Further Adventures Of SV Nutmeg

 12/31- Daytona Beach - We have had a couple of pleasant if cooler days here. Yesterday we walked over to the “Worlds Most Famous Beach”. The walk over Memorial Bridge was interesting as we walked right over where we had just sailed. They also had little plaques all along the way to commemorate the soldiers who fought in different wars. They had plaques for wars I barely knew about.      The beach itself was not that impressive. For one thing it was close to high tide so there wasn’t a lot of beach. Apparently a lot of the beach has been washed away in various storms over the last several years. By afternoon when the tide had gone out a bit they started letting cars on the beach. They even have designated traffic lanes on the beach. Other than that it looks like any other beach.      When we got back to the boat the couple next door invited us to go to Happy Hour with them so off we went. They were from NJ on a big Catalina I think. Drinks were cheap a...

 12/29- We left this morning on a chilly and windy ride. We were cold most of the trip as the wind was out of the north. At least the sun was shining and that made it feel better. We went under 5 bridges and 2 lift bridges today. The lift bridges were both on demand and I have to say those bridge tenders know their stuff. Both times the tender told me to keep coming that the bridge would be open when I got there. Both times I chickened out and slowed down. Both times the tender told me to pick it up. They were both right on.      In Palm Coast and most of the way down to Daytona we passed by some very expensive real estate. These were some very big fancy homes. Even as we got closer to Daytona and the homes got smaller they were undoubtedly still worth more than I have. It was some interesting architecture though as each rich person tried to make their own unique statement.     We are in this huge marina now and I think our boat may be one of the small...

 12/28- It was raining when we got up this morning so we decided to stay put another day. It rained until around noon or so and then we took a nice walk. There is a trail that goes through what must pass for a forest around here. We saw lots of unusual plants but no alligators or snakes. I did a bunch of boat projects and we just chilled.      The tides around here are weird. The tide here at the marina is  a whopping 18 inches. It’s hard to even tell when it’s high or low. Back in St Augustine the tide range was 5 feet. How do you go from a 5 foot tide to a foot and a half tide in 25 miles? The thing of it is these are all rivers running parallel to the ocean. What is interesting is that there is still considerable current. We came down here at almost 8 knots while the engine was only turning 1k rpm’s. I was trying to slow down but nothing doing. Where does that much current come from with only 1 1/2 feet of tide.      The skies cleared nicely fo...

 12/27- It felt good in away to be moving again. As much as we enjoyed St A it was time to move on. It was a pretty easy run as we only did about 20 miles and got here around noon. The waterways are starting to get a lot more crowded. It is winter break from school so there are a lot of people just out with their families tooling around without any kind of destination. Everyone is all bundled up though as it is supposed to get cold again this week.  Palm Coast is an actual town ( I think) that is mostly condos and such. There are lots of side canals that feed large networks of canals so everyone can have waterfront property. The marina is just a pool off the ICW with docks but they like transients here so we are welcome. We walked up to a place called European Village which was a condo development with a bunch of stores and restaurants surrounding a square. Alayne saw a sign for half price which was a dress marked down to $265. Not much I’ll be able to buy in that store. ...

 12/26- Finally we have some Florida weather. It was in the seventies all day and all night with very little wind. It did of course threaten rain all day but it never materialized and it was just plain humid.      This morning the town looked like it was getting over a hangover. The streets were deserted and the gnome like city workers were back on the job shoveling all the trash into bins and getting the streets ready for the next round. The locals call this week between Christmas and New Year’s hell week and I can see why. This evening we went out to dinner with Mike and Carla as they are staying another week while we are moving on. You are only allowed to spend 7 nights in a month on the moorings. Anyway the place was just as mobbed tonight. One restaurant said it was a 2 hour wait for a table. There are multiple restaurants and yet they are all full and the streets are packed. We did get in to eat by being in the right place at the right time.     ...

