Fernandina Beach to St. Augustine...by SAIL!

Much of the time you'll read by myself and other sailors how it always seems like the wind is either too weak, too strong, too much on the nose , too much aft, or waves are too high, or too much on the beam for decent sailing. I swear, sailors are more critical of weather conditions than farmers! Once in a while though the weather gets it right. We wanted to sail from Fernandina Beach to St. Augustine. Counting getting into and out of the ocean that would be about 60 miles. At around 5 knots thats 12 hours. Now we don't like arriving in new places at dark so that means leaving at dark which is what we did. We weighed anchor at 11 pm in Fernandina and followed the buoys out. Having already come in that way and the fact that they are really lined up very straight, this was easy. When we reached about 30 feet of water we turned south. The main was already up and we rolled out the genny. Wind was as predicted for once! 10-15 knots from the west. We then used that wind all night and into the morning to truly SAIL (no engine for a change) all the way to St. Augustine which we reached (ha!) at around 9:00 AM. It was a cold sail but it was so pleasant to only hear the wind and the movement of the boat through the water. We maneuvered around many shirmp boats but that presented no major problem.

There is a nice anchorage area just north of the draw bridge in town. A little crowded but we managed to squeeze in and yet stay out of the channel. We've taken the dingy in to the marina ($10 but it includes use of the shower room!). We are now in the process of exploring St. Augustine a little. We hope to spend another day or two here, take care of some boat projects (always) and look for another nice weather window to sail to Cape Canaveral from here.

Sorry no pics right now...Blogger is being BAD.

When in St. Augustine you too can find wifi at St. Augustine Coffee Co. right across from city hall and Flagler College.

Thanks as usual for all who comment and/or email.