CRUISING ADVENTURES AND GUNK HOLING IN SMALL SAILBOATS 10

Article By Richard Frye
Part 10 of the series: Backpacking On The Water

There is nothing more pleasant than to wake up and see the sun peering through a porthole as it rises over the water and marsh! Small cresting waves sparkle as the bright sunlight bounces off the tops and each one. This action presents a different picture with each ripple in the water. This was my greeting from the sea and mother earth! I had a fairly restful sleep and was now ready to venture further south.

No vessel had entered my area during the night and boat traffic was at a minimum as far as I could see! I fired up the alcohol stove, and put on a pot of coffee to brew. I had 6 eggs and two would be for a breakfast sandwich with canned bacon I had picked up at a local K-Mart for $.88 before I set sail. I purchased 8 cans, but it was saltier the Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake combined! It had to be rinsed or better yet soaked in fresh water for a while, then drained and rinsed a second time to remove the salt preservative. Once that was done it was a great food item to have since it did not need refrigeration until after it was opened and was very tasty! It usually didn’t last long enough to warrant putting on ice! It was full of flavor, and a great meat addition to just about any meal! Eggs were also good to have on any cruise as they would keep for a surprisingly long time on board, but care had to be taken so as not to break or crack them. A cracked egg was thrown overboard. Bacteria could easily find its way through the tiniest opening on an eggshell. I found that out the hard way and became deathly ill while on a journey to Lake Okeechobee. But I do remember some of the best bass fishing I’ve even encountered. The egg thing doesn’t need to be repeated no matter how great the fish are biting! Took me almost 8 days to completely recover! So I am careful to examine each egg before I crack the shell. If you don’t check for cracks, the damage is done when it hits the frying pan even though the egg might look ok. Don’t chance it! The results are not worth risking your body for a bacterial infection!

The breakfast sandwich was wonderful and topped with sharp cheddar cheese and whole fig preserves! A thick layer of bacon strips topped it off! This was not your everyday breakfast sandwich but my own specialty that was often requested by others while doing some group cruising and mainly camping on a beach or some island sanctuary. This excellent combination was seasoned with freshly ground peppercorns, and ground sea salt from the Mediterranean Sea! I think it came from somewhere near the Grecian Islands. Anyway, I bought it at an import shop in Savannah and liked it!

The group cruising didn’t happen that often because most of the people I knew were tied to the pilings so to speak with regular everyday jobs. Saturday and Sunday was their allotted time to enjoy sailing! It was fun for a get together with good friends on a weekend at some island or deserted beach. A big bon fire and smell of wonderful food filled the air. Traces of booze floated through the atmosphere as well! Great party people, and yes they were back at work with a severe cases of the Monday morning blues, hangovers, eating aspirin like M&Ms and whining all day, etc.! I was kind of a party pooper, and somewhere many nautical miles down the ICW, I was enjoying life hopefully without a hangover, when their alarms blasted them out of bed on that gruesome day. Some had other names for Monday but to me it was just another beautiful time span that Mother Nature offered for folks like me to enjoy. Another day to live! I was so fortunate to have my freedom and a reserve of cash that was saved just for this type of life. At one time I was working three jobs so it didn’t come easy by any means! Now, my expenses were minimal, and all extra funds went into the Ships Accounts. That paid for major and minor repairs, bottom jobs, anything pertaining to the boat, right down to a new sail tie or screw for a hinge. One section of this ledger was called the Ships Own. From there it handled the expenses for mooring and slip fees at home port or while traveling to an unknown destination. This system made it easy for me to know exactly how much I was spending and if I was getting my money’s worth. All receipts were kept and filed in a waterproof box with all records, ships logs and daily journals that this writing is taken from. My Quartermaster section is where food money was controlled, and any miscellaneous things I might need such as fishing supplies, batteries, stove fuel, etc. It only took a glance to know if I was overspending, or still had some to spare! I still use this system today.

One thing I enjoyed was working while I was on an adventure cruise. I had a standing job as a bartender for 3 months in Daytona, and even had free mooring offered by the motel-lounge which lasted from March till May! Then I was off to some other place. This time as a working sailor was spent giving the boat a new bottom job because I had extra money coming in for refitting, professional sail repair if needed or even a new sail! I also touched up the bright work. These funds also help pay my base camp or apartment rental as I called it so that I would have a land based bed to lay down in once in a while!

I washed down the last of my super egg sandwich with the last two sips of coffee and prepared to clean up the galley and then weigh anchor. It wasn’t even 7am yet! I had planned my departure around 8 and to my amazement there was still no boat traffic!

