Cool boat, out sailing in 17-20 mph winds - looked alot like a Bahamian sailing boat -- the guy on the tiller is sitting out on a board outboard of the hull!
"WELCOME to Newfound Harbor" greeted these guys as they sailed close to the transom of our boat!
Welcome indeed! Have you heard the old adage that if you're a cruiser, either you've run aground, you're going to run aground or you're lying? Well, we're not liars!
After a great downwind sail from Marathon to Newfound Harbor, we followed the channel behind Little Palm Island where all the rich folks are enjoying their expensive amenities. Little Palm was the island where the exterior shots for the movie PT-109 were filmed. Formerly called Little Munson Island, but I guess that wasn't as romantic to attract rich folks as "Little Palm", but I digress... We considered dropping our anchor right there, but as hard as it was blowing, we decided it would be calmer farther in the harbor.
It's not that they don't like sailboats, but the Newfound Harbor folks got tired of sailboats dragging into their power lines across the harbor and designated an anchorage for those of us with tall metal masts that possibly might knock out their power. Unfortunately they forgot that some of us need more than five feet of water!
To get to the outer edge of the designated anchorage, you come in the channel between red "4" and "6" and green "3" and "5" markers - BUT - there's a large sandbar smack dab in the middle of the channel! So you either hug the green side or the red side once you're past the red "4".
The green side is wider and that's the way we've always come in. But the red side is closer to the designated anchorage ... what we didn't realize was it also is chock full of crab pots planted directly in the 6' narrow band of water.
While avoiding the crab pots, we noticed we didn't seem to be moving forward. Oh, did I mention that it was also LO tide?
David reacted immediately, had me pull out the jib and the boat heeled over just enough - now we're thankful for all the extra wind we didn't anticipate today - to drag us through about four boatlengths of shoal water - the depthsounder was reading 4'9" and since we installed the new depthsounder, it's been calibrated to real soundings, so 5'3" or more like 5'5" is our depth.
As soon as it deepened to 6', we dropped the anchor, as planned, just on the periphery of the designated anchoring area. It was just everything in between that we hadn't planned for!
Whew! Too much excitement for one day! Now to get showers, enjoy some jerk chicken and watch the sun set with Fat Albert in view. :) Cheers!
Welcome indeed! Have you heard the old adage that if you're a cruiser, either you've run aground, you're going to run aground or you're lying? Well, we're not liars!
After a great downwind sail from Marathon to Newfound Harbor, we followed the channel behind Little Palm Island where all the rich folks are enjoying their expensive amenities. Little Palm was the island where the exterior shots for the movie PT-109 were filmed. Formerly called Little Munson Island, but I guess that wasn't as romantic to attract rich folks as "Little Palm", but I digress... We considered dropping our anchor right there, but as hard as it was blowing, we decided it would be calmer farther in the harbor.
It's not that they don't like sailboats, but the Newfound Harbor folks got tired of sailboats dragging into their power lines across the harbor and designated an anchorage for those of us with tall metal masts that possibly might knock out their power. Unfortunately they forgot that some of us need more than five feet of water!
To get to the outer edge of the designated anchorage, you come in the channel between red "4" and "6" and green "3" and "5" markers - BUT - there's a large sandbar smack dab in the middle of the channel! So you either hug the green side or the red side once you're past the red "4".
The green side is wider and that's the way we've always come in. But the red side is closer to the designated anchorage ... what we didn't realize was it also is chock full of crab pots planted directly in the 6' narrow band of water.
While avoiding the crab pots, we noticed we didn't seem to be moving forward. Oh, did I mention that it was also LO tide?
David reacted immediately, had me pull out the jib and the boat heeled over just enough - now we're thankful for all the extra wind we didn't anticipate today - to drag us through about four boatlengths of shoal water - the depthsounder was reading 4'9" and since we installed the new depthsounder, it's been calibrated to real soundings, so 5'3" or more like 5'5" is our depth.
As soon as it deepened to 6', we dropped the anchor, as planned, just on the periphery of the designated anchoring area. It was just everything in between that we hadn't planned for!
Whew! Too much excitement for one day! Now to get showers, enjoy some jerk chicken and watch the sun set with Fat Albert in view. :) Cheers!
Safely anchored in Newfound Harbor -- we'd like to be closer to the little beach fringed island in front, but the water's WAY too shallow & we've had enough shallow water for one day!
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