It is day 96 of our trip. We reached Florida 10 days ago with our first major stop being St. Augustine. When we pulled into St. Augustine, the cockpit enclosure was put away and the shorts and T’s were brought out. St. Augustine is a lovely city that is heavily Spanish influenced as a consequence of its history. We spent 5 nights on a mooring ball and took in the Santa Clause parade, which was very weird in 25 degrees and sunshine. Last night we were anchored off Indian Harbour Beach at the mouth of the Banana River which is at statute mile marker 914 on the ICW. We are between Titusville and Vero Beach. We are enroute to Vero Beach at the moment and will spend a couple of days there. These days it’s high 20’s and sunny and clear. The small anchorage last night was lined with houses and had oodles of dolphins frolicking and jumping out of the water, like a seaworld show. The dolphins in Florida seem more accustomed to boats and seem to approach intentionally and swim up alongside. Can’t get enough of that. And no, we haven’t captured any good shots yet. We will try, but we are still just enjoying the encounters. We are starting to understand why people purchase property in Florida.

I last wrote about 21 days ago (oops) when we had only just arrived in Charleston, SC. Our friends Glenn and Dalia arrived shortly after and we toured Charleston together for 4 days and had a great time. It was awesome to see friends from back home. A highlight was a visit to Middleton Place, a rice plantation from the slave trading days. Charleston is amazing, a worthy city for a weekend getaway. On our second last night in Charleston we reconnected with Windarra, our buddy boat from way back to our lock up days in Lock 16 on the Erie Canal. It was great to see them again (and Allie-girl the sweetest Boxer). We set off from Charleston to make our way to warmer weather south. Weather was still quite cold, toques and layers of fleece still required. There was a 30 knot blow forecasted so we were looking to anchor with some decent wind protection or to tie to a dock. Our well being is highly correlated to the weather since we live in it, almost full time. Since there was a few days of bad weather expected (lows below zero and very high winds, unpleasant for travelling), we planned to go up the river to Savannah, Georgia to wait it out. However, the poor weather descended while we were underway, and at one point we experienced sideways, pelty rain, 40 knot gusts, extremely poor visibility and a very narrow channel with a very strong current. To top it off, Active Captain (interactive guidebook on ipad) was squawking that we were in a “Confusing Area” where creeks are intersecting, with incorrect charts. Follow the markers, ignore the charts. Unfortunately, with sideways pelty rain and 40 knot gusts, we can’t see the markers. We have full rain gear on, binoculars, radar, Guillaume at the helm, and me forward, looking for channel markers. It was a little tense, but we made it through.

We ended up taking a slip at the Thunderbolt Marina on the outskirts of Savannah, where they were kind enough to deliver half a dozen Krispy Kremes to the boat in the morning. Took a bus into downtown Savannah with Windarra and toured the historic downtown for a few hours before we decided it was too cold to walk around any longer. The next morning (American Thanksgiving) there was a thick layer of frost covering the whole dock and no Krispy Kremes because they were closed for Thanksgiving. Time to plow south again. That night we enjoyed thanksgiving sloppy joes aboard Windarra anchored in Wahoo Creek, Georgia.

As we have worked our way down the Eastern seaboard, we have mostly travelled on the “inside”. Beginning at Norfolk, Virginia, you can take an inside route on the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway – an inland river and canal system that goes all the way down to Miami) or you can go out an inlet to the Atlantic, and make a passage south on the “outside” or “offshore”. It turns out you can’t just jump offshore wherever you want, there has to be a passable inlet (navigable in the right conditions, always seek local knowledge) and there aren’t a lot of them and you need a passable inlet to get into at your destination as well. Since Norfolk, we have taken a couple relatively small day jumps on the outside. On those outside runs we mostly motor-sailed in light winds and 3-5 foot seas (and notably, only in about 40 feet of water). Route and passage planning in tidal waters is more complex than on the inland great lakes with no tides and very little current. Both inside and outside passages require a study and planning of the following factors:

1. marine weather (wind speed and direction and wave heights),
2. tides and currents (which ebb and flow at different rates and heights and change as you move from location to location. Tide and current tables required, we use an awesome ipad app, AyeTides which is integrated with iNavX),
3. charts of the area (paper/electronic/guidebooks),
hours of daylight (do you have to arrive in daylight or can you arrive at your planned destination after dark? Is it an “easy in” or are the shoals/obstacles to hit?),
4. conditions of the inlets (for outside passages), and
5. local knowledge of shoaling and conditions of ICW (are there new shoaling problems? BIG problem in the inside particularly in North Carolina and Georgia).

