Jacksonville Beach to St. Augustine

A great trip today.  Sunny with a good wind from the west so we motor sailed and timed the currents right and made good time down the Intercoastal Waterway getting back to St. Augustine.  We were doing 8+ over the bottom on a few occasions. We are still amazed at the currents that we have encountered in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  I have always been aware of timing our trips through Hell Gate in NYC and up or down Delaware Bay.  I didn't think it would be necessary down here, but it is.

We spent a couple of hours securing the boat and getting ready to fly north for a few weeks.  It's great to have Jay and Pegg watching the boat for us and we are already looking forward to sailing on in 2009 to Key West and then to the Bahamas.  We aren't sure that there will be many entries to our Blog between now and the beginning of 2009.  I hope you all signed up for the email notification that Sam has provided...along with everything else he has done to publicize this adventure.  Thanks Sam!   Hopefully we'll see most of you while we are home for December.  For those we miss - - - - HAPPY HOLIDAYS!  ~~~_/)~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

Here we are at mile marker 750 on the ICW and who should be right behind us but a trawler from Mears Point Marina at Kent Narrows, MD!

We are flying (with the tide) toward the Vilano Bridge with the St. Augustine lighthouse coming into view . . . back to our temporary home.

Blount Island on the St. Johns River to Jacksonville Beach

A very short day.  Storms were predicted to come in at 1:00 PM and so we got underway at daybreak hoping to get to St. Augustine before they did.  At Jacksonville Beach we decided that we were probably not going to beat the storms so we signed up for a night at Beach Marina.  Since this was the first time in a long time with a hose hook-up I washed down the boat while Martha did some cleaning below.  At 11:30 the front came through and gave the boat another freshwater rinse.  We are glad we wimped out on going on.  Winds were over 30 and rain was by the bucket-load.
~~~(\_~~~ D & M
Google Earth track file

The black cloud approaching was more dramatic, but I forgot to grab
the camera in time.

Maida Landing on the St. Johns River to Blount Island on the St. Johns River

Yesterday, we packed up some Thanksgiving leftovers and drove to Jacksonville where our crew waited.  The crew consisited of 8 adults and 7 children, so we had a full house!  The three hour sail was lazy and meandering, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  It was a "first" for most of the Maida clan and I think we have a few converts!  Several took a turn at the wheel and lots of pictures were created down in the salon, along with a few paper airplanes!  Our 4 year old granddaughter Zoe chose to sleep aboard with Grand Mar and Popov after an enjoyable BBQ hosted by Jerry and Sandy Maida.

Today had two starts.  At 2:30 AM Martha and I awoke to a west wind that was bouncing us unnecessarily against the well fendered dock at Maida's but then we also felt ourselves bouncing against the bottom more and more frequently.  We abandoned the dock and motored about 5 boat lengths from the dock and baptized the Manson Supreme anchor.  Anchor held well and we spent a restfull rest of the night.  Zoe slept through the whole exercise.

About 8:00 AM we lowered the dinghy and delivered Zoe to her Dad and other Grandfather who came out on the dock to get her.  We returned to Brunelle, hoisted the dinghy, and headed down the St. Johns.   It was an uneventful ride and we chose to stop here instead of heading into the ICW against a strong current.  The tables say that early in the morning we can ride with the current most of the way to St. Augustine (first an incoming tide and then outgoing on the half of the 36 mile trip.  We'll see!  Weather isn't real promising and there is a chance that we will sit here and wait for Monday morning. ~~~(\_~~~D&M
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Dan captured the Maida crew before we set sail.

Zoe enjoys breakfast aboard Brunelle on her own special "table"

There was very little traffic on the St. John's River today, but what
there was, was BIG!

Jacksonville Landing to Maida "Landing"

Easy day today. This morning we walked around Jacksonville Landing and across to the Modis building where their atrium cafe served a delicious breakfast.  We left the dock at 9:40 and headed south UP the St. John's River, as it flows northward to the sea.  The trip to the Maida's (our son in law's parents) dock was 14 miles (statute) and it took about two and a half hours under jib and 1800 RPM to do a little charging.  We are comfortably tied up at the end of their dock in about 5.6 feet of water, so we may be sitting in mud at dead low, but it'll work.  We are heading back to St. Augustine with Jay this afternoon and will drive back up here on Friday or Saturday to take any of the Maida clan sailing that would like to go. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!  ~~~(\_~~~D&M
