11/19/2008 Savannah, GA to St Augustine, FL

11/10/2008 I left Savannah after the nice stay there. I was rushed off of the City Dock as they had some sort of cruise ship coming in that evening. Of the four boats tied up on the dock, two decided to pay the high rate at the hotel dock (3.00 ft/night) and two us headed down the river to find a place to anchor for the night before working our way south. I ducked in behind an island that primary use was an import station for natural gas. This worked out good for me as it gave me a head start for the next day.

11/11/2008 I was hoping to use the back side of the island to short cut my way onto the ICW, but there was a bridge, so I had to go the whole way around the island and back onto the ICW. I had two bridges that lifted on request other than high road traffic times. It was nice to keep moving and have the bridge lift just as you arrived instead of waiting sometimes for almost 30 minutes. As I was traveling down this passage I found out where all of the cruisers stay in marinas when stopping in Savannah. It was on the backside of Savannah on the ICW. It would have been a bus ride, but lower cost to stay and more mariner friendly. Here is a picture of some of the big boats in one of the marinas.

Late in the afternoon I came across another “Hell’s Gate”. The first one was an area on the East River in NYC that had a junction with the Harlem River. The counter currents I assume could make it a difficult place to transit, but as I was traveling with the tides then, I never had an issue. This time it was a cut between two rivers and it had a lot of shoaling, or a moving bottom that made it difficult for the authorities to place channel markers for clear passage. I hit this area towards a low tide and was told that some areas could be a foot deep. There was a monohull that stood off for awhile until I passed through. I took good old time going through as I was basically following my depth sounder to weave my way through the channel. I finally made it through without a bump, but the heart was pounding.

That day I made it to Walburg Creek for the night. As I was coming into the creek I was met by a large pod (12-15) of dolphins swimming all around. Good way to finish up a day of boating. I dropped the hook in a protected corner of the creek behind the grass.

11/12/2008 I woke up to a start this morning. I went to bed last night believing I was sitting in a well protected area due to the ground and grass that protected me from the wind and wave action to wake up after a rising tide to only having the grass tips above the water.

I decided to take it easy today and move slowly. I did some work around the boat and cooked up a pot of chili for dinner. I figured if I had a pot of something for dinner I would find someone to share it with. I finally took off around 1:00 in the afternoon that day with expecting to make a short day of it. As I was leaving there were a couple of catamarans motoring down the ICW ahead of me. One of them peeled off and headed north up a river and I did catch the second one. We started talking on the VHF radio and decided to anchor up in the same area and they would love to join me for some chili.

The couple I was talking with is Richard and Jetti aboard Bombay Duck. Richard is English and Jetti is an American. I offered to come over and pick them up using my dinghy as there was a good current running through the creek we were in. For the first time I could not get the engine running by the third pull, or the thirtieth pull. I worked in the dark and after cleaning the spark plugs, I was able to get it started and made it over to pick them up. Jetti said that she was feeling like a high school girl that was going to get stood up, but they appreciated my persistence in getting the engine started.

I had the chili warming up and ready to eat when they arrived. I never thought about the spice I put in the chili and I did not think I put much in, but I make sure my chili doesn’t taste like spaghetti sauce. Richard being English and doesn’t eat much spicy food started to sweat. I could see the beads running down his forehead. Jetti loved it as she usually can’t use much spice in anything do to his delicate taste buds. We had a good time talking about our adventures so far coming down the ICW.

11/13/2008 This morning I took off around 7:00AM. It was my first time navigating in fog. It was thick as pea soup. I could not see 50 feet in front of me. I used radar, gps and the chart plotter to determine where I was. It was the hardest navigation I ever did as there was no wave action, no wind and no ability to see navigation marks or the shore line. It was real easy to get disoriented. I zig-zagged down the channel. I did decide to use the auto-pilot and that worked out a lot better. All of you airplane pilots would understand this as I basically needed to travel and trust my instruments.

The fog started lifting around 9:00 and did clear up nicely. The weather was beautiful after this and it warmed up to 80 degrees. I was able to put the sleeping bag away and sleep with the hatches open for the first time since about Labor Day. I made it to Jekyll Island, GA that night. Jekyll Island was a club used by the tycoons of the late 19th century as a winter retreat. Many or the “cottages” are still there. The state bought most of the island to keep it in a nice retreat area for all to join in. Bombay made it to Jekyll Island also. I spent sometime with them after they anchored and found out what Richard did that he could work from his boat. He is catamaran designer that specializes in designing catamarans that can be built by the do-it-yourselfer. It turns out that Bombay Duck is one of his designs that he bought from the second owner. You can find more information about him and his designs at http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/.

11/14-15 I decided to stay at the island for a couple of days. The first day was fuel day. I rode my bike to the north part of the island to a campground to fill a propane tank that was a 10 mile round trip carrying a propane tank. Then I made five round trips to a local gas station for gas using my five gallon can. I also moved onto a dock that is used at a boat ramp that was closed for repair.

Day two was to be laundry and sight seeing. I was going to use the marina laundry to get the laundry done, but after checking into it with the marina, I was going to need to pay $20.00 to tie up my dinghy. That was going to make it very expensive laundry so I decided to do bucket laundry. I was able to get my shirts and shorts washed until the weather turned cold and rainy. I decided to take a nap while the rain came in and then going riding around to see the sights. I made it to the museum that was closing in 20 minutes. I did not get to spend much time, but it seems to have a rich history and worth the stop if you are ever in the area.

That day a shrimp boat squeezed into the dock area to drop off some shrimp for a customer. The owner of the boat in front of me, Doc, helped them with moving around some baskets and they gave him 2-3 pounds of shrimp right off of the boat. He brought over boiled shrimp and I provided a salad and some rice. This was the best shrimp I have ever eaten.

11/16 One of the reasons I also stayed at the island for a few days was that the weather was to change from a southerly wind to a westerly. The weather came in just it was forecasted and I took off at 9:30AM with a slack tide. I was able to sail across the sound to the ICW and had a wonderful morning of sailing. I made it across St Mary’s inlet into Florida finally. I saw a couple of interesting animal life activities today. One was the largest flocks of white pelicans I ever saw. The others were dolphins. One was a dolphin chasing a fish. I was able to see both the fish and the dolphin. The dolphin turned quickly and the fish escapade. I then saw the fish jump out of the water the dolphin to go after it again. I wasn’t sure if the dolphin was playing with the fish like a cat would play with a mouse, or if the dolphin could not catch the small fish. The other was a group of dolphins that huddled together and appeared to be wrestling with each other. I did need to motor at that point due to the currents in an out-going tide. I stopped at Ft George River that evening.

11/17 I got up early this morning and motored down the river against the tide. This I had planned as I expected that after I crossed the St Johns River and then get a push from the incoming tide. It worked out as I got a two knot push. I boated into St. Augustine around 1:30PM. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the US. It was founded by the Spanish in 1572. I was also getting prepared for another cold night. They are calling for low temperatures below as expecting to go down to thirty degrees over the next couple of days. While I was traveling down the water way, I saw this helicopter that appeared it was sitting on the power lines at the tower. It turned out that there was a technician on the tower working at the top and this helicopter was assisting. There also was a helper standing on the runner of the helicopter. That would a thrilling job.

11/18 I want to do some sight-seeing here today. I worked around the boat during the early morning and went into the city marina to use the showers and laundry. I was finally able to wrap up the laundry and trying since I was in Savannah. I spent the afternoon walking around town and enjoyed it so much I decided to stay one more day. The buildings around are very interesting. Here are some of the photos of the historical downtown.