3/31/18: Saturday- About 30 miles or so from Brunswick Marina, is another one of the most challenging passages for depth here in the Twilight Zone of Georgia ICW. It is Little Mud River, and is well known for shoaling and shallow water. We want to be there about an hour before high tide to transit with the most water possible. High tide tomorrow is around 9:10am. Sunrise is at roughly 7:15am. We can’t go 30 miles in 2 hours, and WE don’t go in the dark around here- nope, not this crew. And going on a falling (ebb) tide is never the best choice…. because if you DO end up having the waterway bottom find your boat bottom, you really would rather have water coming in to help you float again – not going out and leaving you high and dry (literally!). So, Navigator Karen ciphered and decided to move us 10 miles closer, and also gain another 40 minutes on high tide time (9:50am) by waiting one more day and moving us to Morningstar Marina at St Simons Island. Then we’d go to Little Mud River on Sunday. It is only 10 miles and 40 minutes difference, but that is all we need to make Sunday work! Read more
Month: March 2018
Days 17,18: Brunswick Georgia
3/29&30/18: Up and atum at 6:30 again, before first light. High tide this morning here was at 8:00. Our plan was to scoot out of here as early before high tide as possible to give us as much water as possible for today’s challenging navigation areas. As soon as it was light enough, Captain started our engines, and I headed out to the bow to bring up the anchor. I took along my anchor washing squirter, because we already knew from our repeated uppie-downies with the anchor, that the chain would be mucky. Plumber Kenny had rigged up a wiener-dog hose to a raw water spigot in the cockpit for this very reason. (Translation – an expandable accordion kind of hose on a spigot that pumps water from whatever water we’re floating in, that is located on the back deck of the boat.). Since we already knew that the anchor and chain was sitting in glop, I wanted to wash it off as we pulled it up. So I took my 50 foot hose with me and just sprayed the chain as it came up. It worked really great! And then, we were off! And we were not even the first boat to leave the bay, at that! A boat that we had been next to in St. Augustine, Almost Perfect, was about 2 miles ahead of us. Read more
Day 16: Anchors aweigh at Cumberland Island
3/28/18: We were up and atum before the sunshine, (Wait… WHAT?!?) at 6:30, and left St Augustine at sunrise about 7:15, at slack tide, and no wind. It was awesome! We had several loopers and neighbor boaters out on the dock to send us off. Why in the world are people up that early if they aren’t actually motoring today? These folks were all staying another day in St. Augustine. Such nice (but outta their mind early riser) people!
Days 13,14,15: The oldest city in the U.S.
3/25-27/18: St Augustine, FL. It was a short cruise from Palm Coast to St Augustine – only about 25 miles. We had quite some current in our favor, so it was quick! There were times when we were powered down to an idle, and still going 8 knots. WOW! But we didn’t want to get there too early. We made reservations to stay in the municipal marina, right in the heart of old town. And we were fortunate enough to get a slip with power. The marina is still trying to rebuild after hurricane Irma, with only maybe one half of the slips available, and only 11 with power. We had read many reviews about the marina so that we would know what to expect. It is right on the ICW, and has very swift current during maximum ebb and flood (outgoing and incoming tides). It was highly recommended to arrive at slack tide, which on Sunday 3/25 was at about 10:45am. However, this was Palm Sunday, and the city has a very long standing tradition of Blessing the Fleet on this day – at the marina. So they would only be accepting arrivals until 11-ish, and check out time is 11:00, so they would not guarantee that our slip would be empty and ready for us. If our slip wasn’t ready, we’d have to stand by until the Blessing event was over, which could be 3:00. (And that was NOT slack tide time!). But jeeze – they don’t have to wait for housekeeping to make the bed and clean the shower! Get em out, and get us in! 🙂
Day 12: Palm Coast on First Coast
3/24/18: We moved north past Daytona Beach to Palm Coast, and left the Space Coast behind us. We are now on the First Coast. I’m sure it is called this because it is where the explorers first landed, which we’ll talk about more when I tell you about St. Augustine in a couple of days. We travelled less than 50 miles today. It was chilly, but there was only a little breeze, which was nice. We made our own wind with our speed of 8-ish mph, so primarily it was the captain that had wind in his face today. But – the navigator had her bundles on. (And you can’t even see the fuzzy blankie on my lap.)
Day 11: New Smyrna Beach, and go, go Turbo!
3/23/18: Brrrrr. We left Cocoa Village Marina and headed north. I don’t think the thermometer was at 50 degrees yet. The wind was only forecasted to be NNW at 10 today. Add our 8-9 knot speed, and BRRRR. We left the windows closed on the flybridge, and that helped. But it made it hard to see when there was any reflection on them. This was the only bridge that we might have needed to open – the NASA RR bridge. Only 7’ clearance, but it was open and ready for us.
Days 8,9,10: Chillin in Cocoa
3/22/18: Seriously chillin. It’s been in the 40’s at night, windy and cool in the day. A good time to just stay tied up to a dock and hang out, and wear jeans and socks and fuzzies. I’m glad Island Girl has heat as well as air conditioning! Mechanic Kenny found some new turbo guts from a company in California. So with two day shipping, the parts should be here today (Thursday). We extended our stay another day, and we’ll leave Cocoa on Friday. This works out fine, because as I write this on Thursday morning, it is 50 degrees and white caps from the north out there. Another good day to stay tied to the dock. To move north today would be a very cold adventure. Glad we have an interior helm too, for the days that we will really be chillin on the water!
We enjoyed mimosas on Wednesday morning to celebrate our first week aboard. Good reason, right?
Day 7: I Dream of Jeannie in Cocoa Florida
3/19/18: For those of you old enough the remember TV in the 60’s… I Dream of Jeannie with Jeannie and astronaut Master Major Tony Nelson aired 1965-1970 (the first 2 seasons in Black & White… remember?). Of course Tony Nelson worked at Kennedy Space Center, but he lived in nearby Cocoa Beach. Well shoot – we aren’t going to Cocoa Beach. So now that I told you where we are NOT going, I should tell you where we ARE going. Cocoa Florida (or Historic Cocoa Village), which is very nearby Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, and Kennedy Space Center. Not really sure how the town got it’s name. One story says that the US mail used to come by boat, and the post office just had an old cocoa tin box nailed to a post on the waterway to receive mail. Another story is that when sailors would come by the town, a woman served them cocoa. I don’t know. It’s kind of a funny name for a place in Florida that doesn’t grow cocoa plants.
Day 6: Turn left at the Atlantic ICW
3/18/18: At the St Lucie Campground and marina, we were just a stone’s throw away from the lock. I went over to take a picture of the empty chamber first thing in the morning, but darn if they had already lifted a boat up to our level, and the chamber was full. Oh well.
Day 5: Across Lake Okeechobee
3/17/18: We were up and atum before sunrise! What the heck?! Being anchored on the river, in between locks that only operate during the daylight hours, the river was very quiet and calm all night. It was a beautiful morning watching the sunrise and listening to the birds chirp happily to welcome a new day.
