Destination - Brunswick, Georgia

 After being at anchor in Daytona Beach for June 22nd and 23rd, getting pummeled by thunderstorms, we decided it was time to get moving. We left Daytona on a beautiful Saturday morning. I normally don't like to travel on the ICW on the weekend due to the weekend boat traffic, but we decided to make an exception and head for the relative safety of the mooring field in St. Augustine. 

We left early enough that there was very little other boat traffic for the first few hours. The weather forecast was calling for scattered thunderstorms, but so far the radar was clear. After a while we noticed another sailboat that we recognized on AIS just a few miles in front of us. It was "Southern Cross", the boat we had seen a number of times on this trip. We spent much of the morning with our genoa deployed and current behind us. We were moving along at over 6 knots. 

A beautiful morning cruising along the ICW between Daytona and St. Augustine.

There is one spot that is notorious on this section of the ICW. The Matanzas river inlet has some shifting shoals that can move overnight. We had a track that was not too old, but I knew I needed to pay attention in there. As it turned out, I was able to watch Southern Cross go through there on AIS. I was alarmed when I saw his boat speed over ground drop to 0.0 for a few minutes. After a bit, they got going again and cleared the area. I called them on the radio and asked if they had gone aground. They did, and then gave me some good instructions to make it through safely. When we got to that point, I followed their instructions exactly and we never saw less than 8 feet of water. Other cruisers are awesome!

From that inlet on to St. Augustine was fairly easy except that we had to open one bridge. The bridge tender made that very easy by timing the opening perfectly for our speed. I never touched the throttle. The only problem was at that point the current turned against us. We also saw a thunderstorm show up on radar. It was not long before we saw the black blob come over the horizon. We were seeing the lightning and then hearing thunder. It looked bad, but we might be able to make it to the marina before the storm hit. At this point it feels like everything slows down. The miles feel like they are coming slower and slower and the storm is coming faster and faster. We made it to within a mile of the marina when we got it with a 35 knot gust and the rain came down sideways. I had put my raincoat on, but below the waist, I was soaked in seconds. SHIFT handled it with no issues and just plowed ahead. My only concern was visibility. We turned on the running lights and carried on for the last mile. The thunderstorm passed quickly, so we only had to hold for a few minutes when we arrived at the marina. We called them on the radio and they assigned us ball #1. That is the closest ball to the marina. We pulled in to the mooring field in a light drizzle and no wind. Kim got the ball picked up and we were home for a couple of days. 

At that point, I only had two things on my mind. A hot shower and a pizza. After getting things squared away on the boat, we got the dinghy down and headed in. We both took long hot showers and then headed to St. Augies for a pizza. We have been to St. Augustine twice in the past 15 months, so there was not too much of a draw to go sight seeing. 

We saw this beautiful house and thought of our son, Mark. I think he would like this house. 

We went to church at the Basilica of St. Augustine the following morning and then took a walk around town. It was a hot day with no thunderstorms to cool things off. 

This is a picture from our mooring in St. Augustine. That is the Bridge of Lions. We are in the portion of the mooring field south of the bridge. That would mean that we would have to open the bridge to move north. 

The sailboat in this picture is an Island Packet named "Bakitha". They were behind us the following day and anchored right next to us at Cumberland Island. Unfortunately, we never met them. 

We noticed in the forecast, that there was no thunderstorms forecasted for the next few days. There was a high pressure dome that was settling over the SE US and this was bringing hot and stable weather. We discussed our options and decided to head offshore on Monday morning. We had a number of options. We could sail overnight and go all the way to Brunswick or we could stop short at either, Jacksonville or the St. Mary's inlet. 

I was up before the sun on Monday, June 26th. I was getting the boat ready to go when I heard the horn signaling that the bridge was about to open. I called them and they told me that we could make it if we left now. We made that bridge opening and we were now on our way north at before 6:30 am. We went out the inlet with no issues and then turned north. We had good wind on the beam for the first three hours and cruised along comfortably at about 6 knots. It felt so good to be sailing offshore again. 

We had a nice sunrise on our starboard side as we headed north. 

We were not alone as we cruised north. There were a number of other boats that had the same idea as us. 

We called the marina in Brunswick and asked them if we could come in on June 27th. Or reservation for the next 4 months started on July 1. They said that would not be a problem, so we just needed to decide if we were going to stop for the night or not. 

The wind made that decision for us. After 3 hours of great sailing, it dropped out to almost nothing. We finally gave up and started the engine. We cruised along the calm Atlantic Ocean for a while and then decided to head for the St. Mary's inlet. We could stop there, and get a good nights sleep, and then sail on north to the Brunswick inlet the next day. The wind forecast was much better for the following morning. 

The only problem was that the tidal current was against us when we arrived at St. Mary's. It was a very slow ride coming into the anchorage at Cumberland Island. We were under 4 knots for much of the trip. 

Sunset at Cumberland Island

After a very restful night, we were once again up early and moving out. I had looked at the tide tables and saw that if we did it right we could get current behind us for both the outgoing at St. Mary's and the incoming at Brunswick 5 hours later. We just needed to average 5 knots on the 25 nm sail.

The plan worked perfectly! We had strong current behind us as we left the anchorage and out the inlet. We turned north and had 15 knots of wind right on the beam. We were moving along nicely at between 6 and 7 knots. It was so nice to have the motor off and going that fast. It was the best sail we have had since we left the Bahamas. 

Cruising along at 7.3 knots in around 18 knots of wind. SHIFT was in her element. It was a great way to end our sailing season. 

We made the inlet on the rising tide as planned and we sped the 13 miles from the inlet to Brunswick Landing Marina. We called them on the radio and they met us at our slip to help us get tied up. We were now in our new home for the next 4 months. 

We will stay on the boat for a couple of weeks to do some repairs and maintenance. Then we will leave the boat to go visit the family all across the country. It is now hurricane season and BLM is an excellent hurricane hole. The hurricanes generally follow the warmer water of the gulf stream. Brunswick is as far west as you can go on the eastern seaboard of the US and still be on the coast. We are praying this place keeps our boat safe. We will prepare the boat expecting a storm to come and hope it doesn't. 

This blog will slow down now as the sailing will stop. We have big plans for this next year. Check back in November to see where we go next.