Pictures: Rowers in Eau Gallie basin at sunset; PISCATOR leaving St. Mary's alongside us (the owners are from Vermont and took 18 years to finish the boat after buying a bare hull);large manatee backside, as big as a dinghy, as it does the "dead-man's-float" near the dock in Titusville; view from our boat of the St. Augustine waterfront with the moon about to set overhead (we were very close - this is not a telephoto shot); punch servers at the day-before-Thanksgiving party in St. Mary's (we lost all the pictures of the yummy food and boaters waiting to eat, sorry!)
Thanksgiving Dinner in St. Marys, Georgia was so much better than we had expected. We were assigned to cook a vegetable side dish, and each other boat crew was bringing one side-dish (or dessert or relish, etc.). Several townspeople cooked turkey and made gravy and stuffing and it all was assembled at the Riverview Hotel. Being a hotel, the seating was very comfortable, the buffet tables held warm and delicious food, and the camaraderie between boaters was an added dimension. We were about one-third down the line (there were estimated to be 210 people served).
The night before there had been a dock party with Painkillers Punch mix and ice provided (BYO for the rum). We could have attended an oyster roast after the party but opted out. Other gatherings were held in the days before we arrived. And there was an organizational VHF “meeting” each morning of Thanksgiving Week that you could listen in on and contribute to from your radio on your boat. It works like an old-fashioned party-line with announcements and requests and things for sale.
We met a couple from Scituate (who are traveling with two other boats from Scituate), a couple from Marion, and people from Vermont and Maryland, our tablemates at dinner. Just before dinner we were set-upon by a drifting sailboat in a difficult windy situation in the river. We tried to get another anchor down for the boat since the crew was ashore. They eventually got back and straightened things out but then in moving to a new spot to anchor, they went aground for several more hours. In the end we got to talk with the crew and they were a very nice family from Jacksonville, Florida. The mom is a veterinarian and their 13 (ish) year-old son was outgoing and not too embarrassed by all the commotion.
Since Thanksgiving we have bought fresh bread and veggies at the Fernandina Beach Farmer’s Market, have kayaked to a Jacksonville City Park – an island with walking trails and fishing docks, have sat with cruising people and tested micro brews while watching the Patriots in St. Augustine, have watched manatees lazily feeding on underwater grasses in Titusville, and have enjoyed the company of a couple from Middleton, Mass whom we’ve seen at several stops on the Waterway this week (we chatted some again last night when they stopped at our boat, moored next to their boat in Titusville). We also crossed paths with a family from Marshfield who have brought their two children along and are homeschooling while they sail and cruise.
Today we ended up in a wonderful “basin” just off of the Indian River section of the ICW. The area is called Eau Gallie and is part of Melbourne. The basin is part of a river but there isn’t too much current and we are out of the wind. It’s not isolated; there are nice homes on the edges of the basin and two quiet marinas, but there are only 3 boats anchored in here and the wildlife is plentiful. One pelican is persistently dive-bombing into the water, several osprey are calling from rooftops and mast tips, a manatee is about to surface near our boat, and lots of different wading birds, the long-legged kind, are flying around us. There’s a park full of palm trees that we’ll dinghy to and walk through, back at the entrance to the basin. I haven’t seen any other boats moving in here except our dinghy and another dinghy. Then all of a sudden at 4:30 pm a rowing shell with four rowers and a coxswain passes us, then two eight-man shells. They continue to pass us every 10 minutes or so as they go up and down the river. We find another group of eight practicing on a dry-land rowing machine in the park. There is a banner there indicating that they are from Melbourne High School. This is a great stop!
No comments:
Post a Comment