Now with everything in order, I motored from my mooring and out into a larger body of water. A gentle north east wind felt warm and soothing. Today’s sailing would be great and I hoisted all sails and took up the slack in my sheets. Sea Mistress jumped to life as her sharp bow sliced through the crests of small waves! We were on our way once more. I did remember to make another cup of coffee and have it ready after she settled in. I held the tiller with my leg and enjoyed the coffee as we sailed down the ICW. I didn’t realize I was so close to it until I left the creek. Now I knew exactly where I was! The numbed markers showed me my exact location on my strip charts. Now I could go to the nearest marina and make my phone calls.

Around noon I made my way into a creek where a sign pointed the way to a small marina only 400 yards off the ICW. I tied up at the courtesy dock, with smiles and help from friendly people and a young lad of about 10 years of age. They welcomed me like I was family. I didn’t know any of them! I called the marina, my landlord, and my neighbor and all was taken care of at least for another 3 months. The best way to go is to pay up quarterly, and no questions were asked when you gave a check or money order to them for advanced payments! Everyone was always glad to get that! I mailed them and marked them Rush Mail and would call to see it they got them. I couldn’t believe that stamps were 6 cents now and suppose to go up more next year! What was going on in this world! Damn! Twelve cents just to mail two lousy letters with money orders in them! The Rush Mail didn’t cost anymore and didn’t do anything to expedite the letters either! But it looked official! I’m glad the little marina sold money orders but I had to pay almost 20 cents for that service! Wow! They were making a killing off folks that stopped by and bought those! No wonder they were so friendly! They had a small restaurant too that was open till 10pm so I decide to have a nice home cooked meal, and pick up a few food items at their chandlery/store. I ordered two fried chicken breasts, mashed potatoes and gravy, black-eyed peas, and black berry cobbler for dessert. The waitress brought me some chopped onion for my peas and they were super delicious, cooked in real ham hock with big chunks of ham still in the peas that must have just fallen right off the bone! The food was fabulous! Everything was home cooked to perfection. I noticed that a lot of people who lived in the surrounding area came there just for a meal. A very popular place it was, as I soon discovered!

I glanced back into the kitchen as the swinging door blasted open when one of the girls rushed to deliver an order to a booth near me. The cook appeared to be much like a female version of Nikita Khrushchev. She had a body like Haystacks Calhoun and was wielding a huge metal spoon the size of a manure shove! But the food was fantastic! She must have weighed in close to what the famous wrestler weighed at well over 600 pounds, and was almost as big! No I certainly didn’t want to think about waking up with that cooking me breakfast! My colossal egg sandwich would suffice! She looked at me and smiled warmly with a wink as the door swung back shut! A chill ran up my spine and I paid my bill, tipped the waitress and left! I wasn’t as big as her leg and didn’t weigh as much! She wasn’t wearing a wedding band either and I didn’t stop to wonder or even think about asking why she wasn’t married! Oh God! I could have nightmares about that wink directed at me! My machete would sleep by my side all night!

It was getting late in the day and I thought about resting for a while, maybe for a day or so and see if there was anything of interest in the area. I’d have to ask around. I did see four other sailboats larger than me. But it seems that all the other cruising boats were bigger than mine no matter where I went! I paid my transient fee for the nights mooring that was only $1.25 since my boat was technically less than 25 feet. But that was the going rate and it was that way at most marinas. That also included an electrical plug-in for appliances if I needed the extension cord for anything, and a water hose if I wanted to hook up to fill jugs or holding tanks, a free shower and bathroom facilities to all patrons moored at the docks.

The store closed at 6 pm so I strolled leisurely in that direction and browsed through their supplies, fishing tackle, and food stores. I got a few groceries and put them away. All was secure and Sea Mistress was ready for the evening.

With 5 hours of day light left, I decided to walk down the road to see what was down that way, and soon discovered nothing but a long dirt road of sand with palmetto growing on each side with huge mosquitoes the size of small turkeys buzzing in my ears! They needed landing lights! Standing water could be seen off the road on each side and gave the setting an eerie swamp effect that was without a doubt, snake city! So with nothing of interest or in sight ahead I turned back toward the marina after walking almost a full mile. The walk felt refreshing, and I looked forward to the shower and a restful night of reading from a selection in my small personal library. I also needed to go over my charts while in good light and decide where I really wanted to go. Reading by lanterns is ok but it’s more relaxing in a well illuminated place, like in the cockpit of my little ship under my canvas sun shade! I would also have myself an evening cocktail of Strawberry Hill over ice from my chilled Mason jar! Oh what a relaxing moment! The color is so nice! I need to get a bigger jar! I also need more ice!

The other sailboats showed no sign of life and I went back to the store and asked if anyone was onboard any of them. The boy who had helped me tie up earlier was on the wooden sidewalk. He told me that the people in that slip, as he pointed a dirty finger toward a nice 34 foot ketch, “Those people went to town but they always come back before dark.” I thanked him and wandered back over to Sea Mistress. The wind was very light and a clear as a bell sky gave me a sign of another wonderful day of sailing to look forward to.

