We're in Florida!

Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com

We have not been able to update this blog as much as we would have liked because we have been without reliable internet service a lot lately.  Hopefully that will improve now that we will be traveling in more populated areas.

We left our Possum Point anchorage on Saturday morning and headed south towards Brunswick Georgia.  Our intention was to make it to an anchorage just north of Brunswick named appropriately - North River.   From there we would have two travel days to get to Fernandina Beach Florida just south of the St. Mary’s River.  

We spent the day winding our way through the vast saltwater marshes of south Georgia.  Once again it was cold with the icy north wind blowing 25 knots at times.  We took turns at the helm, an hour on and an hour off so that the other person could go below out of the wind for a while.

Underway we did have some entertainment.  Bridges in Georgia are on VHF channel 9 and the International Hailing and Distress Channel is channel 16.  We keep our radio on scan so that we can hear both frequencies.  On Saturday we were monitoring two guys (think Goober from the Andy Griffith Show) who were using VHF channel 6 as they were hunting bear.  They had apparently shot and wounded one and were tracking it.  At one point one of the guys says “I think he (the bear) musta went into them bushes over yonder”.  His partner replied “yea but don’t go in there till I get there or he might jump ya.”  Didn’t hear if they ever found their bear or not.

We traveled 60 miles and arrived just before dark and anchored in the North River.

Sunday was a little warmer with less wind and the sun actually showed itself in the afternoon.  We were bound for an anchorage 20 miles north of St. Mary's but had another tide problem.  We were still having extreme high tides.  We were on the Brunswick River and as we approached the entrance to Jekyll Creek which runs along the west side of Jekyll Island it was obvious that there was too much water to allow us to pass under the fixed height Jekyll Creek Bridge a couple of miles to the south.  So we pulled off to the side in the Brunswick River, dropped the anchor, had lunch and watched some football.  After a couple hours we decided that due to the delay we would not be able to make our planned anchorage.  Since it had been a week since we had been to a marina and had laundry to do, we decided to take a slip at the Jekyll Island Harbor Marina.  We were also getting low on the all important Diet Coke and this would be a good opportunity to reprovision the boat.

The marina is located just south of the troublesome fixed bridge.  Once the tide had gone down a little, we were able to clear the bridge and get tied up at the marina.  We ate dinner in their restaurant and then Judy did laundry.  Note that Brian does not do laundry.  This is because Judy wisely will not allow him anywhere near her clothes for fear that they will come out a different size or a different color than when they went in.  We also attempted to update this blog but found that the marina wifi was not working.

The next morning we borrowed the marina’s courtesy van and drove to the only grocery store on Jekyll Island.  Surprisingly well stocked, the store is really two double wide mobile homes put together located right on the beach on the Atlantic side of the island.  We bought groceries and then stopped at the Dairy Queen on the way back to the marina for lunch.

Back on Sweet Escape we are getting ready to depart.  Judy is at the helm and Brian takes the bow line off thinking that the 3 knot opposing current will swing the bow out away from the dock.  It does - really fast and by the time Brian got the spring and stern lines off, the boat had swung too far from the dock for him to get on.  So, there is Brian still standing on the dock and Judy is on the boat out in the middle of the channel.  Great.

Thankfully Judy had no trouble turning the boat around and returning to the dock to pick him up despite the strong opposing current.  Nothing like a little excitement to spice up a Monday morning.  Brian started to worry that Judy had one of those bear hunters stashed down below and planned to leave Brian at Jekyll Island for good.

As we headed south on Monday we passed by Cumberland Island, one of the South Georgia barrier islands and home to herds of wild horses.  These horses were brought to the island by a doctor from Europe in the 1920’s.  After the man’s death and to this day the horses roam free on the island.  We actually saw one grazing in a marsh as we passed by.  See the photo at right.

We made our way south to the St. Mary’s River and then to the promised land - Florida.  We spent the night in the Fernandina Beach anchorage just south of the Florida - Georgia state line.

Each night we study our charts for the next day’s run.  We could see that Tuesday was going to be a challenge.  We would have five fixed bridges on Tuesday between Fernandina Beach and St. Augustine, our destination for the day and where we would stay put until Friday.  In addition to high tide problems with bridges, there would be low tide concerns as well because there are many reported shoal areas along the waterway in that stretch.  Therein lies the rub.  On the one hand low water is good to help you get under fixed bridges but on the other, low water makes getting through shoal areas especially difficult.

We left this morning (Tuesday) on dead low tide at 6:45 AM.  We felt that we would prefer to run aground over losing our mast at a bridge.  As we motored along the sun made an appearance and was with us most of the day.  In fact, one man came up on channel 16 and asked “What is that strange round yellow thing in the sky?”  We are not the only cruisers who have been dealing with the crummy weather the past several weeks.

We motored along the ICW and after a couple of hours it started to look like Florida.  We crossed the St. Johns River which if you turn west will take you into downtown Jacksonville.  Sweet Escape continued south.  The waterway south of Jacksonville is lined with beautiful and expensive homes that are fun to see as you pass by.

We made it through all of the reported shoal areas and under all the bridges except the last one just north of the Bridge of Lions in downtown St. Augustine.  As we approached this last fixed bridge we could see another boat ahead of us make an approach to the bridge and then abort, turning away.  We called this vessel on the VHF and he reported that the tide boards were reading under 63 feet clearance.  Not enough for us so we pulled to the side of the river and dropped the hook to wait.  It was about 3:00 PM.  We waited until about 3:45 when another boat reported that the tide boards were now reading 65 feet.  Up more than two feet in just 45 minutes?  I don’t think so.  Seems that the first guy didn’t know how to read the tide boards.  We cleared easily allowing us to make the Bridge of Lions 4:00 PM opening.

Once through the Bridge of Lions we called the St. Augustine Municipal Marina on the VHF for a mooring assignment.  The marina runs the large mooring field here.  They gave us mooring ball 20 which we found easily and picked up with no trouble.  As this is written, Sweet Escape is swinging on her mooring in downtown St. Augustine.  There is a moderate wind - still from the north and it is in the mid 60’s under a sunny sky.

Progress is a beautiful thing.

Check our albums page for additional photos from this time period.