Updated on December 6, 2016
Beaufort to St. Augustine (Nov 25-29 2016) – Another successful offshore run, we are in Florida, and a short inside leg
On November 25th, with an early morning reveille of 0600, we were underway on the outgoing tide by 8am. We have learned to use the tides to move us along, but since we were also tied up closely with the large and beautiful yacht Freedom behind us and a powerboat in front of us, we also used the fast moving current to edge us out into the stream. It worked great, pushing the stern out and away from Freedom and then the bow catching up as we put forward turns with hard rudder to turn away from the powerboat. Soon we were making 6 knots and easy going 1500 RPM on the engine. For Sophia, that is close to flying.
By 0900, we passed Parris Island, but there were no Marines in sight. At 1015, we passed Hilton Head, lost the current shortly thereafter and entered the channel to the Atlantic. At noon, we turned South (always a good thing) with winds on the bow and kept up 4 knots by motoring along.
Around 1700 (just before sunset), we raised a reefed main in anticipation of a wind change later that evening as a front passed through around 0400. We were about 15 nautical miles offshore at sunset, the lights ashore barely visible.
Around midnight, the wind shifted to the west and we considered raising an additional sail. Elena vetoed the idea due to the darkness of the night and we continued to motor-sail through the night. Sometime before midnight, a bird–perhaps a Kingfisher or a heron, it was hard to make out in the dark–decided to hitchhike on our dinghy. It looked as cold as I felt on that dark night, It stayed there until about 3am and then flew on its way, south I assume. I guess we were too slow for him.
Elena took the midnight to 0200 watch, while I caught a couple of hours sleep and then relieved me at 0700 when the sun had risen fully. At about 8, she calls for me as there are 7 or 8 shrimp boats all around us and she needed some help maneuvering to avoid them.
By 10am, we are in the channel for St. Mary’s River and cross the Georgia/Florida line as we make the left turn into the ICW. We took a mooring ball at the Fernandina Beach Marina, before finding out the marina (with the mooring field) was closed due to damage from Hurricane Matthew.
Even the dinghy dock was closed, so it was difficult to go into town. We stayed on the mooring buoy for the night and discovered around 11pm that we had hours of preparation work to do for the next leg because of the number of areas that had shoal warnings. So we took the next day off and did our homework with no one saying anything about the mooring. There was a stiff wind and lots of current and we certainly held better than we would have at anchor.
Notes on Fernandina Beach: For the first time we are seeing major damage from Hurricane Matthew. In addition to the closure of the City Marina, there were boats strewed about everywhere and several sunk in the mooring field. It was very sad.
We have made it to Florida ahead of our scheduled 1 December timeline, skipping the difficult ICW passage through Georgia completely.
At some point in this trip, the head (toilet) stopped working for the second time. After emptying the contents (not pleasant) and trying every trick I know to unplug it (vinegar, plunger, much flushing) nothing worked. It was going to have to be taken apart, but that would wait until we got to St. Augustine. So we began to use a bucket. For those who know the prim and proper Miss Elena, with coiffured hair, carefully applied makeup and nice clothes even for lounging around, she has devolved into a tangle web of salt encrusted hair, no makeup at all, whose uniform is a pair of sweatpants and having to deal with a bucket for a toilet. Oh how the worm has turned and how successful I feel.
On November 27th, we decided (or should I say Elena decided) that we would take the inside passage to St. Augustine because of strong winds out of the South instead of waiting it out at Fernandina Beach. It was a long, 12 hour transit, especially when the tides turned against us, broken up into two days. As usual, there were shallow spots, but the work we did on the 26th paid off and we managed to avoid all the bad spots.
On the November 28th we anchored in the ICW where Atlantic Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville Beach crosses the ICW. We decided to make it an early day as the current was running against us, there was 20 miles to the next anchorage and going through the bridge with that much current is less than fun. The next day we continued on our way through a broad and straight canal called the Palm Valley Cut until we got to the Tolomato and North Rivers which in turn leads us into the St. Augustine inlet.
As we rounded up into St Augustine and the Matanzas River, the buoys became confusing. Buoy Green “1” marks the entrance to the ICW from the St. Augustine inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. As we approached Green “1”, a shouting match began between Captain and Crew, something that never had happened before. The choice was to go to port leaving Green 1 to starboard (the wrong thing to do, but where the chart plotter showed the deeper water, and my argument) or to go to starboard, leaving Green 1 to port (the correct thing to do but the chart plotter showed 9 feet and less of water in that direction.
The last time we had this dilemma was on our honeymoon and we did run aground and stayed there all afternoon, eventually getting a professional tow off about sunset, but then got a line wrapped around a prop, destroying a bearing. We sailed the 20 miles back home and eventually sailed into the slip, a bit of seamanship that we both remain proud of, but not particularly enamored with repeating. So I was a bit hesitant to do anything until we were sure.
The argument went on for quite some time, with much yelling and some mild cursing (very much out of character for Elena, but showing her growing confidence as a sailor), with the wind and the tide pushing us in every direction, but none of them good. Finally, Elena called the marina for directions. Their response was to follow the buoys. So away we went leaving Green 1 to port. The depth meter went from 15 feet to 12, to 11, to 10, and then the depth alarm went off, and then to 9 feet and the second alarm sounded. I was prepared for the inevitable “bump” that occurs when we run aground as the keel hits hard sand. But then the depth went to 10 feet and then 11, 12, and back to 15 and safe water. I had to admit that Elena had been right, which I did, albeit, sheepishly.
Now we had to get into the slip. After passing through the Bridge of Lions to the “south” side of the harbor, we were told our slip was inside requiring some maneuvering, There was 15 knots of wind and 2-3 knots of current and in those conditions Sophia does what she wants to, instead of what I want her to do. After much deliberation, during which Elena questioned my manhood due to my hesitancy, we asked for a mooring ball that would be much easier to deal with–the words “Discretion is the better part of valor” came to mind–the marina graciously provided one for one night (they were otherwise filled) and we went in the next morning at slack water. After going in, we saw there was in fact a fair amount of space and perhaps again Elena was right about going in.
Being pier side, it’s time to tackle some maintenance projects.