Overnight Sail From St. Augustine North

 We arrived in St. Augustine on May 23rd and spent the 24th touring the very historic waterfront. Since we had sailed into the Ft. Pierce inlet on May 3rd, we had spent most of our travel time on the ICW running the motor. I find the cruise along the ICW interesting, and at times very beautiful, but also the amount of other boat traffic and narrow channel make it a bit tedious and tiring. It is very similar to driving on a highway except with many other drivers that have no idea of the rules of the road and really don't care. On the other hand, when we can sail offshore, we can generally set the autopilot and play with the sails and just relax and make big chunks of miles. The problem is finding the right weather and the right inlets to use to get to and from the open Atlantic.

As I looked at the plan for the next few days after St. Augustine, it became very clear we would want to sail on the outside in the open Atlantic Ocean. The coast line takes a strong turn to the northeast at about the Florida/Georgia border. If we take a direct path to the northeast from St. Augustine, we could cut that corner and significantly reduce the miles on this trip. We are really not in a big hurry, but with the price of diesel, the cost savings could be significant. We have been seeing diesel prices approaching $6.00 per gallon. 

I looked at the weather and we had an excellent weather window to do a 2 day sail to Charleston, SC. The third day looked iffy, so we had to get into Charleston by dark on the 26th. We needed to maintain a 6 knot average to do that. 

I had one other big concern is that the St. Augustine inlet is notorious for difficult navigation. There are ever moving shallow shoals on both sides and many boats have run aground. I made a call to the local TowBoat US Captain to get local knowledge. He told me that it is really a very easy inlet in calm conditions. Just stay in the marked channel all the way to the sea buoy before you turn and you will be fine. Most people that get into trouble make the turn north or south too soon and hit the shoal. Got it!

I would have liked to leave at first light, but we had two problems with that plan. First, we had current against us and the current in this area rips at close to 3 knots. The second issue is that we had scheduled a pump out of our waste tanks at 9am, so we wanted to wait for that. 

At 8 am, I called the marina and cancelled the pump out. I really wanted to get moving and every hour would be critical to get to Charleston. I really did not want to enter that harbor in the dark and try to find a place to anchor. We were off the mooring and moving by 8:15am.

We had the strong current with us and we were moving at over 7 knots as we exited the harbor. When we cleared the jetties, the waves got bigger with the current crashing into the swell.

Pictures never do the sea state justice, but it was a bit rough while we exited the inlet.  

 I made sure to go all the way to the sea buoy (The buoy that marks the head of the channel) and then turned north. At that point we brought up the Genoa and staysail. We had one reef in the main. The boat felt great. We then were able to shut off the motor and I was a bit surprised to see that we were able to go 6 knots with less than 10 knots of wind. I think we had some help from the outer edge of the gulf stream. 

We had a fairly comfortable ride. Kim now takes some sea sickness meds. It helps, but she does catch up on her sleep. That is actually very good, because she is awake at night, allowing me to get some rest. 

It was by no means calm, but SHIFT didn't seem to mind. 

My navigation system was calculating that we would make Charleston at about 9pm the following day. That was cutting it close. Later in the day the wind picked up and so did our boat speed. It looked like we may make it. It was a very good day of sailing. We had no squalls and we had very good wind. I would have liked a little calmer sea, but you can't have everything. The only thing we had to concern ourselves with was ship traffic. It is amazing how in this great big ocean, two vessels end up trying to occupy the same place at the same time. 

Pardon the red and white reefing line hanging down, but beyond you can see a large ship that passed about 1 mile off our bow. 

 As we approached sunset the wind died down a bit. We were now going closer to 5 knots and our expected arrival was moving beyond sunset the following day. 

Sunsets at sea bring very mixed emotions. They are beautiful, but you also know it will soon be dark and the lack of vision can be a bit scary. 

I love the first light. I can now see and I can anticipate the action of the boat from the swell. 

I never get tired of sunrise over the open ocean. 

We had a good night. I even got a couple of half hour naps and was feeling pretty good. The problem is that the wind was not cooperating. We were now behind schedule to make Charleston by dark. We could have sailed on through the next night and go in further north, but I was concerned about the weather. It appeared that our best option now was to stop short of Charleston. We had a very good inlet that was about 30 miles from our current location. The Beaufort inlet leads to Hilton Head Island. We decided that was the best bet and the safe call. We had to make a significant turn to port. The wind was now behind us and so was the swell. I thought that this would be ok, but the boat rolled with each passing wave. This caused the wind angle on the genoa to change and the sail collapsed. Then when we rolled back it would fill with a big "Whomp". This is really hard on sails. We did this for about an hour and then I decided to bring in the sails and run the motor.

