!  Gotta have coffee.  Sadly though, when we came home, all the crews were gone, and out new estimate was to have power at noon…Friday.  Bummer.  So, Dad and Ron hooked up the generator and we all took a shower with what was left of the hot water. 

Seeing as how we had little to do but sit in the dark at home and wait out the storm, we took a couple of drives around the island to see the damage and storm surge.  Midday and high tide brought increased winds, rain, flooding, and storm surge.

The track of Ian has been wobbly at best and while Jekyll was predicted to be hit much worse, the shallow marshes surrounding it make is a fantastic hurricane hole.  The storm jumped around us only to change its path towards South Carolina.  Ian initially made landfall on the west coast of Florida at a Category 4 (nearly a 5 with 155MPH winds).  It could have been much worse, and I am grateful.   More to come as this passes over us and we get through the incoming rain.

How bad does it have to be? – Sept 23, 2022 – St Augustine, FL, USA

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I have been walking the beach most days here is St. Augustine and today was an interesting walk.  Check this out.

It’s made of pallets and styrofoam. Immigration has been in the news quite a bit lately with the upcoming election, but this was my first experience with it.  How bad would your life have to be to give up everything you know and travel 2,000 miles+ (the distance from Haiti) to a new country to seek asylum on a styrofoam boat?  The two largest groups of asylum seekers coming to the US currently are from Haiti and Venezuela due to political environments and natural disasters.  Most come by boat but others attempt to travel through Central America’s Darien Gap to Mexico then cross the border to the US. 

Early in our sailing career, Ron and I got posed with a question from one of the other captain’s…” What would you do if you ran into a raft of refugees?”  This isn’t the same thing as piracy but has the potential to be.  Thus far we have not gone far enough for this to be an issue and have not run into any issues.  Most incidents of piracy in the happen in the Gulf of Aden (Venezuela), the Philippines, or off the coast of Africa.  Sailing in general is very safe, especially when you consider the increasing gun violence in the US. 

The walk wasn’t all bad though since I ran into the turtle ladies!  They were checking one of the recently hatched nests and found this little guy!

Almost there

Apparently, there were about 9 unhatched eggs they reburied and this little guy who got stuck in all the other hatched shells and couldn’t climb out.  They tried to release him but since he didn’t take off, they were going to take him to the turtle hospital for a check up and some hydration.  It was my first baby turtle after all the nests we have seen.  So cool!! 

Amongst other things…the Life Raft – September 19, 2002, St. Augustine, FL, USA

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Amongst other things…the Life Raft – September 19, 2002, St. Augustine, FL, USA

It occurred to me my life is a bit unusual when last Saturday night, I had a lift raft blown up in my living room.  Probably not a typical site for most folks. 

It just fits

Our life raft is officially out of certification, and we wanted to ensure it still worked in the unlikely event we ever had to use it.  Something to note is they are typically vacuum packed into a small container so when we opened and inflated it, it was um…difficult to get back into the box. 

Now what?

It took us several try’s and we still have never got the box shut. We ended up buying a newer raft which is now stored neatly under the settee on the boat ready to be deployed if needed. We tried to sell the older one, (which seems to still work fine), but since it’s out of date, we ended up just giving away to another sailor. We could only do this knowing it worked (which it seems to). And with the lift raft taken care of, Ron moved onto the mountain of other things we wanted to get done before launching again.

The progress has been great though. The list includes washing and buffing the boat, getting a portable fridge/freezer installed, fiberglassing the bilge crack, testing/ fixing our old inverter as a backup, fixing the AIS, new pinstriping and graphics for the boat, and much more. Doesn’t she look good?

Ready to splash!

We are wrapping up our time here in St. Augustine and the boat is getting very close to being ready to launch.  We can’t wait to get back on her!

No Rest for the Wicked – September 7, 2022, St. Augustine, FL, USA

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No Rest for the Wicked – September 7, 2022, St. Augustine, FL, USA

We only got a couple days rest to get ourselves over COVID and thankfully that was all it took.  We quickly got back to work on the boat where we could continue to keep to ourselves but still be productive.  Our first order of business was to make our surround for the boat.  We took a day to pattern and had ordered all our materials which was shipped during our “rest days.”  About 4 days later, several wrestling matches with the sewing machine later, and a few curse words from our Captain, we had a surround!

Personally, I think he did a heck of a job with only a bit of logistical help from me.  After this project, we had our confidence up and now, onto gel coat fixes, sanding the ugly “charter boat” blue stripe off the sides of our boat (to be replaced by grey to match our new canvas work), and some buffing has kept us busy this past week.  Keep in mind the weather in Florida is approximately 100 degrees and rain each afternoon so our work has strategically been mostly in the mornings.

Sanding on the sun.

Our next task thankfully involves some air conditioning.  We are going to make dinghy chaps to cover our dinghy.  We must fix a slow leak in the dinghy yet but have ordered our supplies which we hope to have here very soon. 

But not to worry, we have carved out a little time for play. Mom & Dad came down to see the Artemis launch (supposed to happen before Labor Day, then Labor Day, and now not till October). Sadly, since we didn’t get to see the launch, we decided to head to Fort Matanzas which is just a short ferry ride away.

Fort Matanzas is a National Monument and was built by the Spanish and used as a supply channel and back entrance to St. Augustine.  IT was very strategic to the defense of the city and helped them maintain control of it from the British who invaded from the north.  After this the built the Fort to be even stronger.  It was manned by 6-9 soldiers including one officer.

Eventually, after the fall of the Spanish Empire, the United States took control in 1821.  Ironically, Ron and I have anchored near here last season and didn’t even realize what we were anchored nearby.