St Catherine's Sound and Walburg Creek

9-22-13 and 9-23-13  We headed out St Simon's channel and then turned north.  The wind didn't really cooperate so we motored most of the way.  We also had some rain.    We got a later start than we should have.  That is one thing that we have not adjusted to....getting up and leaving early.  Its not that we can't, we just haven't.  In this case we should have.  With winds on the nose a good part of the way, it slowed us down.  We had to enter the sound after dark.  Gasp!  Yes, it was a bit of a stomach tensing time but we went for it.  Our Garmin chartplotters did an excellent job of guiding us.  Sailing Chickie Tammy ......
Omg - as I am typing this on the deck a dolphin has surfaced and seems to be hunting for an afternoon snack right around our boat.....so Kewl!!!!
Tammy recommended Walburg Creek for an anchorage just off St Catherine's sound.  She was right.  It's terrific.  Nice wide river and great holding - even in the dark.  D-oh.   This creek is approx mile 620 on the ICW charts if you are following along or needing a good anchorage.
Ooh - two dolphins.
We are still getting used to tidal swing.  Very weird to be bow into the current and stern to the wind....for now until the tide changes.
The guidebooks say St Catherine's is a private island owned by the St Catherine Foundation in conjunction with the New York Zoologically Society.  They have some animal reserve /  rehab going on.  Walburg Island is mainly marsh so tons of birds.  Over the marsh I spotted a big motor cruiser headed up the ICW this morning in the binocs.
We mainly chilled today and did some boat stuff.  Freezer was acting up again.  Tom discovered loose wires and fixed them for good and now it's working.  Our radar wasn't working yesterday so I dove into that.  Loose connection behind the panel. We fixed.  Tom also noticed that fuel filter #1 was very cloudy last night.  Exploring that today, he found some water in there.  Luckily the filter did it job and keep it out of the engine.  We dumped the water, changed the filter and ran the engine for a while.  Worked like it should.  Yay.
Tacos and fresh baked cookies are on the agenda/menu for tonight.
Internet/cell service is iffy here so no pics.  I did take some and I will try posting those when we get to a better spot for service.  The sunset last night was spectacular with all the clouds around.  It looked like the sky over the sound was on fire.

First Night or Fixing Your Boat In Exotic Locations

Well maybe not exotic but still away from the dock.  That's right.  We had some maintenance/repairs required at anchor last night.  While it's not the first choice of activity while anchored in a lovely, quite river, it's also not unexpected.  Not that we thought this would happen.....fridge and freezer would not start back up.  The strainer was clogged up big time.   Ooops.  We checked it 2 -3 weeks ago, honest.  So Tom cleaned it out but the units still wouldn't start.  Then he messed with this and that while I got this tool and that and flipped switches on and off and we troubleshooted what it could be.  Fridge started running but we could't get freezer to start.  Tom tested pump and it was fine.  Water flow in now cleaned seacock/strainer was great.  Finally he changed the freezer pump diaphragm.  This seemed to do it.  And yes, my brilliant husband found one spare onboard when we moved aboard and thought "hum....I should probably order a couple of more since we have multiple pumps that use this part."  He also changed the seacock O ring and then doubled it up when it leaked a tiny bit after changing.  Freezer started up and ran all night.  Yay!
My point in all of this is....things are going to break and maintenance is required even in a nice anchorage.   Even after being at the dock for 3 1/2 months, we had to do repairs and maintenance the first night out....officially cruising!  But we didn't let it get to us.  We know this.  We expect it.  I would even say its the norm or standard.  Will we have maintenance and repairs every night?  I hope not.  Will there been consecutive nights where we have repairs and maintenance?  You bet.  But that is the price we pay for life afloat and on the go.

Casting Off Officially

We took really long showers this morning.  The longest we are likely to have for awhile as we tossed off the dock lines today.  Everything was stowed.  MUST projects are complete so it is time to go.  Woo hoo!  At 11:12am we slipped the dock lines.  Our wonderful dock neighbors walked s/v Honey Ryder back out of the slip, wishing us fair winds.  We will miss them but we are so excited to actually start cruising.  A quick stop at the fuel dock to get some additional fuel on tank #1 and a proper good bye to dock mistress Sherry and Then we were off down the East Brunswick River.  We took the advice of our friend and long time Pacific cruiser Roxanna.  Last winter over dinner in KC, she strongly suggested that whenever we officially cast off, "Just go around the corner and anchor.  You don't have to go far.  Just get off the dock, go a small distance, anchor and simply clear your head of the "dock fog."   So that is what we are doing.  We just dropped the anchor in the Frederica River off Fort Frederica on St Simon Island.  Yes...not far from Brunswick Landing Marina but worlds away from slip living.  Thanks to everyone for following along and hanging in there through all the project posting.  It's hard to put on words what this feels like.  It's been so long planning and working towards this.  We both had HUGE smiles most of the day to give you an idea of some of our feeling.  Anyway....stay tuned!