Winding down, winding up

Past week or so have been busy. The time had arrived to begin to secure the boat while we are gone, get packed up and make arrangements for picking up the trailer for our summer sojourn to north. We were hit with a 3 day nor'easter - rain, heavy wind and HIGH tides. Normal tide here is around 6 ft - we were closer to 7 or more. In addition to the wind blowing the water up the creek, there was a full moon - resulting in the high tide.Very strange sensation to see what was the opposite creek bank now below us!! The creek was over it's banks and we were floating on top. We were sure the Ark was going to show up! The cold weather encouraged the manatee to come up our creek - they would literally be rolling in the mud on the creek bank as the tide went down. They were having such a good time!! Spent a day driving an hour north into Georgia to visit a couple of prospective marinas for when we get back. We need to get out of Fl at that point to avoid paying sales tax on the boat. Looks like we will probably to go the marina on Jekyll Island - small, but lovely people, lots of doggies and very laid back. Also, for the first time, we took the boat down to the pump out dock and fuel (about 20 min away) - all by ourselves!! We picked a day when the winds were calm and the time that the tide was slack - all went very well - we were pretty proud of ourselves and of course our confidence had a huge boost! The dogs spend the time down in the fore cabin as the noise from the engines is pretty loud and we just want them to have time to adjust to it all. They are doing amazingly well at adapting to the boat. There is a sub base just across the state line into Georgia. Our dock neighbor, who was out in his small fishing boat one day, said that the Trident surfaced about 75 yds from him - a small boat approached him and asked him what he was doing (duh- fishing??), told him not to pull his anchor and keep the nose of his boat pointed away from the sub. No actions that would indicate any sort of approach to the sub. Wow - they really take this stuff seriously! What an experience - think I would have had to change my pants! We are currently in Bradenton visiting Walt & Daisy - will leave tomorrow to pick up the trailer and make sure all the systems are a go. Leave Thurs for Gillian and family in Tenn. This blog will change from trawler talk to trailer talk so if you're interested in our summer adventures - stay tuned!

 

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