Thursday Oct. 15 2009

"No one knows how humpback whales make their songs. We don't even know where to look in their bodies for the sound making apparatus."

Rodger Payne from "Among Whales"

"The power which the sea requires in a sailor makes a man of him very fast, and the change of shores and population clears his head of much nonsense of his wigwam"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am ever opening to the incomprehensible complexities of ocean life. We know whales make songs finally after along time, but yet we don't even know how they make them or why. For me, it is ok to not know and to be ok that i don't know and to just enjoy the whole show. The sea has so many moods. Cuddly and soothing when calm, exciting and exuberant when fresh and building, and downright dangerous when storming. These moods seem to be never duplicated, and how could they be, for each day is new and different, with different weather added to the weather already past.

Here in St. Augustine taking care of some mechanical issues that have been bothering over the last couple weeks. Nothing much, shear pins and low battery and crud build up under the boat. In a great marina, Comanchee Cove, where the folks are very nice and understanding and generous.

Wildlife has been spectacular. Wood ibises , which are like the stork that brought you and me to our mothers, and pink flamencos, which my older copy of Peterson's Guide says" beware the light pink variety are escaped captives??. No matter light or dark to see these large pink birds feeding and flying across the bright blue waters is quite a sight. Dolphins which are nearly ever present since southern Chesapeake have become even more numerous and active, breaching and tail fluking and yesterday i sailed through the largest herd yet and there must have been hundreds by the number surfacing to breath. And juveniles too which are really cute. At night, when i sleep outside the cabin, which is more frequent now because it is so warm and the cabin does not cool down very soon (floating on 80 deg. water) i hear them breathing and it seem like i'm in the dormitory with lots of sighing and deep breathing.

People along my trip have been uniformly kind and interested in what i am up to. Harold, a black man on the public dock in Mayport, was surprised i was so dark and when we compared arms, i was actually darker to which he was both surprised and tickled. We both had a good laugh on that one. Bobbie, an older woman with all her belongings in her car and relocating to somewhere, had me bend over so she could kiss my bald head and wish me well. Those that help me in even the simplest ways sometimes, when i remember, recieve maple syrup from new hampshire, my thank you.

Two nights ago , i spent the night anchored across from the US Navy base at Mayport. A couple dozen battle ships and destroyers and helicopters circling regularly. Threatening looking ships that i followed out the inlet are there to keep our way of life intact. I believe they do that job well, though the cost must be astronomical. The beach at the mouth of the St. John river, which flows north (only other river which flows north in n hemp. is the nile i am told) was wild and exciting in the brisk NW wind. Last night i anchored lined up with the lookout tower of Castillo de San Marcos a 1500 fort gurding the St Augustine inlet. The fort is landscaped nicely unlike how i imagine it was five hundre yrs ago.

I did want to not leave the impression of distain for the Intracaostal Waterway. Though i prefer the outside passage, there can be nothing like a nice calm anchorage on the waterway, when the weater is brewing up a storm and that safty net allows one to use the coastal waters with a large amount of safty. And it is not to be thought that travel on the intercaostal is simple either, as shoaling and the entrance and exit form large posts and inlets make navaigating a challeng for even experienced boaters.

so ... i could go on indefinately i think, but will end here and go see if my batteries are charged... love you all, and miss you much. steve