Wednesday, December 6th (Day 60) - Beaufort, SC to Isle of Palms, GA
49 degrees, water temp 63. Winds out of north 10-15. Cloudy but clearing skies during the day.
46.5 nautical miles today (1035.5 total trip miles)
I don't think either of us slept well because a front came through in
the night which brought a big north wind. This made the wind push the boat into the dock with the corresponding grinding of our fenders (bumpers between the dock and boat). Plus the wind was blowing the boat over a little which made for an uphill walk to the bathroom from our bed. But hey! We're a sailboat, right? We should be used to the boat leaning. Yes. But not at the dock....
Fortunately, it was not an early morning underway to make miles. We were able to sleep in a bit because we had to wait until 9am for the Lady's Island Bridge which was only about 1/2 mile from the marina.
We were off the dock at 8:30am which was a little early for the bridge but I wasn't sure how the boat was going to like leaving with the wind blowing us on the dock. Leaving a little early gave us some "play" time. No problemo! We used a spring line going aft from the bow as I motored forward with starboard steering (the dock was on our starboard side). The stern nicely came away from the dock. Then reverse with some throttle and we were away.
At the bridge we waited for about 15 minutes with another sailboat. Right at 9am the bridge swung open and we were free again.
We had a helping ebb current down the Beaufort river and enjoyed helping winds with our jib out. As we turned toward Hilton Head Island across Port Royal Sound, I knew the apparent wind would be 20-25 so reefed (pulled in part of) the jib before the turn. It was a fun ride for the 3+ miles across the sound.
Winds helped us all day as we motor-sailed through Hilton Head and Callibogue Sound. We followed a tug pushing a crane barge as they entered Ramshorn Creek. The crane was pretty high and Laura said it didn't look like they were going to make it under the power lines. I tried calling the tug on VHF 13 and 16 to maybe recommend they lower the crane boom. After several tries with no answer, I gave up.
As the barge passed under the power lines, the top of the boom caught the bottom wire and broke it in half. We watched each half of the broken power line fall to the side of the channel with the ends in the water. Were we going to get electrocuted? We slowed to a crawl as I again tried to hail the tug on the marine radio. No answer. A few minutes later we saw crew on the tug and barge running around. They knew there was a problem.
They eventually lowered the crane boom and removed the piece of power line that had stuck there. We were out of the narrow channel and able to pass them shortly after that. What an bunch of jerks! If only Laura had taken a video....
I had already broadcast on VHF channel 16 several times, "Tug Grace Myrick in Ramshorn Creek. Your crane just brought down that power line" so I decided not to call the Coast Guard and report it. They would be able to follow the AIS track of the tug and see that they went through there around that time anyway.
Sometime in the afternoon we talked about dinner and decided on burgers. Laura said we were out of hamburger rolls and I asked why she didn't make some. A couple hours later, this came out of the oven.
We crossed into Georgia an hour or so later and decided to pass on the marinas around Thunderbolt because the winds were supposed to die in the late afternoon and we should have a nice night at anchor.
We dropped anchor on the Skidaway River near the southern shore at 4:30pm. Winds were dying and we had a very nice cocktail hour in the cockpit watching a colorful sunset.
Burgers from the grill with the fresh rolls were awesome.
Thursday, December 7th (Day 61) - Isle of Palms to North River
48 degrees. Water temp 61. Sunny and light north winds
56 Nautical miles today (1091.5 total trip miles)
After sleeping in a little we pulled the anchor at 8:15am. It was cool but a very pretty morning as the Sun heated up the cockpit. I was a little concerned about going through Hell Gate around low tide but I hadn't heard of major problems there so figured we'd be good.
An hour or so later the tide had dropped to almost low and I took this picture of a Georgia channel marker at low tide. Tides here can be over 9 feet. Compare this picture to the last blog of a marker near the water at high tide.
Now the tide would be coming up for the next 6 hours. Nice!
No problem with Hell Gate passage and I never saw less than 7.5 feet. It was a pretty day on the water as we meandered up and down the Georgia ICW.
Our day continued sunny with calm winds. We anchored near Valona on the North River at 5:15pm. The sunset that night was beautiful!
I was so impressed with the sunset, I took a video panorama. Click the picture below to see the full 360 video from our YouTube channel.
It was a quiet night at this calm anchorage.
Friday, December 8th (Day 62) - North River to Fernandina, FL
54 degrees, water temp 62. Sunny with calm winds.
