St Augustine

After a good night’s sleep, we awoke about 5.30am and start the generator and engine so it could tick over nicely before we headed out into the Atlantic once again. The rain was still pelting down, and the wind was still there but we needed to get down the coast in daylight. We steamed out into the Atlantic and the wind had changed direction which was good, and we had no following sea’s, and it was a lot calmer too. It was still freezing cold and the wind was coming straight from the west and we had its broad side on. We were flying at some stages and reached about 30 knots and averaged 8 knots the whole day.

We eventually arrived about 2pm into St Augustine which is the oldest city in America. We had to wait about half an hour for the bridge to be opened before we could get our mooring ball, but this was not a problem as the sun started to shine and we could see an old fort which would be nice to visit. After mooring the boat, we jumped into the dingy and headed over to the marina to pay for our stay and show our documents. After that we tied the dingy to the dock we walked into the city, and I have to say it was a beautiful city too. It was full of charm with its old buildings and cobble streets and it had a fantastic feel about the place.  We could not believe how busy it was and after asking someone what was going on we found out it was the Christmas Boat Carnival. The place was buzzing, and we had to wait over an hour just to get a table for something to eat but I can tell you it was worth it.

The next day we had a look around the city and made our way to the old fort. I’m used to Bamburgh Castle or Dunstanburgh Castle and they are both big, but I have to say for America and what history it has I was very impressed with it and the staff were amazing too. They even fired a real cannon without the cannonball of course but it gave you a real feel hard it was back in the day. 

The bridge opened every half an hour for all the boats passing through.

Dingy Dock. Loads of sailing folk moored their dingy's here but you can see the docks were empty at the other side as it was damaged during the hurricane.

Jam packed streets 

  Old buildings every where and some where made out of compressed seashells. 

The bridge across into the fort

They slept in here on straw beds

Inside the fort

The guys were just about to set of the cannon. It was really load too. 

After a lovely stop, we headed out once again and sailed down the coast towards Cape Canaveral.

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FOR READING OUR BLOG

OVER AND OUT

Here we go....

The day had finally arrived, and we only had a few jobs to do before we set sail. We topped up the boat with fresh water, did the final checks on the engines etc and paid our dues to the marina. All Kim, Simon and Sienna had to do was to say goodbye to their friends and while they were doing that I went to help another sailor who was solo sailing and needed a little bit of help to get off the dock, so he could get some fuel.

I jumped onboard the boat with him and we headed towards the fuelling dock. After filling up I gave him a push off and off he went. I have to take my hat off to this guy, as he is 70 years of age and still sailing on his own and loving every minute too. Got to love him for that.

After he set off, I ran back to Simon’s boat and jumped onboard. His friends let the ropes go and after a few tears we waved goodbye.

We motored out of the marina, down the Charleston channel and out into the Atlantic where we set our sail for the first time and then Simon turned off the engine. All I can say is that it is a weird feeling knowing that the wind is moving along on total silence. All I could hear was the waves and the wind, but we were motoring at 7 knots and it was free…. Yes free…  No fuel being used just us and the sea ahead with solar panels powering the batteries all we would have to do is sit back and enjoy.

Well if you know the sea at all, then you will know that this is not the case. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped, and the seas turned rough. I had gone from shorts and flip flops to woolly hat, gloves and winter clothes. Oh boy, it was freezing out here. It was like being at home again but this time I was going to sail through the night too. Talk about being thrown into the deep end and it was so cold that Simon decided not to do 3 hours on watch and 3 hours off, but 2 on and 2 off. It made total sense as we were both frozen to the bone during our 2 hours on deck and we were glad to get out of the wind and the cold. What made things worse was the driving rain that decided to join us I the middle of the night. It was bad enough the with the wind and the cold but rain hitting you so hard it hurts is not nice at all. We had winds gusting 30 knots, the seas were about 2 meters and in the dark of the night all you could see was the whites of the waves breaking in the moon light. At times I was glad it was pitch black as I could not see the size of the seas.

After sailing for 23 hours we eventually arrived in Amelia Island. It was a beautiful island, so we decided to get a little bit sleep and then have a look around the island about 3pm. We were at anchor on an anchor ball provided by the marina for 20 dollars a day which was really good value and then we launched our dingy to go and pick up Michael from his boat. Michael was the guy who I helped fill up with fuel and he decided to sail with us down the coast.

After paying the marina for our stay we went to the pub for a stiff one. I have never had a drink for 5 years now, but I pushed the boat out and had a shandy. Yes, I know it’s not really a drink. We had hardly left the pub when Michael got a call from the marina saying his boat had come off the mooring. We rushed back to the dingy, started it up and sped across to his yacht. Lucky for Michael’s sake a couple from another yacht managed to grab a hold of his boat and tie it against theirs without any damage done either boat. The luck of the Irish was on his side this evening. We started his engine and headed back to another mooring buoy where we put two ropes around the mooring buoy just in case one broke and the other was there for back up. After everything was tied up good and tight we made our way back into town for something to eat.

Michael was a little shocked and who can blame him after that. Its his home and when we arrived at the restaurant he entitled to another stiff one. After a lovely meal we arrived back at the yachts for an early night as we were leaving at 6am the next day as we were heading to St Augustine and we wanted to be there for day light as the mooring buoy was in a shallow area and it’s better to do that during the day than night.

 THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FOR READING OUR BLOG

OVER AND OUT