Fernandina Outside to ...

We left St Augustine at 6:45. It was cold, 58 degrees! We said what's going on, then remembered "global warming".

Castillo De San Marcos

Cross

Bye, St Augustine, till the next cruising season.

 

We had a stressful day traveling toward Fernandina Beach. We went thru a lot of shallow water and had to go very slow lots of times. We knew we would have skinny water but this is ridiculous.

We had a lot of current when we got to St John's Inlet and it was another stressful place. There was a tug and big barge turning around in the middle of the inlet. Guess he wasn't having a great day either.

Glad we weren't trying to do this. Lots of current made his job lots harder.

See the current?

This dry dock usually has a boat in it. Usually a busy place.

 

Working here

We had planned to go all the way to Fernandina or Cumberland Island but decided to stop earlier to avoid more shallow water along the way. Shay said he was tired of the stress.

Its not good when the crabpot is out of the water. Not for the crabbers or us.

We've not stayed at Alligator Pass before but it looks ok. Its low tide so it will only get better. At least we can see what we're going into. We got to the anchorage at 2:30. We traveled 7hr 45minutes at 6.0kts and went about 47nm. We had a windy day and are glad to be here.

Shay and David checked the weather reports and it looks like a good weather window, so it looks good to go outside at St. Mary's Inlet and head north. We have several inlets we can go into depending on how the weather is. We have calculated how long it will take us to get to them and when they have slack tide so we could enter them with little or no current. The farthest we are looking at is Georgetown, SC. That would take us almost 1.5 days with no stop. Of course, we can't stop out in the ocean.

We are anchored at Alligator Pass a little south of Fernandina and it will take us a while to get to the inlet. We left the anchorage at 8:15 and had no problems with skinny water, since it was high tide. It was good to not worry about shallow water.

Easy trip with a high tide.

 We saw several boat victims of Hurricane Matthew still washed ashore. Like I said before, sometimes they are not worth the expense of getting them back in the water and running again.

We passed by Easy Living, a boat we traveled with from Great Sale Cay, Bahamas back to Fl. Fernandina looks like the marina is open again and they are having a Shrimp Festival this weekend.

Easy Living

Shrimp Festival

Shay says we've seen this boat before, I don't remember it.

Fort Clinch at the entrance to St Mary's Inlet

We started out the inlet at 10:00am and it was very calm and easy. We saw lots of shrimp boats outside, I guess they were stocking up on shrimp for the festival. Boy, they will be fresh!

Heading out St Mary's Inlet. Next stop...not sure.

Getting fresh shrimp for the festival!

Looks like a great day for an outside passage!

We had an easy trip and saw 8-10 dolphins off the coast of GA. We usually see a lot of dolphins in this area.

Sunset, we've been traveling about 12 hours and more to go!

He went zoom-zoom by us!

Even the tug boats pass us!

We passed by the Charleston Inlet about 6:00am the next morning.

We are passing Winyah Bay, the inlet at Georgetown, SC. We have decided to go on at least to somewhere in NC. We saw more dolphins, lots of flying fish and finally a sea turtle. When I think about how big the water is, and how small the turtles and us are; I think its amazing that we ever see one. But we usually see at least one on our long passages.

We have decided to go all the way to Beaufort Inlet since the weather is good. They ocean is not dead calm but it is definitely acceptable. We'll keep going as long as it stays like this.

We have seen lots of big cargo boats, fast fishing boats and small fishing boats when we were near major inlets like Charleston; but not a lot of boats like us.

Great travel weather

It's good to have the help of the moon on a night passage.

Shay got a VHF call from Red Head, Jeff and Karen. They were several miles behind us and heading into Beaufort Inlet like we were. After talking to him, Shay decided to change our course a little and go thru Frying Pan Shoals, instead of around them. It will make our trip shorter since we won't have to go so far off shore. Jeff and Karen have gone thru several times and had no problem. The only negative is that the markers are not lighted and we will be going thru about 9:00pm. Shay changed our route and made sure he was very precise when he plotted our course thru them. Red Head caught up and passed us just before we got there, so we followed them, Thanks Red Head. You looked good in the sunset tonight!

