there is a sign at the dinghy dock that says that it will be DRY two hours before and after low tide so when we were done checking out the fort, we dinghied around looking for alternatives but also decided that consuelo would have to go at 8:00 p.m. with low tide at 10:00 p.m. unfortunately, the sign on the dinghy dock is wrong - it is more like THREE hours before and after low tide rather than the two posted. bottom line, we ran out of water for the dinghy and even if one of us had been willing to pull on boots and walk, carrying consuelo, it still meant climbing a slippery, muddy ladder with only one hand. the only other alternative was to trespass on a private dock. unfortunately, it looked like the three homes nearby were occupied judging from the lights that were on. we picked the home with a floating dock that had a house that was furthest away from shore. luckily, i had consuelo on a leash because she made a beeline for the ramp! tom and i stayed on the dinghy and i just hung on to the leash but consuelo wasn't cooperating so we decided to try again at a later hour. by that time, everything was dark and quiet and we motored in on stealth mode. again, no cooperation from consuelo even though i got off the dinghy and walked around the floating dock with her. she kept trying to go up the ramp. we finally gave up and went home. i don't get it - she embarrasses me constantly by peeing on the docks elsewhere because she can't make it to shore and the one time i need her to pee NOW, i get no help at all. in the end, all three of us were so stressed about the whole thing that we just all went home. tom's suggestion was to put her bed in the cockpit as it was a "mild night" and leave her there. i told him to go to bed and that i would "handle it" (without any clear idea of what i was going to do!). consuelo went to bed and fell asleep, and because she is sort of deaf now, i just tiptoed quietly around her and went to bed myself, figuring i would hear her if she got up anyway. bless her little heart, she held it until the next morning and we actually had to wake her up before heading out. i barely slept that night and at 5:20 a.m., tom and i took her to the fort's dinghy dock. again, the timing was critical - at that time, the water was fast running out from underneath the dinghy. to make matters worse, i had set our (very expensive) flashlight down on the dock before climbing up that ladder and when i got consuelo up, there, the damn thing rolled off and went splash and disappeared forever. the whole thing just made me sick, as if i wasn't sick enough from stress from the night before! that whole scenario was just ridiculous - we enjoyed fort frederica but i am willing to pass on it from now on and PAY for a slip at a marina not to have this kind of stress or subject my aging dog to that again, good lord!
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| shrimp boat going by |
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| fort frederica's dinghy dock |
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| "street" |
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| what is left of the original fort |
interestingly enough, totally out of character for tom, he came up with the idea of trespassing all by himself! the idea was already on my mind as we were motoring up to the anchorage - it is not out of character for me as i have a criminal nature to begin with, but probably the other thing that helps is that i am female and "foreign" and when i come up to complete strangers with consuelo and her big brown eyes in tow and ask for a favor, it is very difficult for people to say no. i never ask for anything hard anyway. who would say no to a cute little 14-year-old beagle who absolutely has to pee? we look harmless enough. but, like i said, it is totally out of character for tom - just to show you how desperate the situation was. either way, the implementation of the trespass was entirely up to me - he certainly has had no practice with stealth mode, sneakiness and the like.
the other thing that happened that evening at fort frederica was the proposition that we take an outside (ocean) route to cumberland island - exiting at st. simon's sound and reentering at st. mary's inlet. as the weather looked like it was going to cooperate, it certainly was a viable option. the funny thing was that prior to even considering that, mark and tom were on the phone batting back and forth about getting to the trouble spot at jekyll creek, i.e. leaving late in the morning and arriving at mid-tide and rising versus leaving really early in the morning and arriving as the tide is falling (???) but still having "some" water, the OPPOSITE of what mark had been telling us during all those briefings since the SAIL rally started! the thing is, sometimes you get so focused on that one little detail that you forget to look at the BIG picture! in other words, bypass the trouble spot altogether by going out into the ocean, weather permitting. when it finally clicked, it really made a lot of sense. of course, while all of this all-important decision-making process was going on, i was trying to work - just another regular day at the office for me.
i will say, however, that the next dog is going to learn how to do it on the swim platform.
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