One thing you have to understand about sailing it is all about the weather. We check weather a couple of times a day in addition to knowing the tide table. You can’t just hop in your boat and go, there is alot of planning that takes place.
We are provisioned to head to the Bahamas. While we want to help the people who live and work in the Bahamas we also have to be able to afford this lifestyle. Purchasing items in the Bahamas or any island will run three times as much as it would in the US.
We have made numerous trips to Sam’s Club, Publix, Walmart and liquor stores to get food, drinks, and medicine for the next 6 months for us as well as the dogs.
Before we leave we have one last Happy Hour to attend at the Yacht Club. Several friends will be leaving out the next day so it is our last time to grab a hug and wish them fair weather and full sails.
We left Brunswick on a cold Sunday morning. Skies were gray and depressing. We were going to make a short day sail to Cumberland Island. Cumberland Island is a barrier island off of Georgia’s southeast coast. There are ruins from a mansion that was built by Thomas Carnegie, brother and partner of steel giant Andrew Carnegie. The island is 17.5 miles long and consists of 36,415 acres. There is loads of wildlife most notably wild horses.
We arrived Cumberland Island about two hours before sunset. We took the dogs to shore to go potty and then stopped by to see Dale and Debbie on Mokokat for sundowners.
The wind blew pretty much all night, gusting around 18 mph. The temperatures were a lot cooler than we were used to and I appreciated the one pair of sweatpants I bought from Sam’s Club.
We woke up early the next morning to pull anchor and begin our passage to St. Augustine. We looked at the forecast and saw that we were going to have some not so comfortable sailing ahead of us for the day but we had no idea just how uncomfortable it was going to be until we hit the inlet.
As we exited the inlet and throughout the day we were met with huge rolling waves that at times were confused. As you can see from the far right picture most of the time we could only see parts of Mokokat due to the sea state. I had to sit inside with the dogs to attempt to calm them down. They as well as I have PTSD from that trip. Tess has now taken over the helm seat as her preferred location for travel. It was pretty horrifying as items that had been secure came flying across the boat.
We arrived in St. Augustine just before sunset. I picked up all of the objects that had found new homes on the boat during our travel, fed the dogs, and then headed down to the master cabin to settle my nerves. I eventually came back out long enough to pour myself a two finger pour of Blade and Bow and grabbed a package of Hawaiian Rolls and that my friends was dinner.
I am not one to sugar coat anything, this sailing lifestyle is not all fruity drinks and pretty sunsets. You get what you get with me and I am hear to tell you I cried my eyes out, my nerves were shot and everything that has happened over the course of the last five months had built up. I chatted via text with several other boating friends as well as friends on land to try to take my mind off of it. A good nights sleep on mooring ball also helped.
We woke up the next morning to a beautiful sunrise. St. Augustine had just recovered from the toll that Hurricane Nicole had taken. One of the locals told us they were having to put up holiday decorations again as they had a good portion of their lights up before Hurricane Nicole made landfall. They would be holding their festival of lights during the approaching Saturday.
During our transit to Brunswick we stopped off in St. Augustine so we were familiar with the town. We absolutely love the town and could have spent a few more days there but there was about to be another blow come through and the marina could only guarantee us a mooring ball until Friday. After we changed mooring balls we made the most of our day in St. Augustine by walking about that afternoon. We walked up on a brewery and decided to step in and secure a seat at the bar. We had a great conversation with a couple who owned their own brewery in Ohio as well as another couple who live in Jacksonville but had never visited St. Augustine.
We decided we needed to grab a little bite to eat to soak up the beer so we headed back to the boat. Along the way we stumbled across Ancient Olive. My friend Sara had messaged me about this place as she had visited while they were here during Hurricane Nicole. You should never shop when you are hungry or when Bubba is with you. I walked in for olive oil and walked out with a bag of pasta and sauce.
Later that evening we met up with Dale and Debbie for dinner at Casa Reina. After dinner we headed back to the boat to check the weather once again and decide whether or not we were leaving the next day. After reviewing the next couple of days weather prediction it was decided that we would get up the next morning to make the journey further South.
Good bye St. Augustine, until next time!
