09 December<\/p>\n
We were happy to have a dockhand assist us in getting off the dock today as we had to do a 180 degree turn in the fairway. \u00a0The dockhand kept hold of our stern dock line which helped prevent us from drifting into the boat ahead, the boat behind or the boat across from us.<\/p>\n
But after that successful maneuver we had a pleasant morning making\u00a0our way down the channel.<\/p>\n
As we approached a draw bridge we saw our friends on s\/v Belle Bateaux<\/em>\u00a0who had left Fernandina Beach 30 minutes before us\u00a0<\/em>docked at a city park off the ICW. \u00a0We waited until after\u00a0successfully arranging a bridge opening and traversing across a strong sweeping side current to cross the St. John River and reenter the ICW before hailing them to be sure all is well.<\/p>\n They explained how they had decided to do a short day today and in the next breath warned us we were approaching a bridge where we could expect a 5 knot current going against us. \u00a0 We jokingly said “guess we’ll be going slow through that bridge”. \u00a0We learned they were indeed right.<\/p>\n We reviewed the notes in the Cruising Guide and only then really noticed the comments on “strong” and “unusually strong” currents at the next two bridges. \u00a0We started doing some calculations and realized we would be hitting these bridges\u00a0at about low tide which calculates to\u00a0the strongest current against us most likely….oops we didn’t plan that one too well.<\/p>\n As we approached the first bridge the swirling currents made it pretty difficult for Bob to control the boat as he lined up on it. \u00a0The current was bouncing us around quite a bit. \u00a0But once under the bridge the current dissipated and there was no real problem. \u00a0Whew! that wasn’t so bad.<\/p>\n The next bridge was a different story. \u00a0In Bob’s words there was “off the charts crazy swirling current” and he really struggled to keep the boat straight as we approached. \u00a0The current pushed\u00a0us around even more forcefully and we would be straight one second and almost horizontal the next going from right to left. \u00a0We really wondered if we were going to be able to pass under this bridge without hitting the sides if we were pushed to one side or the other at the wrong time.<\/p>\n Bob did a great job getting us straight, and thankfully again the swirling subsided\u00a0as we proceeded under the bridge. \u00a0But this time the current was even stronger against us. \u00a0We went from going over \u00a06 MPH to less than 2 as we slowly plowed through the current. \u00a0(Something to realize is that unlike a car, there are times when going slower you have less control of a boat, since you sometimes need momentum to keep you going in the desired direction.) \u00a0We both held our breaths as Bob struggled, and were very thankful when we cleared the other side of the bridge.<\/p>\n Belle Bateau probably called this one right by waiting for a rising\u00a0\u00a0tide or slack water tomorrow to navigate these two bridges. \u00a0Lesson learned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 09 December We were happy to have a dockhand assist us in getting off the dock today as we had to do a 180 degree turn in the fairway. \u00a0The dockhand kept hold of our stern dock line which helped prevent us from drifting into the boat ahead, the boat behind or the boat across … Continue reading Crazy Currents<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}