At least I was smart enough to turn the refrigerator off and leave it open all night to let the cold air in. That's a good savings on the batteries. I no longer had anything in the freezer. So that made sense.
It’s also nice to have had a daughter who worked for Under Armour. I quickly dressed in UA layers: first, a base layer, then a micro fleece mock tee, and finally a fleece sweater… all Under Armour. I was toasty warm… except my nose.
Yesterday and today, I woke up and spent some time on deck in the sun before having breakfast. It just happens to be low tide in the morning right now. Both times, I saw dolphins fishing in the river. They would swim downstream with the current along the river bank and heard fish to the shallow areas. Then in a synchronous manner , they would use their tails to create a wave and wash the fish up on the river bank. This picture is one of those dolphins; it also shows the heron following. The heron picks up the fish that are washed too far ashore for the dolphins to get.
While I was eating breakfast, I turned on the VHF radio to get the area’s weather. It just so happened the radio was set to the distress channel (Ch 16) and someone said something about the Little Shark River. So, I called back and asked them to repeat. It turns out that one of the sailboats (Valhalla) in the cove was aground. He was trying to pick up his anchor at low tide and went aground. He wanted to move to a better spot like I had yesterday morning. He figures he dropped the anchor near high tide.
He was trying to call Tow Boat US. We spoke for a few minutes on the radio. I explained the tide would rise and he would float off long before Tow Boat US arrived… if he could reach them. After I told him the times of the tidal changes, he agreed to wait. We scheduled to talk on the radio again at noon. High tide would be about 2:30pm. Before noon, I noticed he had moved his boat. So, the strategy worked for him.
He called at noon as we agreed. It turns out that he is heading north too. I explained I was leaving in the morning on Saturday. Actually, I was planning on leaving on Sunday morning. However, before noon I listened to the latest weather forecast and decided Saturday would be a good day to leave. I’m hoping to make it to Marco Island. He is trying to make it to a bay just south of Marco Island. Later I checked my charts, but could not figure out where that would be. The only reasonable bay would have a long entry and exit.
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| Valhalla on the Little Shark River at sunset |
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| Last night on the Little Shark River, looking west. |
As they say, "red sky at night, is a sailor's delight!" So, I knew it was time to go. That is the plan… depart Little Shark River early in the morning for Marco Island.
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