Michael Kell:  

March 15,2009 John Asel and I drove to Brunswick, Georgia from Columbus, Indiana, yesterday and this morning to Green Cove Springs Marina on the Saint Johns River, about 40 miles upstream from Jacksonville, Fl. We unloaded about 800 pounds of every kind of nautical stuff and a lot of non-nautical stuff walking the length of a very long peer with each load. The pier had been condemned by the local state inspectors and they would not allow any vehicles to drive on it. We then went to the local grocery and bought food and drinks and stored them below. We attached the pulpit to the bow of the boat. For Some reason it was stored in the head which makes for very awkward accomodations. We changed the diesel engine¿s oil and filter. We draped the main sail cover over the boom to air out from where a marina cat had sprayed it. We met with the former owner to learn the boat¿s ropes (gps, depth sounder, bilge pumps, auto-helm, engine operation, etc. In the early afternoon we drove to Gainesville to drop off my Jeep at my daughter, Anna¿s apartment. This will be John's transportation back to Indiana when he finishes the first leg of the trip. I rented a car in Gainesville to drive back to Green Cove Springs. We had supper with Anna. It was a pleasure to share her company and hear about her upcoming art show at the University Gallery and all the work she is doing to prepare for it and another show in Georgia. We drove to the Jacksonville airport to return the rental and took a taxi back to the marina, 40 miles. We now are water-born (though still tied to a pier in Green Cove Springs)for better or worst. The PLAN is to take the boat north down the St. Johns to Jacksonville and out to the Intercoastal Waterway, then south down the Waterway to Port St. Lucie, west across the Okeechobee Canal system to the Lake and through the Caloosahatchee to Ft. Myers, where we will be joined by my brother-in-law Nando Ortegon who will crew with me to Mobile, Alabama. From Ft. Myers we will proceed north to Cedar Key where John will depart (with the help of Anna) and take m Jeep back to Indiana. Nando and I will cross the Gulf northwest to Apalachicola and eventually to Mobile, Alabama where he will somehow travel back to Naples. During all this travel I will somehow attend my daughter's show at Gainesville on the 10th of April. I hope to pick up a new crew member/s in Mobile. My friends Tom Bruce and Cary Camp are trying to fit my loose schedule into their plans. From Mobile, the Dawg House will proceed north on the Mobile River to the Tombigbee River and to the Tennessee/Tombigbee Waterway starting at Demopolis, Alabama. Then we will pass up the waterway, against the current, through Mississippi to the Tennessee River, through Tennessee to Kentucky Lake and back onto the Tennessee to Paducah, Kentucky on the Ohio River. There are plans for John to again join the cruise on Kentucky Lake and to bring the boat into Florence, Indiana with me. Big plans; no movement yet. It is after midnight John is asleep in the main cabin while I document our day. Tomorrow we hope to get underway headed north for Jacksonville and many points south. **************************************************************** We got underway at 11:45 AM the 16th (Monday) and motored north toward Jacksonville and into the unknown. During our trip down the St. John¿s river north towards Jacksonville we watched several Coast Guard helicoptor training flights involving bringing a Sea Stallion helicopter to a high altitude, medium and low altitude hover. We decided to refuel the Dawg House as we were not experienced with the instruments and didn¿t know if we could trust the ¿full¿ reading on the fuel gage. (We later found that "full" is from 14 to 18 gallons and that "empty" is from 0 to 4 gallons) While approaching a marina on the right (east) bank of the river at Goodby¿s Creek, where we intended to refuel, we ran aground in a area shown on the GPS to have almost 5 feet of water (the Dawg House draws less than 3.5 feet). With luck and tentative boat handling we were able to extricate ourselves and decided we would choose to believe the fuel gage, for now, since we couldn¿t believe the GPS. We reached the lifting bridge in Jacksonville just a half hour before one of its twice daily openings, at 06:00 and 18:00. This is the only bridge in the Jacksonville area with insufficient vertical clearance, when closed, for the 42 foot mast heighth of the Dawg House. After passing the bridge we sailed until well after dark, only stopping when overcome by fatigue and hunger. We anchored on a lee shore of the St. Johns River where Drummond Creek joins its flow with the river. We approached our anchorage from down stream in order that the current might help extricate us from any accidental grounding. John sterred us upstream and towards the bank until we saw 6 feet on the depth finder and I dropped anchor. This