Saturday 19 January 2020
20/01 dep Stuart art Wabasso Bridge

21/01 dep Wabasso Bridge arr Titusville

22/01 dep Titusville arr NSB

23/01 dep NSB arri St Augustine

25/01 dep St Augustine arr Cumberland Island.

26/01 dep Cumberland Island arr Sapello Island

27/01 depart Sapello Island arr Isle of Hope

28/01 depart Isle of Hope arrive ....

I have done all this to give you an idea of the time appreciation planning process for our cruising north. It is also telling me whether we will be able to get to Deltaville in time to put Nelleke up on the hard and visit with our friends in Durham before flying home. Of course all of this presupposes everything goes well - no equipment problems, no issues with running aground etc. It also allows only a couple of days in St Augustine. We could cut that short if we have to. We can also go offshore in day trips to get past Georgia and the skinny bit in NC if we have to.

If we can I think we would like to head north through the ICW. I know, I know. That flies in the face of everything that we have been trying to do for years but as this might be the last time that we do this I would really like to see the sights. We are even going to see if the local TowBoatUS operators can talk us through the skinny bits in Georgia, the one state that we have studiously avoided due to a lot of shoaling and since one mile in latitude means you have travel two or more miles in winding ICW. It would be great to be able to do that especially as it looks like the next fourteen days are going to be quite windy. What else is new? This is insanity! There are still people here who are trying to get to the Bahamas. Two boats have told us they are leaving today to grab what they are calling a short window tomorrow to cross to the Berries. Madness!

As for our madness today we went to a blues festival that comes with BBQ ribs and local craft beer, wine and whiskey. Free admittance, just buy ribs and beer and maybe a CD. It was really good. In these events you have to be careful o not eat or drink too much. Then, tomorrow an early departure to go to the fuel dock to top up our water tanks and pump out the holding tank and then we will be off. The first couple of days are decent weather before the next wind system comes in. Sigh. What else?! At least it seems to be mostly from astern and off the ocean so, if anything, it will be pushing water into the ICW and make the depths deeper. I am one of those dreadful people who, once we have made a decision, wants to get on with it. I want it done with. All our timetables met. All our obligations followed. If we arrive in Deltaville a week early we will just stay on the dock until before we leave. From here to Norfolk is 990 statute miles of ICW which, if we can do 50 miles a day should take us 18 days to get there. We can shorten that by making offshore jumps where a 50 mile day will straighten out the twists and turns of the ICW and in Georgia and SC turn that into an 80 mile day for those states. Sigh. The weather is so damn changeable. I guess all we can do is just keep slugging along the ICW and taking advantage of any opportunities to jump offshore when we can.

Tonight we have an invitation for dinner to Motoryacht Sandals and we will by dropping in to the happy hour briefly to say good bye to the folks that we met here at the marina.

This has been a great place to stop. We’ll miss it but now we have 35 days to get to Deltaville.