St. Augustine. Remind me not to be here.

Dramatic dawns

Don't get me wrong, I love the little city of St. Augustine. I just don't like to boat here. Every time we're here some drama ensues.

The currents here are crazy harsh, which is interesting because the tidal swing is only 4-5 feet. After being in Maine, where the tides are 8-10 feet, you'd think this would be a piece of cake. But, St. Augustine! The currents are brutal. Mix in holidays and hurricanes, and the place is nothing short of a zoo.

This is kind of our fault since we didn't time this well. We were looking for a place to be for Thanksgiving, and St. Augustine had space (between holidays and hurricanes, everything south of here is also a zoo!). We booked a week on the ball of the municipal marina, and a week in Marker 8, the small marina just on the other side of the Lion Bridge. Today was the day we were to move.

Oh, sure, no one was here when THAT 
pic was taken. Stuffed now!

We took a walk to Marker 8 yesterday to see where they might put us. We'd been there before and know it can be a thing getting docked (current!). They gave us our slip assignment but someone was currently in it. Not usually a thing, but that meant we couldn't arrive early in the morning, which would have been helpful.

Moreover, given the 2 hurricanes this summer one of their piers is damaged, so we can't stay on it to, say, wait. I got the sense the other one isn't great either since they will not let anyone dock during an out-going tide. "It's too dangerous." We either dock during an in-coming tide or slack. 

From the bridge we watched them bring in a
barge with a crane. Needed to fix their break
wall, damaged during Nicole.

The high tide was at 6:49 am this morning and the low tide 1:16. Thus, most of the day was shot; we couldn't get into the slip until 2 pm. That, of course, meant dealing with the winds which are around 20 knots.

So we thought, "What if we stayed an extra day on the ball? We can move tomorrow AM at slack without winds!" Ha. The Municipal Marina was stuffed. They, too, had damage from the hurricanes which limited their space. There was a 20 boat waitlist for balls. TWENTY! FOR THE BALLS! So, no. We gotta go. 

We left the ball at 11 am and traveled to the north side of the bridge to drop a hook. The winds and tide did not agree with each other, so we tried a number of spots only to twist and slosh close to boats around us. I cannot stress enough how packed everything is. After our third try we found a decent spot where we could wait until 2 pm. By then it was around noon.

At 1:45 we noticed the slip was empty and started to make our way there. The marina even called to confirm it was a good time to go.

It took 2 tries since we weren't quite to slack yet. The turbulent current swayed us one way, then another, making us need to reset once. Nailed it on the second try. 

Now we go do the holiday thing.

Jacksonville to St. Augustine, ball

After a couple of lazy days we headed out early, largely because we could ride the outgoing tide nearly all the way to our destination.

Originally that was Pine Island Anchorage, which is about 1 hour from St. Augustine. Given our early start we'd arrive before noon, which seemed silly not to just press on. Russ contacted the marina and, yes, we could show up a day early. So we did.

Dophins! We've seen a lot but these are the first that 

have hitched-hiked. St. Johns water is very tea-like.

Haven't used the tender in a while.
Battery went dead. Russ is jumping it.

Tuesday we have a car rental to pick up at noon. From there we head to The Villages to see my folks. If we did that on the same day we arrived at the marina, and get a ball, and get the boat ready for 2 days alone, and pick up the car... seemed like a too much to do in a few hours. Things always go much slower in boat life. Being here a day early will make that easier.

We wanted to go into town. I really like St. Augustine. But the wind is crazy high (over 20 knots) -- it was supposed to be a calm day all day. We'll see how adventurous we feel. 

Ortega to J-ville, town dock

This time we're staying at the docks nearest the stadium in downtown Jacksonville. While free there is power and water if you need it. We get 2 free nights here. Wee!

We didn't get underway until late knowing we were only going into town. The trickiest part of the voyage was keeping an eye out for debris and flotsam, always a thing after a good storm.

We first tied up on a t-head, which we knew was a little short. But once the wind came up we were concerned boaters would have a tricky time getting around us if they needed to. So we moved to a slip.

inQuest on the docks. Turn around and ...

... you're right by the football stadium.
Needless to say, if there were a game this weekend
we wouldn't have been able to come. It's packed!

Just a quick walk away!

After some naps we went to Institution Ale house for a little lunch and some beer. Wee!

We made it through!

