Boating with Sunset Delight: 2021: Daytona Beach to Jacksonville FL

24 April 2021

Depart: Daytona Beach anchorage 8:55

Arrive: St. Augustine Mooring Ball 2:30

Distance: 47 nm

Conditions: Windy, 70s, Partly Cloudy

Clark decided to head for St. Augustine for tonight. We were not looking for a marina per se and there are no great anchorages to pick from, so we headed to the mooring field at St. Augustine. Having been this way numerous times now, we have plenty of the familiar spots already captured in prior blog updates.

Here are some of the sights we saw today ...

The owner of "Compass Rose" requested a slow pass. They said their dog was onboard and he doesn't like to swim.

"Compass Rose" -- Dog at midships

Members of AGLCA, the Great Loop association we belong to, use a system called Nebo to track other AGLCA boaters on their travels. Debbie on "Gypsies Palace" called us on the VHF radio to say hello.

"Gypsies Palace" on ICW

We see lots of docks on our travels. Some are decked out in interesting ways.

Poseidon watching over this dock

Too often we see things floating in the water. Usually they are traps or other identifiable objects. Today Clark spotted something he could not identify. I looked at it and knew immediately what it was.

Upside down bean bag chair floating in ICW
(probably blew off some small boat)

Here's a very tall and quite small restaurant
"Jewel of the Sea" Restaurant

We always know when we have gotten near St. Augustine because that is when we start to see the pirate ships!

Small Pirate Ship

Large Pirate Ship

I admit to being worried about picking up a mooring ball at St. Augustine. The wind was pretty wicked when we arrived. Clark has limited visibility for viewing the mooring ball which gets worse and worse the closer he gets, so I have to be his eyes to tell him where it is and where to go.

We have tried various methods over time of attacking the problem of picking up a mooring ball by reaching over the side of a rocking boat, capturing the "painter", and feeding a line through the hole. Experience has paid off.

We know not to try to get the painter from the bow. It's too far to down to reach. Clark puts the stern near the ball. I use a boat hook to snag the "painter" line attached to the ball, feed a line through the hole, and then walk the line up the side of the boat. While I am doing that I have to keep Clark informed of where the mooring ball is, so he can maneuver the boat to assist me in getting in position to tie the line at the bow.

Even in the wind it went smoothly. After I had one line attached to the ball and secured to the port side of "Sunset Delight", we added a second line and secured it to the starboard side. We were done in record time!

During the afternoon, we got to test the strength of the mooring ball as a wind storm came through. We had winds up to 43 knots. The windmill on the sailboat behind us was whirring away. It sounded like a swarm of bees! I wondered if the mooring ball would hold. I swear at one point we spun in a full circle as the wind shifted. It was definitely exciting!

We heard the weather report for a bit further north included tornadoes, so I was happy to be at St. Augustine for the night.

Sunset at St. Augustine Mooring Field

25 April 2021

Depart: St. Augustine Mooring Field 9:20

Arrive: Jacksonville Free Dock at Sisters Creek 1:55

Distance: 34 nm

Conditions: Cool breeze, Fighting current almost entire trip today

It was harder to sleep last night than usual. We had early morning, i.e. middle of the night, thunderstorms that woke me. I heard the strain of the port-side line as it pulled against the mooring ball in the wind. It really got a work out.

Eerie cloud cover at St. Augustine Mooring Field

Later, the winds settled down and, it must have been slack tide, because the mooring ball started bouncing off the side of the hull. Bonk, bonk, bonk! Being unfamiliar with this particular sound, it disturbed my sleep.

Knowing we did not have too far to travel today, we took our time getting going. We did not want to leave too late; however, as we wanted to get to the free dock at Jacksonville in time to find a slot.

We must have spun around the mooring ball a couple of times in the night because the port and starboard lines we attached were twisted around each other. I knew I would have a lot of trouble trying to untwist them on my own, so I called Clark up to the bow. Working together, we got the lines untwisted and the starboard line removed. After Clark got back to the upper helm, I took off the port line and we were underway.

When we have a mid to low tide at St. Augustine, we can get under the Bridge of Lions without lowering the mast, today we could not quite make it. One more foot would have done the deal for us, so we had to lower the mast. At least we could leave up the antennas.

We had to wait before we could transit the bridge. Several official boats came through from the other direction. As they passed by, I read "US Border Patrol - Air and Marine Operations" on the side of their boats. Something must have been going on today, because if we saw one of these, we saw at least six.

Clark had the boat in neutral as we prepared to transit the bridge. I took the helm, so he could go to the back and scope out the clearance. I worried about the antennas and tried to keep our RPMs low as we progressed. It was a more than a little unnerving as I had no word from Clark on clearance. Finally, I had to push the speed up to get steering control of the boat; otherwise, I was heading for a collision with the side of the bridge.

As we passed under the bridge, we noticed that the two bridge tenders were watching us and yelling encouragement. "It looks good!" We made it through safely but it was a bit hair-raising.

Bridge of Lions - St. Augustine, FL

Clark snapped a picture of St. Augustine as we passed by. It looked pretty with the sun shining on the buildings.

Other than passing other boats along the way, the slog uphill (against current) on the ICW was uneventful and none too interesting. We listened to the radio to help pass the time.

Eventually, I saw security zones and military ships and knew that we approached Jacksonville.

Jacksonville ahead

I went below to start preparing lines for deployment. Not knowing if we would tie port or starboard, I had to wait for word from the captain. When he told me "port", I had to move quickly to get set up.

From experience I know that the current slams the boat into the dock, so the first thing I did was put out fenders and then got the lines set up. I managed to get 2 fenders and stern and mid lines before Clark "hit" the dock. I did not have enough time to get a bow line ready until after we were already up against the dock.

We docked just moments before 2:00 and found good dock space to choose from. As the day progressed, more and more boats came in for the night. When we tied up, we scooched up as close to the boat in front of us as feasible. That left room for another boat to tie behind us.

That boat turned out to be "Aquaholics" - a boat we had passed earlier on the ICW. Talking to the owners after we helped them tie up, we learned they are new AGLCA Loopers just starting on their voyage.

"Aquaholics" docked behind us.
If I stood on our swim platform, I could clean
their anchor pulpit for them!

As we traveled the ICW yesterday, we talked to "Gypsies Palace" on the VHF radio. They stopped at Marineland last night. That made Clark mention the problem with the power tripping which led to "Gypsies Palace" saying they have a problem with that. Long story short, they agree to meet up at the free dock in Jacksonville tonight, so Clark could look into the wiring issue for them.

When they arrived, we could not quite squeeze them into the remaining space on the dock, so they "rafted up" to our boat for the night.

View out my salon window of "Gypsies Palace"

Clark worked on their boat for just over an hour. He came back with a couple of ideas of the possible problem but no way to test out his theories without a new, more-sensitive GFI 50 amp receptacle.

After they completed their electrical investigation, they invited us to tour their power cat and Clark reciprocated and gave them a tour of ours. Without Debbie's intervention, I think they would have forgone dinner to talk through the night! Eventually I got to eat!

We have an almost full / pink moon tonight