Captains Log 11/30/06

Departure Point / Start Time St. Johns River FL
Arrival Point / End Time St. Augustine FL (nations oldest city)
Distance Traveled 50 NM

Located in St. Augustine, FL

Forecast was calling for E, SE winds 10-15knots and 5-7 foot seas. This would make us sail close-hauled and fast down the coast to St. Augustine. We left in the morning with an outgoing tide. Current was tremendous. Over 3 knots at times. The inlet was dangerous. With 3 knots of current going against 15-20 knot winds there were 12 foot rollers at 2 miles stretch of water in the inlet between the breakwater. We were making pretty good progress with the tide. But a wave would come and stop us completely. A large 60’ Coast Guard Cutter was coming in on the red side of the channel. As the wave picked him up you could see his rudder, propellers and almost the entire bottom. The waves were burring the our bow and washing over the deck. I knew that conditions were not like this outside but only in the inlet. My intuition was correct. As soon as we cleared the last set of channel markers the waves eased off and we turned south towards St. Augustine. In the interest of making it to St. Augustine by sunset we motors-ailed to maintain 5 knots of speed. The first 2 hours were slow with dying winds. But the last 20NM were great. The wind picked up to 15 knots and I was able to shut the engine and sail. Although waves were 5-7 feet we were feeling pretty good. The boat was very stiff, heeled quite a bit and handled the waves very well. This was a definite improvement over 5-7 foot swell and no wind that we had on a way to St. Mary inlet. Pretty soon we recognized the coastal features of the inlet. We made it there at 4PM, well before dark. Entrance was a bit nerve wrecking with breakers on either side of us. We got the rollers again but this time was not as bad as St. Johns river. We got in without any problems, and proceeded to the anchorage. Town looks like a great place to spend some time. The weather was nice, 80s. In the anchorage we saw familiar boats. Same that were with us in Beaufort, NC, and some we saw all along the ICW. We will not go anywhere for a while. Here we will do some upgrades, explore the city, and then in about a week or so, think about our next move.

Captains Log 11/29/06

Departure Point / Start Time Fernandina Beach FL.
Arrival Point / End Time St. Johns River (Jacksonville)FL
Distance Traveled 25 NM

Located in St. Johns River, FL

This stretch was in the ICW at a rising tide. Just as we started, within the first 5 miles, we ran aground and kept bouncing on sand bars. In the middle of the channel too. I wasn’t worried since it was about 1 hour after low tide and water was rising. With 5 foot tide swing I knew we would get off. And we did in about 10 minutes. We glanced the bottom few more times on the way to Jacksonville. We got into St. Johns river as the flood was at its highest. We had 3 knots of current going our way for about 3 miles where we found a nice quiet anchorage out of the way. St. Johns river is one of the busiest rivers on the east coast. There were tankers, navy, Coast Guard, and all kinds of fishing trollers all around. But we made it in pretty fast and didn’t have trouble running into any one of them. The next morning weather will let us make a quick outside run to St. Augustine Inlet. It is very important to make that inlet by sunset since there are unlit buoys and 7 foot swell all around the entrance. Fortunately its only about 30NM of open ocean waters.

Captains Log 11/26/06

Departure Point / Start Time Charlston SC
Arrival Point / End Time St. Marrys Inlet FL
Distance Traveled 160NM

