Vero to Annapolis - Days 1-9

This is the beginning of our second leg of our adventure bringing Pure Lunasea from Clearwater, FL up to Annapolis. We have a total of 1100 miles to go and three weeks to get it done. Thanks for tuning in.

Intracoastal Waterway (ICW)

For those unfamiliar with Intracoastal Waterway, it is a protected inland water route that follows bays, rivers and canals along the coast from Virginia down around Florida to Texas. The Atlantic ICW  begins in Portsmouth, VA (mile marker 0) and ends in Key West (mile marker 1243). We are making our way north so the mile markers count down (note: there are not any actual mile marker signs. Maps and landmarks are used to keep track). We are starting at mile marker 950 in Vero Beach and working our way north to the terminus in Portsmouth, VA. We'll then have another 150 miles up the bay to Annapolis. The ICW meanders in some places like Georgia and we are hoping to go outside into the Atlantic and bypass some of these sections.

Day 1

We departed Vero Beach early on Easter Sunday morning.  It was a cool and beautiful day. Our destination was Daytona Beach at mile marker 832. It was a smooth cruise up to Daytona and we settled into Halifax Harbor Marina. A good start to the trip.

 NASA facility near Cocoa Beach

Jim and Jimmy (Michelle's father)

Halifax Harbor Marina

End of a good day

Day 2

We departed Daytona at 8 am. Our goal was to do 53 miles to St Augustine by lunchtime and spend the afternoon exploring the city.

An interesting part about the ICW is how the topography and scenery changes so quickly. There are many miles of uninhabited wild lands and then around the corner you're in a city. You also go from areas with trailers and beaten up pontoon boats to rows of mansions and mega yachts in a very short distance. 
 

We got to St. Augustine around lunchtime and tied to one of the city mooring balls (mooring balls are buoys you can tie your boat to and usually cost less than $25 per night. The alternative is to anchor, which is free, or pay for slip at a marina which is $75-125 for our boat. To get to shore we have a dingy with an electric motor). We spent the afternoon exploring St. Augustine. It is a beautiful city with lots to see. We walked down the main drag to Flagler College. It looked more like a resort than a College (complete with swimming pool and volleyball court). In fact, the main building used to be a 4 star hotel. The area around Flagler College and City Hall is very beautiful. We made our way north to the Old Town area. It is a long pedestrian street lined with shops and restaurants- nice, but kind of touristy. We then walked around the castle before heading to Harry's on the waterfront for some incredible fried green tomatoes.

Mooring field

Pure Lunasea

Flagler College

Old Town tourist zone

Castillo de San Marcos

 

Going Outside 

 

Our original plan was to continue up the ICW to Fernandina Beach at the top of Florida before possibly going out into the Atlantic bypass most of the Georgia ICW. Going outside is risky. If you are offshore and there is a mechanical, weather or medical issue you could be many miles from the nearest inlet. Although there are many inlets along the coast, not all are easy to navigate.  Shifting shoals can make a lot of them passable only with local knowledge. At Carolina Beach inlet near Wilmington, NC the Coast Guard removed all the buoys that mark the channel because they could not keep up with the shoaling. This basically shut down the inlet. Our plan was to use only the large shipping channel inlets such as St. Johns, St. Marys, or Charleston. Our dilemma leaving St. Augustine was that it is only 55 miles to Fernandina Beach. We would have to do a short day and stop there for the night before heading out St. Mary's Inlet the next day. The weather was really good and we wanted to take advantage of it. What about going out St. Augustine Inlet? I knew nothing about this inlet and the chart showed no channel or marker information. A Google search found a harrowing story of a sailboat that hit the shoals and nearly sank. Not encouraging. I asked the marina dock master and he showed me an aerial photo of the inlet and explained it was a fairly straightforward passage. I was still a little nervous about it, but we made the decision to go out St. Augustine Inlet the next day.

Day 3

Tuesday we woke early and went to the fuel dock to fill the tanks. Just as we pulled away from the dock I saw a charter fishing boat heading towards the inlet. We quickly got behind him and followed him all the way out of the inlet. We then headed north at cruising speed (20 knots/24 mph).  There was a light south wind and rolling two foot following seas. It was ideal conditions.