For example, we were planning our passage across Little Mud River, Georgia on the ICW, which was a reported troubled section of the ICW, due to shoaling and lack of budget for dredging (systematic problem in Georgia). When there are shallow sections (“skinny” as we call them) we need to wait for mid to high tide and preferably rising – so if you do run aground, you can always just wait for the water to rise and just float off. This ensures that there is enough water over the shallow spots for our 5 foot draft boat to clear. For this particular section, there were reports of 4 foot spots, a little skinny. The tide timing was not in our favour this particular morning. High tide was at 5 am, and dead low tide was at 11 am. With our normal first light departure, we would have reached Little Mud River near dead low tide and not enough water. So we did a split shift. We left at first light and dropped anchor at 10:30 and waited for more water. At 1 pm we were nearing mid tide and rising, so we were able to get through (although we had to do a bit of plowing).

Sounds like a pain in the neck, so why aren’t we going on the outside more? These are the considerations for an outside run:

Weather - what are the sea conditions (wind direction and speed and wave heights)? The weather patterns that have created the early onslaught of winter back home (not trying to rub it in) for this fall have generally created some big seas with relatively light winds offshore, which are not optimal for an outside passage. Furthermore, with frost on the docks inland, the temperatures offshore will be even colder, which makes for a highly unpleasant day or night passage.

Amount of daylight - there are only 10 daylight hours at this time of year (which means 14 hours of darkness for an overnite), so that limits the range you can do in a day run, again unless your destination (which has to be a passable inlet – remember they are few and far between) is safe for an after dark entrance (unless you are going overnight, then you have to time your arrival for after sun up).

Distance – based on how the outgoing channels are charted to keep the boat off the rocks, sometimes you have to head outbound for 2-3 hours (which only leaves you 7-8 hours of daylight) before you hang a right to head south which cuts into the range that you will make in a day (and you still have to get back inland at your destination).

And finally, we have actually enjoyed the sights on the ICW. We reconnected with our buddy boats Romana and Leeloo at the southern tip of Georgia on Cumberland Island where we saw wild horses. Each state we have visited has been distinct and enjoyable. The people have been very welcoming. On the busy ICW the boat passing etiquette has been very civilized. Power vessels (who travel faster than sailboats) generally radio and ask permission to pass and take off speed so the sailboats don’t get waked (rocked back and forth with stuff breaking). VHF Radio traffic is generally more professional than back home with less idle chatter.

Two days ago on our way into Titusville, we were visited by the very polite Environmental Fish and Wildlife Authorities. They approached on a dinghy as we were motoring along. Two of them boarded and advised that they were doing a sanitation check (this is the first time we have been boarded). They inquired about our black water system, then asked to be shown the head so they could squirt some dye into the bowl. They asked us to flush the head a couple of times and the third guy in the dinghy was watching the stern to see if the dyed water discharged into the river. Didn’t ask the friendly poo police what the fine was if the orange water did hit the river, also noted that the poo police were armed. Not sure what type of sanitation incident would require the use of a weapon, didn’t ask that either.

Our destination of Vero Beach today is supposed to be a key stop. It is nicknamed Velcro Beach because it’s supposedly hard to tear yourself away. Very boater friendly town with good opportunity to get provisions to prepare for three or so months in the Bahamas. From there about 150 more statute miles to Miami, where we finish provisions/preparations and wait for weather to cross to the Gulf Stream to reach the Bahamas.

The Gulf Stream is a large north bound current system that follows the eastern coastline of Florida (and beyond) and it requires very specific weather/sea conditions to safely cross it to reach the Bahamas. Any wind from the north will collide with the current and make large confused and bumpy seas that are to be avoided. It’s 14 days to Christmas today, so we may or may not make Christmas in the Bahamas because of our patient wait for weather. Ah well. Our plans are mushy anyways, that’s life as a sailor. If it’s Christmas in Florida, we are ok with that.