St Augustine - at a dock

Sunrise at the Jacksonville free docks, we're still the only boat there

We started the day off with a  beautiful sunrise! I must have taken a dozen photos but only chose one to show in the blog. It was another perfect day for traveling with flat water and very little wind. Unfortunately, the perfect day was not to be. After crossing the St Johns River just after leaving the Jacksonville free docks, I saw completely different buoyage than I was used to. The channel was on the right going south and not on the left as it was in the past. I entered hesitantly and that was a mistake. I was paying great attention to the buoys and not enough attention to the depth sounder. We came to a sudden halt in what SonarChart said was 10 ft of water at MLW but I found 4.5 ft! I had cut the green buoys too closely. To pass in deep water, you had to favor the red side through the first three red buoys. For that reason, there's no track uploaded tonight until I can edit it to show a passage free of shallow water. It reinforces my motto, "I make all the mistakes first so you don't have to!"

There's the pesky piling that's barely above water G23
in Pablo Creek

So beware of the entrance to Pablo Creek after crossing the St Johns River going south. The buoys placements will not match your charts and don't cut the greens. SonarChart will help you find the deep water here. We backed off and by looking at SonarChart, continued onward to deeper water and back to the ICW.

One of Ann's favorite places to shop in St Augustine, the table cloth shop

In addition to that piece of trouble, there was an old post barely showing above water opposite G23 in the channel. Go slow to see it. Otherwise, everything was fine. We're at a dock in the St Augustine Marina for the night. We will take off for Daytona in the morning and then it's on to Titusville on 11/2!

Jacksonville - at their free dock on Sisters Creek

We passed the naval base as a submarine was coming in!

The night at Jekyll was dead calm as usual. We had three boats in the anchorage and, for a change, we were the first to leave. There were buoy changes in St Andrews Sound that I haven't sorted out yet but I didn't care since I had the waypoints I've used for the past five years, I just followed them for 9.5 MLW.

We waved, they waved

The Sound was flat as a Mill Pond, the calmest I've ever seen and we even had the tide behind us as we rounded the cut through St Andrews Sound and headed to Fernandina. We had a large powerboat passed us on Cumberland River but came to an abrupt halt by the 90 degree turn by the R60 and R60A buoys. It's where there used to be a  phantom island that is no longer on the charts. You have to stand off the reds and he didn't. He turned and followed me through the channel after that for 15 to 20 MLW.

We are the only boat at the free docks

We went through a ton of shallow water today and all was okay for getting through. If you go, do yourself a favor and load my track for the passage, it will make things much easier. I'll update Facebook and Waterway Guide with the details in a few days.

But we do have friends around

The weather has turned warm again and it's so nice traveling with full sun in the cockpit enclosure. We are due for a repeat tomorrow and the next day but Friday, when we're due to take our last leg to Titusville, has a forecast of rain. We will see if we can duck the rain and make it early into Titusville. Also of note, we had read of giant mosquitos in North Carolina (never saw them) and lots and lots of insects from the flooding (didn't see them either). All of our favorite marinas and anchorages were just fine, no problems. The only delay was in waiting for the Socastee Bridge to reopen but that happened before we got down that far anyway. So really, the hurricanes didn't affect our trip other than a week delay before we could leave New York. There's still a bunch of boaters still holed up in northern harbors waiting for a window to go down the New Jersey coast. However, we're in Florida now and all is good.

Jekyll Island - at anchor

No alligators under this tree!

We went through all the trouble spots with high tide today, the only way to go! That included Little Mud River and Jekyll but there were other, less known shallow spots too. I'll cover all of them in my Facebook page later on.

Today we enjoyed just perfect weather with sunshine and warm breezes. We're sitting in the Jekyll anchorage with very little wind, it's like being on land. It's an easy dink over to the floating dinghy dock on shore which is public. There are only two other boats in the anchorage and there's room for a couple more. This place used to be deserted since the NOAA charts show no water here when there was actually 8 to 12 ft at low tide. I made the first few entries on Active Captain and now it always has a few boats.

We like nice sunsets!

I took Hoolie ashore and was told to watch out for alligators since there's a freshwater pond on the other side of the docks. I didn't see any but I did feel a lot of no see'ums. We have screens on Fleetwing that will stop no see'ums. We bought them to screen out pollen for Ann's allergies but also stop the smallest of insects.

We are headed for the Jacksonville free docks on Tuesday. There's no electricity but then it's free.

Crescent River - at anchor

Just a chaotic shore at Kilkenny  

It was a quiet night at Kilkenny Marina. It's out in the boonies for sure and we're told it used to be a plantation. We didn't have far to go so we loitered around until 10:00 to push off. We also didn't have any shallow water today but that will change with our Monday cruise with Mud River and Jekyll. However, we will have a rising tide at both locations so we are in good shape.