As we got closer to shore I saw something very strange on my chart plotter. There were over 20 targets on AIS, all at anchor, right in front of us. I am able to look at information on each target and found that they were all cargo ships at anchor waiting to go into Savannah, GA. As we got closer to them we could see they were fairly spaced out and were the size of large buildings. It was quite a site to see. 

Each one of these ships was over 600 feet long and just sitting there with all of the goods we need in this country. Very strange. 

From there, we motored into Port Royal Sound. It is a big and very long inlet, but luck was on our side. We had a strong current running with us and we were making over 6 knots the whole way in. The only problem was the winds were picking up to close to 20 knots. We couldn't sail because of the direction, but the concern became docking. We wanted to see some friends while we were in Hilton Head Island, so we called and got a slip at Skull Creek Marina. The $100 per night rate is about normal in this area, but it doesn't make it any less painful. We had a marina staff member meet the boat and it made the docking go off without a hitch. When we landed at Hilton Head, we were now in the South Carolina. That is only the third state we have been in on this trip. We had been in Florida since Thanksgiving. We skipped right over Georgia.

I recorded some video updates during the sail north. Click below to watch and listen to the updates:

St. Augustine Sail North

We were now tied to a dock and hooked up to AC power for the first time since December in Punta Gorda, Florida. It was hot, so we turned on the air conditioning. It still worked! I have to admit, it really felt good. 

I was tired and hungry. I called a good friend and former employer of mine that now lives on Hilton Head. He had plans for the long weekend ahead, but had time for dinner that evening. We had a great meal and really enjoyed catching up on the business world that I left long ago. Thanks for dinner, Mark! 

That night, I slept like a log until a storm woke me up at 6am. We had some 40+knot gusts in the marina, but we were nice and secure and the wind was blowing us away from our finger dock. I was very happy that we had made the decision to come on in and not push on. 

We had planned on only staying two nights in the marina. We started thinking about all of our options. It was now Friday the 26th of May and we were scheduled to depart the next day. This would mean that we would be traveling on the Memorial Day weekend. I really don't like to travel on weekends, but holiday weekends can be crazy. We decided to bite the bullet and stay in the marina for the entire weekend and stay 5 nights. What would we do with those 5 nights? In my next entry, I will tell you what we did with our time. 

A shot of Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head Island. SHIFT is actually right in the middle of this shot.

Touring St. Augustine on Foot

 We arrived in St. Augustine, Florida on May 23. We spent the first night on the boat after two long days getting there from Titusville. We were up early on May 24th to head to the marina to pay out tab, get access to the on shore facilities and begin our walking tour of St. Augustine. 

We left the marina and crossed over Cathedral Street that goes over the Bridge of Lions and then walked up the waterfront right by the boat.

Here is one of the lions that stand guard on the bridge and just to the left is SHIFT on a mooring ball.

Looking up Cathedral street, you can see many of the iconic buildings

The North Mooring field. SHIFT in the middle and Valhalla just to the right. The sad news is that we hard from Randy and Gina. Valhalla ran aground in Fernandina Beach and did some damage to her props. Not sure how bad yet. 

From the waterfront we walked down to the Castillo. This is the oldest fort in the oldest city in North America. We were able to get in free using our National Parks pass. The fort is managed and preserved by the National Parks Service. 

You have to take a picture of the sign

The old guy looking over the mooring field. Always checking on the boat.

It was a hot overcast day. There are many interior rooms that have exhibits. The interpretive signs were excellent at telling the history of the fort and the history of the town of St. Augustine. We spent over 2 hours touring the fort and really enjoyed it. 

Kim loves history and she enjoyed the self guided tour.

I have been warned to not get in front of the cannon while she is on the other side. I will heed that warning.

The preservation of the old fort is impressive.

From the Castillo, we walked through the city. There are many streets that are closed to car traffic and are full of small shops and restaurants. 

We spent lots of time going into shops to look at the wares and to get in the air conditioning. It was HOT and humid!

Lots of oldest stuff. 

A building in Flagler University. This is the same Flagler that we learned about in the keys who built the original railroad that later became the road to access the keys for the first time. The university is impressive. 

This is a city government building that has been turned into a museum

I liked the old car and the building behind. 

We then walked by the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. They welcomed anyone in to see the church. We decided to go in and spend some time in meditation and air conditioning. It is a very impressive church.

