Leaving Georgia

We have spent 6 nights in Brunswick Landing Marina, Georgia waiting out Tropical Storm Beryl. Today was a huge reprieve from winds and rains. The sun came out, we had light wind, and everything dried out. There were lots of things to do to get ready to leave tomorrow. Peter finally got our Raymarine chart plotter upgraded by having a tech walk through it over the phone. We took off all the extra lines, cleaned, filled water and diesel tanks, ran the dingy to get water out of the gas tank, and put out the jackline. The weather has calmed down and Beryl is moving out to sea. We are leaving in the morning around 6:30-7:00 to travel to Charleston, SC.  The winds are going to be light...under 10k and the sea is looking like 2' most of the trip. No thunderstorms are in the picture until Friday afternoon. By then we should be in our next location. We will motor sail offshore along the coastline overnight and plan to arrive in Charleston Harbor at slack tide apx. 6AM. We have a reservation at Charleston Harbor Marina which is open 24hours. Hopefully once in and tied up we will sleep for a few hours and then take a day to visit the town before moving on again. Wish us luck.

This evening we cooked shrimp and steak for our friends on s/v Narsilion Joe and Cherie and also Jim Hamrick who lives here. We had a wonderful time. Cruising is bittersweet....exciting but  difficult to say good by to good friends you meet along the way.

Waiting...still

Today is Tuesday, May 29. Tropical Storm Beryl is still spinning over southern Georgia...actually now it's a tropical depression. The winds have "calmed' down to 15-20k sustained and 22K gusting. The rain comes and goes but when it does it's torrential. So we took the "captive" time to do laundry, boat keeping and planning. Jane is checking the charts and tides for our next journey...whether it's inside the ICW or outside in the Atlantic. Both will depend on weather conditions. If we stay inside it will take another 2-3 days to just get out of Georgia because of the tides. There are places we can only travel mid to high tide. Since low tides are running around noontime that means we only have mid afternoon to evening to travel in. If we go outside we can get to Hilton Head or maybe Beaufort South Carolina. Peter is on the phone with Navionics (our GPS electronic charts) and trying to upgrade the internal software for our GPS chart plotter unit. The sun has popped out briefly which could dry everything up. We just want to be able to get our enclosure back on and move everything out of the forward cabin. It's getting a little claustrophobic in here!

Happy Memorial Day

Yesterday we had a marina party for Memorial Day. They wrapped one of the covered docks in plastic and grilled steaks. There was a 3 person band playing great songs...mostly boating, country & Jimmy Buffet tunes. Everyone brought a side dish, salad, or dessert. The food was great and the company awesome. We had a great time. It was partly sunny all morning (the calm before the storm) and just at 2:30 when the party was suppose to start the heavens opened up with fury. Wind & rain kept most of us from joining for about an hour. We finally retired to our boats around 6:30. Everyone was exhausted from the lack of sleep during the previous night's storm raging around us.

We are planning a move now on Thursday but will decide if it's inside or outside probably that morning. 

Our 3 man band

Peter coming through the crowd with chairs

The other side of the dock

Survived TS Beryl...so far!

It is now 9:30AM and all is well aboard Kinvara.  Yesterday we woke to winds about 15-20 gusting 25K so we spent an hour taking down all our canvas siding and securing everything on the outside of the boat. Then our friend, Jim & Leslie, who live in Brunswick drove us to St Simon's Island and Jeckyl Island for an outing. It was very windy but the sun was pretty much shining and we had a delightful time. Lunch was on a second floor restaurant with a fabulous view of St Simon's Sound.  When we returned we went below to wait out the storm. The intense rain and wind started about 7-8PM and would come in waves. The wind was from the north blowing 35-45 gusting to 50k and rain was torrential. It was very humid so the fans were running on high to stay comfortable. We have 13 lines on our starboard side to hold us onto the dock.  Luckily we did not lose power so we could keep track of the storm's progress on the TV. We could hear the lines groaning when they were stretched.  Sleeping was difficult over the sound of the wind and rain. We were up around midnight watching on TV as the storm moved over Jacksonville. Jane was up again at 4:30. One of our lines that secures the bimini canvas (in the back) was flying around so she had to clip it on again. We are on floating docks with high concrete pilings so there was no problem with the high tides 1-2' over normal (normal is 8'). Today the storm is over land but is going to track NNE which brings it over northern Florida and Georgia. We will have the storm effects of wind and rain through Tuesday BUT we survived with no damage or anything lost or torn.

Today we have a Memorial Day party at the marina. We can see them wrapping the covered dock to keep out wind and rain. They provide live music and steaks and we bring the side dishes. It looks like we are stuck at least through Tuesday but it's a safe secure marina.

The calm before the storm

St Simon's Lighthouse

The motley crew..Peter, Leslie, Jim, Joe, Cheri

Just before sunset, a full double rainbow

Pot of Gold??

