Day 135: Thursday, January 17, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: The big news today was the wind. The cold front that has been freezing the rest of the country (including Cindy in Mesa, Arizona) finally made its way down here. Thankfully, it only misted a little – no real rain but the waves were sloshing around the channel bouncing off of everything taking Aurora for a ride. The winds were gusting up to 30 mph according to one of the boaters in the mooring field. It was a very difficult and wet ride to get to shore. Some boats had to be tied more securely to avoid banging against the dock and others just decided to go for a ride all by themselves. One boat anchored off the channel on the other side of the bridge started dragging downwind right towards the Lynx Schooner. Luckily, the Coast Guard has a boat right across the channel and someone there noticed it before it crashed into the bridge or the boat. They were able to get it under control and towed it to their dock for safe keeping until the owner could be contacted.

I wasted some time in the library/laundry room where the room wasn’t moving in all different directions but finally had to return to the boat for the night. It was a rock and rolly night but it makes a big difference when you are fairly confident in your lines and know the causes of most of the noises – click, click, click…that’s the snatch blog hitting the deck; squeak, squeak, squeak…that’s the lines straining against the cleats; slosh, slosh, slosh…that’s the waves hitting the stern of the boat; ping, ping, ping…that’s the flags hitting the side stay as they are whipped in the wind; scratch, scratch, scratch… that’s the fish eating the barnacles and grass growing on the bottom of the hull. Even with all the motion and noise, I slept soundly through the night.