Intracoastal Waterway Cruise

Day 45 – South Amelia River, Fl. (Mile 724)

Tonight marks our 20th night at anchor this trip, our first night in Florida, with one more leg to go before arriving in St. Augustine tomorrow. All this on the night the US chooses a new president.

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The beautiful sunset last night looking from our cockpit across Jekyll Creek

We left the dock at Jekyll Island just before low tide, when the winds were Forecast to be low (8-10 mph) on the Sound. There was a parade of cruisers and sailboats heading out and we joined the parade.
Of course, when we got there the wind jumped from 7 to 20mph, but the current was slack, so the waves were only 2-3 feet. We also put the staysail out which helped steady the boat a lot. Tom had plotted in some new waypoints from Active Captain last night to account for recent shoaling. They worked well and we never saw any depths less than 11.8 feet. Once we made the starboard turn around the big shoal we had wind and current behind us which smoothed everything out.

The current continued to push us from behind
For most of our journey making us faster, but lessening control around the many turns.

Passing King’s Bay did not yield any submarine encounters although we did see the weird De-Gaussing station which looked spooky and futuristic.

Approaching Fernandina beach, a large Coast Guard Vessel with two small chase vessels guarding its territory was apparently practicing speed and maneuvering drills. Either that, or someone had gone rogue. This large gray, high-powered vessel dashed about the channel area, spinning and stopping and reversing like a possessed thing, much to the consternation of passing recreational craft (audible on the VHF).

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Fort Clinch on the northern tip of Amelia Island

After watching this scenario ahead of us for a few minutes, Tom took us across a “corner” that left the ICW ahead of the disturbance and rejoined it well to the south thus avoiding the area of this schizophrenic display.

Approaching Fernandina Beach proper we again saw a tremendous amount of damage still evident from the hurricane. Fernandina Marina is closed indefinitely.

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Lots of damaged boats from the hurricane near Fernandina Beach
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The signs hung up on the Fernadina Beach City marina tell it all. It looked like big chucks of the face dock were just gone! Word here is this marina will be closed until spring.

The scenery in Florida is noticeably different. Many more palms, the water is lighter in color and both brown and white pelicans are the prominent bird species. The air smells and tastes of salt. We need to get a really early start tomorrow as we have a long ride to St. Augustine from here.

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