Drifting out to sea
We arrived at Fort Matanzas yesterday to find a big, largely-empty anchorage with a very swift current. Our Rocna anchor set well on the first try, as it always does, and we were then free to join our friends on a nearby sandbar to go clamming. This being another first for us, we required some instruction from our buddy Bill on how to clam. The method goes like this… stand in the water up to your knees or so and swish your feet around, digging down 3 to 6 inches. To passers by this may look similar to someone “Doing the Twist.” When you feel something hard under your foot, reach down with your hand and pull it out. If you’re lucky, it will be an unopened clam. If not so lucky, it could be any other manner of shell or stone. After finding the clams, they are left in a bait bucket, hanging overboard for a couple of days to purge the sand out of them. Together we found about 3 dozen yesterday so I think there’ll be some clam linguini in our future.
Remember the swift current I mentioned? After cleaning up on our boat following an afternoon of clamming, we fired up our dinghy ready to make our way over to Knot Tide Down for dinner. The only problem with that is our dinghy engine died shortly after casting off from our boat and as Mr. Murphy dictates, the current was pushing us away from where we wanted to go instead of towards it. No problem… we’ll just row. Problem! We haven’t really got the rowing thing figured out in our new dinghy and thus couldn’t row well enough to overcome the current and we were quickly (QUICKLY!) drifting out towards the channel. Here is where the Boy Scout’s “Be Prepared” motto saved us. To begin, as recommended to us by our friend Jeff, we now always carry a little anchor with us in our dinghy. This was secured to a long line that we also carry and dropped overboard. Although the anchor wasn’t big enough to stop us in place (perhaps we should carry a baby Rocna?), it was certainly working to slow our movement. Secondly, we had with us our handheld VHF radio. One call to our buddies and we not only had Knot Tide Down coming to our rescue, we also had our new friends Bill and Joanne from the trimaran Ultra heading towards us to help. With the assistance of Knot Tide Down’s dinghy, we were towed back to their boat and we then able to relax and enjoy a great dinner with our friends.
Why did the engine stall? I don’t know. Yes, there was gas in the engine and yes, the vent was open. Bill suggested that perhaps we picked up a line on the prop but when I checked at the end of the evening, there was none to be found. Happily the engine fired up on the first try and got us back to our boat all on its own. Ahhh… the joys of cruising. Never a dull moment. 🙂
Transiting bridges is always made a bit more exciting when they only open half of it!
Love it!
Our new dinghy safely up on shore.
Just getting started.
Rebecca hard at “work.”
Even the dog got into it.
The day’s booty.
After a few hours of clamming we all needed a break.
The trimaran Ultra, owned by our new friends Bill and Joanne.
There is nothing like catching your own food, (lobstaaaa, clams, fish, etc.) and eating it.Nothing can be more fresh and rewarding..Wait to you get to caribbean..I could eat clams every night……Obviously make sure when cooking, all clams open prior to eating.DONT OVER COOK (5 minutes)…If any stay closed, don’t eat or the diariah fairy will visit you soon after……..Just one thing to remember when eating off the sea……..Sometimes licenses are required…….I probably carry the same license you have……..The “I did not know officer” license
Thanks for those tips, John. In this case, we won’t be cooking them, our friends will. I also trusted that he checked the license requirements. If not, I would have broke out “that” license.
I can’t remember if I mentioned this before; we, too, have a Tohatsu engine for our dinghy. Purchased a year ago last spring, it was pretty new for last year’s cruise to the Florida Keys. But we had nothing but problems with it. It turned out it was the ethanol in the gasoline. There are two jets in the carburetor, the idle jet and the high speed jet. The ethanol gums them up. You have to take the carburetor apart and remove them, clean them with carburetor cleaner and the orifices they come out of.
You are far enough south that you should be able to get ethanol-free gasoline at a marina. Once you get those jets clean and use the ethanol free gas – with maybe a little tweaking to the carburetor adjustments – you should have no more problems. We had to find this out the hard (and expensive) way with a $278. visit to the dinghy engine mechanic.
Good luck! And we are enjoying your blog.
Hi Larry
We loaded up with non-ethanol gas during our last two fill-ups. Not sure what yesterday’s dilemma was all about but Tohatsu-Sama has generally been behaving quite well lately. He especially likes the new dinghy. 🙂
Sheeeit ..inflatables row so well, dont they? sorry to hear that…great pix…see ya soon
Hope you enjoyed Cumberland Island!
That’s scary, to be headed out to sea with no options! Or at least, very few. Glad you were able to summon help and all ended well! Tohatsu-sama needs to mind his manners!
Agreed!
I made some time to get to the boat today, and after futsing around, talking to a few neighbors and messing up a small job (dropped the parts and now they’re gone–the water’s getting too cold to go looking for low dollar stuff), I took the dingy out for a spin. It ran OK, but I wonder if the kids kicked some sand last weekend, because 15 minutes out I sheared the prop pin.
And sheared the pin in the inlet with a 25-knot breeze and tide taking me out. Two thoughts came to mind:
1. Since inflatables row like shit, I often use a single oar as a scull from the bow. It is nearly as fast, less tiring (at least with the crappy oar locks on our boat), and easier to maneuver when in tight. Try it. In a few easy minutes I was in the shelter of the jetty–no worries.
2. I carry an anchor it I’m going anywhere where strong currents can be a problem. Or if I’m fishing (a very small Guardian). Many a time an anchor has given me the time to sort some small problem out.
Awesome! This is where I’ve lived now for two years. Why is it so cool to see pics and hear stories of the place you call your own backyard? This’ll be our last land-based home as we have been adjusting life to allow us to go cruising soon too! You guys are an inspiration to me:)
Thank you for saying so.