Wednesday, October 19, 2011 – White City free dock, mile 329.5

The wind came up during the night as forecast and was blowing 25 to 30 knots out of the northwest. We had paid for a week at the marina and it was now over. We were eager to move on and the plan was to join Roger and Dita at the White City dock for the night – just a few miles away.

We spent the morning with our last minute chores including another stop at the hardware, sporting goods, liquor and grocery stores. Gale also had Roger’s boat propane tank filled for him. A special treat was a pancake breakfast at McDonald’s before going back to the boat.


 
 
 The wind was blowing a steady 30 mph when we left the dock at 11:15 am. The waves were 3 to 4 feet in the bay and it was a crazy one mile ride to the safety of the canal. In retrospect, we said we wouldn’t do it again because the risk of finding ourselves aground or up on the rocks was too great. Fortunately, we didn’t have any mishaps. Once we were in the canal, it was a slow ride. We weren’t fighting the wind and waves anymore, but the tide was against us and we had a 2-1/2 to 3 knot current to contend with. It took us two hours to travel the seven miles to the free dock.

At 1:15 pm, we were tucked on the inside of the fixed docks at White City. The canal had been quite wavy with a few white caps when we turned the corner to travel east on the ICW, but the inside dock was very well protected and we had no wave or wind action whatsoever. The sun was shining and it was a lovely afternoon with temps in the upper 60’s.

Dita and Roger invited us to dinner on their boat. During the afternoon, Dita baked a fresh loaf of bread and shared a piece with us. The evening meal was absolutely wonderful and very much appreciated. We enjoyed pork roast, baby red potatoes, fresh cole slaw and giant sliced tomatoes. Roger made Bloody Marys and served some fabulous French red wine with our meal. What a lovely evening with friends.