HIDING IN JEKYLL

Day 10

I arrive at Jekyll Island, Georgia around noon. It makes for a nice dockage, the staff is welcoming, there are complimentary bikes and the island is pristine… too pristine. It's private and exclusive…which makes it a tad sterile. (Full Disclosure: I only saw a speck of it as I biked to the upscale market and back. )  I'm in a bit of quandary because I need to overnight a new windlass, but I can't really begin disassembling the old one until I have everything I need (wiring, chain, connectors) for the new one. I can't afford to remove my only anchoring source without knowing I have a replacement. So I get little done aside from previewing the installation guide and making my list of required materials.  

Day 11

Jekyll has next to nothing in the way of hardware, so I have to take a 12-mile cab ride (there's no Uber) off the island and over to Brunswick , but I get lucky with the electrical and chain stores being less than a block from one another. By the time I return, the new windlass has arrived and I can begin removing the old one. This takes hours. It's 9pm before I call it a day and a couple of hours of electrical work remains. 

BOUY HOW I'VE MISSED YOU

Day 12

I get an early start on the final phases of the installation (with the help of my boat slip neighbor), but my boat is a wreck. The generator, every power tool, every wrench and all of my wiring supplies are strewn inside and out. It will take me 'til noon to repack, clean up and shove off. That's a 48-hour pit stop I didn't plan on. 

I'm headed for Fernandina Beach. It's a drop-dead gorgeous day (video post on FB) and I have slight but favorable wind. I'm too comfortable. I go down below, which I often do, and when I come back up through the companion way I see a huge green sea-buoy less than 10 feet directly behind the boat. My mind can't do the math…WTF??? How did I not smack that thing? Maybe I snibbed it. I look over the starboard side for a green stripe…nothing. Wow…a wooden day-marker is one thing, a 2-ton steel sea-buoy is the end of this voyage. 

More alert now, I arrive at Fernandina Beach just past sunset. FLORIDA! The marina is huge and 1st class..there are lots of yachts and a few super-yachts, but the town...What a cool little town. Quiet cobble streets with shops and art and restaurants.  I find outdoor dining so that Steve can join me…the waitress offers him a bowl of water. I like this place.

GOUGING THE DINGHY

Day 12

Yes Fernandina is cool…but it's also sleepy. I wait for the coffee shop to open at seven. While there, I strike up a conversation with a fellow cruiser and he tells me it's a great day to go outside (ocean vs. ICW). I hustle back to the marina…within 15 minutes I've shoved off. The incoming tide chews up my jump on the day and it takes me an hour to clear the inlet and begin heading south….Destination: St. Augustine.

85 degrees and calm seas.. I have decent wind…then it picks up and I kill the engine. An hour later the winds die down and I have to motor-sail the rest of the way…. and of course, my desired heading is a degree or two outside of my wind zone. St. Augustine inlet is known for its shoaling and its markers don't show up on my chart plotter (typical when markers are moved in changing inlets). I'd like to get there before the sun impairs my vision, but it's fortuitous that I'm late. The sun has set but I can still make out the markers. No problem…except for the St. Augustine bridge. It's closed, and not just for boat traffic…. a malfunction has it closed off to vehicle traffic, as well. My dock reservation is just on the other side…I wait it out, but after 30 minutes I elect to try the new windlass and drop the hook. It works great and the St. Augustine harbor is exquisite with its dark orange sky and the city lights in the background. I'll save a few bucks and anchor here for the night….gives me a chance to try the dinghy motor for the first time. I've been using the dink, but only to paddle short distances to take Steve ashore. There'll be no paddling here. Capt. Bruce told me to be wary of the current here…and he was right. It runs 6 kts or more as it funnels through the bridge. We putt over to the marina to cancel my dock reservation and ask to use the dinghy dock….it's $10. Pffffttttt.  Ridiculous. Just for that, I'm clogging your toilet.`

St. Augustine, the nation's oldest city, is beautiful. They have a festival of lights and they've already begun stringing the trees for the holidays. Steve and I dine outside at O. C.'s and then scoot back to the boat to see if the anchor has held in the swinging tide. It has.

MY OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Day (Friday the) 13

We're up early, but the city isn't. I have to find a hotel with a coffee shop because the cafes don't open 'til 7. A fellow cruiser on Jekyll told me about a sailor's consignment shop in S. A. that might be interested in my old windlass…it doesn't open 'til 9 so Steve and I go back to the boat and I service the engine (adding oil and tightening the belt). The consignment shop is only a mile away, but I have to carry the windlass and 50lbs of chain…so I call Uber. (My driver is the nicest person to have ever been erroneously issued a driver's license and I struggle not to take the wheel.)  It's a great consignment shop (think candy store for mariners) and they give me $100 for the old windlass... but they're stocked on chain so I only get $.50 a foot.

It's another gorgeous day, only cooler (75), with light but favorable winds again….unfortunately my noon departure means I'm up against the raging tide I was forewarned about. As I pull away from St. Augustine I'm reminded of the book "My old man and the sea" ...about a young solo sailor who went weeks without making a port of call... and as he was about to enter a marina (where he could smell the grills) he encountered stalled wind and counter-current. He fought it for a while…considered it an omen…and sailed on another week before making landfall. I'm not there yet, but as nice as Fernandina and S.A. were…I'm in no hurry to return to civilization for awhile. 

I make a slow, warm trudge against the tide and for the first time in nearly two weeks my autopilot is tracking erratically. This can't be good.

This is looking more and more like Florida now…like where they filmed "Flipper "…and I expect to see Bud and Sandy come skimming around the bend any minute now.  I pass Marineland…manatee warning signs abound…homes are positioned only a few feet above sea level (and they all have screened in pools). Palms in S.C. accent the landscape, here they are the landscape. The sun feels hotter..and the water in my toilet is getting clearer with each southerly flush. (Or is that all in my head? Get it? The Head!!)

I stop in Palm Coast for the night…quietly tied to the fuel dock. 

GRAY, YELLOW, CYAN, MAGENTA, followed by….

Day - 14

I've blown through my share of "No Wake" zones…this morning it's payback time. A local fisherman busts through the zone and pounds my boat up against the pilings. It's 4:45 a.m…..and it's cold. We shove off by 5:15. Sun tan lotion the last two days…a winter coat this morning. Temp 55 …up to 75 this afternoon….winds gusting out of the NE….Time to make some headway.  

On nautical charts (paper and digital), the Intracoastal Waterway is denoted by a magenta colored line. I see it in my sleep now.

When I set out on this trip I calculated 2 weeks max to get to Miami…maybe 10 days if I pushed it. I left a day late, cut three days short, lost a day and a half in Isle of Palms, 2 days on Jekyll….That's about 5 days off schedule. If I make it to Miami in 5 days I'll be happy, but it seems I'm always heading into the tide. This boat is fat and it has a full keel; in sailing circles it's fondly referred to as a "pig." As such, the tide kills its forward momentum. It doesn't help that today is Saturday and everyone is out on the water…or that I'm going through Daytona Beach and there are lots of bridges to open. Today I went through a draw (bascule) bridge and the tender only opened one side…that was a first for me. 

Good wind and (finally!) good tide…I knocked off a good chunk of Florida today. Palm Coast to Titusville in 12 hours….the early start helps during these shortest of days. 

Two weeks and still no musical accompaniment…I think I've found a new vibe.

My apologies for this less than exciting post, but thanks to all for following along.