Depart: Brunswick Landing Marina, Brunswick, GA 6:45
Arrive: St. Augustine, FL Mooring 5:00
Distance: 87 nm
We are definitely getting better at preparing to depart in the dark and leaving the dock shortly after first light. The alarm rang at 5:45 and we were on our way an hour later.
To expedite our departure, we decided to do what Clark calls "touch and go" to drop off the keys at the marina office. Walking or biking to drop them off would have taken much longer. Clark pulled up to the dock, I wrapped a single line, jumped off the boat, dropped off the keys, jumped back on board, and we were on our way.
Given the early hour, we got to see yet another sunrise.
As we made our way into St. Simon’s Sound and towards the
ocean, we met a freighter coming the other way. It looked like the vessel took
up the entire span of the bridge. From a distance it looked like there was no room, but Clark said we could fit between them and
the leftmost support on he kept going at our normal travel RPM. Of course he was right.
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| "Orca Ace" out of Panama |
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| "Orca Ace" out of Panama |
The trip on St. Simon’s Sound out the inlet to the point
where we could turn to make our way to our next destination seemed to take
forever. This channel was exceedingly long or at least it felt like it. As we made our way out the channel, two boats
came up on us fast heading for the open water. When Clark checked on AIS, he
found one of them to be “Eagle’s Nest” whom we have spotted on AIS just about
every time we have been on the ocean. Today was the first close up look we got
at the boat. Mostly it has been a gray triangle shown on the display.
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| Race to the ocean; “Eagle’s Nest” on left |
Clark saw a mariner’s report that said the wave heights
today would be zero feet with zero period. Now, that I wanted to see. We just
about had that a couple of days ago. I did not think it could get any calmer
than that. As it turned out, the waves were more in the 2-3’ range and coming
on our bow. It made for a very “bumpy” ride today - up and down, up and down, …
I got very bored looking at the ocean water, and with the
constant rocking, my eyes struggled to stay open. I brought Clark a mid-morning
snack and then disappeared for a while for my morning tea break. I had planned
to sew if possible as I have a small project planned. With the motion, however,
I was afraid I would stab myself more than the fabric I planned to work on. Sewing would need to wait for another day. I went back up top to watch the waves go by.
Later, as we approached the St. John's inlet for our night at the Jacksonville free dock, I asked Clark where he would stay if we were headed to St. Augustine instead of Jacksonville. I guess I lit a fire under him because the next thing I know he was calling the St. Augustine Municipal marina to inquire about a mooring ball for the night. Finding space available for tonight, we reset our plans for our new destination.
Having nothing to look at by clouds and water had been tedious for the past 6 hours. I wondered how I would make it through another 4. We listened to the radio and did a Rorschach Test exercise looking at the clouds. Clark saw a full-size teddy bear. I found something that looked like one of the muppets. We definitely were desperate for entertainment. Fortunately we had good music on the radio to help pass the time.
We passed the St. John's River inlet at 1:00 and arrived at the St. Augustine inlet around 4:30. Before grabbing the mooring ball, we stopped at the marina office on the dock to pay, and then took our slot for the night. We had to go under the Bridge of Lions to access the dock office and then pass under the bridge a second time to the mooring ball. The tide was such that we did not need an opening to get under the bridge.
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| St. Augustine - Bridge of Lions |
We have never picked up a mooring ball with this boat, so it was a new trial. I managed to grab the hookup using a boat hook. I practically had to lie down on the boat to reach it. Then I got the line up and hooked and handed the setup over to Clark to tie up to his satisfaction. Success!
With such a long day behind us, we were more than happy to relax for a few minutes and watch the sun set over St. Augustine.
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| Historic Sailboat out of St. Augustine, FL |
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