Zusammen Sailing: Offshore Passage to St. Augustine

We left the Turkey day anchorage at 0700 bound for Beaufort (Pronounced Bew-fert - not to be confused with Bo-Fert, NC). We had to wait a bit for the bascule bridge just north of town and anchored just above it for 45 minutes or so. It's one of the bridges with a goofy schedule and doesn't open on request or every hour and half hour like many in the ICW. We pulled the hook and passed through at 0900 and tied up at a fuel dock to take on fuel and water for our run outside the ICW that would let us avoid Georgia and the super skinny water we have been hearing about since New Jersey.

I made a few new pals on the dock as the water tanks filled and managed to pull a small convoy together for the run out the Beaufort inlet and the ensuing passage to Florida. The forecast was excellent, calling for 3-4' seas out of the east and 10-15 knots out of the northeast with seas subsiding to 2-3 feet and winds decreasing to 5-10 knots by sunset.

I wish I could miss sales forecasts as often as NOAA blows their numbers and still get paid....

We had a great sail heading out of the inlet, chatted up a few boats heading our way and even had one woman call us on the radio from a passing trawler to say how great Zusammen looked under sail with our big ensign flying from the backstay. (kids and Lex were below schooling, maybe she was really commenting on the captain?)

We saw a bunch of dolphins playing in the long inlet, the kids saw a few do flips in the air which was a big hit. The seas were only around 2' inside the inlet which extends for a number of miles. As we cleared the last of the sandbars to our north (which protect the inlet from waves) the seas picked up a bit to maybe 4' but we had good wind on our stern as we turned right to 210 degrees to make St. Mary's Inlet and Fernadina Beach, Florida.

Sailing dead down wind in a cruising boat is a bit of a challenge and I always run through a barrage of tactics that really don't work to make anything easier (save rigging a preventer, which does help). Sailing wing and wing in a quartering 4' sea is noisy and a challenge to hold while steering. I chatted with a couple of the boats behind us about their plans. One was flying only a genoa and another was sailing a hotter angle, going farther offshore and planned to drop down when the wind shifted to the east in an hour or so. I stuck to the rhumb line and wrestled the downwind leg with both sails in around 15-20 knts.

We got a call from the folks running farther offshore (they were now well out of site) around 1500 and they said they were bailing out and heading into Savannah, GA. They had a LONG way to go to get back into Savannah, but they weren't in any rush. I am sure we'll see them again on the way south or down in the Bahamas.

When they bailed out, I was a little anxious as the wind was significantly higher than predicted and waves were now well over 4' regularly. Were we making the right decision? I checked the forecast again and seas and wind were still predicted to subside. Bailing to Savannah would mean entering in the dark and we would have to go back outside from there as Zusammen is too deep to travel the ICW in Georgia. We pushed on.

Happy Destiny a Tartan 4300 was still behind around 4 miles and chugging along at about the same pace. The wind started to move a bit east and we were more happily sailing on a broad reach. I chatted with Happy Destiny some about arrival times, and even though we had been told we could get into Fernadina Beach at night, we both decided to push for the next Class A inlet, the St. John's River. The inlet to inlet distance was 117 miles as opposed to 98 or so. The extra miles would get us in around or just after sunrise and with the seas now more like 4-6' with an occasional rogue bigger, I felt much better about getting in to a new inlet with a fair tide and current, in daylight. Additionally we would have a huge lift from a 3knt+ current in the inlet at St. John's river that would carry quite a bit south in the ICW and allow us to get all the way to St. Augustine if the crew could manage the extra distance. We agreed to chat every hour with Happy Destiny, welcome conversation on lonely watches.
We altered course a few degrees to the east and sailed on. As the sun was setting we were still making over six knots and having a nice sail but the sea was rolling us quite a bit, and nobody felt much like dinner. Liza was the first to crash and Tyler was a champ staying up with me and then Lex though the first night watches. Some great conversations were had during the wee hours with the boy staring up at the stars in the cockpit while I was driving.

For anybody that hasn't been offshore (this is really near-shore, but out of sight of land and lights) at night in a boat, you should put it on your bucket list. You'll never see more stars.

Lex and I stood the last hour of dark together as the radar filled up with targets as we approached St. John's River inlet. We sailed around a bunch of shrimpers (I think they were shrimping...) and finally made it to the jetties. The current was tearing and we blew in at almost 10 knots. Happy Destiny and Pura Vida were not far behind.

After Liza had presents and some birthday goofing around while underway, we all decided to press on to St. Augustine. We didn't complain about the motoring as we were all pretty tired of the quartering sea outside and the flat calm of the ICW was actually very welcome.

The kids ooohed and ahhhed at the houses in Florida along the ICW. The morning was sunny and warm and you could feel a significant change in the humidity. All great stuff!

Liza's new penguin watch from G&P