We got to the Beaufort Inlet sea buoy at 8:00am. It was a cloudy morning. We were welcomed to the inlet by dolphins and that's always a good thing. There were lots of fishing boats going out and several shrimp boats near the inlet. It was good to see the Cape Lookout Lighthouse off in the distance.

We're getting close!

 

Dredging in the inlet

Pilot boat going out to bring in a big freighter

Our last bridge for a while

We got to the MCYB at 9:10am. We didn't have anyone on the dock to welcome since all our usual greeters were at work or away from the dock. But we had no problem getting Escape into her slip and getting a line on the dock. After that we took our time getting the lines on and getting plugged into power.

We left at 8:10am on 5-7-2017 and got here at 9:10am on 5-9-2017. We traveled for 49 hours at an average speed of 7.5kts for a total of 364.14nm. Yes, we traveled a lot faster than we usually do. We knew the ride would be easier if we used the stabilizers and they work better when we are going a little faster than usual. And we wanted to make sure we traveled in a good weather window and we wanted to get as far as we could while it was good.

Our good Mt Airy friends, George and Pam are coming down tonight to stay a few days and then take us back to get our car. So Shay worked on getting all the salt off the outside and I worked on getting all the dust from the inside of Escape.

They got here around 6:00pm and we visited for a while and then off to dinner at Cox. No, its not fried chicken night, but its always good, Shay and George had chicken stir fry and Pam and I split a filet mignon meal. We were all very pleased with our choices. We stopped by the grocery store to get supplies for breakfast and then back to Escape.

Its been a long trip and we are ready for bed. It's great to be back. We saw some of our dock family that night. It's good to see them.

It was so good of George and Pam to come down and stay for a few nights then take us to Mt Airy to pick up our car and visit. Thanks guys! Come back anytime!

We had a good visit with George and Pam. We took a waterfront walk and had some great meals. We always have a great time with them. We headed back on Thursday and had dinner at our favorite place, Chili Rojo. It was a great meal and one we had been missing since Christmas. Yes, we have not been back since Christmas. That's a long time, every though we have been on FB, talked on the phone and texted back and forth.

We spent time with daddy, Shay's mom, and other family and it was great. Just too short. Well, we'll be back soon. We spent Mother's Day with his mom and got to see lots of family. Good times.

We left Monday morning coming back to boat. We've got lots to do this summer on Escape and need to get started. We'll be back soon!

Bad Bunny, John and Kaye have spent time at our marina several time. This is a special time for them as they are leaving today for the beginning of a whole new adventure. They are heading to Bermuda and then on to Europe for years. Good luck guys and keep us posted!

John in his "Captain Pose"

Bye Kaye! Miss you!

Here's a synopsis of our cruising season. We left Morehead City on October 31, 2016 and got back on May 9, 2017. We were gone over 6 months. We traveled at total of 1697.63nm at an average moving speed of 6.62kts. That's faster than our usual 6.25kts. We used a total of 838.51 gallons of diesel  We got 2.025nm/gal or 2.33sm/gal and used 3.23g/hr.

On the way to Wrightsville Beach we fueled up and bought 244 gallons and paid $1.89. That's the first time we have paid more than the time before since we bought the boat 6.5 years ago. Well, all good things must come to an end and our cheaper than before gas has ended. The first time we bought fuel it was $3.35 and we got a 10% discount so we paid 3.03. We both thought it would only go up. Boy, were we wrong and glad of it!

I'll post a couple of times during the summer so check back!

 

Vero to St Augustine

We left Vero at 6:40. It was a windy day with 20+kts but the ICW was a little choppy, but ok.  We saw a lot of boats sailing and actually went thru a small sailboat race. There were about 15 boats and we just motored around them.

A beautiful sunrise to get up going.

 

Bye Vero, till next time.

We motored thru this small sailboat race.

No, I don't want to be on this boat!



 We thought about stopping at Cocoa but decided to go farther so the next day would be shorter.