 12/25- Merry Christmas everyone and I hope Santa was good to you. We went into town last night and Alayne went to a service with our friends Mike and Carla. I went to a bar and watched football. Afterwords we tried to go out for a drink but we could not get in anywhere. Seriously on Christmas Eve all the bars and restaurants were filled. Even as late as 10:00 the streets were filled with families and the bars were packed. It eventually started to rain and that started to thin things out. We rode back to the boat in the rain. Thankfully it was a warm rain and it didn’t matter much. I just think of all those half drunk parents trying to wrap presents back home.      Christmas Day it pretty much rained all day and so we just hung out on the boat. We talked with some friends and family and got a few boat chores done. In the afternoon we went over to Mike and Carla’s boat and had a meal of sorts. We sat around and chatted while picking at different meats and cheeses. Som...

 12/23- We have been having some fun now. This city is very vibrant. We went out to dinner last night with our friends Mike and Carla. It was a trip to walk around at night. The city is famous for its display of lights and it did not disappoint. I thought the place was mobbed in the daytime but at night it was even more crowded. There were people just milling around on the main park not really doing anything but oohing and aahing.     On Saturday even the daytime was crowded. I didn’t want to be in there at night. We have been walking all over the place and seeing a lot of the sights. There are so many things to see but they all cost money. I think this is just a big attempt to separate you from your money. As tacky as this sounds it is still a very interesting place to visit. Flagler College has some very impressive buildings. Inlaid tile floors and carved wooden columns decorate the interior and there were gargoyles. Damn even the bathroom was solid marble.  ...

 12/21- Well we made it into St Augustine yesterday and tied up to a mooring. We will be here til next week which means we will be here for Christmas. We did get off and walk through town the last couple of days. The mooring we are on is the furthest one from the dock which is fine except  it was too rough to take the dinghy out. Fortunately they have a launch service that will come out to your boat and get you. The only problem with this is it stops at 6:00pm. The city is decorated with millions of lights so we hope to get in and see the lights at some point.     We did get to walk to the old fort that is here and walk around. It’s pretty interesting to see the history of this very old area. Thanks to our friends Mike and Carla who reminded us that we could use my National Park pass to get in.     This whole town is old. Of course there is the oldest bar the oldest this and oldest that. There was even 2 oldest houses. The city is very vibrant and ...

 12/19- After spending a week in Fernandino we are finally on the move. The storm had pinned just about every one down. I liked the town but I was tired of being bounced around on the boat for days on end.     Anyway we finally had a nice sunny day but cold. It was only in the 40’s all day. The wind stayed up a bit blowing out of the north which thankfully was behind us. We had planned on stopping at the Jacksonville free docks but we also had the tide behind us so we were flying. We got to Jacksonville before noon and were doing 8.5 knots so we decided to press on. There is a 10 mile cut here with no anchoring so we had to commit. The cut was interesting as there were many beautiful and interesting homes lining the banks. There was also some extremely ugly architecture. All these beautiful homes and we didn’t see anyone outside enjoying the day. Of course we were all bundled up so maybe we couldn’t see them through all the layers we had on.      We go...

 12/17- That was quite the ride last night. The storm blew in around 2 am. Why do they always seem to hit at night? The wind was around 30 knots or so with higher gusts. The noise was just incredible with the howling of the wind , slamming of the waves, and the banging of the halyards. Not much sleep was had. The boat did great and we were still attached to the ground in the morning. It didn’t get a lot better in the day light. The wind stayed in the twenties most of the day and with  the changing of the tides it would  smooth out and then get rough again. Around 2pm this afternoon it really picked up again and the bay was filled with frothy water and 2 foot waves. It again blew in the 30’s. Our dinghy decided to take a dip and flipped upside down. I was able to right it and I pulled it up as close as I could to the boat to keep it from happening again. And it rained most of today also. We have here a week and have only managed to get to shore twice. This is really gettin...

 12/14- Apparently I have been mixing up my dates again. I’m reasonably sure today was Thursday.      We are stuck here on the boat in the harbor. I feel lucky to have gotten a mooring as the wind has really been howling. The waves were in the 2 to 3 foot range this afternoon after the tide started running out. That is also when the boat turns sideways to the waves and really rocks. The derelict boat next to us decided to take its leave today. The anchor chain just popped and away she went. I guess that’s one way to clear the harbor. It will probably now join all the other wrecks littering the shore.      I have been noticing a lot of the sounds lately as the boat has come up with several new creaks and groans. In the night lying on my bunk I can hear to twinkle of the little wavelets lapping at the hull. It then moves on the slap and bang as bigger waves crash onto the boat. Now the halyards get into the act banging against the mast and twanging again...

