Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Part II)

    Rivers Edge Marina, St. Augustine, Florida: January 3, 2021

29 degrees 53.175' N Latitude, 81 degrees 19.267' W Longitude

Marc-  Today we explored the area via Michael's very comfortable pick up truck.  We went over to Anastasia State Park for another hike, first through the old Spanish Coquina quarry and second through the campground.  Michael suggested that we go down to Palm Coast Marina to see the place and make reservations.  The drive down Route A1A was nice with a stop at Ft. Matanzas National Monument.  The tours of the Fort were closed but we could walk around.  Palm Coast looked fine so we are all set for our first stop on our journey South. 

After dinner on board Lucy III Sue and I decided to do another evening walk downtown to see the lights.

Casa Monica Hotel

The Lightner Museum 

Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Part II)

   Rivers Edge Marina, St. Augustine, Florida: January 2, 2021

29 degrees 53.175' N Latitude, 81 degrees 19.267' W Longitude

St. Augustine Light from Anastasia State Park

Marc-  Today we did more boat projects:  cleaning the hull and cabin, putting the dinghy back on the davits and mounting its outboard.  I went over to Michael's boat for morning coffee and our daily briefing with technical consultant and electrical engineer Brian Gilmartin.  We are rewiring part of the Ranger tug's 110 volt shore power wiring that seems undersized for the load (it melts down). 

We also went to the beach.  Anastasia State Park, https://www.floridastateparks.org/index.php/Anastasia/bird-watching-anastasia,  has an awesome 4 mile long beach and forested areas with an extensive campground.  The site also includes a coquina "stone" quarry created by the Spanish when building their area fortresses in the 16th century.  Did the Donnelly's name their boat after this coquina?  There were very few people at the beach and only a few surfers. 

We saw large crowds downtown, including a very long line to get into the Castillo de San Marcos fort.  Many people here do not wear masks outside.  This is strange for us because by law they must be worn outside at home.  It's probably not the law here.  We have even seen people in Publix not wearing masks, which is frightening.

In the afternoon we visited an animal shelter cat adoption event that a fellow boater told us about.  The cats were adorable.  Unfortunately I am allergic to cats.  Sue had a really nice time at the event.

Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Part II)

  Rivers Edge Marina, St. Augustine, Florida: January 1, 2021

29 degrees 53.175' N Latitude, 81 degrees 19.267' W Longitude

Follow up to the mittens shown on the first leg of our trip.  They have been felted and are now warm boiled wool mittens.  Left in Watertown for the girls.

Marc-  We are still in the same spot awaiting a diver who is coming on Monday.  We spent today doing boat maintenance projects and putting some order in the boat.  The projects included general cleaning and an engine oil change for Lucy III, and engine oil and filter changes on Fiddler's Green diesel generator and diesel engine.  These projects take a considerable amount of time first in finding the necessary filters and then actually removing the old oil and adding the new oil.  You have to be a contortionist to access the parts of the engines to complete these tasks.  Michael and I did these projects together.

We also had time for a daily walk.  Part of the walk was on the very busy Route 1.  Florida's Route 1 is a four lane highway with every form of retail imaginable.  There are many types of big box stores near us including Home Depot, Target, Lowes and a Winn Dixie.

That's all for now.

A remarkable sunrise photo during our drive here on December 30.

Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Part II)

 Rivers Edge Marina, St. Augustine, Florida:  December 31, 2020

29 degrees 53.175' N Latitude, 81 degrees 19.267' W Longitude

Our new guard dog: Max.

The Marina cat.

Night of  Lights

Marc-  Sue and I returned to Lucy III to continue our Southern adventure.  We drove in Michael's truck from his house in NJ (4am) to Washington, DC (7:30am), where we dropped Michael's son Brendan off.  Then we went on to St. Augustine (9pm).  The total distance was about 950 miles.  The weather was perfect today with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70's.  The boat was basically in the same shape as we had left it two months ago before returning to Massachusetts to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with Sara and Stephanie.  Temperatures in Massachusetts were in the 30's when we left so this was a nice surprise here in Florida.  The one change to the boat was some growth on the bottom.  It does not look bad but our neighbor and cruising buddy extraordinaire, Michael Gilmartin, has bottom growth on Fidler's Green that needs attention so we are getting the local diver, Jerry Butler, two boats to work on.