Located in Fernandina Beach, FL

With high pressure holding the weather patterns steady, I subscribed for the email weather updates every 12 hours that I can retrieve while offshore. It looked good for SC, GA and FL. So off we went. We had options to come into Beaufort SC, Savannah River, St. Simmons Inlet, and others, but I decided to head for Fernandina Beach and St. Marrys Inlet, a very popular inlet to come from an offshore stretch. The weather didn’t give us any trouble, but the only thing I didn’t anticipate is that with such light winds astern and mixing swell from the N and NE, the ride was uncomfortable. Crystal had already taken a pill, and was sucking on sliced ginger, which seemed to work. We left on the outgoing tide and were quickly outside in the swell motor-sailing. Now I realized that we are in for a draining stretch of open water. It was nice and sunny. Being on deck made things a bit easier. The autopilot was doing just fine and I was able to relax and enjoy the ride. By evening it got cold. We were trying to get comfortable in the cockpit to kill some time while underway. I downloaded another set of weather updates which confirmed steady N, NE winds and 3-5 foot swell increasing to 5-7 feet as we get to south GA and FL. Around midnight I killed the engine and sailed on main alone. Opening genoa didn’t help a bit. Swell was too big and was just banging the sail around, never allowing it to fill with air. With boom preventer, I was able to fix the boom in place and keep it from swinging too much. We were doing 5 knots on the main alone and the autopilot was doing fine. There were some 100 miles to St. Marry inlet when I noticed that the autopilot was struggling to keep the boat on track. It was 3AM and drizzling. The moon was gone making it completely dark all around us. I cross checked our heading with where we should be going to find us well off course. The autopilot couldn’t cope with the swell so I had to steer manually keeping the pedestal compass course at 210. The swell made it miserable. The boat was swinging all over the place. By 6Am the wind died even more and I refilled the gas tank with our gas cans, to started motoring. It was a bit easier. But still the only thing I could go by is the pedestal compass. The rain stopped around 7AM and sun was back out. Since I wasn’t able to go to the navigation station to check our position I used our little handheld GPS to plot a course for St. Marries inlet. This was a miserable ride with tiring swell, no wind and lots of patchy fog. Just as I thought we saw most of the bad weather she can throw our way, we get this. Swell from multiple directions, fog and light wind astern filling the cockpit and cabin with engine fumes. I almost hate this more than gale force winds. Crystal coped very well. She was able to get some sleep but didn’t eat or drink anything but some popcorn and juice. I would run down to drink a cup of water every now and then. In no way could we make breakfast or any kind of food. The only thing on my mind was to get out of this miserable state. It was still another 30 miles to go by around 10AM. We were counting minutes. I kept repeating to myself that I will never do this again. Now I know what 5-7 foot seas with 10kts of wind feel like, miserable. Despite wanting to take few inlets before St. Marrys to get out of the mess, we stuck to it and made it all the way to St. Marry inlet. The inlet was wide and too long for the seas we were encountering. It took forever to get in. Near shore, wind was a bit stronger and I was able to unroll genoa and pick up few knots on a beam reach entering the inlet. Fernandina Beach has couple of factories with high chimneys smoking the hell out of anchorages. It feels like its always foggy here. But it wasn’t. It cleared out the next day and we had a nice sunny day with mid 70s.

Captains log 11/23/06

Departure Point / Start Time Price Creek SC ICW 11:30AM
Arrival Point / End Time Charlston SC 3:30PM
Distance Traveled 15 NM 4 hours
Located in Charlston, SC

With northern winds and high tide I decided to motor-sail along the way. Actually I saw another sailboat sail by us. So I put the #1 heavy genoa back on the roller furling and off we went. ICW is pretty straight and wide in this section. We had genoa up all the way to the bridge. Ben Sawyer bridge opens on the hour, so we waited few minutes for the 2 PM opening. Electronic charting software that came with our Atlantic Chart kit comes with bunch of other aids to navigation, like the currents and tides. So in the Charlston channel stretch, we were to encounter up to 3 knots of ebbing current against us. The chart also showed bunch of other sections of Charlston harbor with a lot less current. I like the details and accuracy of those navigational aids. So upon entering the harbor, we stayed close to the northern shore as opposed to other boats behind us that went straight through the main channel. It was funny to see them hit the 3 knots of ebb and stay in place while we slowly motor-sailed up the channel away from them. We were doing 7 kts over water and just above 6 over land. Still that is a lot less current and we came to Charlston anchorage by 3 pm. Few hours after we anchored other boats finally arrived. Charlston looks like a big town to visit. We went ashore and saw a friend we met in Beafurt NC. He had some transmission problems and was stuck there for a while. We spend the next few days in Charlston. Got the gas, propane and some groceries. The weather next week is going to be controlled by the stationary high pressure over mid Atlantic, giving us stable weather and N, NE winds of 10-15 knots. Perfect opportunity to make another outside stretch. Tis time, I am thinking go all the way to FL. Yeah!

Captains Log 11/22/06

Departure Point / Start Time North Santee River, SC ICW 9AM
Arrival Point / End Time Price Creek SC ICW 3PM
Distance Traveled 35 NM 6 hours
Located in Price Creek, SC

Today was an easy traveling day. After getting all the storm gear out of the way, we motored the ICW at high tide all the way to Price creek. As the tide was dropping, we had a couple of near groundings but we made it into the creek with 20 feet of water. SC and GA are nice because they have 7+ feet of tidal change. So you can travel all but few hours around the low tide. We stayed in Price Creek that evening to hear that it snowed in Charlston, 15 miles away?!? Couple of dolphins swam by the boat. We had two other boats join the anchorage overnight. Wind was not that bad that evening.