 12/14- The wind is still howling outside right now. It is only supposed to get worse tomorrow. It’s pretty rough here when the wind goes against the tide but I feel lucky to be on this mooring. It will be too rough to use the dinghy to get to shore anytime soon so we just sit here and wait.     While we are waiting I got to thinking about all the derelict boats we are seeing. Right now from where I sit I can see 6 boats up on shore that are obviously abandoned. There are at least 5 or 6 that are anchored that have been seriously neglected. It is such a shame as some of these boats seem to be in not too bad shape. The dock master says there’s not much they can do until they violate some ordinance or something. There is one here with a shredded head sail just flogging in the breeze. Another power boat with an anchor chain covered in barnacles. I’ll say one thing, it is a tribute to the anchoring skill of some of these as they are still anchored even years later even t...

 12/13- The wind is screaming outside right now as it has been all day. We looked around when we got up this morning and saw an empty mooring ball in the far field. We pulled up anchor and headed right over. It was a good thing we did as it was the only one to open up all day. Nobody is moving around here.     We did take a very wet dinghy ride into Fernandino Beach and walked around town for a bit. It’s a pretty long dinghy ride and it was getting rougher. It is a pretty town. It is the second oldest continuously occupied city in the US next to St Augustine      There is supposed to be no let up in the wind tomorrow either and Thursday is supposed to be even worse. We are tied to a mooring and we can only hope it holds. I do feel safer on a mooring than I would anchored. There is not much let up in the crappy weather for almost a week. We may be stuck here a while. I only hope we can make it to shore one of these days. 

 12/11- We got slammed last night. After the squall line came through yesterday afternoon the rain kind of let up. Then around midnight another squall hit and pinned the boat against the dock. This time the wind only let up slightly and kept the boat grinding against the dock. All night long I could hear the squeak of the fenders on the dock and the slap of waves hitting the hull. Then there was the boom of the transome getting hit with a wave. It was not a restful night.     It was pretty much like that when we got up and we discussed how we were going to get off the dock. There were boats in front and behind us. I watched as the guy behind me managed to get off but I wasn’t sure that way would work for us. Then Ben, one of the dock hands came to the rescue. I decided he knew more about how to do this than I ever will so we decided to listen to him. With the wind blowing us on to the dock and the current peaking Ben devised a plan. We took off all the lines except o...

 12/10- We have been having quite the time here. The marina lent us a golf cart and we drove around the island doing some sightseeing. We took out bikes the next day and toured around. It was fun riding your bike down the beach. I did see an armadillo. A guy who was there said he was from Texas and had seen hundreds of armadillos but this was the first live one he had ever seen. This is a very well kept place and very scenic. The beach is wide and flat with very few stones or even large shells. And the live oaks are everywhere and some are huge with piles of Spanish moss hanging from them. We took the golf cart again and went to the pond that the girl in the office said would have alligators. Sure enough it did and we saw 3 or 4 smaller ones.     This afternoon a squall came through with 55 mph winds. It was intense. The boat heeled over tied to the dock. Stuff was blowing off other people’s boats. And typically it lasted about 20 minutes and then just calmed right d...

 12/8- We were lazy this morning and didn’t leave until 10:00. This was because we didn’t want to get there too early and Jekyll was only 10 miles away. It was really peaceful at the anchorage as there was no wind at all. We motored our way through a couple of inlets and into Jekyll Creek. This is another in a continuing series of very shallow spots. In order to get to the marina at slack tide we had go through this 3 mile stretch at close to low tide. We crawled our way down the creek churning up the mud on the bottom. There were spots where we had to have pushed through the mud. The depth sounder was showing 4.3 feet and we draw 5. Eventually we pull up to the dock here at Jekyll Island marina and tied up.   They let us take a courtesy golf cart out on a tour of the island. This island is filled with these massive old live oaks just dripping with Spanish moss. Some of it is really surreal. There are several old mansions leftover from the days of the industrial giants. They a...