Thankfully, Nicole wasn't crazy exciting. Only a little exciting. Decent winds, some rain, high storm surge, none of which was disasterous for us.

Decent winds! Gusts just touching the 50 knots range.

How we hang soggy stuff to dry.

Note the water pipes below the dock?

Notice the pipe now. We waited to see if the water would
crest the walkway, but it did not.

Night sky. Things will be calmer tomorrow.

The only real excitement was someone else's tragedy.

We noticed smoke, then saw the blaze. 

This was a sailboat that was on anchor.

The wind was blowing it towards us, but thankfully

the RR bridge was between us.

We have no idea how it started or if anyone was hurt.

Sooooooo... Nicole, eh?

Red is bad.

Many boaters we know have insurance that prevents them from coming south of Savannah, Georgia until the first of November. This is for hurricane reasons. Here we are. November 8, 2022, and we're watching Nicole.

Here in Jacksonville we'll get winds, some rain, but mostly we'll get storm surge. We've kept a close eye on what is happening, knowing full well that (like Ian) Nicole can change her mind and come this way. We're on a outside t-head, facing the wind. The dock is solid so we'll manage our lines if needed. We'll bounce, but it shouldn't be terrible. You never know.

Meanwhile we're keeping busy with various chores -- laundry, shopping, watching lunar eclipses, and some cleaning. The usual.

We took off the step covers since we needed
them for dogs. Turns out the steps are 2 different
colors. We had no idea!

Before the eclipse...

During. Blood moon.

Doctors Lake to Ortega River, marina

Quick and easy day. The winds died down a lot over night making the water peaceful. But rain was coming so we didn't want to dilly-dally too much.

Most of the ride was wide open. Just as you turn the corner onto the Ortega a number of boats trying to enjoy their weekend made maneuvering in the shallow water a little challenging. We had to blow our horn a number of time to insist on the right of way.

Look how pretty J-ville looks in the distance.

We're on a t-head so docking wasn't too much of an issue. Negotiating the current was trickier than it should have been. It had been coming behind us up the river, then switched somewhere -- so our starboard tie set up had to be moved to the port side while we turned around. You never know what the water's going to do until you're ready to dock.

Gonna be here a week. Should be a rainy but productive few days.

Moccasin to Doctors Lake, anchor

It was breezy all night long, despite the weather apps claiming it would die down. We weren't uncomfortable, just had a some hull slap throughout. 

We continued north and headed for Green Cove Springs. Once there we lacked enthusiasm to anchor and take the dinghy to shore, loaded with a bike, all so Russ could get our packages. The winds were making the water choppy and we were feeling disgruntled.

We talked about what our holiday plans, spending time in St. Augustine. It's a 1 day trip from Jacksonville, so we're way ahead of schedule, planning to be there around the 15th. Additionally, the weather apps all say it will be windier next week, probably very rainy.

Look! Up in the sky!

Russ called Lamb's Yacht Center and booked us a week there. Rumor has it that they have a courtesy car. We'll just take it to GCS sometime next week.

We turned northward and continued to Doctors Lake, which has better protection from the wind. We'll go to Lamb's tomorrow.

Palatka to Moccasin Branch, anchor

The plan this morning was to continue south. We hoped to at least get to Lake George before turning around. In a normal year this would be doable. Many folks have taken the St. Johns River all the way to Sanford, off Lake Monroe.

But this wasn't a normal year.

While homes and towns in the area weren't destroyed by Hurricane Ian, the amount of water it dumped here was, well, still here. The river doesn't move it quickly. That means the water line was in some folks yards, or very close to their homes. Neither of us wanted to wake these places -- it's one thing to rock a floating dock, it's another to put water in their living rooms --  and we just didn't find it "beautiful" enough to continue at 5 knots.

Not much room for wakes in most places.

At first we went south on the river. Then we gave up. We turned down Dunns Creek hoping to get to Crescent City. Again, too many houses right on the water line. So we turned around.

The wind kicked up quite a bit from the north. Rather than beat our way back to Green Cove Springs (where I need to pick up some packages) we dropped a hook at Moccasin Branch, relatively protected from the winds. We'll get to GCS tomorrow.

Obligatory dawn photo.

October travel

 

From Baltimore to Jacksonville.
We only spent 4 nights in a marina, 3 of them in
Brunswick. The rest were on town walls or on the hook.