ICW Day 43 November 11 Wednesday New Smyrna Anchorage 59nm STM 846.7 972 Total miles
Left St. Augustine about 8ish, we were concerned about the Mickler O’Connel Bridge and had planned to leave later at lower tide but Sandy and Brad on Doc’s Orders left at sun up and radioed that the bridge height was already over 64.
We left behind Valentine and made good time, had originally planned to stop at Palm Coast but Jack made the decision to keep moving to make the following day shorter because there was some concern about rain the following day. At the end of the day we did 12 bridges, 8 fixed and four bascule. We had a difficult grounding around MM 843 near Ponce Inlet. Valentine first ran aground in front of us, got off without much difficulty…we chose to steer closer to the mark as Sandy and Brad had indicated earlier (they ran aground there as well), instead we hit hard, Brad kept the engine reeved trying to plow through for several minutes, we came off then went aground again, we did this three times. Jack was inching his way back to us on Valentine and I yelled into the radio for him to ‘stay away’, we would figure it out. Finally, had to go OUTSIDE of the mark to clear water, yikes!!!! No Tow Boat US for us as yet!!
Long day, needless to say. We found out this am that Brad on Doc’s Orders mom had passed away this am so they were rushing to get to Cocoa to fly home. We all had a quiet night on the anchorage, just the three of us. I was beyond tired, even though I wasn’t the one at the helm all day…Brad was doing well, I have no idea what we made for dinner but it was quick….
It is not unusual for us to look at each other at 8:30p and say I’m done and we hit the hay.