Over all it turned into a, quite literally, crappy week. We have stayed / left our boat at Lamb's for the last few years with good results. It is close to Publix, CVS, and West Marine, the facility is decent, and the price is right. We have never had any serious issues until this stay.
This time they had us side-tie the boat at the end of the B docks' covered slips. That seemed fine until the wind blew. The area has a large population of Canada geese that like to observe the area while standing on the roof of the covered slips. Where there is a goose, there is goose poop! When the wind blows, the dried goose poop blows off the roof onto whatever is down below. In our case, that was us!
In a heavy wind, we could hear the s#it falling and hitting the boat sounding like small hail stones. I went out one day with a broom to sweep the side of the boat. By the time I got down one side, it looked like I had done nothing as more had blown off the room. I decided that I had a "job for life"! I gave up and put my broom away. Later Clark followed along with the broom and then a hose after the wind had died down. Throughout our time here, I refused to allow the starboard side windows / port holes to be opened as I did not want to breathe in goose poop dust or find it in my galley!
The folks docked behind us just took possession of their brand new boat that the owner actually helped to build due to staffing shortages. I could not help but feel sorry for him (as well as us) being showered in s#it in a brand new boat!
One day we had strong winds preceding a rain storm. The "hail stones" got more plentiful and hit the deck harder. Then we got torrential rain, and it was literally raining s#it down on the boat. It was streaming down the sides of the boat in a grayish black river. For a while it dammed up at the end of the walkay, and I thought I'd have to go shovel the s#it off. By the time it stopped raining, however, most of the gunk had washed on down the boat and out the scuppers. What had not washed away had splashed up the sides of the boat. Once again Clark pulled out the hose to wash the boat down.
At some point Clark asked the dockmaster if we could move to a more pleasant location. Just about anything would have been better. He said they could not move us as the marina was full and promised that the stuff would quit hitting the decks when the wind changed direction. Ha ha!
Our reservation was through the 7th of December, but we had a good weather window and favorable current coming up, so we decided to get out of the marina before the next wind storm. We talked about picking a day and opted for asap which meant leaving today. Before leaving we had a list of things that had to be done: empty holding tank, fill water tank, buy groceries, do last loads of laundry, mail some packages, and wash the last of the goose poop off the decks so we have a clean boat for travel.
Clark spent yesterday washing the boat from top to bottom. I prayed for no wind and for the predicted rains to hold off until we got the heck out of Dodge! It looked good for a "go" until Clark said he did not feel well again this morning. Oh no! Even so, he agreed we should still leave today. But he said that he did not feel up to cleaning the goose poop off the top of the pilot house, and he could not stand looking at it. So, I climbed out through the front opening of the full enclosure to clean the piled up, wet poop off the boat. What a lovely way to start the day!
Between taking in all the thick lines we had on the boat for Hurricane Nicole, pulling in the extra fenders, and cleaning up the muck, it took longer than usual to get away from the dock. As I finally pulled in my fenders, I used a brush to sweep away the last of the goose poop that had attached itself to the fenders. Needless to say I was extremely happy to say goodbye to that docking spot!
I did not see much on the ride from the marina to the ICW down the St. John's River. I did see enough to notice that we were traveling for a while at around 11 knots with the current, so it was a fast ride for us. Mostly I was busy pulling in lines, sweeping fenders, wrapping up fender boards, stowing equipment, etc.
Later, as we traveled the ICW, I noticed quite a bit of construction / repair of the docks along the waterway. I expect that it was mostly work caused by either Ian or Nicole when they came through here. Other than a couple of Christmas decorations - a Santa, a snowman, and a "Merry Christmas" sign, there was nothing new to look at other than the dock work.
Given the lack of new sights, we sat back and enjoyed the ride and listened to stories on NPR to pass the time.
Clark found an anchorage just north of St. Augustine for the night.
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