Day 16-17     April 26-27     Overnight Ft. Pierce to St. Augustine

Knowing it would be long 170 miles to St. Augustine we loosed the lines and pushed away from the dock at 7:00 a.m. (Thursday).  With favorable winds and weather plus a desire to get out of Florida sooner than later we decided to do an overnight to Florida’s oldest city.  If it became necessary we could always go in at Port Canaveral, but set our heading towards the further destination. 

So often we have no choice but to motor, but today we had plenty of wind from the west which made for excellent sailing northwest with the engine silenced, and the only sound being the swoosh as Aurora cut through the sapphire water of the Atlantic.  Normally, whether under sail or motoring, we average around 6-7 knots.  So doing the math, 170 miles divided by 6.5 knots is about 26 hours to St. Augustine putting us in around 9:00 a.m. (Friday).  The big question is could we sail the whole way?   It makes for a pleasant day to have the engines off so hopefully we could keep them off at least for a while.

When darkness fell on the water the moon illuminated the way.  Another sailboat, “Salt Shaker,” who had been off to starboard all day called on the radio and found they too were overnighting to St. Augustine, as well as a catamaran, “Shenanegans,” who was in our anchorage last night. We have been amazed at the number of boats we’ve seen on this trip both day and night, compared to very few in 2012. 

Taking turns sleeping for 2 hours is what works the best for us and I took the first watch at the wheel right as the sun went down and Dennis stretched out on our berth below.  And so it went, 2 hours on, then 2 off and the winds stayed 10-12 steady, but the direction starting out NW then N, then NE, then E, then SE, finally S., eventually clocking around a full 360 degrees.  Predicted wind was to have been 10 from the west all night.  Around 3:00 it jumped to  SW 15-20 for a couple of hours.  Now with full sails up it would have been hard to keep the boat upright, but before sunset we decided to reef down the main sail by 1/3, and then reef the head sail as necessary, which really helped with the wind picked up for those couple of hours.  I was grateful it was not during my watch and Captain handled the sails beautifully, keeping the ride comfortable.   We traveled about 8 miles off shore all night with Salt Shaker close by, but when the winds increased they headed in to 2 miles off shore to be more comfortable.

ETA was 9:00 on Friday, and we made the Bridge of Lions at 8:30, it had been a good night, but a long one, and Dennis was ready for a nap.  Sounds like more high winds for the next few days, so will probably be in St. Augustine until Tuesday and then overnight to Charleston, SC.

Nautical Miles:  170  and only used 17 gallons of fuel. Averaged 6.5 knots. Thankful for the wind and safe passage!