Ann had time to bake an Apple pie today!!

We arrived at Crescent near low tide and taking Hoolie ashore was an adventure in mud. We've never hit it at low tide and we were used to the sandy beach nearby - but it's mud at low tide. So I washed the mud off the dinghy, the mud off Hoolie, the mud off everything he touched, etc. His favorite thing is to jump on our bed and "dry off", but not tonight!

A quiet night

The winds have calmed down and the temperatures are rising. It suits us fine and we're still on schedule for Titusville 11/2. We'll shove off around 9:00 on Monday to allow time for the tide to build in at Mud River and Jekyll. We could probably get through at low with our 4' 9" keel but who needs the stress?

Kilkenny Marina - at a dock

Trucks are very popular in Georgia!

We made it through all the shallow spots with no problems. Of course, we had a little help from a 4 ft tide! Still, everything was easy except for Hell Gate which was in the 3.4 MLW range at one spot. You really do need some tide for Hell Gate. The other trouble spots were easy (Fields Cut, Elba Cut) you just had to know the route.

We said our goodbyes this morning at Windmill Harbour Marina. What a great place to visit. Great people, great facilities and it has 360 protection. They even have an outstanding dining area in the clubhouse. I would higher recommend a dinner there if you ever drop by.

This used to be a plantation. Notice the long horizontal limbs of the Live Oaks. They
are prized for their high strength and were used in many of the wooden fighting ships.

The northeast is getting clobbered and we didn't have the best of days. The sun never came out to warm the cockpit and the wind steadily increased to the 20 kt range as the afternoon worn on. I even had to change into long pants, heavens! I came south to get warm, not to wear sweatshirts and jeans.

We're at Kilkenny Marina now which is just after Hell Gate, a convenient stop along the ICW. On Sunday we will aim for the Crescent River anchorage, then Jekyll Island, and Jacksonville on Tuesday at the free docks on Sisters Creek. Hopefull, there will be room for one more boat!

Windmill Harbour Marina - We say goodbyes

It's just a beautiful club

The forecast said, rain, rain, rain with some high winds thrown in. Although there was a little rain, it was only for a few minutes. We should have moved on. The storm passed to the west of us and we had sunshine most of the day. At least on Saturday, we will move again south. On our present progress, we will reach Titusville by November 2.

Jim shows off his Beneteau Swift Trawler

Jim and Cheryl hosted us tonight for dinner and they have a Beneteau Swift Trawler. It's one of the models we once considered for long term cruising. They can travel at around 20 kts which is far beyond our capabilities. They took us on a tour of their boat and then we were off to dinner in the South Carolina YC. It was a wonderful evening among new friends. We had intended just eating on the boat but it was much more fun at the club.

The inside has a 360 view, not common among trawlers

I took on water and we're ready to push off at 8:00 Saturday morning. We have Hell Gate to pass through before finding a dock at Kilkenny for the night. The front has passed by so it ought to be good weather for tomorrow. At least that's the forecast if you can believe it.

Windmill Harbour Marina - at a dock

The room was full but nobody wanted to sit in the front row seats!

We had another excellent day of traveling and arrived at Windmill Harbor Marina around 1:45 pm. Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff has been dredged and the least we saw was 7.2  MLW by the southern exit at G185. The only area near that number was on the approach to Brickyard Creek just before R4. If you went outside the channel by R210, then you saw 9.9 MLW. Staying in the channel resulted in skinny water down to 3 to 4 MLW. All the avoidance of shallow water is in the track file I uploaded this afternoon.

The presentation included a dinner after the meeting, very nice

We had a strong north wind but it was all behind us, no problem. We had missed the Ben Sawyer bridge in the Isle of Palms by 5 minutes but we made the swing bridge at Beaufort, SC with no time to spare at all, saving us 1/2 hour of wait time. The bridge opens every 1/2 hour during migration time.

I was invited to speak at the South Carolina YC club at 6:00 pm this evening with a dinner afterward. Even with only a two-day notice, the presentation room was full, about 30 to 35 people attended. The presentation, "Who Do You Trust" (for navigation) was given and it was well received. It was also published on the Waterway Guide website the same day. I had about a dozen people come up after the presentation and thank me for the information and what I do for the spread of ICW guidance on being safe.

There is a storm coming up the coast and it will hit us on Friday with lots of rain and some wind. We will be secure in Windmill Harbour Marine, it's totally protected from all directions. Saturday should be a better day and we'll head south towards Savannah then. If all continues to go according to plan, we will arrive at Titusville on November 1st, the start of our reservation date.