We're killing a little time before we head south to St. Augustine. Many boaters we know have traveled (and raved about) the St. Johns River. We are taking a couple days to explore it.
Palatka marks where the river "gets good". So far it's been a wide river, with houses and trees. Tomorrow should be more interesting.
No real issues getting out of J-ville, or traveling, or docking. We're on a restaurant's dock, Corky Bell's. You can stay for free overnight if you eat here. So we did. We also took a quick walk to the produce stand in town to pick up some fruit. Lovely day, very warm. Very much like summer.
Something bobbing in the distance.
We did an MOB exercise. Something big was bouncing in the water and we decided to rescue it. It was a busted old cooler that we'll chuck once we can. Good to do that once in a while.
Just a junk cooler. But we helped clean the river.
Dawn in Jax
Jax in Palatka. You can just see inQuest in the back.
Looking at the travel time the trip wasn't really that long. Before we got underway we needed to pump-out and fuel-up. At least an hour of that was waiting/fueling time.
Today was what yesterday was supposed to be -- sunny, warm, and calm. Just lovely.
The last time we were in Jacksonville we spent 2 months in Ortega Landing in 2020. That was at the apex of COVID, and being a "transient" was getting very difficult to do. Fewer marinas would accept us. But most everything was closed during that time. We didn't really feel we enjoyed what the area had to offer. This time we're right downtown, hanging on the new town docks. We'll be here for a couple of nights.
Blue skies, warm, calm... glorious!
We're with the crew of Gypsies Palace, Debbie and Steve Russell. Once we both got docked (since they didn't have to fuel up they beat us here) we headed into town and grabbed some pizza.
We purposely waited 3 days in Brunswick for the nice weather to happen come Sunday. That is, today. There's a particular body of water, the St. Andrew's Sound, that we want to traverse with little to no wind. The sound has a massive shoal in its center so you must go all the way into the Atlantic, then make a quick u-turn and head back in, a trick you'd like to do on calm seas. On our way up this season the sound was a little spicy. Friends of ours, who came just 1 day later, were met with 6 foot seas. Nope. Not doing that!
But the weather system moved just a bit slower than predicted. As a result, the wind was still a little high and the water a little unsettled.
This is the normal voyage thru St. Andrews. The track is from our trip up this year.
We'd known of an alternate route called "the west route" for a while but never felt we needed to take it. We made it plan B. Coming around Jekyll Island we started toward the Atlantic and almost instantly had a head sea. It wasn't awful, but we weren't even 3 minutes into a 45-minute, against-the-current run when we were slamming. Looking into the distance it was tough to see if it would only be this bad or get worse. Rather than be unhappy, we did an about face and headed to plan B.
Plan B did have one caveat. Given the north wind once we made the turn back to the ICW we might have beams seas, and they might be intense. There's a creek out of the very back end called Floyd Creek. Friends of ours traversed it in the past. While insanely thin we were on a rising tide so even if we got stuck it wouldn't be long until we could float off. We called that Plan C.
The land on the left is Jeklly Island. We turn left (east), then do a
180 and head west. While still bumpy it's on our stern, so
more comfortable. The water is calmer once we turn hard
left, then flat back on the ICW.
But Plan B worked like a charm. Oddly, the waters on that side were eerily calm for the weather. Overall, we were pleased with our decision.
It was supposed to be sunny, warm, still, and calm. Sadly, today was none of those. So icky, I didn't even take pics.
Our ballots were sent to the Brunswick Marina and the weather is going to turn blustery for a couple of days, so we decided to bite the bullet and stay in a marina for a while. We've only been in one once since Baltimore. It is going against my "rule" but we're soooooo close to Florida from here. We missed getting there by only 1 day. Sometimes you gotta says you tried and call it a day.
Yep, ballots were here, filled out, and Russ is mailing them now. Voting in Florida is a little like tilting at windmills but, hey, they might be giants.
Anchor is already up!
We knew today would be longer so we had the anchor up at nautical twilight. Overcast skies darkened the view on an off and the wind came and went, but overall it was a lovely ride. Lots and lots of big, wide bodies of water with very little water in them. Stay in the channel! On the other hand, most of the day was on a rising or falling tide (which is around 8 feet here), so there was more water than the charts claimed typically.
inQuest is Brunswick. First time we've sterned-in in a long while!
Plans for the next few days include house cleaning and laundry.
This is why I'm not a big fan of marinas. They mean "time to do some real work."