I kept a watchful eye out for the owners of the ketch, and as the boy told me, they did return. I man and his wife in their late 40s, or early 50s parked their Ford Falcon Ranchero and began carrying paper bags of groceries on board. I was there and offered help and they accepted. I grabbed a couple of bags that would save someone a return trip and followed them down the gangplank and boarded the ketch. Wow, what a nice clean and pretty new boat! I was astonished to find that she was almost 12 years old! She was pristine, and clean inside to the point of almost being spotless!

We introduced ourselves and they offered me a beverage, but I raised my Mason jar that had been sitting on the dock and thanked them anyway! I had my own! They looked at the pinkish stuff in my jar, but didn’t ask what it was! I’m glad they didn’t ask me what I was drinking, as they pulled out a bottle of wine that would have cost me a month’s salary! They were nice as most cruising folks are that I’ve met over the years and the lady or first mate I should say made some snacks to go along with the wine and served them in the cockpit. Mostly cheeses and fancy crackers but she included some kind of sliced summer sausage too. That was later described as a special Kielbasa sausage they brought from New Bedford, Mass, their home port,. I asked about the Falcon and it belonged to the marina. If I was there for more than three days, I was welcome to use it for special errands.

They had bought a good supply of the sausage along because it was only purchased it twice a year from a special shop! She had browned it in their galley while John and I were talking.

He had introduced his wife as Mara! What an unusual name! They were both from New Bedford and often sailed the entire ICW all the way to Key West. That was their destination but they also stopped at numerous places and marinas where they had as many friends. Some sailing buddies would be meeting up with them further down the ICW and I would also see them again in the near future, just a few months away! Mara gave me a cubit measure of sausage to take with me and said it would keep without refrigeration for a long time, but it was better kept in a cool place. Mara then told me that she cut it in shorter pieces and stored it in jars in the bilge or in the cooler and showed me how to do it. She added that padding the jars was not an option!

It was delicious and I made a good time of eating the part she cooked with delicious cheese and crackers, but my drink needed a refill so I excused myself to head over to Sea Mistress, but John said, “Here, try a little of this, we have plenty! No need to go back over there just for a little glass of vino!” and he poured my jar full of the wine he had just opened! My eyes got wide! Mara sipped on hers in a dainty manner, while John and I were not so dainty and slugged it down in big gulps! Oh my goodness! It was fantastic! This was some of the best wine I had ever tasted! Smooth as silk and chilled to a perfect temperature with an impeccable flavor! It was a white German wine that was wonderful! My Strawberry Hill would have to wait!

Their boat was called ON A WHIM. Different name to say the least, but made sense when he told me they boat the boat on a whim! Right out of the blue. He wanted to name her Out Of The Blue, but that was the name of his brother’s boat that ironically bought his boat right out of the blue just as he did!

His brother wasn’t a cruising sailor but was sailing a lot at Cape Cod but his boat was smaller than mine! A 22 footer. John had taken an early retirement due to some serious health conditions but was fine now, and Mara was a sailing housewife that had raised their three daughters who were now out of college and scattered across the world. One married, living in Colorado, and the other two in pursuit of careers in Europe!

Our pleasant and relaxing conversation lasted well into the evening and around 9:30pm; I bid my farewell until sunrise and thanked them for their hospitality and a wonderful time. I was tired and did not realize it at the moment. The wine might have had something to do with me drifting into dreamland not long after I had boarded Sea Mistress. The charts would be there when I woke up and so would the shower! So much for planned events! My life revolved around the unexpected!

I woke up just as the sun was peeking over the horizon and felt refreshed after a full 8 hours of restful sleep. I really needed that because most of the time when cruising alone I slept on the edge most of the night. Forever alert for any danger that might pass my way and that did happen occasionally! As I prepared my coffee with sleepy eyes I did notice that my machete was still hanging up and I smiled to myself! I really didn’t need it! But that wine could have caused problems if she had come around! I suddenly felt ill! In all I had to laugh at my thoughts an assumed they were greatly exaggerated! She was far too big for my boat anyway! I’m so bad sometimes! The lewd thoughts some people have!

My coffee hit the spot as I gazed around the marsh, marina and the silent boats bobbing gently at their moorings. This was a quiet place and I might just stay another day! In the restaurant I sat near a window as to be drenched in the morning sun while I was having breakfast. Two eggs, grits, thick sliced bacon, hash browned potatoes and biscuits with black berry jam that made my day start right! The waitress poured my coffee and I noticed a different cook through the swinging doors. I felt safer for some reason!

John and Mara were on their way over and I had reserved a place for them at my booth. The waitress already had my order. We had a pleasant meal and began to discuss sailing plans. I was about to be invited on an adventure that I hadn’t planned on