 

Every line out on the boat

Brunswick, Georgia...again!

We left St Mary's this morning with our buddy boat s/v Narsilion. We did not look back with regret. we had a wonderful time in November for thanksgiving but this is not a safe place in heavy winds. We were being pounded onto the dock all night which caused lots of splashing and little sleep. Jane woke at 4:30 AM and started planning the journey to Brunswick. The major trouble spot is crossing St. Andrew's Sound. This is about 30 miles from St. Marys and we planned to make it at slack tide at about 1pm.  St Andrew's sound requires you to travel out of the protection of the ICW into the ocean to avoid a nasty shoal at the entrance. Once we turned back toward shore the waves hit us broadside so it was rolly for a bit. You can look at the chart through the link below.
http://cruisersnet.net/cruisersnet-marine-map/?ll=30.9937,-81.4163&z=14

Shortly after entering the ICW outside St. Marys we passed a nuclear sub base, we are glad there were no mishaps today!! We are constantly reminded of the power of the US as we pass up and down the ICW. Just yesterday we saw a destroyer being constructed at a marina at the crossing of the St. John river and while tied up in St. Augustine we watched an air force refueling plane do touch and go landings and take-offs from the near by base.
Passing under the bridge before our turn into Brunswick we had to pass a very large ship!!

coming

going

Brunswick Landing Marina is such a delight to return to. The docking is made so much easier by the two female dock masters who know how to get you tied up without breaking anything. Once here the cost is $2 per foot but everything is free...laundry, cable TV, etc.  We chose to come to Brunswick today because there is still a low  floating off the Florida coast which is expected to become a tropical storm and could be named.  Almost all models now show the low coming ashore near the Florida/Georgia border with high winds and lots of rain. Today's local news reported winds as high as 60k.  If that is for real we will have to take the canvas off the boat. Unfortunately without AC on the boat it could get very hot with all hatches closed. The good news about Brunswick Landing is a party on Memorial Day. For $10 we get steaks and live music. Boaters provide the side dished and BYOB. What a deal.  We also have friends we met in the Bahamas 2 years ago who live in Brunswick. they may come stay on their boat for the weekend so we will parrrrty!

It must be the calm before the storm right now because the wind has abated and it is a glorious evening!

St Mary's Georgia

Today we left the St Augustine mooring field at 6:30AM to take advantage of the incoming  current to give us a push north on the ICW. We were doing almost 9.3mph which was great! Out 38 mile trip to the St John's River was uneventful under beautiful sunny skies. After crossing the river and a lift bridge we moved 2 miles to our next challenge...Three Sisters Creek. This is a place know for shoaling and boats have been grounded at mid tide in 5' of water. We were passing through just 30 minutes past high tide. We had depths of 12-13' all the way until we reached a crossroad in the water and the depth dropped to 6.5'. That is only 1.5 feet under our keel...very scary for a bit.  We hit a few other skinny spots but we were moving through from high to mid tide and found the rest of the trip OK.  When we reached Fernandina Beach we almost got sick from the smell of 2 paper plants along the shore.  Who said cruising was exotic?  We reached St Mary's by 4PM and sat to relax for the evening.

The winds are 22 and the tide is splashing under our keel (where we sleep) so it will be a noisy night. Peter has been receiving emails from his weather router, Chris Parker. He is talking about a tropical low forming off the north Florida/Georgia coastline with 40-80k winds Saturday to Monday. So, in the morning we are going to try to get back into the marina we stayed at last summer. Brunswick Landing marina is a hurricane hole and only about 35 miles to our north. To be continued.......

Going in Circles

Today we were hoping to leave for Fernandina Beach but after checking the travel time and tides we decided tomorrow, Thursday, would be much better. There is a spot that has been shoaling and grounding 5' draft boats at mid tide so we should be passing through it just after high tide. The tides are about 4' over mean datum also so that should help.  Yesterday we walked the town and found some great small businesses; a spice and tea shop and 2 shops with local artwork and gifts from small villages in S America.  Back on board we sat through thunder storms for about 2 hours. Between the wind and waves our boat was swinging around almost in circles. It was hard to look out the windows without feeling slightly queasy! And we are in a harbor on a mooring ball!

Today we took a cab to the grocery store to stock up on milk, oj, yogurts, and bread for our next leg of the trip. We met some friends at Pizza Ally, a local Italian restaurant which serves a happy hour from 3-6PM every M-F.  Every drink is 2 for 1 and you get a free slice of pizza with your drinks! What a great deal!

