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

Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Day 58)

(Day 2) Fernandina Harbor Marina, Fernandina Beach, Florida:  October 31, 2020

Marc-  Happy Halloween from Florida.  Yes we are still here in Fernandina.  Our departure time came and went since the winds were out of the Northeast at 20 knots with rain on and off today.  We were basically pinned to the dock by our location in a corner of the marina very exposed to the effects of wind and current.  This will pass overnight so we decided to stay an extra day.  Nice place to be stuck.  We are planning on an early start tomorrow with the clocks being set back one hour for daylight savings time.  

A very nice Post Office for our post cards

Waiting at the train station

Sue's new friend who is waiting for fish

Temptation

Halloween in the South

And then on our way back to the marina someone made a wrong turn in front of an in-coming train.  NO harm done but the car sank in the crushed stone and was really stuck.

Sailing South aboard Lucy III: 2020-2021 (Day 57)

Fernandina Harbor Marina, Fernandina Beach, Florida:  October 30, 2020

Marc-  Today we did the unexpected and made it to Florida.  Our departure from Jekyll Island started fine with leaving the dock at 08:00 at slack high water.  Wind was Northwest at 15 to 20 knots.  This was fine when we headed South from Jekyll but the channel goes out to sea before coming back at Cumberland Island.  The return in just North of Cumberland Island was a wild ride beating into the passage.  The tides helped us out here with favorable currents.  Next was passing the US Navy Submarine base at St. Mary's and we did in deed pass right in front of a nuclear submarine with Naval Security patrolling the ICW right in front of the base.  We sailed down to the Cumberland Island National Park and anchored.  There were several powerboats and one sailboat anchored when we arrived.  We did lunch aboard before going to visit ashore.  The Park Ranger was welcoming to all who arrived even though he had to explain that the park was only partially open (no tours or educational programs).  We explored several trails on the Southern end of the Island including the Dungeness Mansion.  The wild horses are still here and they looked healthy, especially the colts.

Michael suggested that we continue to Florida before dinner (Fernandina Beach is only 6.2 miles from the Cumberland National Park docks). So we pulled up anchor and headed South again arriving at the Fernandina Harbor Marina at 18:00.  The shops and the pizza and ice cream were excellent here.

A submarine base we passed on our way to Cumberland Island.

The Park Ranger's House at Cumberland Island

This buoy is definitely out of place

This guy is really out of place

Great climbing tree eh?  This is a live oak.

Colt following mare.

More horses.

Fernandina Harbor Marina

Florida wildlife?

Centre (Main) Street