July 15-16—Charleston, SC overnight to St. Augustine, FL

There were several options for our trip south from Charleston.  We thought a trip outside to Hilton Head would be good.  With the heat we are trying to stay at a marina each night and there was one there.  But the wind forecast was favorable, 5-10 from the southeast, so then we started looking at longer trip options.  What about an overnight?

We decided with the weather forecast an “extended night sail” might be in order.  Our plans were to go to St. Mary’s inlet to Cumberlin Island so Shirla could see the wild horses.  We got underway at 5:50 am Sunday morning from the Mega Dock, but then this timing would put us at Fernandina Beach around 3:00 am, not exactly ideal with no moonlight to find our way into the channel.  A further option was to go all the way to Florida and in at St. Augustine, ETA 10:00a.m. on Monday and with plenty of daylight, no surprises.  So finally that was the plan; the horses will have to remain on the list.  Now the decision would be should we go straight to St. Augustine waypoint or do we curve around staying closer to land.  We kind of split the difference and first set the heading toward Tybee Sound, then when we got close to Tybee changed our heading to St. Mary’s.  As we approached St. Mary’s we would then turn to St. Augustine.  This would keep us only an hour or two from shore just in case.

During the day the winds for awhile were between 45-60 degrees off the nose making decent motor sailing with speeds around 8 knots.  Then the wind would come on the nose so we pulled in the sails and would rock back and forth from the waves coming on the beam.  We could never figure out why the waves were on the beam when the wind was on the nose.  By nightfall the winds were back to 45 degrees with full sails up all night.  With the waypoint plan mentioned we still were off shore maybe 10 miles and even that far off shore we could see glowing light high in the sky from large cities.

For most of the night there were significant thunderstorms farther out to sea so we had a continuous lightening show to the east.  Shirla only encountered one brief shower around 5:00 am.  Our routine was two hour shifts.  I took a nap around 8:00 pm then took the watch until midnight.  Shirla did midnight to 2:00 am, etc.  I went below to take my naps in the cabin and Shirla took hers in the cockpit.  Fritz stayed outside most of the time, and other than his trips to the foredeck for #1 relief he went about 30 hours without an opportunity to go to shore for #2.

All in all it was a good day and night, traveling 212 miles in twenty-eight and a half hours.  We pulled into St. Augustine at 10:00 am and missed the bridge by 5 minutes.  That gave me time to set the fenders and lines for our stay at the marina which is just on the other side of the bridge.  Showers and naps after arrival perked us up for a bike ride to West Marine.  On the way back we stopped at a fruit stand and picked up some fresh peaches, plums and cherries.  Growing up in Southern California I really miss tree ripened fruit.  Fritz had earned several well-deserved long walks on the grassy shores of St. Augustine.

So now with a little more salt in the beard, and our first overnight under our Tilly we are feeling pretty good about cruising.  As I suspected before we set out on this journey our trip home would be quicker than our trip north.  That is proving to be truer than I thought.  Now that we are in Florida the thought is maybe we should get home before the tropical storms start forming.  The weather forecast remains favorable so we will see.

Note:   On the overnight we used about 1¼ gal. of diesel per hour.   

July 17, 2012—St. Augustine, FL to Rockhouse Creek, FL (13mi south of Daytona)

Up this morning with the St. Augustine street sweepers we opted out of sailing offshore with a 50% chance of thunderstorms and unfavorable winds forecast.  It was a good decision, and actually shorter mileage than going to and from the ocean, plus the current was in our favor by a knot.  The bridge tenders seemed to be needing something to do today, and as we approached they opened so quickly we didn’t even have to slow down.  With so few cruisers could they be bored? 

Our quiet Rockhouse Creek anchorage is at Ponce de Leon Inlet and one we stopped in on the way north.  A cool front came through today, and the high temperature was just 85 with an afternoon shower cooling us off even more.  We were dreading the Florida heat, but it has not come, knock on wood, yet.  It should be a good night’s another good night’s sleep without air conditioning.