April 6, 2015

We left St. Augustine as planned at 0700. The tide was beginning to come into the inlet as we were trying to get out so there was a slight current against us. After an hour we were at the sea buoy and able to start making our way north. As predicted the winds were light but coming from the NE not the predicted E to SE. The seas were a little larger than predicted and hitting us broadside, again as predicted. Because of the direction of the wind, we were not able to sail and with the waves broadsiding us, it was not pleasant. We had that rolly condition going on. Jorge actually had a case of "mal de Martin" (Bill's seasickness on his first day out from George Town). This NEVER happens to Jorge so you know the conditions were uncomfortable, usually it is me with the queasy tummy! As we weren't making much headway, we changed our plans and upon reaching Jacksonville decided to enter the St. John River and make our way to the ICW. We tied up at a free dock just inside the ICW at 1700, the time we should have been arriving in Fernandine Beach some 25 miles away! The St. John inlet is known to have current up to 4 kts, don't we know it as it was 3 kts against us when we were coming in. At least we had lots of time to sightsee.

April 7, 2015

Up at 0700 to a very foggy morning. The plan was to leave at 0800 and lucky for us by 0745 the fog had lifted sufficiently we were able to depart.

CS'ta Time at free dock just north of St. John Inlet (Jacksonville) in the morning.

Along the ICW.

We motored to Fernandina Beach where we took on fuel before heading to Drum Point Island, Georgia.

Fernandina Beach Marina.

We set anchor at 1410 next to Shawn and Leanne on Suenos. We lowered the dinghy and went ashore. As it was late in the afternoon we just sat around the ranger station and waited for Shawn and Leanne to come back from their walk. We had happy hour with them before retiring early.

April 8, 2015

Jorge changed the oil this morning as well as fixed a leaky stuffing box and an antifreeze leak. After lunch we met Shawn, Leanne, their son Daeyten and their two dogs at the ranger station for a walk around Cumberland Island.

Wild horses on Cumberland Island.

Ruins of plantation house.

Cumberland Beach, pole showing height of tide.

(L - R) Daeyten, Micky, Oka, Leanne and Shawn on Cumberland Beach with the tide out.

More wild horses on the dunes of Cumberland Island.

The five of us had supper aboard CS'ta Time and had a great time (no the dogs were not invited!)

April 9, 2015

We left Drum Island Point at 0700 to do an outside run with Suenos. The first highlight of the day was seeing a real live nuclear submarine in the wild (not a tour) as we were leaving St. Mary's Inlet! It was escorted by two warships and about half a dozen smaller Coast Guard boats. How cool was that?

The wind and waves were a little more favourable today so we were able to motor sail off and on. Just north of St. Mary's Inlet, we discovered we had no charts on the chart plotter for this area!?! We figured when we unlocked (bought) the charts for the Caribbean while in Florida, we must have deleted the charts to make room for the new ones. Okay, we were not totally chartless. We did have charts on the computer on a program called Open CPN, we have Navionics on the phone and of course we have paper charts but it would have been nice having the charts right in our face on the chart plotter! It was approaching 1800 when we made the turn west to head into Sapelo Inlet. We saw the red buoy and kept it to starboard (red, right, returning) but because of the sun in our eyes we were unable to read the water and, yep, the shoal extended way left of the red buoy and of course, my favourite pasttime, I hit the shoal! Ouch! Jorge got us off (again) but this one caused us concern, it sounded nasty. No worries though, we were not taking on any water and things seemed good and it turned out they were. We anchored next to Suenos in the Wahoo River at 1725.

April 10, 2015

We left Wahoo River with Suenos at 0800. This time they ran aground getting out of the anchorage! Good, I'm glad its not just us! Welcome to Georgia. We motored along the ICW, without the chart plotter, but the ICW is well marked so no real worries. We anchored in Isle of Hope at 1450. Shawn and Leanne took a slip in the marina. This enabled them to get a courtesy car for 2 hours so we went shopping with them. We also got to use the marina showers thanks to them so pizza for dinner was on us!

April 11, 2015

Shawn and Leanne had a deadline to meet, having to be in Myrtle Beach by April 22, so they were on the move again. We stayed put. We walked into Isle of Hope (2 km) to the Verizon store to get our account and a few issues sorted out, then had lunch at a restaurant before heading back to the marina. A fellow in a truck driving by yelled out to us "I may be crazy, but are you cruisers?" Gee, is it that obvious? Turned out he was the captain of a sport fishing boat and he gave us a lift to the marina. When we got back to the boat, Jorge tackled the chart issue. The Caribbean charts were Vector charts and the North American charts were Raster charts. Once Jorge realized this, it was a matter of changing the program from Vector to Raster and there they were! Problem solved.

Local boat at Isle of Hope.

April 12, 2015

We were going to leave today and travel 5 nm to the Herb River, closer to Savannah with better access to shore however Jorge forgot the jet pack for the internet at the Verizon store yesterday so it was another walk back to town. We were lucky enough to get offered a ride back to the marina by a lady who had "cruised extensively for eight years" and she spotted us as cruisers! Great, friendly and generous people here in the states. We stayed put again as by this time it was raining and neither one of us felt like weighing anchor and traveling today.