St Marys Fly-By

Waterfront at St Marys, Georgia
12:51pm Saturday March 17, 2012

SPOT Track on the St Marys River to St George, Georgia

Two hours after leaving Ft Clinch,  Team Kruger / Team B&B  paddled past the waterfront park fo the City of St Marys, Georgia.   The three-masted schooner in the harbor is the Steelaway. 

It was a beautiful day as SandyBottom and SOS paddled with the tide up the river.  They said the Kruger Cruiser is much faster and easier to paddle than they had expected.   From the dock it looked fast, efficient and comfortable.   

Kruger Cruiser, Full Speed Ahead

Outbound from Ft. Clinch,  with the tide,  up the St. Marys River.



10:49am  on Saturday March 17, 2012



10:49 am  Saturday March 17, 2012

Mosquito Fans

Mosquito Fans

Check out  http://cumberlandsound.blogspot.com/

Loading a Kruger Cruiser

How do you load a Kruger Crusier?    

It's simple.  Start with an empty Kruger Cruiser tied to a bouncy floating dock at a a very busy boat ramp.

Looks comfortable, eh.

Bring lots of gear to the floating dock.

Then bring even more gear.

Start moving stuff from dock to boat and add ribs of the spray cover.

Continue to add stuff.  Start installing spray cover.

Figure out where everything goes.

Make sure each bag or item is attached to the boat with a string and beaner.

Make sure you're not forgetting anything.

Stretch sprayskirt.

Install mast and 1 meter sail.

Step back and take a good look at how it's going.

What about FOOD?   Two Subway sandwiches strapped to the mast should be enough for this fast boat.  (It works for SewSew!)

Finally, bring in some expert boat handlers to help hold the boat away from the dock with their feet.   DragonSlayer's boys are the best.  Dock masters, they are. 

Back at home DragonSlayer uses them as C-clamps when boat building.

Looking good. 

If you're lucky, DragonSlayer micht check the tide tables on his phone.  He lives across the river in St Marys, Georgia.

Wow. Check that expert boat handling.

Plan for a crew of two.  Do not load DragonSlayer's daughter.

 You're lucky.  DragonSlayer's entire family is here!

That's DragonSlayer and daughter on the right,  next to SmokinJoe with bow line,  and Chris at the hellm.  They're WaterTribers crusing over from St Marys to offer moral support for this boat loading ordeal. 

 

Finally,  raise sail and add exactly two (2) willing paddlers with proper safety gear. 

SandyBottom and SOS will do.  

Good to go!

Transition at Ft. Clinch

On arrival at Ft Clinch,  Team B&B Yacht Designs immediately began the transition to becoming Team Kruger. 

SandyBottom and SOS were met at the boat ramp by DancesWithSandyBottom who had brought along the Kruger Cruiser the crew would be using for river travel in the next stage. The Kruger Cruiser is perfect for travel through the rivers-and-portage stage across Florida.  It has a foot-controlled rudder, two comfortable tractor seats, plenty of storage space, a sleek hull,  and a one square-meter sail useful for downwind runs.  It does not have amas.  The only foils in the water will be the rudder and two very light carbon-fiber paddles.



Best boat for the rivers/portage stage

SB and SOS arrived hungry and sleep deprived,  but spent the afternoon unloading gear, preparing the Mosquito for trailer travel, and reorganizing gear and supplies.  DWSB brought them Subway sandwiches and helped with the unloading and reloading. 

The boat ramp facility includes two restrooms and a large open-air pavilion useful for sorting through gear in the shade  --or for having lunch.  From the floating dock, everything in the Mosquito was hauled to the pavilion.  The Mosquito rode the trailer up the steep boat ramp to the parking lot and was un-rigged and folded up for travel.  Meanwhile the boat ramp saw heavy traffic from power boats lining up to come in and go out.



Removing the Rudder



At top of the boat ramp

Ready to Roll



Sorting and organizing gear and supplies

Shade under the pavilion

SandyBottom and SOS spent the afternoon Friday at the boat ramp facility reorganizing and preparing for an early Saturday morning launch in the Kruger Cruiser.  By dinner time operations had moved 4 miles down the road to the Hampton Inn and Suites on the river waterfront of Fernandina Beach.  Naps, doing laundy, more organizing, and hot showers gave way to falling asleep.   Both SB and SOS could not stay awake and slept through dinner time.  They slept soundly until Saturday morning at 6:00am.

Fernandina Beach, FL

SB and SOS have come a long way from Ft DeSoto on Tampa Bay.