We anchored at Addison Point Bridge near NASA. We were very careful going into the anchorage since there were several charted 2’-3’ places. We found a good place and got anchored at 3:40pm. We traveled 9hrs at 6.5kts. We had burgers on the grill and home fries for dinner and watched some tv.  There is a space launch at 7am tomorrow and I hope we can see it. It was postponed from Sunday so hopefully tomorrow will work out. I got some great satellite pictures of NASA. There are a lot of buildings and things over there.

Looking back toward Addison Point Bridge.

 

Our anchorage

Our anchorage. Not many boats here.

 

Our trip

 These pictures are of The space center. I hope they don't come and take me away for posting these. I thought they were fascinating. There's so much going on over there. Shay said he saw hundreds of cars go over the bridge toward the space center early the morning we left. I told him there were lots of parking places. He asked how I knew, I told him I could see them in the pictures.

Up and taking up anchor about 6:30. Hope we are at a good place when the launch goes off. We had some trouble getting the anchor up in the wind. It’s hard to hold the boat still in the wind. We got started and I got my camera and Shay’s phone ready to start taking pictures. Well, nothing happened for a few minutes so I went on line to see if I could tell what was happening. And Boom! We both jumped up and looked but couldn’t see anything and then Shay saw it up higher.  We figure it had already gone up when we heard the boom. So, I guess I can check space launch off my bucket list. Shay saw lots when he was living in FL.

Beautiful sunrise

Boom

We had another windy day. Saw 100’s of small white butterflies. It must be mating season or something this time of year. We see lots of them every year heading north. There was nothing going on in Haulover Canal. We usually see lots of birds, manatee and dolphins but not today.

I told Shay this boat was butt heavy, everything is on the back end.

Haulover Canel Bridge was having construction done when we went thru and the bridge stayed up.

A few fisherman.





I was disappointed when we went thru the canal. We usually see lots of manatees and dolphins in the water. None today, maybe they don't like the windy weather. The wind is blowing 20-30mph.

I thought this house had pretty scalloped roof and sides.

Hurricane Matthew damage



 

 

This was an upside down pontoon.





We had some rain during the day but not bad, just enough to make me close the windows.  We had a good day at got to our anchorage at Daytona at 2pm. We traveled for 7hrs at 6.9kts and went about 49nm. We got a good push from the current most of the day. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Our trip

They were removing this bridge when we went south last year. You can see how much they have done.



 

Then we had rain and near 30mph winds with a 7 mile fetch, so we had whitecaps in the anchorage.

Then we had a beautiful rainbow. I haven't seen many that you could see both ends. I posted this on FB and had several people tell me to get the pot of gold. I told them I checked both ends and didn't see any.

 It was a very rainy windy anchorage. We had winds near 30 miles an hour with 7-8 miles of fetch from the south. Usually, when anchored that near the ICW, we would have worried about boat wakes, but that wind made them irreverent. We have checked the weather and see that there will be more rain early tomorrow. We’ll check it again in the morning and decide when to leave.

This is what our weather looks like at 6:30

Shay got up several times during the night to make sure things were ok. When he checked the weather it looked like we could get in front of it so we decided to leave in a hurry, to try and get in front of all that mess.

This was the anchorage at 5:53, just before we started pulling up the anchor.

But it didn’t work out. The anchor was covered in mud and it took longer to clean it off so we were still brings up the anchor when the rain and thunder started. He was on the bow and was on the fly bridge. He was soaked in seconds. I got us into the ICW and then he went inside and took over. We could see the markers fine from inside so just stayed there. We knew there would be more rain since there were a lot of dark mean looking clouds in front of us. We got out of the anchorage about 7am.

So we left in the pouring rain.

Finally, a break.

But it didn't last long.

We were going under one of the bridges in Daytona when Shay noticed a new sign. It said “Caution: Manatee Habitat Construction Area”. WHAT? We have spent millions to “Save” them and now we’re building them conds??

We had another windy day on the water with gusts near 30mph. We are still seeing victims of Hurricane Matthew last October. We saw several boats on land that were not supposed to be there and several others that were sunk. Sometimes it’s not worth the time and expense to do anything with them, so they are just left there. We traveled faster today with all the push from the current.

