{"id":3968,"date":"2015-01-13T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T15:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=3968"},"modified":"2015-01-13T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T15:35:08","slug":"florida-fog-go-figure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=3968","title":{"rendered":"Florida FOG? Go figure\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 In this case, the Army Corps dredged a channel to keep the ICW as straight as possible.\u00a0 As a result, there is a nice little \u201cbow\u201d off of the channel that is connected both on the north and south ends.\u00a0\u00a0 The name \u201coxbow\u201d comes from the traditional yoke used to harness Oxen, with a \u201cbow\u201d in the middle to go over their necks.\u00a0 These make for quite nice spots to stop and spend time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still scratching your head on what I am talking about? \u00a0Here\u2019s as shot from my chart plotter.\u00a0 And the little boat icon is exactly where Pandora is as I write this.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Don\u2019t forget that the \u201cwhere\u2019s Pandora\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

The view from Pandora here is very beautiful and serene.\u00a0 Even though we are in one of the most populous states in the Union, there isn\u2019t a home or building to be seen.\u00a0 And, we are the only one in the anchorage, save a very small sailboat anchored a few hundred yards from us.<\/p>\n

Oddly, we are now into our second day of dense fog, something that isn\u2019t normally associated with sunny Florida.\u00a0 Normally, I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.\"\"<\/a>Yesterday, for several hours, the visibility was only about 350\u2019 which meant that without our chart plotter and radar, to help us find our way, we wouldn\u2019t have been able to move at all.\u00a0 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\u2019 from me when I could see them clearly.\u00a0 It was a white knuckle deal much of the time. \u00a0\u00a0And, once the fog lifted in the afternoon, the fog was replaced with a driving rain that lasted late into the night.\u00a0\u00a0 The one good thing is that with the rain came warm temperatures in the upper 70s.\u00a0 Very pleasant, rain or not.<\/span><\/p>\n

In spite of the fog, we made good progress although I won\u2019t 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In my defense, that sandbar was inside the channel and while it was on the chart, it was much larger than it appeared.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s an area that had caused quite a number of others problems who had also found themselves in the same predicament.\u00a0 I was pretty sure that I was going to be stuck till the tide rose again but was finally able to work myself off.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Anyway, I did finally get underway again.\u00a0 What a pain.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>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. \u00a0I can only imagine how long it took to get the permit to build this dock. \u00a0It must have been well over 1000′ long and must have cost as much as a modest home.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>I was treated to the sighting of a bald eagle as well as a number of dolphins that swam by.\u00a0 Just after this shot he sounded with his tail straight up in the air.\u00a0 Very peaceful in the fog.\"\"<\/a><\/span>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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s birthday and it\u2019s CRITICAL that we be in a place to properly recognize such an important national holiday event.\u00a0 Besides, it\u2019s a particularly important milestone this year as it\u2019s the last year that she will be in her \u201cmid to upper 50s\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Next year, well, she\u2019ll be in a different \u201cage band\u201d, not to put too fine a point on it.<\/p>\n

Well, the day is getting away from me so I had better wrap this up.\u00a0 It\u2019s still pretty foggy but hopefully visibility will improve soon.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll be in a marina in a few days to get some new ones.\u00a0 As each of the four batteries weigh over 100lbs, I\u2019ll need help to get the old ones off and the new ones back on board.\u00a0 I wish there was someone to help me with the $2000+ price tag.\u00a0 Oh well, that\u2019s not that much money, as it\u2019s only 2 \u201cboat dollars\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0I guess it could be worse.<\/p>\n

Fog or not, St. Augustine, here we come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3968"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3976,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968\/revisions\/3976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}