It’s Tuesday morning and we are sitting on the hook in a beautiful oxbow off of the Intra Coastal Waterway about ten miles north of St. Augustine. An oxbow, for inquiring minds like yours, is a bend in a river where the channel has been cut straight across to leave the bendy part unused. In this case, the Army Corps dredged a channel to keep the ICW as straight as possible. As a result, there is a nice little “bow” off of the channel that is connected both on the north and south ends. The name “oxbow” comes from the traditional yoke used to harness Oxen, with a “bow” in the middle to go over their necks. These make for quite nice spots to stop and spend time.
Still scratching your head on what I am talking about? Here’s as shot from my chart plotter. And the little boat icon is exactly where Pandora is as I write this. 
Don’t forget that the “where’s Pandora” button on the top of this page can show you a recent location as I post this several times a day when we are traveling.
The view from Pandora here is very beautiful and serene. Even though we are in one of the most populous states in the Union, there isn’t a home or building to be seen. And, we are the only one in the anchorage, save a very small sailboat anchored a few hundred yards from us.
Oddly, we are now into our second day of dense fog, something that isn’t normally associated with sunny Florida. Normally, I don’t mind fog, but making our way along a narrow channel with sandbars lining the area, sometimes in the middle of the channel, is pretty challenging.
However, the fog, as unusual as it might be in these parts, makes for a beautiful sight as the marsh comes and goes from view.
Yesterday, for several hours, the visibility was only about 350’ which meant that without our chart plotter and radar, to help us find our way, we wouldn’t have been able to move at all. There were several times that I found myself with navigation marks on either side of the boat that I only saw as they were literally 200’ from me when I could see them clearly. It was a white knuckle deal much of the time. And, once the fog lifted in the afternoon, the fog was replaced with a driving rain that lasted late into the night. The one good thing is that with the rain came warm temperatures in the upper 70s. Very pleasant, rain or not.
In spite of the fog, we made good progress although I won’t talk about the times that we bumped the bottom as I strayed a bit too close to the edge of the channel in the poor visibility. While most of the bumps were very minor, more of a slowing down a bit as I plowed through the mud, I did end up solidly on a sandbar for about 20 minutes at one point. In my defense, that sandbar was inside the channel and while it was on the chart, it was much larger than it appeared. In fact, it’s an area that had caused quite a number of others problems who had also found themselves in the same predicament. I was pretty sure that I was going to be stuck till the tide rose again but was finally able to work myself off. Fortunately, a large powerboat happened by as I was stuck and he told me where the deeper water was so I could at least point myself in the right direction to get off. Anyway, I did finally get underway again. What a pain. As soon as we were back on the move again I got online and renewed my towing insurance that had lapsed a few months ago.
However, in spite of the fog (Did I say that it was dense?) the trip was very beautiful with sights like this along the way. 
It’s also interesting, that with homes along the marsh in some areas, they have to put their docks quite a way out from their homes to get into deeper water and avoid damaging the delicate marshes. I can only imagine how long it took to get the permit to build this dock. It must have been well over 1000′ long and must have cost as much as a modest home. 
I was treated to the sighting of a bald eagle as well as a number of dolphins that swam by. Just after this shot he sounded with his tail straight up in the air. Very peaceful in the fog.
Along the way we were also enjoyed watching pelicans, both grey and white. They may look a bit ungainly with their big beaks but they glide along very gracefully.
One of the reasons that we wanted to cover ground in spite of the fog, as opposed to just staying put, is because Thursday is Brenda’s birthday and it’s CRITICAL that we be in a place to properly recognize such an important national holiday event. Besides, it’s a particularly important milestone this year as it’s the last year that she will be in her “mid to upper 50s”. Next year, well, she’ll be in a different “age band”, not to put too fine a point on it.
Well, the day is getting away from me so I had better wrap this up. It’s still pretty foggy but hopefully visibility will improve soon.
Almost forgot. After nursing our house batteries along for several years after their expected lifespan, it appears that they have finally given up the ghost so we’ll be in a marina in a few days to get some new ones. As each of the four batteries weigh over 100lbs, I’ll need help to get the old ones off and the new ones back on board. I wish there was someone to help me with the $2000+ price tag. Oh well, that’s not that much money, as it’s only 2 “boat dollars”. I guess it could be worse.
Fog or not, St. Augustine, here we come.