Nov. 9-10 It was a gray day but it was nice to be back in a familiar marina. They now had a courtesy car so I took it to the good supermarket on Sea Island and stocked up on fresh things. We decided to take on 1625 gallons of fuel which took awhile and added 6.4 tons to our boat weight! That night, our friends, Scott and Gail Ledbetter came to see the boat and have dinner. We always love seeing them even if it is for only one night in passing. He went to elementary school with me in Greenwich.
The weather was not great and the wind was blowing so we talked to the marina dock master and he said we could go down the ICW to the bottom of Cumberland Island on a high tide in the afternoon without any trouble. The trip went without a hitch and “the ditch” was quiet of traffic. We passed a big submarine facility along the way. As we anchored, a group of dolphins came over to say hi and welcome us. I don’t know how they see in such muddy water.

Nov. 11-12 The weather was still gray but the wind and waves were not bad so we headed down to St. Augustine. Coming in the inlet there is a white knuckle affair. There was surf breaking on both sides of us and in the channel, there were 6-8ft slow swells the we surfed in to the protected harbor. The sandbars shift so much there that the buoys are moved constantly. What we did right was to come in on an ingoing tide and have a wind that was almost following. Once in the harbor, we turned north and followed the ICW buoys north up the river and under the bridge. The ICW buoys are different from the channel buoys which are right red returning to the harbor. This makes for an interesting go of it. We have to be very attentive! Above the bridge, we anchored along side the ICW in deep water.
This was a lay day because of tropical storm Ida that was just north of us. She was causing wind and seas down where we were. In the river there is a strong current and when there is wind against the current, you get chop. At times, we had about a 2ft chop but with our added weight, the boat hardly moved. We watched Homeland Security fast boats practice going up and down the river all day.

Nov. 13-14 The sun was out and the tide was going out at a nice clip so we decided to brave the inlet and see what was out there. It was exciting but not bad and the tide had us going 9kts which made it get over with sooner. Outside, there were confused seas and they were big. We knew it would get better the further south we went so we just battered down the hatches and rolled our way down the coast. The autopilot couldn’t steer the boat so we used the Z drive control manually which became tiring. We have a remote control on an umbilical cord but we had never used it. John tried and the engine went off. I freaked. It was not one of my better moments. Without forward motion, we were like a bobbing cork and the waves were, did I say, Big. He started the engine again and called the former owner to find out how to work the remote and we used it the rest of the day. By sundown, the seas had calmed enough that the auto pilot was able to be used again. Thank heaven.We made it by Cape Canaveral just before they closed the waters off of it to traffic as there was to be a shuttle launch. We lead a charmed life! The rest of the night and next day went well. The sun came out again and the water turned blue. By the late afternoon, we came in the Ft. Lauderdale channel along with a million “gnats” of all sizes. Is is Saturday and everyone is on the water. Through a few bridges and then we anchored off the channel in a spot we were told was ok by our captain. We leave early tomorrow morning and pick him up nearby. He will help us go up the New River to our marina.