67 Nautical miles today - our longest day yet (1158.5 total trip miles)
There were two ICW problem areas for us today. First, the Little Mud River then, later in the day, Jekyll Island. The Little Mud shouldn't be a problem since we'd have several feet of tide helping us. But, we'd be around Jekyll at low tide and that would be bad.
We started early to give us options in the afternoon. Anchor up at 7:10am before sunrise. Laura took this picture while we were getting the boat ready to leave the anchorage. I thought it was such a nice picture with the pelican and water glow from the sunrise.
About 1/2 hour later we navigated through the Little Mud River. I couldn't believe what the sky colors were doing. This is my favorite picture of the trip (so far).
We navigated the Georgia ICW for the next few hours as the tide dropped. After checking several forecasts for off-shore waters and seeing that it was pretty calm, we decided to go out the Brunswick River and by-pass the ICW through Jekyll Island which is very shallow.
At 10:30am we left the ICW and motored out the Brunswick River onto a calm North Atlantic. The last of the ebb current helped us out the 6 miles of channel before we could turn south toward Florida.
The ride was pretty calm with just a little roll from a maybe 1 foot SE swell. We eventually pulled out the mainsail and sheeted it in tight to calm down the roll a little.
3 hours later the winds picked up from the east, we rolled out the jib, AND SAILED on a calm ocean. We both loved it!
By 3pm we were approaching the St. Mary River inlet and started thinking about where we were going to spend the night. I had made a reservation for Sunday night on a mooring at St. Augustine. The weather Sunday afternoon was supposed to turn to rain and thunderstorms so wanted to be close to there tomorrow night so we could pick up the mooring early in the day. I had tried to get a mooring for Saturday also but they were full - the Christmas boat parade was Saturday evening. The marina put us on the wait list for Saturday.
The flood tide sucked us in St. Marys and down past Fernandina. WE WERE IN FLORIDA! I thought it would be warmer.... It was 67 degrees out but the wind was chilly.
We were making such good time I decided to bypass the Fernandina mooring field and anchorage. We kept going for another hour and anchored in the South Amelia River just before sunset.
There was a small island near us with many white pelicans roosting. I love white pelicans with their black wing-tips. They are a little hard to see in the picture because it's zoomed in. Sorry.
Another quiet night on anchor. Plans are to anchor just before St. Augustine tomorrow afternoon so we can be on a mooring early in the day on Sunday.
There were storms south of us and we had a little rain in the night. It was our first rain since leaving Myrtle Beach. This radar shot was around 6pm. We are at the blue dot.
Saturday, December 9th (Day 63) - Fernandina to St. Augustine
62 degrees this morning, water temp 67. It's finally getting warmer! Sunny and calm.
46 Nautical miles today (1,204 total trip miles)
We only had about 40 miles to go for our next anchorage so we slept in a little. Anchor up at 8:15am. As sometime happens, we had helping current for only a little while then it seemed to be against us the rest of the day.
A few hours into the day I got a call from the St. Aug marina. They had a mooring for us tonight. Yea! But, now we need to pick up the pace a little since we had an additional hour of unplanned travel.
After crossing the St. Johns River, we really slowed because of the ebb current. Approaching the second bridge (Pablo Creek FL10 Bridge) I could see the water churning. Oh boy. This was gonna be fun.
As we got closer, I could see it was like a torrent coming our way. It included a 1 foot standing wave which I've never seen before on the ICW.
Passing through the bridge abutments we slowed to 1.9 knots and I was working the wheel hard to keep the boat in the middle. We did pop through a few minutes later and I was able to relax.
No worries the rest of the day as the tidal current gradually let up. We arrived at the St. Augustine inlet at 4:15pm and I called the marina to see where our mooring was. Turns out it was on the south side so we had to go through the Bridge of Lions Bridge - only a 10 minute wait.
By 4:45pm we were tide up on the mooring. Laura and I dropped the dinghy then the outboard off the rail before I jumped in the shower and found some clean clothes.
20 minutes later we were motoring into the marina and had this colorful sunset over the town.
After tying up to the dinghy dock, I walked up to the office to check-in while Laura took a few nice pictures. First, here is part of St. Augustine with their holiday lights.
I mentioned that the Christmas Boat parade was tonight. Here are a few picture of the colorful boats.
Wow! St. Augustine was crazier than we've ever seen it. It was hard to walk down the sidewalk because of all the people in town.