The alter was very ornate

Beautiful stained glass windows

I really liked the choir loft

From the Basilica, we found a place to eat. It turned out to be a little taco place that was very good. Then back to the boat to rest and get ready for the next day. I got 10 gallons of diesel and we took long showers in the marina. We were planning another long offshore passage to Charleston the next two days. I will write all about how that trip went in my next entry. I will end this tour with what St. Augustine is known for. That is the beautiful lights along the waterfront. 

I really like this shot.

They light up the Castillo at night.

Come back to see how the next big sail goes. I will tell you now, it did not go as planned.

 

Titusville to St Augustine Florida ICW

 We were ready to leave Titusville on May 22nd. It was a great visit. We were up early to move into the fuel dock to top up our fuel tank and fill our water. We didn't have much water left. When we came in, another boater helped us with the lines. As I stepped on the dock, I asked him if that alligator was a friend. He said he had not even seen it. He called to his wife to come look and we all had a laugh. He and I had both been swimming in that water in the last couple of days.

About a 5 foot alligator by the fuel dock. 

We were moving by about 8:15 and headed north on the ICW. There really was not a good option to go outside and the weather was kind of iffy anyways, so we thought we would be in for a long motor trip over two days. 

As we headed out into the open water between the mainland and Cape Canaveral the wind piped up. We put out our genoa and before long we were going over 6 knots. The winds kept climbing and we finally decided to reef (partially furl) the genoa when the wind hit 23 knots. After about 2 hours we hit the Haulover canal. Instantly the wind was gone and we were on calm water. We had to open a bridge about half way through the canal, but that was easy in the calm. Then we exited the canal and the wind was right back, but the good news is we turned dead downwind and were able to sail the next 8 miles down the Mosquito Lagoon. It was fun and we were making good time and burning very little fuel. 

You can see on the instruments, that we are going 5.9 knots. In this shot you can also see our new pillows. We think they match our colors perfectly and they were a freebee in Titusville. Another boat was just giving them away for free. We really like having them in the cockpit, and they are waterproof. 

We then approached New Smyrna Beach. There were modest homes on both sides. It looked like an older section of Florida, but very appealing. 

By about 4 pm we were in Daytona Beach. Just before we arrived we were called on the radio by a big power boat that was ready to pass. They were very nice. In just a few miles we ended up going into the same anchorage. The name of the boat is "Valhalla".

We had a bit of difficulty anchoring in the strong winds. It took two tries, but we got it done and settled in for the night. The winds died down over night and we slept well.

The next morning we were up early, we were thinking we would like to make it to St. Augustine, but when we called to reserve a mooring ball at the city marina they had to put us on a wait list. After clearing the bridges in Daytona Beach we had perfect conditions to sail, so we did. We shut the engine off and sailed along at about 4 knots in flat water. We loved it. Before long we had Valhalla behind us and asking to pass. 

Valhalla making a pass

 We switched channels and talked for a bit. They thought SHIFT looked beautiful under sail and asked if we would like a picture. I said sure, but how would you get it to me? 9They said they would find us in St. Augustine. I told them we didn't have a reservation, but she assured me they would call back. And they did. We had a ball for the night, now we had to get there. 

SHIFT under just her genoa, just north of Daytona Beach

Needless the say, Randy and Gina found us in St. Augustine that evening. We ended up talking for two hours. Really nice folks!

 We motored along all day. The problem was it looked like we were going to arrive at just about 5 pm. The mooring ball we were assigned was on the north side of the Bridge of Lions. That meant we had to open the bridge. They do an opening on the half hour, but not one at 5 because of rush hour traffic. We tried to make the 4:30, but missed it by about 10 minutes. The currents rip in the St. Augustine harbor and we had a strong outgoing current and strong wind behind us. I had to hover around and not get pushed into the bridge for almost an hour. It was a pain, but we got it done. Then when the bridge finally opened, we had two other large vessels, a ferry and a big Catamaran come through the opposite way at the same time. I am down current, so should have right of way, but clearly they did not know or care. The Cat and I squeezed through the open spans at the same time, it was crazy. 

We then had to pick up our mooring ball in about a 3 knot current. It was a test, but Kim did her usual perfect job and we got it done. 

The view from our ball was very cool. We could see the Castillo (fort) and the bridge of Lions and all of downtown. We were excited to spend two nights to allow us to see the sights. 

Here are our views from our mooring in St. Augustine. Directly behind us (when the tide was going out) is the Castillo.

