We left Miami a little earlier than we should have, but we thought leaving during winter would give us better wind than if we would have waited until Spring.
The first day out of Miami we got a little bit too much wind. Our normal cruising speed is 6 knots, but most of this trip we did 11 knots, and that was with one reef in the main.
Our destination was going to be St Augustine, but the wind and waves were pretty rough, so we pulled into Lake Worth and anchored for the night. Even the dog got seasick on that leg of the trip! Coming into the inlet we were escorted by a police boat and police jet ski. They never contacted us on the radio, but stayed close to us all the way in. We were running both motors, but were motoring into 20 knots of wind so were barely moving. Our escort was patient but eventually gave up. We heard that Trump was in Mar a Lago so maybe that’s why we were escorted in.
The anchorage was calm. It was amazing the difference in conditions between the anchorage and the sea right outside the inlet.
Once anchored we did the usual things. Took the dog ashore in the dinghy and cooked sausages on the grill. The dinghy ride was slow because the little outboard was acting up. On our way back to Current Life, we did see a naked crewman coming out of the shower of a tugboat. One of us was really happy to see him and may have even waved at him.
The next morning, we finished up the trip to St Augustine and spent about a week there on a mooring ball. A major storm came through bringing 40 knot winds and temperatures in the 30’s so we spent a few nights in a hotel.
While we were in St Augustine, the spinnaker finally arrived. This was its path to us:
Frankfurt->Munich->Leipzig->Madrid->Miami->Cincinnati->Orlando->Jacksonville->St Augustine
Next was a quick overnight trip to St Simon’s island, GA. Coming into St Simon’s, there was an overturned cargo ship in the channel. It was really interesting but for some reason we didn’t take a picture of it. Here is an NPR link to it: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/27/810021749/overturned-cargo-ship-soon-to-be-sliced-up-and-removed-from-georgia-sound
After waiting out bad weather in St Simon’s we had another 11 knot, overnight sail into Charleston. The wind was perfect until about 3AM when it decreased to 5 knots and swung around to be a headwind. We were only about an hour away from entering the Charleston shipping channel at that point, so we turned on an engine and motored the rest of the way into Charleston harbor.
One of our favorite marinas! Feels like home
After spending a few weeks in Charleston, marinas further up the coast starting closing due to the pandemic. Our research showed that we wouldn’t be able to travel north until things got better. Luckily we had a great slip and Charleston City marina let us extend our stay.
Since it looked like we were going to be in Charleston for a while, we decided to get a short-term rental in downtown Charleston for a few months to wait out the virus. We miss the boat, but are enjoying the air conditioning, daily showers and having our own washer and dryer.