Departed Brunswick Landing Marina at 0645; cool with calm wind. Within a short time, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise as we passed under the Sidney Lanier Bridge. We successfully made our way through the Mud River behind Jekyll Island at dead low tide, although at times we had less than two feet of water under us. The much dreaded Saint Andrews / Jekyll sound was pleasant as was the ride behind Cumberland Island and along the Kings Bay submarine base. We continued straight through Fernandina Beach on to the “free” dock just off the Saint John’s river in Jacksonville. We like Fernandina and were sorry it did not work out for us to stop this time. We arrived at the Jacksonville dock and tied up with some difficulty due to the very strong current at 4 o’clock. We were met shortly by Captain Browne Altman, the “Self appointed, unofficial, Greeter” at the dock. Captain Altman is an older “retired” cruiser who lives nearby and likes to meet boats here to offer them assistance, primarily by giving them rides for picking up supplies or just providing local knowledge. I have often thought that is something I may like to do in Beaufort one day.
 |
| Kings Bay |
As we were negotiating the labyrinth of creeks and turns behind Cumberland Island, I was trying to identify a marker shown on my chartplotter (iPad). The marker I was seeing up ahead just didn’t look like it should according to the chart. As I was trying to figure it out, I had a revelation so simple, but it had never occurred to me before. Not too long ago, the older “watermen” like me had only paper charts to navigate with. Our major challenge was to determine (or better, estimate) where we were actually located on that paper chart…because before you can go anywhere, you have to know where you are. Today with GPS and chartplotters, there is a convenient little blue triangle showing the current position on the chart, AND it moves when you do! This still amazes me.
So here is my revelation. Paper charts for the type of cruising we are doing generally come in two scales; 1:40,000 and 1:80,000, the former being more common. So when I look at a paper chart and see a marker at some distance away, my brain automatically calculates how far away it should look when I scan the water to locate it, and it is always the same. However, with a chartplotter, we are constantly zooming in and out to see the level of detail we want. I had my screen zoomed out so the distance to the marker seemed shorter. I was trying to find the marker fairly nearby when actually it was quite a distance off. I saw a marker much further away but it took me a while to reconcile the chart distance and actual distance. Always learning.
Many of the "more experienced" watermen will talk about how they did it in the old days and how young people don’t know how to use a paper chart etc. But I am not about to give up my electronics, particularly my chartplotter and I expect they would not either if they had to make a choice. Maybe us older ones do have an advantage because we can do it with the paper if the electronics go out, but as the electronics become more reliable and redundant, the ability to do it the old way is becoming less important and at some point it won't matter.
Sunday, January 17, 2016.
We woke to cold rain and a forecast of winds over 20 kts. We discussed it over coffee and decided, what the heck, lets just stay here today. This is not like us, as we like to get up and get going rather than sit around, and although the weather is predicted to be bad, we will be mostly in narrow, protected channels most of the way. But why hurry? Do we want to rush to Saint Augustine to be on a mooring (where it will likely be rough) where we can’t get into town? In this weather, we would be stuck on the boat anyway. So here we are, hunkered down in our cozy boat reading (and writing this), napping, and planning our future. The day passed quickly, we had a fine supper of spaghetti made with Italian sausage and a salad, and went to bed early.
 |
| Jacksonville dock - calm before the storm. |
Monday January 18, 2016.
We wanted to start as early as possible, but because of a drawbridge just around the corner, and crossing the Saint John’s River, we needed to wait for daylight. As expected, we had a little difficulty getting off of the dock as the very strong current and the wind were pushing us onto it…but we made it safely away at about 0715. I thought the tide would be low enough for us to clear the Sisters Creek drawbridge, but we were about a foot high so we had to open the bridge. From the Saint John’s River, we encountered strong current against us so for the first few hours we only made 4 to 5 knots over the bottom.
 |
| White Pelicans |
We have been seeing many white pelicans which seem to be new to this part of the country. I have spent a lot of time on the southeast coast and don't recall seeing these before, in fact the first time I ever saw one that I know of was last year, further south in Florida. The seem to socialize well with our brown pelicans.
 |
| Dubhe on mooring #1 |
 |
| Dinner ashore. |
No comments:
Post a Comment