Just when we thought the sea was calming down to do a few outside sails to Charleston the weather gods decide to punish us a little more. Peter received an email from our weather router, Chris Parker,who is looking at 3 models which show a low forming off the Florida coast. They all predict it turning into a tropical depression and coming ashore Sunday in Northern Florida. One model shows it increasing to a higher level. So we have decided to leave here tomorrow and go inside on the ICW to St Mary's, Georgia. We have a dock space reserved through the long weekend. We were there over Thanksgiving last November. It is 6 miles up the river off the ICW and fairly protected. 

St Augustine, Florida

A peaceful gathering of birds in New Smyrna Beach marina.

Sunday morning the winds abated (TG) and we backed out of the dock at 7AM. Our motor was running smoothly so we were on our way crossing the Indian River, through the NASA Haulover canal, and heading north through Mosquito Lagoon. The wind increased to 15-18k but the ICW waters were just moderately choppy. On Saturday when we left Canaveral we had 2' waves in the ICW water. Along the way we saw dolphins though none stayed to swim in our bow wake. We will miss these when we get back north. We also saw lots of manatee. In one spot there were 4 of them and they seemed to be swimming on top of each other.....well it turned out to be what we thought...mating season! We were told they have been very active this spring. By 12 noon we had gone 32 miles and arrived at the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Marina for the night. We found our friends Joe and Cherie had decided to stop there yesterday and stayed another day to wait for us to arrive. We wanted to make it to Daytona Beach but the tide was not favorable. We had a relaxing afternoon and accomplished a few jobs that needed to be done. In the evening we walked to an outdoor fish grill for dinner.

Today, Monday, started off at 7AM again. We backed out of our slip and waited for the first bridge to open at 7:20. We passed through the first spot known to shoal, Ponce Inlet, without incident and continued the 52 miles to our next concern, Matanzas Inlet. We were also pleasantly surprised to find this inlet passage had been dredged. We saw no less than 12' an hour and a half before low tide. The next 12 miles to St Augustine go through a winding grassy marshland. We were moving at low tide and found a few shallow spots....once we saw only 9" under our keel. Thank goodness we did not touch bottom though and arrived in St Augustine by 4:30PM. After filling up with diesel and water we moved to our mooring ball and took a breather. It was a long day of travel. After dinner Kirwin's Ice Cream called to us and we went ashore to indulge. A stop at the liquor store to replenish our Cruzan Rum Cream and Cruzan Coconut Rum then back to the boat for an evening of rest.

The Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine

 Our friends Joe & Cherie from s/v Narsilion and also s/v Cookie Monster are here in the mooring field. Cookie Monster we had met 2 years ago in the Exumas, Bahamas so we look forward to getting together with them tomorrow.

The Trek Northward

We finally moved aboard Kinvara on Thursday for the trip north. It took quite a while to get all our belongings put away then we decided to go to the dockside bar & grill for drinks and to listen to a dock neighbor who plays beautiful instrumental music on the steel drums. While having our meal a thunderstorm approached with high winds and quarter sized hail then heavy rain for 2 hours! I thought we were having a tornado warning but it was just a severe thunderstorm.

Friday we checked out our instruments, scraped the sides, washed the boat and then sat back to relax. It was hot not being in our air conditioned house! In the evening we met up with Joe and Cherie from Oriental who were leaving on Saturday to head north also. We compared notes and planned to buddy boat at least to St Augustine. Around 5PM we gathered aboard Kinvara for sunset drinks and our dock neighbor, Milt came aboard with his guitar. What a delightful time. Milt was playing beautiful instrumentals on his guitar while we all sipped on goombay smash drinks. (Thanks to Linda who gave us the recipe!) Then bedtime!!

Cherie and Joe

Milt playing his tunes

Joe with his guitar

Our last sunset at Harbortown

Today, Saturday we backed out of the dock at 7:30AM and headed for our first bridge opening at 8AM. It took us 3 hours to get 18 miles to Titusville. Once we passed the municipal marina we started talking about the engine quirks. We felt vibration but thought it might have been the 20k headwinds and 2' seas, then decided it was not running up to speed. Facing another 7-8 hours to the next place of civilization we decided to turn around and go back to Titusville Marina. They called a diver for us who came about an hour later. He scraped lots of barnacles off the bottom and found a wire cable wedged into our prop. That was apparently causing the poor engine performance and we were lucky to make it as far as we did. By 3:30PM we paid for our dock for the night ($54...gotta love it) and walked apx 1.5 miles to a seafood restaurant called Dixie Crossroads. Tonight the winds are up to 20+k so we are happy to be on the dock for now. Tomorrow morning we go 33 miles to New Smyrna Beach. Unfortunately we can't make it to Daytona because the tide is not right passing near an inlet known for constant shoaling. Our friends, Joe & Cherie kept going so we hope they made it to Daytona Beach. We are hoping the winds are slack in the morning to back out of the dock!! We just heard from our weather router that a named tropical storm has now formed off the Carolina coast but is not suppose to reach Florida. I guess we will check in with him tomorrow morning again!