Feb 1st Departed Jones Creek dock, SSI, for Brunswick Harbor. Beached there, scraped bottom and anchored for night

Feb2nd 0600 Underway. Fair wind from Jekyll onward made good time in St Andrews NW wind~ 18kts top
speed 11 its.
1445 Tied up at Sisters Creek public dock. Tired and cold.

Feb 3rd Strong NE wind kept boat pinned to dock. Finally underway at 0815
1500 took mooring in St Aug. Tired and cold.

Feb 4th 0700 underway
1630 Anchored South Daytona. light rain Wind SSW~15kts

Feb 5th 0630 Underway Cool damp.
Anchored one mile north of 528 bridge, Indian River. wind light NE. cool.

Feb 6th 0700 Underway, under sail alone, wind E~ 5kts.
1500 Fueled mouth of the Dragon, Anchorage Yacht Basin. wind SE~12 its.
1800 anchored Indian River, mm 927

Feb 7th 0630 Underway
1530 Ft Pierce. Fuel. harbourtown Marina
1845 Anchored mm 1033 North of bridge Jensen Bch.

Feb 8th 0730 underway, light fog. calm.
1830 Anchored Boynton Inlet

Feb 9th 0700 underway.
1500 Ft Lauderdale Fueled.
1800 Anchored Biscayne Bay, Baker’s Haulover.

Feb 10th 0730 Underway
10000 Sails up beam reach Biscayne Bay w SE18-20
1200 Featherbed bank
1400 Anglefish Creek anchor down

Feb 11th spent day at anchorage. cleaned bottom Caught some Mangrove Snapper.

Feb 12th 0730 underway
1115 anchor down Key Lime Sailing Club Buttonwood Sound

Feb 13th at anchor Changed engine oil

Feb 14th-17th At anchor Buttonwood Sound. Daysailing with Thad, Patty, and Belinda.

Feb 18th 0915 underway. Ben Shelton aboard for trip home
1300 anchor down Little Pumpkin Creek. Two anchors, set fore and aft.

Feb 19th spent day at anchor little pumpkin creek, moved out into to Card Sound at sunset.

Feb 20th 0630 underway, double reefed main. Wind E 20-25kts
1100 downtown Miami
1500 Ft lauderdale. Fuel.
1830 Anchor down Boca Raton

Feb 21st 0700 underway
1830 anchored Hutchinson Is. Bridge mm 981

Feb 22nd 0645 underway sail alone wind SE~18kts
0900 Ft Pierce. Fueled 16 gals.
1250 Wabasso Bridge
1800 Anchored East side of river , just North of Pineada Bridge Wind E~12kts.

Feb 23rd 0630 Underway motor sailing wind E, light.
0815 Cocoa
1130 Titusville
1900 Anchor down South Daytona. mm 834

Feb 24th 0630 Underway.
1200 Marineland
1430 St Auggustine fuel dock 17 gals.
1500 Vilano bch pier. Steering cable broke at dock. Ben took an Uber to Ace Hdw., bought galv
cable. Repaired steering, stayed the night at dock. Vilano public dock is a good place to
stop for groceries, etc., but unprotected.

Feb25th 0630 Underway
1200 Mayport
1500 Fernandina. Hoisted sails in harbor with favorable wind. Nice sail across St Mary’s Sound.
Wing and Wing part way, making ~8 its
1700 Anchor down Crooked River anchorage. mm 705

Feb 26th 0630 Underwy. power. no wind.
1000 St Simons Sound
1045 Morningstar Marina burned 14 gals fuel.

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED 1000
TOTAL FUEL BURNED 133 GALS
TOTAL TIME UNDERWAY 167.75 HRS
AVERAGE MPG 7.5
AVERAGE SPEED 6 MPH

click for larger

Two years ago this month I was cleaning the bottom when Peter happened by. He had this odd looking set-up… a big box kite with a hand held crank on the kite string fixed to a homeade spool that was mounted to a pvc frame he wore around his neck. The kite lifted his camera, which was also hard wired to a control box mounted on the frame so he could see it as he maneuvered the kite into position! I was working furiously to beat the tide, so I didn’t have time to chat, but he took several shots and before he left , he promised to e-mail some pictures. I scrawled my address in the sand and he took a photo. I never heard back from him. It turns out, the photo of the address was unreadable. Then two years later, after the hurricane, he happened to come down to my neighbors house where we ran into each other again. After a good laugh, he re-copied my e-mail again and sent me these nice shots.

I hope to entice him to go out with us soon and get some more aerials of the boat under sail. I am still trying to get a good “money shot” of the boat for my charter brochure. He has made a beautiful calendar with photos of local stuff. They have them down at Ford’s bookshop down at shops of Sea Island.

Friday PM 4:30.
We are at the head of Jones Creek, with six hooks set. There is no room to swing, so I have a mambo sized danforth set as primary to the NorthEast with the bow oriented in that direction. NorthEast is the most exposed fetch here, with wind from that direction now at about 20 Kts. If the storm stays on track to the west of us the wind should veer on around to the East. That would be the Manson Supreme taking over. It is a back breaking mambo too. I may never see these anchors again in this mud. To the north I have my working plow set, right in the axis of the creek current, which is not too bad up here. The other good thing is the hill behind us, to the South and South West, and I have two fortresses and another danforth spread out there with lots of chain. I am trying to leave enough slack to allow the boat to pivot with the gusts so that there is no broadside load. Hopefully that will work out. Problem is there is not unlimited scope due to the width of the creek, and the surge also has to be taken into account. I guess the biggest concern is floating trees and debris, though that should be minimum problem here compared to other spots. All other things considered this seems like the best plan.

Y’all say a prayer for the Spirit of St Simons (and everybody else too, while you are at it) Even if you aren’t a Christian, say a prayer anyway.

If the storm comes and it is very bad we are leaving. There is nothing more to do I reckon. I will go out there in the morning and make a few adjustments, then we will decide whether to leave or not. We are packed, pretty much. My camera must’ve got wet. This pic was taken with my phone on the row back to the dock.

When you’ve done all you can do, that is all you can do, so there is no more need to worry about it.
I like what John Masefield said:

Dust to dust and die we must
so let us all be merry!
Let us drink the cocktail down,
and let us eat the cherry!…

Blue and slapping run the waves
ebbing out or flowing
Let us go to life! or graves,
but let’s at least be going

EDIT:
We rode it out fine. I still think I would prefer to have a monster bridle, and single rode setup, with lots of chafing gear and one big manson supreme or similar, probably in tandem with a kellet of some kind, lots of heavy chain and good snubbers. problem is finding a good protected spot with no sharp objects nearby that also has the sea room you need to swing, preferably with little current. I am still looking. I will definitely take off the mainsail next time also. Broadside loads are huge, even with everything else stripped. We got lucky (again).

We’ve made several afternoon daysails in the St Simons Sound over the last few weeks. Temps have averaged in the low 70’s, wind usually from ENE, 15-20 kts. Earlier this year, we decided to remove the bench seats to lighten up and give more elbow room. So far I think folks like it better, though we are still debating over which are the best chairs to use. It’s really nice to have all that extra real estate for the passengers to mill about. The table stows forward under the solar panel, with a “kitchen box” underneath, and room for a large cooler as well. If we want to “dine out” it attaches to the console on the aft end with scissor legs fwd. It is very light, and seats seven easily.