Wild Horse on the Beach
23 April 2011 | Cumberland Island
Nancy
Left St. Augustine mooring and went thru the Bridge of Lions at 7 am with a few other boats. Low tide and no wind. The inlet was a little bit wavy at first and then the waves got much bigger outside of the jetty. We had to favor the red side; green side is seriously shoaling between markers 3 and 7. Troubadour took a huge breaking wave over the bow that got the entire boat soaked all the way back to the windmille pole. The bow 'stabbed' the wave head on--this wave was at least 15 feet , and a verticle wall of water broke over the entire boat. Not fun. No really not fun. Once we turned northward on our course, the waves were better; just a bit rolly. Had to wipe up salt water down below because the dorades were overwhelmed(not being set up for offshore work). Everything got wet; including the ICW chartbook. Oh well.
We just used engine alone because we anticipated that the wind may increase later and we could sail.
At St. Augustine we did laundry (of course), had a nice lunch and walked to the Marine Store on King Street. Ed also fixed the dinghy outboard motor and put in a new fuse holder in the main engine.
Mostly motored today but put main & jib up at 12:30 to give engine a rest and sail, near the St. Johns River entrance. Still big swells. SOG around 5.0 --respectable.
Nerves of steel in operation again (Ed, that is) as he sailed (motor off) Troubadour into the St. Mary's Inlet channel, against current and big waves. Have to admit, however, that the St. Mary's inlet was a lot less crazy that the St. Augustine inlet this morning. (Maybe we should've had sails up and no engine this morning--NOT)
Anchored at 6 pm in beautiful Cumberland Island anchorage. Saw a beautiful horse on shore. Unfortunately the anchor chain got really stuck with all the waves, falling all over itself. Ugh!
We actually sailed more today than we motored! yeah.