10 April 2022
Depart: Daytona Beach , FL Anchorage 9:20
Arrive: St. Augustine / Ximanies Creek Anchorage 4:10
Distance: 52 nm
Conditions: Cold night; extra blanket on bed; 60 degrees in stateroom this morning
Today, we traveled inside from our anchorage in Daytona Beach to an anchorage just north of St. Augustine, Florida.
Some boat names are quite unusual like this one I spied today. Made me smile!
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| "Go Float Yourself" |
In Florida the name Flagler appears many places. Today we passed Flagler Beach, FL.
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| Flagler Beach Water tower |
We see lots of covered boat docks along the water at private houses. This one had Poseidon watching over their property.
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| Poseidon Boat House |
As we approached this bridge, I could not help but ask myself "Where's the water?"
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| Water to this bridge well hidden from view. |
As we traveled through St. Augustine, I told Clark to watch out for pirates. We saw not one but two pirate ships!
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| Big Pirate Ship |
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| Pirate Captain |
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| Baby Pirate Ship with mother ship |
No trip through St. Augustine would be complete without a picture of the "Bridge of Lions". Clark prepared to lower the mast to go under, but I told him not to worry, we would make it. We had about a foot overhead as I navigated the boat through the bridge.
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| Bridge of Lions |
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| Castillo de San Marcos - Fort in St. Augustine |
We dropped anchor north of St. Augustine for the night.
11 April 2022
Depart: St. Augustine FL anchorage 8:20
Arrive: Golden Isles GA anchorage 6:00
Distance: 84 nm
Conditions: 64 degrees in stateroom at 7:00
To travel on the ocean today, we did something that Clark normally refuses to do, we backtracked south towards St. Augustine to take the St. Augustine inlet out into the ocean. We had an outgoing tide that gave us a fast ride out into the ocean which was as smooth as glass.
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| St. Augustine Lighthouse |
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| Truck on beach at St. Augustine inlet |
We were on the ocean for 8 hours with nothing to look at but water, i.e. no picture taking happened. To pass the time we listen to stories and the news on NPR.
At 5:15 we turned to go into the St. Simon's Inlet. We still had almost an hour to go to get to the anchorage Clark selected for the night.
I heard that the "Golden Ray" wreck that has been an eyesore here since September 2019 had finally been completely removed.
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| View in the inlet taken in May of 2020 |
What a change in the view with it gone!
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| No more wreck to look at and avoid! |
On the way to our anchorage, we passed by the St. Simon's Lighthouse.
12 April 2022
Depart: Golden Isles GA anchorage near Lanier Island 8:20
Arrive: May River anchorage near Hilton Head Island, SC 6:00
Distance: 85 nm
Conditions: warmer than prior days; shorts weather; seas slightly higher than yesterday
When we left the anchorage today, we headed back out the St. Simon's Inlet for another ocean voyage. Once again we had an outgoing tide to push us along nicely. We found the ocean had a bit higher swells today than yesterday, but it was still a pleasant trip.
The one exciting thing that happened today was the unexpected hitchhiker that came on board.
Yesterday we came into the anchorage via the south side of Hilton Head island. Today, we exited back out into the ocean on the north side via the Port Royal Inlet.
Scenery as we passed by the Hilton Head Island area...
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| Palm Warbler hitching a ride on our boat |
I had a devil of a time getting a picture of him as he evaded me every step of the way!
This is the second time we have had a bird visitor of this type onboard while out in the ocean. When this guy decided to rest on our boat, we were somewhere between 7 and 10 miles offshore. It surprised me to find it flying so far off the coast. No wonder he needed a rest.
We did not so much mind him resting on board, but we did not like the fact that he went into the boat and checked out our pilot house twice! Each time I ran down and shooed him back out of the boat. Perhaps he did not care for the speed Clark traveled at as I found him / her sitting on the speed controls in the pilot house!
I posted a plea for information on Facebook and got a reply from my son's friend Jeff that the bird is a Palm Warbler. I looked on Google and sure enough I saw a picture of my visitor.
We entered the anchorage for the night from the south end of Hilton Head Island.
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| Lighthouse on Hilton Head Island |
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| Blue dot is us anchored in May Creek for the night |
Tonight I took the sunset picture for the blog.
13 April 2022
Depart: May Creek anchorage 8:40
Arrive: Dewees Creek anchorage 7:00
Distance: 84 nm
Conditions: higher waves today than day before; cool breeze; overcast skies
Yesterday we came into the anchorage via the south side of Hilton Head island. Today, we exited back out into the ocean on the north side via the Port Royal Inlet.
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| Blue dot is our boat heading for Port Royal Inlet |
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| "Lona Myrick" Tug |
We had rougher water on the ocean today. I foolishly tried to read and do some crossword puzzles while underway. I did not feel so well after a while. To cure my seasickness feeling, I studied the horizon for a long while until the issue went away.
One thing we noticed over the past three days on the ocean is that we saw a lot less boat traffic out there than we would have expected especially considering the extra calm waters. For long stretches of time, we had the ocean all to ourselves.
Although we got a later start today than yesterday and the day before, we traveled almost an identical number of miles. We paid the price today as we did not finish dropping the anchor until 7:00. Dinner got pushed to close to 8:00 as a result. I spent the rest of the night working on getting the blog updated correctly.
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| Anchorage for the night in Dewees Creek |
Clark says we will be traveling on the ICW from now on. Weather and ocean conditions are not inviting us to venture out tomorrow.
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