AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: St Augustine FL to Fernandina Beach FL

May 3^rd – It was a warm sunny day with low winds that increased a bit in the afternoon. We left our mooring ball in St. Augustine and headed 31 miles north up the ICW to Jacksonville Beach FL and pulled into Palm Cove Marina. We entered the marina at low tide and we barely saw enough water to float our boat but the marina said we should make it … and we did. During our travels today we saw a sailboat in front of us hit a sandbar and he got stuck. He quickly got on the VHF and said “Motor vessel behind me … I have grounded … please give me the biggest wake you can to help me get off the sandbar”. I’ve got to say that this is the first time I was ever asked to give anyone a large wake … but it worked … he managed to move his boat and thanked me for my wake … a new experience for me! Once we were settled in the marina we walked to Publix to get some provisions. We loaded everything on the boat and then I gave the boat a quick rinse to get the salt off and then over to the pool we go. Then back to the boat to do some administrative stuff and determine our next stop.

May 4^th – It was a hot day with extremely strong winds and we were hit by a thunderstorm with torrential rain. We left the Jacksonville Beach marina and headed 31 miles north along the ICW to Fernandina Beach and grabbed a mooring ball at the Fernandina Beach Marina. During our travels we hit the bottom once where it was said to be 12 feet deep in the middle of the channel and we saw some very shallow water in a couple of other spots along the way … and yes this happened at low tide … perhaps we should try to avoid low tide travels in the future?? We had an unknown boater follow us the whole way and then he thanked us for leading him through the area. We also saw a boat that passed us up on a shoal farther down the river … by the time we got there he was leaning thus there was nothing we could do to help him. Once we arrived at the marina the winds were gusting in the high 20’s mph. We went into the marina by dingy and checked out the town which is quite nice. Their 54^th annual Shrimp Festival starts tomorrow thus we thought we would check it out. When we got back to the boat the winds were gusting in the low 30’s mph … it’s nuts! Then we were hit by a thunderstorm while it rained cats and dogs. This should have washed all the remaining salt off the outside of the boat!

May 5^th – It was a warm sunny day with extremely strong winds. We stayed on the mooring ball in Fernandina Beach with the intent of going into the Shrimp Festival however the winds are gusting to 35 mph and are creating large enough waves that would totally soak us with salt water if we try to make it to the dingy dock. While we waited for conditions to improve I put new zincs in my engines and generator. I also changed the impeller in the generator which needed changing since the old one had small cracks throughout. I reviewed our online US credit card statement and noticed that we were double charged for over $600 worth of diesel by Fort Pierce Marina. I called the credit card company and they asked that I call the marina first. The marina is looking into it but I haven’t heard back from them yet. We finally decided to head over to the dingy dock to visit the Shrimp Festival and guess what, we were covered in salt when we got there … what a surprise! There were lots of people around and we had shrimp for dinner … another surprise! We didn’t get quite as salty going back to the boat and we had fireworks at the end of the night. We are hoping that the winds die down tomorrow so we can continue our travels north.