Today: 184 miles, 26 hours, ICW St. M 775.6
Total: 995.2 miles, 137.0 hours
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| Great parking lot sign! |
We still planned on heading out later today, so I started a Tuscan Ham and Bean Soup in the
crockpot for dinner tonight. I totally
enjoyed my walk this morning. This
community has the large, beautiful, townhomes around the marina. On the road
that rings the outside of the marina homes, the houses ranged from townhomes
and duplexes, smaller single family to McMansions. All of the roads, sidewalks, mailboxes and
common grounds are beautifully kept. I
can’t imagine what the HOA fees might be, but probably a lot more than I would
want to spend.
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| Inviting walkways . . . |
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| Beautiful homes . . . |
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| Prepping for sailing lessons |
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| PEKABU from across the lagoon |
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| Surprised by Bee! |
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| Color variations by Mother Nature |
Pete completed the final engine checks
while I brushed another ½ dog off of Bailey.
I don’t know how she can have any hair left after the second brushing in
2 weeks that yielded another bag of hair.
We also got a text from Mike of SV CHEROIKA. They and a few other boats will also be
making the jump tonight also. They will
clear Port Royale Inlet about the same time we depart Windmill Marina at 2:30
pm. The rain forecasted for tonight might be accompanied by some thunder and
lightning and the chance of rain has increased to 50% late tonight and early
tomorrow, but we are prepared and it’s manageable.
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| Fall colors in the South! |
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| Houses along the estuary |
We left as planned at 2:30. The clear
skies of the morning have clouded up and by the time we were at the Hilton
Head/Tybee Inlet, we could see the rains approaching from the south. The waves
for the first 2 miles of the inlet were 5+ feet and from many directions. There is substantial shoaling that contribute
to these wave formations. Our plan is to head out 2 miles from the inlet and
draw the line to the MOA buoy off of St. Mary’s Inlet/ Fernandina Beach.
We
were hailed by CHEROIKA. They are a few miles to our north. We will have
company through the night. Those approaching showers were small, but in some
cases, very intense. There was even some lightning in a couple that passed
us. The 40-50% chance of showers were
100% for quite a while. We didn’t realize in the planning of this jump that the
Gulf Stream would be this close to shore.
Bailey was uncomfortable and couldn’t find a spot in which to settle
in. Usually, she plants herself on her
bed, right in front of companion way and stays put, but not tonight. She tried to stand for half the night. We had
seas 5-7 feet and CHERIOKA confirmed that we were in the stream base on the
water temperature of 90 degrees. The
crew from one of the other boats, SV TRUE BLUE, didn’t fare well with the wave
action. Most of her crew had become sea sick. Since
we were out about 14 miles off shore, we decided to head in to about 10
miles. Thankfully, we picked up some
eddies off the Stream that increased our speed from 5.4 to 7 mph. The seas
calmed down and finally, so did Bailey. I was able to catch some sleep, but
Pete was awake and engaged.
SPOT messages were sent about every 2
hours. Around 4 am, the skies cleared, and the stars were magnificent since the
moon had set earlier in the night. With the assist from the favorable eddies,
we were able to arrive at the St. Mary’s MOA at the time we originally
anticipated, around 6:15 am and be by the Fernandina Beach mooring field by
7.
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| Sunrise at St. Mary's Inlet |
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| Boats damaged by Hurricane Irma |
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| Sunrise + steam and architecture = cool silhouette! |
We were lucky to grab the only available
mooring ball in Fernandina Beach.
However, once the dinghy was lowered and Pete almost ready to take
Bailey into shore, the dinghy engine finally gave up the ghost. The ’92 Mercury Mariner 8 hp engine has
worked like a charm until last summer.
The mechanic has gotten it working twice, but reminded us of its age and
the possibility it might need replacement.
It is unfortunate that as of this morning, that time has come. We are in strong current and it is too far to
try to row to shore. Bailey will not be
able to wait for us to get to the next marina. It is 27 miles and about 4 additional
hours south. Instead, he maneuvered PEKABU to the closed dock while Bailey and I
walked the dock for her to take care of her “immediate issues.”
We continued south and once again Bob 423’s
notes were invaluable for transiting the thin areas just below Fernandina. We,
and the 3 sailboats that preceded us had no problems. It also helped that we came though this area
at high tide.
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MV WHO CARES
backing into dock for repairs |
The crew of ANDIAMO requested that we take
note of bridge clearances. For most of
the trip we have seen no problems at high tide, but a few of the bridges were
transited at mid- or falling-tide. However, on the ICW just south of St. John’s
River, Jacksonville, the first 3 bridges might be a challenge at high
tide. One tide board measured 63’ at
high tide.
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| MY LE GRAND BLEU |
Amazing Facts: LE GRAND BLEU was built in 2000 for an American financier. She sold to a Russian business man in 2002 and then was given to a friend after a gambling loss in 2006.
She is 371 feet long with a 58' beam and a 15' draft. She is powered by 2-9,730 hp engines. Her top speed is 17 knots, but cruises at 15 knots.
She has a 73' sailboat mounted on the port side while a 68' powerboat is mounted on the starboard and has 10 guest cabins. She also has 35 crew.
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| Fishing Boat with hitchhikers |
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| The birds! The birds! |
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| Shoreline along the Amelia River |
The areas we traveled south of the Amelia
River are even prettier than that the waterway above Charleston. The ICW meanders marshes dotted with islands
of pine, palms and other trees. There
are many feeder streams that create some interesting cross currents.
Apparently, the dolphins also like these currents. We saw a pod where many of the dolphins were
jumping out of the water. I am bummed. I took some photos of the dolphins, but
because I had tried to photo the sunrise and changed my speed setting, my
jumping dolphins were not clear.
After completing our journey through
“Roscoe Row” in Palm Valley (where many of the docks have the street address on
“Roscoe Road, Boulevard, Avenue , North or South”), the river widened. As I was sitting at the helm, two large birds
flew right in front of the bow then proceeded to fly and swerve around the boat
as the mature eagle chased the juvenile eagle with the fish. It was really cool to see up close!
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| Egrets just hanging out! |
There were more dolphins the further south
we got on the Tolomato River, but not jumpers.
We also had the ebb current in our favor. We actually hit 9.9 mph at our normal cruising
speed, which is 6.8 –7 mph.
It was great to finally tie to the dock at
Comachee Cove Marina at 4 pm. Once secured, Pete went to register while I took
Bailey for a long-deserved walk. It has been a long day. Once the boat is put
back in order, we walked over to Vinny's Pizza for a quick, delicious
dinner. Bailey was walked for a last
time. It was a very early night with
hopes of sleeping in in the morning. It
takes a lot more planning and awake time, I am glad we did the jump. Georgia is more challenging and stress full
than doing a jump. Since we resume our
travels on Friday, we should only be a week late for Riviera Beach Marina, our
home for the next two months.
~~~ /) ~~ K & P
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