South Carolina is behind us and we are in Georgia. If the weather held up we could be in Florida by the weekend, but alas, that is not to be.
The skies were overcast most of the day. We kept seeing threat of rain but nothing happened. The front that should have brought rain will bring wind over the next few days. Cooler temps, too.
As we neared Savannah we could see container ships in the distance. I can't remember seeing so many on that river before. Three huge vessels, all at the same time. One hailed us, seeing we were going to cross the river (and his path) to continue on the ICW. He told us he'd be at that location in 15 minutes and he ain't waiting for us, so we high-tailed it across the channel to stay out of his way.
Being on anchor benny: lovely sunrise...
... and sunset.
Dolphins apparently are on their southern migration. They are just everywhere! One night while at anchor Russ went to look at the stars. He could hear them breathing around us. They seem interested in our boat but none have some play with us, yet.
If we thought the day would be this long we would have started out earlier. The dense fog this morning that was the real reason we waited. The lovely day was why we kept going.
The forecasts said the fog would dissipate around 10 am, so we got underway around 9:30. Turns out it lasted well past 11. We didn't have any issues -- we really don't mind traveling in fog. Largely it made us miss an awesome outgoing tide -- we could have run 10 knots or faster but, well, safety first.
Once the fog lifted it was gorgeous.
We targeted an anchorage near Beaufort that we'd used before, thinking we'd get there around 2 pm. As we got closer we noticed the wind would pick up tomorrow. Port Royal is a larger body of water, and today was lovely... so we pressed on.
Just passed Hilton Head we dropped the anchor on the May River that heads to Brighton Beach.
Long vid. It gives you an idea of foggy boat life, tho.
The mail arrived at the St. Johns Marina around noon-ish. Once Russ picked it up we had some lunch then looked at weather and charts and whatnot. It was a shame since the weather was so awesome today it would have made a good day to go outside. We decided to take a short dash to a recommended anchorage, Toogoodoo Creek. Maybe try tomorrow. Worst case scenario, we ICW all the way back to FLA.
Passed this today. It didn't look derilict to us at all, so we thing it was poor judgement anchoring. Once the tide comes up, they'll be on their way.
The ballots have shown up in Southport. We're having them sent to Brunswick, Georgia. It should be there in 2 days. It will take us about 5, we think.
But at least we'll get the deed done before the big day.
Here's something interesting about voting. Recall I mentioned I'd love to do this by phone. Russ called the Sarasota office to get another set of ballots sent to us, since these seemed MIA. The woman we talked to told us we could go online and fill them out there... then realized that we weren't military, and that's only a service they provide for overseas troops. So... the tech is there!
Nope. Not a clue. This is 1 vessel, clearly it saw better days. No idea what it is or what it does. Or did.
Two challenges loomed as potential issues for traveling today. The first was tide. Specifically, around the area of Isle of Palms there were reports of intense shoaling, with depths as bad as 3 feet in some places. While that's at low tide, we have 4 feet to our draft. So we wanted to pass through the area before low tide. And that meant either waiting until noon, or going very early. Guess which we chose?
The second issue was the Charleston Bay. The winds were supposed to be up today, so it could be a choppy and unfriendly piece of water.
Nautical twilight. Anchors up!
I'm happy to report neither caused us any trouble. Yes, we noticed shallow depths but we got through them. And the winds weren't near as high as predicted. That had got to be a first. Certainly rare, in our experience. But we'll take it.
We're anchored just on the other side of Elliot's Cut by the St. Johns Marina. We had stuff sent there, and we're expecting it to arrive tomorrow. No. The ballots are still missing. But given our luck so far we might be here a couple of nights.
We get up early. This time of year that means "in the dark." It was a moonless morning with clear skies, and the anchorage wasn't near any place with light pollution. So I shot a couple of night photos.
With coffees and breakfast in our tummies we hoisted the anchor and kept heading south. Yesterday was a longer day so we purposely picked a short run today, about 4 hours. We were on the hook by 12:30.
You have to click on these to see them. This is my favorite constellation, Orion.
Cypress trees in the night.
Only a few of you will know what Russ and I are doing. Hint: Rainbows are hard!
Packages and mail has been a bigger issue for us on this trip than any before. We still haven't received our mail-in ballots. They never did get to Southport, and we affirmed that they had been sent. So it appears the USPS has lost them. And it's the weekend so there's nothing we can do until Monday.
I so want the ability to vote by phone. I find this paper-stuff to be aggravating.
Worst case scenario, we rent a car and drive to Sarasota and vote in person.