St. Augustine Inlet

Offshore shrimp boat

⚓ Boaters tip

I use three resources to check the weather and wave forecasts: the NOAA marine weather report, the Weatherbug app and the Windy app. NOAA and Weatherbug give the basic weather forecast and wave information. The Windy app goes into much more detail and forecasts wind and waves throughout the day on a three hour basis. Near shore the wind often shifts and build at certain times of the day. Windy predicts those shifts and changes in wind speed.  More importantly, Windy predicts wave height, direction and period. Wave period is the time between wave crests and  it is as important as wave height. 2' waves with an 8 second period look like this:

Those same 2' waves with a 2 second period look like this:

It's the difference between rolling through waves and getting pounding by them. The rule of thumb for a comfortable ride is to have a  wave period at least two times the wave height (that can differ depending on the size of your boat and your comfort level). Outside St. Augustine we had 2' waves with an 8 second period- ideal conditions.

By lunchtime we had covered 78 miles and were at the St. Simon's Sound entrance that would bring us into Brunswick, GA. Things were going well so we decided to keep on going and try to make it to Beaufort, SC. Another 70 miles at sea we were at Port Royal Sound and made our way through the channel. By then the wind had begun to build from the east and there was a pretty good wind swell following us in. Luckily the current was going the same direction. It was still a little rough.

⚓ Boater's Tip

Currents going the opposite direction as wind lead to very choppy or "lumpy' seas. Check the tide and current forecasts as well as wind direction.

We made it Beaufort by dinner time and got a mooring ball. We ate dinner and went to bed early.

Our trip that day was 165 miles, but we ended up cutting off 245 miles of slow and twisty ICW marshland. The inside route would have taken us at least three days to complete. Yes, we may have missed some sights, but we wanted to "bank some miles" so we could spend more time in the Carolinas (sorry Georgia).

Day 4

Things were going well, perhaps too well. This was our first ICW trip and I have heard that you almost always run into at least one crisis. My mother crashed her trawler at a marina one trip and bent a prop on another. Our crisis was one that was not expected.

Michelle and Jimmy decided to do a walking tour of Beaufort. I had seen the town before so I decide to do some work on the boat. Upon returning to the dock to pick them up I found Michelle in a panic state. Jimmy had collapsed near the end of the tour and had been rushed to the hospital. Luckily the hospital was only a mile away and the friendly tour guide quickly gave us a ride to the hospital. After several hours of waiting for test results it was determined that Jimmy had an acute case of pancreatitis. He was in a great deal of pain, but we were happy it was not something more serious like a heart attack. He was admitted to the hospital and we began our unexpected extended stay in Beaufort.

Days 5-9

We moved Pure Lunasea to Port Royal Landing Marina so that we had better access to the hospital. The marina staff has been so helpful. They have given us extra access to their courtesy car so that we could get to and from the hospital. Outstanding marina!

Jimmy's recovery has been up and down. The pancreatitis was alleviated in a couple of days, but he's developed breathing and gastrointestinal problems related to being bedridden. Michelle, being a advanced level nurse, was instrumental in catching changes in his condition and advocating his treatments. If not for her, things could have been much worse. Currently he is on the upswing and will likely be discharged by Wednesday. Sarah, Jimmy's wife, has driven up from Florida to assist and to help get him back home to Florida. We are bummed that Jimmy will not be joining us for the remainder of the trip.

This delay has been unfortunate, but we are so glad this incident happened on land in Beaufort and not the day before when we were out in the Atlantic.

That outside run gave us a couple extra days, but we are now behind schedule. The itinerary going forward is going to be a lot tighter. We'll likely have to skip some stops and do longer days. We are considering doing another outside run back out Port Royal Sound north past Charleston to Georgetown, SC, but that will be dictated by the weather and sea conditions.

Thanks for reading our blog and pray for a speedy recovery for Jimmy.

Love
Jim and Michelle

Beaufort Memorial Hospital complete with emergency dock

View from Port Royal Marina slip

Beaufort downtown

Beaufort promenade

Promenade

The dreaded tour

Gratuitous sunrise picture