As most of you have figured out by now, this isn’t a travelogue. It’s a personal journey, a peak into the psyche of a scared spouse who “wasn’t sure she wanted to go, but set aside her fears and went anyway.” So you won’t hear about all the places we visited on our way up the east coast of Florida in April of 2015—only the ones that live even today in my memory.
After leaving the Okeechobee Waterway we entered the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway at Stuart, Florida. This route winds through canals, rivers, and parts of the ocean. First stop on the East Coast was Vero Beach where we picked up a mooring. We stayed there three days to run errands on land—groceries, laundry, and eating food that was not cooked by me.
From Vero Beach, we continued up the Atlantic ICW, created in World War I to protect commercial shipping. Pleasure craft use it now and it is not regularly dredged. Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are notorious for having shoaled areas that can only be crossed when the tide is rising. Really? We “found out” when anchoring off Fernandina Beach at high tide. By low tide we had two feet of water under the keel and had to quickly move to deeper water. Yup, even a senior can haul up an anchor quickly when necessary. I probably couldn’t do it now.
Florida also has five-mile-per-hour zones, ostensibly to protect manatees, those big walrus-like creatures the color of snot. We finally saw a couple of manatees—I started to think they were mythical creatures—near Cape Canaveral.
I looked forward to a smooth ride while poking along during the week-long trip up the coast to Georgia. We weren’t able to stop in St. Augustine this trip, and I had a hang- on-tight-and-pray experience when the chart took us out an inlet into the ocean, around a bouey, then back to the ICW, to avoid shoals. Cruising under another drawbridge, this time St. Augustine’s Bridge of Lions, was a bit harrowing, but hey, no waiting for the opening!
Around 40 miles outside of Jacksonville I had my eyes glued to the binoculars because during the 2007 cruise we encountered a nuclear submarine heading to its base in Kings Bay and we were told to “stay back.” Nothing this trip. We’d crossed into waters off Georgia by then and I knew more challenges were up ahead.
But that’s for next time.
Conquering the Sounds 9
I came up with the “Confessions” title in 2007 while crossing St. Andrew Sound in a small craft advisory. The sound is shallow, way out to the mouth of the Atlantic. While you can feel your way straight across from the Cumberland River to Jekyll Island at high tide, most mariners prefer the safe, albeit bumpy, route. Go out to the sea buoys and round them.
We passed Cumberland Island on a beautiful day, with only a few whitecaps showing. We even saw one of the wild horses on the Preserve, a roan that looked very frisky through the binoculars.
But the Sound was looming, and I could see the final red triangular day mark that told me we would be leaving the river and heading east into the sea.
Anxiety started to build and I gulped down water. Then I poked around the cupboards in the galley. Then I hesitantly asked Mark if I needed to find the buoys for him. “No,” he said, remembering my panic last time. “He could find them.”
As my stomach started to churn, I knew I had to do something. Excusing myself, I went back to the galley and unwrapped the biggest chocolate bar I could find. It had lime coconut and it was pure sugar. I think it was in my Christmas stocking.
I wadded it into my mouth, chewed as fast as I could, then calmly went back up to the bridge…a sugar high about to engulf me in a burst of energy followed by peace and drowsiness. Yup. that’s what chocolate does for me. Better than pills.
We rounded the buoy without incident, without jarring my teeth loose, without me screaming that we were going to die because we couldn’t see the darn things in the frothy sea. We motored along Jekyll Island and into the cut that leads us to Brunswick.
Sopelo Sound a few days later caught me off guard. There was a heavy chop and a relentless wind that rattled the dishes and left the kayak hanging over the side by its strap. Did I panic? No. I ate more chocolate.
Chocolate…wherever, whenever, and whoever invented it…thank you.