Fernandina St Augustine and more

We last blogged about our offshore run into Brunswick at night, now we are are anchored off the NASA Causeway Bridge one day from Vero Beach, Florida. We visited St. Augustine for 4 days, then Daytona, and now we are on anchor pushing for Vero Beach. As always, stopping in St. Augustine was a thrill and we really enjoyed our stay there. Yes, we were stuck on anchor for a day due to high winds and no mooring balls, but after that we moved into town and enjoyed an IP mini-vous at the A1A Ale House with all the owners in the area. We also connected with good friends Tina and Jon, sister and brother-in-law, of our good friend Anita back home. Thank you Tina and Jon for a fun breakfast out on the town. We booked a rental car to go see an IP 38 for a client and then Eric, Patricia and Radeen and I ran up to to the Green Cove Springs Yacht Storage yard. We are looking for a place to haul and store our boats June to November, saving the run north and south.

After a short stay in St. Augustine we moved on and pushed 60 miles from St. Augustine to Daytona, then 60 miles to below Titusvlle, where we dropped anchor off the NASA Causeway bridge. The winds today were 20, 25, and 30 knots, and of course they were directly on the bow, so the waves would crash and the spray would go over the windshields and over the roof. The boat was trashed with salt spray, so it was a challenging day. Tomorrow we will pass under the lifted causeway bridge at 0625 am and maybe we can make the 60 mile run to Vero where we will take a week off from moving. Weather forecast is for possible thunderstorms, not fun.

 Here are photos by groups...
OFFSHORE PHOTOS

Fernandina Beach, FL Photos

St. Augustine Photos

Daytona to NASA Causeway, bashing into the wind

And the BEST for LAST....our IP Mini Vous with all of us at the A1A Ale House. FUN FUN FUN

Next stop, VERO BEACH FLORIDA, where we will be for a week!

Offshore Hilton Head to Brunswick GA

...87 nm in 12 hours, fast...

We headed out to sea for an offshore run from Hilton Head to St. Simons Sounds to stop up at Brunswick Landing Marina to see Nina and Bob, one of our buddy boats from last year. We made this run in 12 hours sue to west winds 10-15 and our trusty yanmar motor. Yes we could have sailed at 4 knots all day and all night long, but with a boat that burns 0.75 gallons of fuel an hour this 12 hour motor run costs us 9 gallons of fuel or $18 plus we averaged 7.5 knots for 12 hours and covered 87 nm! We like the speed. When we are on a run, we like to knock it out and we like to keep the boat moving as fast as we can making the time at sea as short as possible. We are not out for a day sail, we are on a trip and we want to run the legs as fast as we can, so we do. When get to destinations like the Bahamas, or Biscayne Bay, or the Keys or the West Coast of Florida, we will sail all we want, but for now, lets move when we can and lets move as fast as we can. That is how we run this.

Here are some photos of the offshore leg

Container Ship arriving Tybee Sound

These are tractor trailer boxes, 40 feet long 8 feet wide

Look at that bow wave, it is as large as a box, 8 feet

Red left leaving, this is a sand bar with breakers on a calm day

Yup, another ship

Once at sea, full sail set and motor sailing at 7.5 knots

This is 10 knots of wind, calm seas

Beautiful main sail shape

Beautiful main sail

calm seas

Boat is healing and moving well

Prepare for night fall, radar up, table and night lights

Red lights on all instruments

Look, list a little bit of horizon left to see

There it is....total darkness, and we are going 7.5 knots full speed ahead

We ran into the St. Simons inlet at 7pm to 8:30 pm in total darkness as we worked our radar and navigation systems. Once there, we dropped anchor off the marina at 8:30pm. We went to bed at midnight and then moved to the docks at 10am. There we washed the boat, waterproofed the canvas, waxed the topsides and attended a 5pm cocktail party hosted by the Marina. Brunswick Landing Marina is amazing, they have hit a homerun for cruisers. We love it there. Sadly, we where there 24 hours and left the next day for sea again making a run to Fernandina Beach FL. When the weather is good you go for it....and we are....

The famous Active Captain team and the owners of Brunswick Landing Marina

Hayden and Radeen in a 1957 Chevy pizza parlor seat

Next stop.....now after a fly by of Brunswick Landing and a quick anchor in Fernandina Beach FL.....St Augustine, FL where we will take a day off from running south. Oh the busy life if a cruising boater. No schedule and no where to be, just move when the weather is good, stay put when it is bad. Thanks for sailing along..

Beaufort SC

...Good Friends Jeff and Marjorie...

We never miss Beaufort, SC, that is pronounced Buuuuuu-Fort, not Bowwww-Fort, NC. These two towns are spelled the same but are pronounced as differently as the towns themselves are. Buuuuu-fort SC is a wonderful stop with a small downtown waterfront and a nice city marina. We usually anchor out here, but this time the weather was stormy with a cold wind, rain and thunderstorms, so we put Island Spirit on the dock. 

A dream custom home where quality is amazing

We also had a call from former IP 45 Far Niente owners. Jeff and Marjorie who invited us over to their beeee-uuuuuu-teeee-ful home for a shrimp and pasta dinner that set the standard for any shrimp meal. What a wonderful treat this was to visit good friends, share some fine wine, tour a custom home, lounge around on sofas and chairs and tour the community via golf cart. Thank you Jeff and Marjorie for your hospitality and friendship, we really enjoyed our time at your home. We hope to see you at HCC this winter for some Tiki Hut Time.

The Shrimp Dinner that all shrimp dinners will be measured against

Vaulted ceilings comfortable sofas and chairs, this is NOT a BOAT

Marjorie is a master quilter and this in one of here current pieces. AMAZING

While in Beaufort, SC we met more Island Packet owners who are from Texas and sail on an IP 420 named Pilgrim. Well, Dick and Becky also run around on a little 48 foot Symbol Power Yacht that happened to be docked two boats behind us. He stopped over and introduced himself and we caught up on all the fleet happenings in the Gulf Coast. Dick runs the IPY Gulf Coast Owners Group and they are very active as well. Our second night in Beaufort, SC we enjoyed dinner together at the local seafood restaurant called PLUMZ where we great conversations from teaching to engineering to hime schooling to patents to growing a business and family. We really enjoyed the evening together.

Dick Huber and Hayden Cochran

Topping off the whirlwind Beaufort SC stop we bumped into IP 31 DOGS LIFE run by Paul and his dock named LUCKY. These two are running their boat from Norfolk VA to Key West then up the west coast of Florida down the Tortugas and then up and into the Bahamas and then back to Norfolk VA. What a Dogs Life it is, ruff ruff :-)

Island Packet 31 DOGs Life

LUCKY the Dog on Dogs Life

Fog, did someone say FOG, YES, we had the thickest fog we have ever been in and that includes the four summers we have sailed in Maine. This pea soup fog was solid. We ran into this for about an hour on total instruments and radar, we even ran a small cut on total radar. Then we finally said that is enough and we dropped the anchor about 4 hours short of Beaufort, SC. The next day, we had to wait intil 10 am until the sun burned off the fog. We think fog is the most difficult situation to run the boat into.