 

We called our friends Jim and Pam from Silent Faith to see if we could see them while we are in St.  Augustine. We go right by where they live. They have sold their catamaran and are looking for a trawler. They have been on Escape and would love to talk to us about trawlers and especially DeFevers. They think they want one. We'd love to talk to them and give them any advice we can. They were going out of town when we went by but will call when they get back and we'll try to get with them then. They came down to the ICW and  took pictures of Escape. I'll post them as soon as I can. 

I've been photographing this boat for over 6 years and its getting rough. Shay thinks its probably on of the most photographed boat on the ICW. It's very unusual looking.

Houses along Palm Coast

I like this curved stairway leading to the door.

We are always concerned when we get to the Matanzas Inlet. It is known for extensive shoaling and boats running aground. I had seen on Facebook that it has been dredged and we were hoping it was better than our last passage thru it. There are usually lots of floating buoys but we only saw a few this time. That's good. The more buoys there are, the trickier the water is. We came thru with no problems at all. Of course, we went very slowly and paid close attention. That's a relief. Wonder how long it will be until it shoals again?

 

We got to St Augustine at 2pm. We traveled about 7hrs at 6.6kts and traveled about 47nm.

St Augustine Lighthouse

Our anchorage looking toward the marina

 

Shay likes this type of boat. It's a Diesel  Duck. We looked at some before we bought our boat. Shay and Ken rode all around this boat in the dingy, checking it out.

White caps in the anchorage.





Our trip

 

A close up of Flagler College.

The old fort

Margaret and Ken on Rocking B are docked here and invited us over for steaks! That sounds wonderful. Of course, we enjoy spending time with them. Ken picked us up at the marina and drove us over. The meal was delicious with steaks cooked to perfection, seasoned grilled veggies, and tomato and cucumber salad. Thank you so much guys.

No Shay, you can't exchange me in for 3- 21 year olds!

I walked the next morning, trying to get back into the GTC habit. We had lunch at Rocking B's marina and it was another great meal. Shay and Ken got humongous hotdogs and Margaret and I shared a Caesar salad with blackened mahi-mahi.

Shay's humongous hotdog! He had my hand there so you could tell how huge it is. I look like I'm afraid to touch it! Maybe I'm afraid the calories will absorb into my hand?

We planned to do dinner tonight but the weather has gotten so much worse. When we went ashore this morning it wasn't so bad but by the time Ken and Shay got back around noon it was getting rougher. When Shay took Ken back to shore at 3 the wind was blowing about 30mph and white caps in the morning field. The boats were all pulling tight on their mooring lines. Hope they hold good. They boats were also jumping all around in every direction. Usually they all kind of lay the same way, but not during all that wind. We decided to put the dinghy up and not go back out. It was too bad. We had a very heavy rain and hard wind about 5:30. Glad we stayed on the boat. We like you guys, but it was just too much. Maybe tomorrow.

This is the weather headed toward us!

All the boats are pulling against their mooring.

Rain!

Lighthouse lighting the way.

I had a really good walk today before the weather got bad. Walked hard for an hour then slowed down for another 30 minutes. Below are some sights along my walk.

Military cemetery here in St Augustine

Beautiful flowers

One of the lions at the Bridge of Lions

We were supposed to leave tomorrow, but the wind is supposed to stay up for at least another day so I called and got us another day. Hope things calm down soon, we would like to do an outside passage from here. We'll just have to keep and eye on it and see what happens.

We always complain about the crabpots in the mooring field here and we did this year as soon as we checked in. And then guess what? The day before we left, a crabber came around and took all the pots up! What's going on? Did the complains finally work? Did the crabber need to use them somewhere else? Is the season over? Who knows. But at least we won't have to worry about them when we leave in the morning. Yeah!

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo! The wind has changed directions so it not as bad as last night, at least no whitecaps today. Went for another hard walk today. We have plans to spend more time with Ken and Margaret today and we may leave tomorrow. We will check the weather again later.