It was just like any normal 4am...Soft Eva Cassidy tunes playing, gentle breeze through the hatch, hundreds of thousands of ants marching from the dock to my boat. Wait, no...that's not normal, that just sucks. I now remember reading a while back that it was a good idea to spray your docklines with bug spray. I mean, seriously, who does that? Well...me from now on. I'm not sure how many of their troops made it onboard before I shut down their supply line, but it seems that they've got quite a healthy community going here. I mean, these things are everywhere! And their little highways don't really lead anywhere...I don't have any open food or anything...they just travel around going nowhere!

Anyway, I was up at 4 because the wind had kicked up & was really blowing good. I was rechecking all the docklines when I noticed the invasion. I dealt with as many as I could & then went back to sleep. I reawoke around 0830 & went off to town to use the payphone. I called The Moorings in Carrabelle to make a reservation for tonight. The sky turned nasty, & it rained some, but the storm skirted around us, so I took off for Carrabelle. I didn't get 10 minutes away from the dock when I turned the corner around town & saw a huge rain wall coming across the bay at me. I didn't really have time to make it back to the marina, so I dropped the hook across from town in the only place available. Luckily the anchor set good the first time, because it was barely wet before the bottom fell out & I got pounded with 25-30kt winds & rain. I had on my foul wx gear, so I just stayed out in the cockpit to make sure that I didn't go dragging anchor into the marsh 100' behind me. There was a 10-15 minute period there where I had 2' rollers coming straight at my bow, but the anchor held beautifully, & after 45 min I was on my way again. It pretty much rained on me all afternoon, but no more storms hit, thankfully. It took me forever to get across Apalachicola Bay, & then St. George Sound, & I finally decided just to spend the night behind Dog Island in Shipping Cove. I called The Moorings on the radio & told them I'd be there in the morning...I wasn't going to mess with it tonight. I had some green beans & beanie weenies & took a nap. A few platoons of ants seem to have lived to fight another day. Just wait until I get more bug spray tomorrow in town, fellas, just wait. Then it's on!

I was awaken at about 1:30, when another storm started moving in. It was mostly just packing high winds, but there was a period of some good showers. The wind was a constant 20-25, with gusts of probably 35-40. It was ugly, and I had to keep a steady eye on the GPS to make sure I wasn't dragging. Every 5 or 10 minutes I would stick my head out of the hatch and check my position relative to the other boats, and the land. It was quite a rocky ride...I didn't get back to sleep until 4:30.

June 15, 2004

I woke back up around 0830 and was tied up at The Moorings by 10am. I'm not a big fan of my slip here...it was hard to get into & tie up, & it'll be even harder to leave tomorrow. They do, however, have a lot of really nice facilities, including the computer I'm using right now connected to the internet. Ok, so that's all I've got for now...I'll talk at ya later!