Sep 30 - our good deed for the day

First, let me apologize for the false advertising. I said that there were new pictures posted under "recent" -- well, there are now, thanks to Carol who pointed out that there were no new pictures. It seems that I generated them, checked them on my local drive and then forgot to upload them.

Our good deed boating history is now up to four, as far as I can remember: 1) Claudia, stranded on their Sea-doo half-way to Lost Channel; 2) Jan & Bruce leaving Whippoorwill for the season; 3) guy out of gas in Ponce Inlet; 4) motor failure between Palm Coast and Matanzas Inlet. I'm counting times that we've towed other people who are having boating problems of one sort or another.

We were a little late out of here yesterday, not actually launching the boat until around 11:30, up at the Seabreeze Bridge at Mason Ave. in Holly Hill. That's the boat launch where we did the sea trial. I figured that would be a good starting point for this ride because we could then go directly to Bluewater Boats afterwards. That worked out well, from a logistics standpoint but not so well from a car standpoint. I doubt if I'll ever use that ramp again -- it has a very steep slope. Launching wasn't a problem ... hauling out was. I could smell the clutch. We're still going though ...

The ride was good, but we didn't get any further than Matanzas Inlet. I'd intended to go further but I also wanted to get back to the boat ramp by 4pm which included a stop at an island with Abby. There was no excitement at the island; the water was murky and there were no, or we couldn't see any, minnows. I'll take her to the usual island tomorrow for a romp.

We also came close to being stranded in the Inlet. The tide was going out and the water is very shallow in that area. I'm not sure if you can even get a boat out to the ocean, but I jumped out into the foot-deep water and guided the boat back to deeper water, not wanting to be churning sand with the engine.

Next time we get that far we'll continue to St. Augustine, which is only 10 miles further. That had been my original plan but we ran out of time. We left the Inlet at 2pm heading home, fully intending to be back before 4pm, but hadn't gone far before we saw someone anchored and waving. On the way north we'd seen someone anchored and waving, but he was waving to slow us down because he was fishing. We did slow down and he gave us a very annoyed look -- which is dumb because he's fishing in the Intracoastal Waterway in a 30mph zone ... what does he expect ? We do slow down if we see kayaks etc. but fishermen ? You want to fish here, put up with the waves from passing boats.

Anyway, it soon became clear that these guys were not asking us just to slow down. Something about getting up on the bow of the boat and waving both arms gave that away. Their motor had died, first trip of the year, even after they'd spent $1,000 on maintenance, so they said. Whatever. I fashioned a towing harness behind the boat and got the hooked up. The tide was running full tilt so that was not easy. Their anchor was dug way in so I ended up having to pull them and the anchor to get it unstuck. We then towed them 3 miles or so at 5-6 mph back into Palm Coast, to the end of the canal where they lived. We then had to putt putt out of the canal back to the ICW and were on our way.

We got to Bluewater Boats at 4:45 -- they close at 5pm. I still had to flush the motor, rinse the brakes, wash down the boat, but Monica was cheerful and we were out of there around 5:15.

Today I'm riding, doing a 200k -- a 200k that is longer than that by about 10 miles / 16k as I recall. It's my own Permanent, from here to St. Augustine. The last time / only time that I rode it was with Judith; this time I'll be alone. I may vary the route, have not decided. The important thing is to get checked in at the 7-11 close to here, which I intend to do around 7am, then at the mid-point, then back at the 7-11.

Hopefully it will go reasonably quickly. Right now the temperature is 61F -- brrr compared to what we've been used to. It's going up to 85F though, so the cool won't last long. It's a lot warmer here than up north though, where they're having "rain and snow" right now with 36F.

The riding has been going faster. 3:57 ... what's that ? That was my time at 70 miles the other day. I wasn't consciously trying to break 4 hours. My time is typically closer to 4:25 for 70 miles. It does help to be riding unloaded -- no rack, no large pack, no heavy wheels, no lights ... a pleasure. The Hummer H3, not quite a Hummer. The lightweight bike, the Lynskey, is still up north but once the Hummer is stripped down to basics, it's only a pound or so heavier. Well, it's probably closer to 2 pounds heavier because I've still got the heavier crankset and derailleur, more chain etc. A couple of pounds doesn't matter so much on the flat anyway, it's more the stripped-off air drag of all the other stuff that makes the difference.

I'll be back too late to pickup the boat today and besides, if I picked it up today it would be too late to take it to the marina. Tomorrow Abby and I will pick it up, launch it, go for a ride and then leave it at the marina. A new era in boating will have arrived.

This morning I got up early because I still hadn't cleaned up the garage, moved stuff out of the way, for the furnace work. That's now complete. I've had breakfast and will leave around 6:45.

On another topic, I did talk to Marion and Eleanor yesterday, don't think that I got that into my blog. They were both surprised to hear from me. My aunt will be buried today in Brantford. I heard from Jason, who had seen the obit in the Brantford Expositor -- I should go online and check for that -- ah ha -- I did find it -- learned a few things in the process.

On my Mom's side of the family we are now the older generation. I guess that it had to happen ... better than the alternative !

Onward.