We took off November 4th for Brunswick, GA for another sailboat delivery. Tom's third, my second. Our friends Paul and Judy needed help moving their center cockpit Island Packet "Gratitude" from Brunswick GA to Jacksonville FL. Let's see....take off work, blow town for warmer latitudes south, help sail a really nice Island Packet? Hummm? As you can imagine, it took us all of 2 seconds to say "yes."We arrived in Brunswick late the evening of November 4th. Luckily Captain Paul is a very early riser and quiet. He headed to the grocery store way before any of the rest of us got up and got us provisioned. After securing items topside and filling the water tanks, we took off for Jacksonville around 10:30 am the morning of November 5th.
Captain Paul opted to take the IntercoastalWaterway - ICW at the recommendation of admiral Judy. She wasn't terribly interested in an off shore romp down the coast. This would be my first trip on the ICW. We actually had some wind so we motor sailed.
The scenery was great. There were wild horses on one island.
My second delivery - "what is so hard about this delivery stuff?"
Oh- crew work. Argh! Judy shamed Sabrina into actual crew work on the brightwork. (Look Patrick and Nancy...the freeloaders can and do actually know how to work as crew.)
What is Tom doing?
Uh oh!
Yep, that is 2.6 ft of water depth. We ran aground again while crewing on Gratitude. If you will remember back in April we ran aground on that delivery as well Gratitude. Du-oh!
We aren't the only ones to get stuck. We just didn't have the engine power like the tug to get ourselves off so we waited. Four hours later we are able to float ourselves free.
Day two - Unfortunately Captain Paul likes to rise early. I mean it's fine when he's off to provision the boat and all but now? Here? On the ICW? Seriously?! We hear the engine fire up at 5:15 am.
We were in the forward V berth by the anchor locker so....Captain Paul is up and so is the anchor at 5:30am...all 100 ft of it grinding through the very loud electric windlass! We dressed in our foul weather gear to keep the chill off and head out into the cockpit to join Captain Paul and greet the day.
As the sun rises, we warm up and we shed our foulies. I didn't want hat head hair the rest of the day so I wore my purple wig. Actually the KSU - KU football game was the next day and since poor Paul is a graduate of KU and Tom and I went to the superior school (KSU)....I couldn't resist throwing in one of my purple wigs.
The ICW was busy that morning with tons of motor yachts heading south for the season. It seems most of Canada is going south. Can you blame them? One guy in particular radio over as he passed to say he liked my purple hair. We also got a horn blast from a draw bridge operator in approval of my hair. But then who doesn't like KSU purple hair!
We were delayed getting through downtown Jacksonville FL for about 20 min as the Coast Guard were doing practice maneuvers. We circled in front of the police and fire dock until we could pass through.
Just west of Jacksonville and 3 miles from our final destination we ran aground again - HARD! Dead stop in the water. We were motor sailing with the current so we were doing about 8 knots. Judy was at the top of the companion way and fell backward down onto the cabin sole. She remained conscious but badly injured her back, breaking three vertebrae. None of the rest of us were injured. The wind spun us off the shoal. Paul called Mayday and 911. The police, fire and sheriff were on the scene in less than 5 mins. They strapped her to a back board as Paul motored full speed back towards Jacksonville - towing the fire boat on one side and the police boat on the other. We were quite the sight I am sure. **Mental note....buy a boat with a big ass diesel!! They took her to Baptist Hospital for many tests. The neurosurgeon that just happened to be on call that evening is one of the top in the country and recommended surgery. He preformed surgery the next morning to put two 7 inch rods and a bunch of pins and such along Judy's spine. She was a trooper the entire time. Not once while injured on the boat did she cry. When they lifted her out she didn't even swear. I believe the EMT boys would have been hearing some colorful pirate language had it been me. Judy was in the hospital approx a week and then in a rehab facility another week before flying home to KC. What an experience! Both Tom and I have talked through it many times thus learning from the experience.
Paul insisted that we continue on down the coast as planned so Saturday morning Tom and I took off in a rental car driving south.
We explored and meandered until we reached Ft Lauderdale. There we connected with Tom's college friend Bob Warren and his wife Shirley. It was great to catch up with them.
We flew home on Tuesday.
