St. Augustine to Miami
10 January 2009 | Miami, Virginia Key
Fred
This leg of the trip was a big jump. It is only two overnight's but psychologically going from North Florida to South Florida with the next jump being the Bahamas is a big one in my book. We have been waiting to take Early Out back to the islands for seven years and we can't wait to get there.
Our trip was a good one. We were sailing as soon as we left St. Augustine inlet. A nice beam reach on a sunny day. The wind did build as the day went on to 20-25 knots. More than I would typically like but since the winds were coming from the shore, the waves didn't have time to build up and it wasn't a bad ride. With a double reefed main and about 1/3 of the genoa showing we had a nicely balanced rig that took us through the night and the early part of the next day.
On Friday we had to motor for a while but only 11 hours total for the whole trip. Saturday morning we were able to sail for the most part since we weren't in a hurry to get to Miami. We actually slowed down a bit so we wouldn't go into this busy port at night. We ended up timing it well. We came in Government Cut, fueled up at Miami Beach Marina and were anchored before 8:30 AM.
It looks like Sunday will be a good day to make the Gulf Stream crossing. Light southwest winds and we should be able to make it to Bimini from Miami in about 10 hours or continue on to Morgan's Bluff which is an overnight. Once we are checked into customs and immigration we will quickly move down to the Exumas.