Downtown St. Augustine

The Bridge of Lions in front of us and the marina beyond.

The Bridge of Lions is very ornate, the opening span is where the turrets are.

That is about it for this entry. I have to step up my writing as we are starting to move faster and I have some interesting stories to tell. In my next entry, I will take you on a tour of St. Augustine. We really enjoyed our time there, and would like to show you the sights. I will try to get that entry out soon. 

Titusville, Florida - Rockets and Boat Work

 We arrived in Titusville, Florida on May 14th and decided to stay at least a week. We actually ended up adding one day to make it 8 days.

  

The mooring field at Titusville on a calm morning. We had an Island Packet 31 right next to us. 

The moon was full while we were in Titusville. 

A nice sunrise while we waited for a rocket launch

The price of the moorings are $20 per day or $100 per week. We saw the first of three scheduled rocket launches the first day we were there that I wrote about in my previous entry. The other two were going to be on the 18th and 19th. We also wanted to check out Titusville, do some minor provisioning and spend some time with our friends Kevin and Christine on "Twist of Fate". 

The mooring field is very exposed to the prevailing SE wind. It makes the anchorage kind of bumpy in the afternoon when the on shore winds kick up to about 15 knots. The good news is that the wind died off each evening and was glassy by morning and we had no problem getting a good night sleep. We had  no bad weather while we were there. 

The first order of business after we arrived was to fix our genoa. We had a tear on the outer edge of the sail where it rubbed on the spreader when it gets backwinded. We carry a heavy duty sewing machine just for this need. 

Kim using sail tape to add strength to the area

Kim has gotten good at this type of repair.

I didn't get a before picture, but this is the finished product. The repair has held up fine in some strong wind since it was completed. 

I did some motor checks and went through visual checks on the boat. All looked good. Doing repair and maintenance on the boat is constant and extremely important. I must say, we do well as a team. 

We enjoyed a nice evening with Kevin and Christine. They just got back from the Bahamas and convinced us even more that we need to go this next winter. It won't be easy, but it is worth the trip. It was great to see them again and we hope they continue to enjoy their full time sailing adventure. 

We took a long walk around Titusville. It is not the most scenic town, but it does have some interesting history. It claims to be the capitol of the "Space Coast" being only 15 miles from Cape Canaveral. There were some monuments and historic buildings to see in the downtown area that was about a mile walk from the marina. We really needed the walk. 

Downtown Titusville is kind of cool.

I liked this historic home that has been turned into an office.

Looking out over the water you can see the Vehicle Assembly Building at the cape. It is over 50 stories high. You can see if for miles in this very flat area.

I walked out on the pier and saw these two rays. 

There are a number of parks in the downtown area. These monuments are dedicated to the Apollo program. The statue in the middle of this picture is JFK giving his let's go to the Moon speech.

We think these Ibis's look and act like chickens. 

We went out on another bridge and saw this manatee swimming by.

On another day we decided to take a bus to the grocery store and the pharmacy and back. That turned into an all day ordeal. We were really missing the excellent bus system in Vero Beach. It was fine, we really had nothing better to do and the busses were air conditioned. It is getting warm and humid, time to get moving north, but first we had two rockets to see.

On the morning of the 18th, we were up at sunrise to see another Falcon 9 Space X launch. The clouds came in and the view was not as good.

Another load of satellites heading to space to complete the Starlink system

Interesting early morning sky, but it was kind of hazy.

The power and sound does not get old.

I was very excited to see the launch on the 19th. It was an Atlas 5 with the Boeing Starliner Capsule aboard. This was an unmanned orbital test flight. I was expecting a much larger rocket, but it did not seem much different from the Space X flights. It was an evening flight, but a cloudy sky made it hard to see. 

The Atlas 5 rocket with the Boeing Starliner Capsule

We could barely see the first stage separation 

Sorry about all of the rocket pictures, but I am fascinated by it. I grew up with a father that was an engineer with McDonnel Douglas for a few years, and worked directly on the Apollo program. I am kind of into exploration, whether on earth or beyond. 

Well, that is about it for Titusville, it did not disappoint. We were now ready to move further north. Hurricane season is coming, and we need to get out of the hurricane belt. Come back to see what interesting days we have. Like one of my good friends say: "We are makin' memories".

I will leave you with a few more shots from Titusville. 

A flock of White Pelicans

A really nice sailboat came in to the marina while we were there. I think it is a Tayana 42, but I am not sure. 

This is the way I want to remember Titusville.