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Brunelle happily tied to the Maida's dock at one of the widest points of the St. John's River.

Salt Run to downtown Jacksonville

Well!! Here we are tied up at Hooters in downtown Jax. We left Salt Run at 7am and headed straight out the inlet and headed north - - - saw lots of boats going the other way. We made it to the St. John's River Inlet without incident but also without much help from the wind at 1:45pm and fought a slight current for the next 25 miles as we wound our way toward town. Our only restriction was to make it to the Main St. lift bridge by 4:30 or wait until 6pm. We arrived at the bridge exactly at 6! We had read about free docks here, but it was hard to figure which they were in the dark (even with the glow of Hooters!) Hopefully we are at the right place, but there are docks and there are cleats, what more could we ask for? Dan says he's too cold from being offshore to go sit on the deck and be served by scantily clad babes - - - me too! ~~~(\_~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

A neat picture of a suspension bridge and a major scaffolding job to
do maintenance on it...probably costs more than the original
bridge...like painting the eastbound span of the Bay Bridge cost more
than building that bridge.

Up before dawn in St. Augustine (no pix) and then watching the sun go down over Jacksonville...beautiful and here are a few, culminating with the blue hued lift bridge at 6pm.

Another great week in St. Augustine

      We didn't actually turn on the GPS for our Sunday trip today, because we only brought the boat into the dock at Salt Run to fill up with water.   Dan spent most of the week aboard doing one project or another.  The big one was the installation of our NEW MANSON SUPREME  60 lb. anchor.  One night of dragging with the new delta anchor (all the way back in Deltaville) and Dan has been on a tear looking for the biggest best anchor we could add.  SO we ordered  the Manson supreme and Dan and Jay spent two days re shaping new rollers to accommodate the Manson alongside the Delta.   
      The other project was to design and install Dan's bird deterrent apparatus. It consisted of buying 2+ lbs of shrimp boat netting and rigging it to turn us into a square rigger (all to keep the birds off the spreaders)  IT WORKS! - - - but - - - this morning, Dan disturbed 4 blackbirds who were hanging out UNDER the bimini!  
      We are leaving early tomorrow morning to take Brunelle up to the St. John's River (south of the 295 bridge) where Ryan's (Katherine's husband) parents have a home.  Kath and Ryan and kids are coming down for Thanksgiving.  We plan to leave the boat up there and go up after Thanksgiving and take all out for a sail.  We'll put the GPS on tomorrow and Tuesday - - -  ~~~(\_~~~D&M


The new Manson Supreme on starboard side with the Delta on port. This
took new rollers from West modified by Jay. No more "anchor from
hell".

Pelicans liked to sit on the spreaders and bomb the boat...NO MORE!!!

Kodo has been great sharing her staff, Jay and Pegg, with us as we
have invaded her in her home in St. Augustine.

St. Augustine YC Commodores Race

Well, we've been here for a week and have been living ashore at Jay and Pegg's house.  Of course we've done a little tweaking and all aboard, including Dan installing a salt water spigot at the sink for Bahamas conservation of fresh.  Today Jay signed us up to race in the SAYC Commodore's Race.  We didn't start all that well, as we were still on the way out when the gun went off, so we started last.  We ended up third overall, and we found out our corrected time at the trophy dinner this evening - - -we were still 3rd overall!   We ended up with 5 aboard.   Dan, Martha and Jay, of course, and two passengers who wanted to see what a race was like.  Both proved to be helpful and a pleasant addition.  It was a cruising class race, so we didn't have to worry about spinnakers (which we don't even have aboard!).  The course was a six mile triangle, with relatively inconsistent winds, but we had a great time, especially as we were able to pass several of the boats.  Another highlight of the week was getting to watch the Friday evening Endeavor shuttle launch from the fishing pier in Salt Run, here in St. Augustine.  Quite an impressive sight.  ~~~_/)~~~D&M

Endeavor lights up the sky as it lifts off

Quite a sight! Of course the pix don't do it justice, it was really dramatic seeing the glow in the sky and then seeing the glow of the ship all the way up and past the moon!

The crew of Brunelle with their trophy at the St. Augustine YC trophy dinner