Since the boat parade was going on, we thought we'd try getting a dinner table at OC Whites across the street from the marina. The gal at check-in said about 1/2 hour so I put our name on the list. 2 minutes later we luckily scored a seat right in front of the guitar player where we could wait and listen to good music. I even walked to the bar for a couple cocktails which only took about 20 minutes.
This was our view from the waiting lounge. I did brighten this picture a little so you could see the guitar player / singer.
We actually had a very fun evening which surprised me considering how many people were milling around. I struck up a conversation with a couple waiting next to us who were from only 20 minutes away. They were very interested after hearing we lived on a 43 foot sailboat. We were texted by the restaurant that our table was ready a short while later. When we saw the table would seat 4, we invite the other couple to join us and they accepted. The food was good and company excellent.
By 8:30pm we were talked out and ready to head back. The town was still crazy with lots of hootin' and hollerin' as we made our way back to the dinghy and Second Wind. Wow! That was a different experience for folks used to isolating by themselves on a sailboat.
Sunday, December 10th (Day 64) - St. Augustine
66 degrees, water temp 67. Sunny morning with afternoon storms.
Didn't move the boat today.
We sat out the day on the boat tied to a mooring. Storms were coming this afternoon so we decided to sit tight and enjoy the warm weather. I spent 3+ hours writing up the previous blog while Laura started her Christmas baking. She sends candies to her children - at least a box of home-made nougats. Here she is making a mess of the boat wrapping them all after baking.
I worked a few boat jobs while watching the weather radar on my phone. By 4pm it started getting very cloudy and I could see lots of storms coming our way.
It started rain and storms about an hour later which lasted into the evening. Everything seemed to stop around 9pm but you could feel the energy in the air. It was still very warm and humid.
We hit the sack around 10am and were woken up by very high winds just before midnight. This was the front coming through. The boat was moving around with the high winds and the boat's rigging was howling on the higher gusts. I would estimate winds were 30-40 knots. We listened at the winds cranking for over an hour. Luckily, our boat was facing north with the flood current so winds were mostly on the nose. If we were facing the other way with ebb current, we would have been blown around much more and the waves in the mooring field would have been much higher.
No early alarm for tomorrow since we are only going about 20 miles.
Monday, December 11th (Day 65) - St. Augustine to Palm Coast
52 degrees, water temp 67, 61 in the our cabin. North wind 10-15 calming in the afternoon
22 Nautical miles today (1,226.5 total trip miles)
We were off the mooring at 8am. I wanted to leave a little early because we'd be going through a tricky part of the ICW today at Matanzas Inlet and it would be best to have some tide under us. There was a dredge operating off the ICW that had the waterway blocked by the huge pipes carrying away the dredge materials. The dredge Captain was directing ICW traffic around the dredged area. I had seen on Facebook (ICW Cruising Guide page) that many boats had run aground trying to get through.
It was a pretty but cold morning as we motored south of St. Augustine on the ICW. We had the last of the flood current helping us out so averaged over 7 knots. No problems through this section which is well marked and we had easy travels to the Crescent Beach Bridge.
There was a 40' (?) powerboat following us all morning. He didn't want to pass and lead the way through the dredge area so decided to stay behind and follow us.
15 minutes after the bridge we approached the dredge. There was a sailboat aground which had misread the channel markers and gone on the wrong side of a green before the dredge. The dredge Captain called us on the marine radio and said in a thick southern-drawl, "Follow the red markers to the west and stay near shore until you are next to the pick-up truck. Then turn sharply east and come in front of the dredge passing us on your starboard side." Sounded OK to me.
As we approached the pick-up truck on shore, the Captain called back, "Sailboat. Start you're turn now and come in front of us." I did as instructed and didn't have any problems until the front of the dredge. There was a crab marker right in our way. I went closer to the dredge than I had planned and our keel was probably over the actual dredge under the water.
No problems though and our depth sounder never said less than 17 feet. Why were people having all the groundings?
Somehow we had helping tides all day and arrived at the Palm Coast Marina by 11:30am. A short while later we were tied up to a slip we had booked for a week stay. I just realized I hadn't taken any pictures today so just went out and took one of the boat. Here we are!
Pam and Russ spent the last two nights in Fernandina Marina. Russ texted me that they had waves over the dock last night when we had those high winds in St. Augustine. They are hustling to get here today so we can spend the evening together. They will be leaving tomorrow morning to continue the trip south to Marathon. We will be renting a car tomorrow for a trip north. Personal business again with plans to return Friday night. We hope to continue our trip south Saturday or more likely Sunday. Stay tuned for the continuing adventure.
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