Captains log 11/21/06

Storm tactics

Anticipating the storm... What storm? We were so well bunkered in, that we felt nothing. I guess storm force winds staid on the coastal waters. But we were in the gale force zone. We had up to 48 knots but we barely felt few gusts in the 20s. I red in one of the storm tactics articles that trees can reduce winds up to 60% if you are in the lee within few hundred yards behind. Well, we were 10 yards away in the lee. The only problem was that it was very cold. We used the propane heater very often. Watched movies and listened for weather reports. It was supposed to be gale force until Thanksgiving. But on the day of thanksgiving I saw a sailboat drive down the ICW. That made me want to leave and go for Charlston SC. And so we did that morning. The storm was gone. I was feeling great about our storm tactic. It worked out excellent. Nothing to brag about.

Captains Log 11/20/06

Departure Point / Start Time Vinyah Inlet, SC ICW
Arrival Point / End Time North Santee River, SC ICW
Distance Traveled 5 NM 2 hours
Located in North Santee River, SC

Today was storm preparations day. The gale/storm force winds were supposed to persist for much of the week Monday-Thursday(Thanksgiving). I looked at the ICW guide and there were plenty of anchorages to try out. The big problem is that none of them had wind protection. They were all in small creeks with low grassy banks. There is a small town north but that would make us backtrack about 20 NM. Instead of backtracking I went exploring for a creek with some trees to the north. The storm winds were supposed to be out of the N, NE for the entire time. I was getting nervous. I realized that guide didn't mentioned anything about wind protection for any of the anchorages on the next 40 miles of ICW. We left Vinyah bay at 7AM and we had time to make it all the way to the one anchorage with a bit steeper banks offering more wind protection. While motoring the ICW, Ivthought about the way this ICW guide was written. Skipper Bob received emails from contributing cruisers about spots they found to anchor along the ICW. That made me realize that there must be other anchorages in the ICW besides those mentioned in the guide. So I started exploring the depth in each little creek traversing the ICW that had some trees along the north bank. And luckily, bout 5 miles later I ran into a perfect little spot. It wasn't mentioned in the guide but it was just 50 yards from ICW, about 100 yards wide creek that had some trees and shrubs on the north side. It ran east to west, with east side connecting to the ocean after several bends. On the east side we had about a mile of water so easterly winds would make quite a wake. I kept close eye on the forecast which predicted N to NE winds. So this was the place to weather the storm. Since the currents were strong we decided to anchor temporarily for the afternoon and wait for the flood (out of the east) that would align the boat correctly for us to set the anchor. Meanwhile I went along the northern river bank and realized that there is about 10 feet of water just next to the trees and bushes. That gave me a great idea. I was excited. I will put one anchor about mid river, and tie another line off the bow to the trees. This way, boat will face the wind and have 2 points of attachment. Then we will put a small anchor astern to keep the boat facing the wind and aligned parallel with the northern river bank when the tide tries to swing the boat around. I was excited and scared at the same time. We never experienced storm force winds on the boat. Will the anchor hold? What about wind generator, solar panels and bimini top? I was very tense the entire afternoon waiting on tide to turn. Crystal was trying to calm me down but it wasn't working. I always wary too much. But my idea and the fact that we can align the boat just few feet from the river bank with high trees made me relax a bit. I drank few beers to chill the nerves. Waiting for afternoon tide, I took the genoa off the roller furling, tied up the main with some extra ropes and went ashore. There I found a heavy rope that someone was using to tie to the trees on some other occasion. That made me happy, realizing that someone had done this before. The rope was thick 3 strand braid bigger than anything I had onboard. Great! I just decided to change the tree. The one the rope was tied to was a bit small so I tied it to the bigger pine trunk, and checked the rope for wear and cracks. It looked pretty good. I took our dock lines and extended it to reach into the creek. By 3PM we could start the anchoring. We laid the main 45lbs CQR anchor in the middle of the river about parallel to the pine tree where the other rope was tied to. We first made sure that our primary anchor hooked in the mud. With wind and current from NE, the anchor set very well. Next was the stern anchor. I cut off about 25 feet of our primary chain(5/16 BBB) to put on the small danforth anchor that we are using on the stern. We have plenty of primary chain. 300 feet. Now we have 275. No big deal. So I dropped the stern anchor about 150 feet from the back of the boat and about 30 feet from the river bank and laid the line all the way to the boat. Cleated it off on the stern dock cleat. The last thing was to take the shore line, and winch the boat closer to shore until all the lines are tight and the boat is about 10 feet from the river bank. I had to connect three additional lines to make the shore line reach the boat. Crystal was winching it and I was guiding it. By the time the strong line reached the bow of the boat, the chains rhode was very tight. And so was the stern anchor line. I winched some more and pretty soon you couldn't see any slack in the shore line. I did a little test by putting the engine in reverse and reving the rpms to 2000. The bow anchor held very well and so did the shore line. The boat didn't move a bit. So we were ready! We spent the rest of the evening drinking beers and anticipating the storm.