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Tuesday, April 20, 2004 |
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Today was a fantastic day, but I'm absolutely worn out. I awoke early with the hopes of getting out on the water early. See, one of the things on Mark's list for me was to figure out my the range my outboard motor has. To do that, I have to figure out what the fuel burn is.  That's what today's goal was, so rather than sailing, I spent the day motoring to Fort McRee and back. Fort McRee is quite an interesting place, and it makes for a great anchorage. The original fort was built in the 1830's but most of it was destroyed in the civil war. Now, the only visible part  of the fort is an underground concrete Coast Artillery battery build around World War II. It's located just west of Pensacola, and a lot of people from around here go out and spend the weekend there. It's just about 11 miles from Bear Point, so it makes for a great daysail.On the way, I saw this guy on the hard...and I'm quite glad I'm not in his position. 
Anyway, so I got into the harbor at the fort and there were very few boats around. I put out my lunch hook (aka a small anchor that isn't trustworthy enough to be safe in most conditions) off the stern and then nosed into the beach. I dropped my primary anchor off the bow and jumped in. I'm here to tell you, I don't care if it is Florida...the water is still cold! I snorkeled around for a little while...visibility was only about 5-7 feet, so it was kinda freaky. I was trying not to think of the all-to-many movies that have water creatures flying out of the depths to kill an innocent sailor. Ok, so maybe there aren't that many, but I've seen Finding Nemo...that count's, right? Ok, next subject. Anyway, so I went hiking, and that's where  I took the pictures of one of the underground entrances (above), and one of the tunnels (above, but not quite as above). I also marveled at the beauty of DawgGone sitting at anchor, and did my best to get a shot of me & her together. I didn't just take the sailcover off and rig the mailsail so that I could make the picture look like I'd been sailing...there's a good reason for it. (if for some reason the motor died and I got in a bind, rather than work to get the motor working again, I'd be able to raise sail quickly and regain some sort of control.)When I got back to the marina, I went over to Gabriel and helped Ms. Patti figure out how to format her digital pictures for their website. Mark got us some pizza and we talked about my findings about the fuel consumption. The consensus was that I was going to need a few Jerry cans so that I can carry some extra gas. Luckily, the findings were better than he figured they'd be, so I'm not going to need quite as much extra fuel as I'd thought. Ultimately, I'm preparing for the crossings that I'm going to make (Carrabelle to around Tarpon Springs, and Ft. Myers to Key West). These trips are about a non-stop 160 miles, so enough fuel to travel that distance is the goal. Anyway, like I said earlier, I'm beat...so I'm going to head off to bed. Mark & Patti just got a new motor for the dinghy and Patti is just dying to go play around, so I'm looking forward to running around with her some. I think we're probably going to run over to Pirate's Cove for lunch. Talk at ya tomorrow. Later. |
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Trip Summary
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