home

‹ previous page  1  2  3  4  5   next page ›

In the wheelhouse, a photo shows Anne laden with oysters. She could carry 12 tons.

Geoff Jones says, it just turned out that the southernmost point, the ending point in his trek would be Key West (his take: a “perpetual frat party.”) He toyed with venturing further to the Dry Tortugas but the open waters of the Gulf and the shallow-keeled Anne seemed an unsteady mix. “This is more of an inland boat,” he says.

From his perch on the wheelhouse floor, Reef, takes five from the action of barking greetings.

After less than a week in Key West, he pointed Anne north and to what he says he had more interest in seeing – some of the towns along the ICW.

On this, Anne’s most extensive trip , she did get tested. Jones said he and the boat got “beaten up crossing Port Royal Sound” in South Carolina Winds of 25-30 knots were throwing “solid green spray over the top of the wheelhouse,” he says. The salt was “good for the wood” on his boat, he notes, “but not for the metal bits.”

Forward deck on Anne.

On the whole he says, Anne handled well. Despite displacing 16 tons over her 48 foot length, Jones could coax 6 knots out of a gallon of gas, so long as he kept the speed to that. (It drank 10 gallons per hour if he pushed it to 10 knots.) The trick was not to go so fast as to throw a wake, which Jones defines as “the measurement of the ineffectiveness of your propulsion system.”

Sink in the wheelhouse.

At the beginning of the trip, Geoff Jones was accompanied by a friend who brought along a motorcycle and side car. (The wide deck accommodated it easily..) But they were off the boat after meeting an old girlfriend in Maryland. For the rest of the trip it’s been just Geoff and his Golden Retriever, Reef. Man and dog had stopped in Oriental on their way down the ICW. He said it was one of the towns he decided to see even before leaving Mystic because he’d heard of the place and a while back known some people from town. In that fall visit, he stayed at the Oriental Marina.

Lever in the wheelhouse.

On the way north this spring, he decided to return, even though on that day he says he “could have gone another 6 hours” and made some headway up the waterway. On this his second visit, he scored a slip at the Town Dock.

‹ previous page  1  2  3  4  5   next page ›

Posted Wednesday April 8, 2015 by Melinda Penkava

email this story | back to top