Day Nine: St. Augustine

 

We left St. Simon’s Island around 6:45, headed for the barn! We planned to stay inside on the river because NOAA was calling for rough conditions offshore. We wormed our way through the river for two hours, watched the sunrise and hit an impasse after only making 10 miles. 

Understand that Debbie has a Master Captain’s license, but even she could not figure out the crappy navigation markers in Georgia. Much to our dismay the only option was to head offshore again. We headed out the inlet, Peanut puked, and we were on our way!

Unlike yesterday, I opted to wait to clean it up so I fared much better. 

Debbie reviewed owners manuals while I watched for turtles and logs. We cut 20 miles off of what would have been 101 miles in the river. Peanut slept until he smell turkey at lunchtime so he appeared to be fine. 

We crossed the Florida line at St. Mary’s and couldn’t have been happier. We vowed to celebrate National Margarita Day to its fullest.

Around Jacksonville we encountered some turbulence where the St. John’s River empties into the sea. Although we were several miles offshore, the waves got bigger and more frequent. This dislodged a case of gear Debbie had stowed in the flybridge and it crashed into the cockpit  miraculously, we didn’t lose and gear and the boat wasn’t damaged  But it reminded me that during yesterday’s trip we lost our only oar at some point  I know, we only had one oar in the water to start with!

We arrived at our slip in St. Augustine around 3 pm. It is so nice to be back in the land of warm breezes and tiny ice bags. 

We are planning to spend all day here tomorrow to enjoy a day in port for the first time since we left last Wednesday. Then Thursday, we head for home!