 12/7- It was an easy day today as we only had 20 miles to go. We are setting up to head into Jekyll Island for the weekend and we didn’t want to get there too early. The tide was low at 10:30 this morning and we had another shallow spot to cross fairly soon. The Little Mud River had only about 4 feet of water at mean low water so we tried to play the tide a bit to give us some room. Mean low water is the average of the lowest water in this spot over a period of years. It is usually what is printed on the chart. Tide levels are all given by how much they are over or under the mean low water level. Of course there are other factors such as wind that can affect water levels. The tide levels are also predicted and that does not mean the predictions will necessarily come to pass. And so with all this knowledge we cautiously turn our boat down the river hopping to come out on the other side. We of course are following the track of Bob423 who has mapped all the best routes out.  We ...

 12/6- We had nowhere else to be today so we left around 8:00. This was mostly to catch the tide. Low tide was at nine so we caught a little of the ebb and then a bit of the slack and a good deal of the flood. It was a pretty easy day hazard wise as there was nothing to really worry about. The wind however was another story. It had picked up out of the north in the evening and was supposed to get stronger as the day went on. It was fine as we left but the first thing was St Catherine’s Bay inlet. This is a big expanse of water and as the wind was against the tide it made for a rather bouncy passage. I even ran out the staysail to steady the boat a bit. It was the first time in a while that we had heeled over. Not to mention taking water over the bow. We had 2 or 3 miles of this but fortunately we had the tide going with us and we sped along at 7 knots. We had a second inlet to go through later that was not quite as rough but was about 5 miles long. Again the tide was still with us ...

 12/5- We got off at low tide this morning so as to have a rising tide all day. We had a couple of trouble spots and it would be better to do them at a higher water level. The first trouble spot was right after we got out of the creek. There was a tug and barge coming down the river so we pulled up and slowed down so he could get out of the cut before we entered. The tide was a pretty high low tide so we still had a couple of feet of water to play with. As we came upon the shoal a trawler was stuck on the sand bar so at least we knew where the really shallow spot was. It had to really gall him to watch a sailboat go by when he got stuck.      Only a mile or so after clearing this we entered Georgia and came out onto the Savanna River. This is a busy river with many freighters of which we had to dodge a couple just to get across. The area after this was a maze of rivers and creeks. It would be easy to get lost here as everything crisscrosses back and forth. Fortunatel...

 12/4- We spent several days at Lady’s Island. We had our friends from West Bolton, Mark and Jen , stop by for a visit. They took us over to Beaufort for lunch and to walk around the town. We did some provisioning and I gave some love to Mr Perkins. It was a nice place to stop for a while as everything that you could want was right there. There was a hardware store and a Dollar Tree practically across the street. Plus the marina had a courtesy car so we could drive down to the Walmart and the grocery store. It was nice also hanging out with folks on the dock.      We left Monday morning around 9 and got out in the river and did the swing bridge dance while we waited for the 10 opening. The bridge went to only opening on the hour starting in December. We usually have to swing around several times especially in the current as it’s hard to make the boat sit still. At least here there was lots of room and not many other boats.      It was a nice day with f...

 12/1- We were up and at em before dawn knew what was up. We had a reservation at Lady’s Island marina and the slip we were scheduled for could only be entered at slack tide because the current would be too strong to turn the boat sideways. Slack tide was at 11:30am and we had 30 miles to go hence the predawn departure. It was a lovely day as it was much warmer than the previous few. After a few twists and turns we finally got the current in our favor and we took off. Again this stretch of the ICW is very scenic. At one point today the dolphins were playing around the boat. They kept diving under the boat and bumping into the rudder. I just hope they didn’t take lessons from the orcas.     The slip we were assigned would be tight even without any current. Our new best friend Aaron along with our friends Mike and Ivy came to our rescue. Mike and Ivy live aboard their boat at the marina and they offered to move into the slip giving us the face dock which would be consi...