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Date:Sun, 26 Nov 2023 17:12:00 GMT
St. Marys to St. Augustine
Don't do inlets at night
We woke up at 7am and got ready to go to the farmers market in St.
Marys. We got the market at 8am and left at 9:30. So armed with fresh
produce and 8 dozen farm fresh eggs, we started getting the boat ready for
off shore. The reason for going off shore instead of the ICW was rain and
storms forcast for St. Augustine by 10-11 am Sunday (today) so we had to
leave in time to arrive before the storms. We could have done that by
leaving in the later afternoon and sailing the night to arrive in the morning.
But that would have meant only having a couple hours leeway. That's too
tight so we elected to do the inlet to St. Augustine at night.
In retrospect this was not a good idea. We have several standing
rules:
1. Reef often and early. Reef at night.
2. Arrive early in the day. No Inlets at night
3. Arrive when others are leaving to have room in the anchorage.
4. Go off shore when at all possible.
5. Always have someone on the wheel.
6. Keep water and fuel full.
7. Keep a clear deck and never ever tow a dinghy.
8. Put everything away below. Nothing laying about.
9. Plan for the worst. Hope for the best. Always be ready to sail.
10. Always, Always wear life jackets and use the jack lines religously.
So how did it go? Well the Sail out at noon from St. Marys was
terrible. A couple boats turned around with 6-8 foot rollers in the inlet.
The cat threw up twice. Hannah was miserable and everything was rolling
around the cabin because we didn't have enough time to put things away
properly. After we got out of the inlet and turned south the weather was
exactly as expected. 2-3 foot waves 15 knot winds from the NE and it was a
fine sail. But as it got on towards evening of our 10 our sail the clouds
started forming over St. Augustine. Sam and I first reefed then took down
the main sail and we were still making 6 knots with just the Genoa. We had
a tiny bit of light rain for about an hour and as we arrived at 2200 local
under a nearly full moon and broken clouds the tide was wrong. A catamaran
that had passed us earlier warned us there were unmarked unlit bouys in the
inlet but that it was not rough. 2 hours later when we arrived the tide was
going out at 4 knots and the wind had picked up to 20 against the tide. So
unable to see under the dark skies and with unlit bouys potentially on our
route Hannah and Sam went out on the rolling deck with 8+ foot rollers
stacked up every 4 seconds coming from our starboard quarter and at full
throttle we were only making 3 knots against the current. It was miserable
and dangerous. We had tracks on our chart plotter for previous runs in and
out of the channel but we needed eyes on the unlit bouys. Standing on the
deck was nearly impossible but Hannah and Sam wedged themselves in against
the mast and the side supports. Eventually Hannah sat on the wet deck as
waves were crashing over the gunnels. It took us nearly an hour to get into
the harbor only to find that it was completely full. So we wandered through
the tightly anchored boats in the dark for nearly another hour trying to
find a place to anchor. We tried three times in two different locations but
with the winds and a 4 knot current ,in the dark, I couldn't find a place I
liked. So tired and frustrated we went back out to the mouth of the inlet
and anchored in the flats after running aground
twice. Tired wet and frustrated we had hot chocolate and Campbell's soup
and went to bed at 2am after driving around the anchorage for 3 hours.
1/3rd the length of the entire journey just trying to anchor.
And the Moral of the story is? Stick with the Rules! And this morning we rose
at 8 am to work on the leaking engine before trying to re-anchor. And sure
enough if we had arrived at 8am we would have found space where people had
left on their way south. So we anchored near one of the places we had tried
to anchor the night before and all is well. It didn't start raining
till exactly as forcast and if we had left at sunset we would have had
better tides, gentler winds, a place to anchor in the daylight and then rain
at 11am three hours later.
Of course hind sight is 20/20 but we have developed these rules over
the years and they work for us. They came from having experiences like this
and us saying "never again". Well, this is exactly why we do what we do.
Look, I'm not trying to toot our own horn. That is not the point. But
what we did was dangerous and if we were unsteady, overconfident, or
inexperienced with our boat this could have ended in tragedy.
Is it possible to survive when doing dangerous things? yes. But the odds
are not always in your favor and eventually the odds will get you.
Be smart, be safe, have your own rules based on what you are capable of.
There are plenty of times when things do not go as planned and you have to
do something inherently dangerous. There isn't any need to do it on
purpose.