put us well out of the channel, though we still were rocked by the wake of an occasional passing vessel. We fixed a dinner of hot dogs cooked on the Coleman and ate while winds and wakes tried to pull our anchor out of the mucky river bottom. **************************************************************** Tuesday, March 17, 2009 10:13 PM We got up and were underway by 6:oo AM and ran down the channel side of Bartram Island picking out markers with the help of the spotlight. In the early morning dark we shared the channel with behemoths hundreds of feet long, catching the tide which carried us all towards the ocean with a free extra 1.5 knots. We transited the rest of the St. Johns and entered the Intercoastal Waterway to proceeded south past St. Augustine and finally to south of Metanzas Inlet. Recognizing the entrance to the Intercoastal was difficult because this geographic feature didn¿t look (as with so many others) anything like what my mind¿s eye had conjured up from reviewing the charts available. We stopped at the marina at the McCormick Bascule Bridge and fueled the boat with about seven gallons of diesel. When the fast fall of darkness stranded us on the Intercoastal below mile 805, south of the Fox Cut, after 14 hours of travel, we found no ready haven out of the channel. We have lit the running lights and spreader lights in hope that anyone no smarter than us, that would operate on the Waterway at night will think we are a vessel underway and try to avoid hitting us. As I type this the night wind is howling outside and I truly think no boat will pass this night. We will be out of here at first light. **************************************************************** > Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 9:13 PM Never really went to sleep last night as the boat was anchored in the middle of the Intercoastal Waterway. Luckily, there was zero traffic though watching for it was a cold, windy, sleepless task. Today we got underway at 6:00 and saw a fantastic sunrise. We made good time, all day, till about 15:00 when we stopped just out of the Intercoastal Waterway at Oak Hill. We had insufficient daylight to transit Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River behind Cape Canaveral to Titusville and, so, determined to stay at this last point of civilization. After anchoring we were visited by several dolphins that entertained us with their fluid beauty and even jumped to slap the water with their fins. John pointed out a manatee which surfaced about 100 feet from us with a walrus/cow kind of girth and pacivity. We took foredeck showers with buckets of hot, fresh water, shaved and are going to catch up on missed sleep tonight. We expect to get an early start tomorrow; but not too early. **************************************************************** Thursday, March 19, 2009 When we awoke this morning the tide had gone out making our 7 foot anchorage of last night about 3.5 feet and leaving is aground. As the boat draws 3.5 and she seemed to swivel on her keel when we tried to raise anchor, we decided to try to power her into deeper water and refloat her. To lighten ship we pumped the bilges and relieved ourselves over the side. That and the tide coming in must have done the trick as we were able to use forward thrust to turn the transom toward deeper water and then reverse thrust to pull us off the shallow bottom. We were underway at 6:00 in the dark and traveled down Mosquito Lagoon to the Indian River. While still in the Lagoon, which is about 4 miles wide, we were hit by a driving rain storm followed by a brilliant rainbow. We stopped at a marina in Titusville for fuel and went to the local Burger King for breakfast. We also got a bucket of the Colonel¿s fried chicken and bought a few bags of ice for the icebox. We stopped this afternoon to spend the night at Eau Galli Marina north of Melbourne, where we did our laundry, showered and went to a local crab shack for a great meal. Tomorrow we hope to reach Port St. Lucie and the Okeechobee canal system which will take us to the Caloosahatchee River and Fort Myers. Jorge (Nando) Ortegon will join John and I there. Jorge and I have enjoyed fishing off Naples in the Gulf in his boat, the 4038 EK. My sister, Genie, will only give me the lend of Jorge to Mobile. My friend and ex-Navy shipmate, Cary Camp, is trying to work it out to join the expedition starting in Mobile, Alabama and up the Tombigbee River to the Tenn-Tom Waterway, Tennessee River and Kentucky Lake. **************************************************************** Friday, March 20, 2009 At 7:30, this morning, John piloted us out of the canal from the Eau Gallie Marina near Melbourne, where we stayed last night, into a georgeous day with the sun just coming up. We had a breakfast of cold milk Sugar Pops and honey and biscuits. That is what I call a balanced meal. We made slow (3.3 knots) ...Expand for more