Today we went to Publix supermarket to replenish the perishable foods on board.  This evening we walked around downtown to see the city and waterfront all lit up (Nights of Lights runs from November 14 through January 31).  There were even fireworks.  We will be here doing some work on the boat while we await our bottom cleaning.  Then we leave for Marathon in the Keys, about 2 weeks away.

Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Break)

 (Wet Storage) Rivers Edge Marina, St. Augustine, Florida:  November 6, 2020

Marc-  We are back home in Watertown, MA for the holidays.  The rental van trip home was fine with only one stop in New Jersey.  Lucy III will remain in St. Augustine until our return in late December.  The blog will be on hold until we are back in Florida.

Our Route outlined in orange.

Our boat protector.

All nicely tied up.

Be back soon.

Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Day 60)

 (Day 2) Rivers Edge Marina, St. Augustine, Florida:  November 2, 2020

Marc-  We are settling the boat in for the next two months here.  The location is good, the price is right and the weather improved a lot today making everything better.  Seeing our location on a sunny morning helped a lot and we spent the day playing tourist in downtown St. Augustine.  This was a nice day to stay in port.  The ICW was rough today with 20 knot winds gusting to 25 knots.  We walked halfway over the Bridge of Lions to get an overview of the harbor (Florida does not have many hills to climb).  The bridge opened as we reached the center and several boats rushed through including a large fishing trawler that was having some listing problems with its outriggers up.  The trawler lowered its outriggers immediately after passing through and this did help its stability.  The Northern mooring field was very exposed to the Northeast winds and the boats here were bouncing.  

Back at the boats we started to prepare for our departure.  I placed double lines on all docking lines and added two spring lines to Fiddler's Green from Lucy III.  Both boats now have a spider web of lines to protect them.  Next was taking the dinghy off its davits and placing it overturned on the foredeck.  This was accomplished by Sue operating the electric anchor windlass to raise the dinghy by the spinnaker halyard.  I simply had to adjust the dinghy down on the deck. Tomorrow we will clean and lock things up.  We'll probably leave for home by rental car with Michael & Doreen on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

One of the Lions guarding the bridge

This lion seems to be scratching Michael's head

Some pretty architecture from the Flagler era

Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Day 59)

 Rivers Edge Marina, St. Augustine, Florida:  November 1, 2020

Marc-  Calm winds and a slack high tide were just what we needed to leave Fernandina this morning at 07:00.  Setting the clocks back one hour made this a lot easier than leaving in the dark.  Off we went toward Paper Mill Number 2 and right away saw three sailboats that seem to have been wrecked and abandoned on or close to shore.  A Westsail 32 looked as if it had just sailed up into the marsh.  It still had all of its sails furled neatly and not a scratch on her.  It would take a nice pull from one of those big commercial tugboats to get her off the marsh grass.  We lucked out at the railroad bridge as it was open.  The bridge closes for shipments of logs to the paper mills here.  There is no VHF channel to call for information or an opening.  The Waterway guide book notes that the bridge closes automatically when a train approaches (not the safest set up for passing boats).  Lucy III had favorable current all the way down to Sisters Creek and the St. John River.  There was some excitement as Warship 21 was coming in and awaiting a pilot.  The crew was busy on VHF 16 keeping cruisers away.  We passed two navy ships in drydock for repairs in Jacksonville.  Navy Security boats were on patrol.  Once we entered Pablo Creek our speed dropped to 5.5 knots and remained there for the next three hours due to the ebbing tide.  The situation changed in our favor when we reached the headwaters of the Tolomato River.  A cold front with showers was forecast to come through this afternoon, and it did while we were waiting for the Bridge of Lions to open at 16:00.  As we waited circling the area in North of the bridge the engine started to skip.  I instantly thought the fuel tank must be low and I transferred fuel from the spare tank (I flipped a switch). It worked.  We passed through the bridge with a large fishing trawler following us along with alot of birds feeding on his discarded fish.  We went around the corner and up the San Sebastian River to Rivers Edge Marina.  This is a very protected spot.

This is the end of Part I of our trip.  We're going home for the Holidays soon and the boat will sit here for 2 months.

Castillo de San Marcos

Last view of Fernandina Beach and one of its paper mills

A flock of white pelicans taking a rest

Approaching the Bridge of Lions as the storm approaches

Open bridge and a fishing trawler

The birds know a good catch when the see one

Dinner time in St. Augustine