Outta (t)here

 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 got to Pine Island around 4 just in time for happy hour so we staved off the crew mutiny. This is another anchorage that is in the middle of a large marsh. At least this island is called a hammock because it actually has trees on it. The wind was still north so we tucked around the south side and were somewhat protected. This is the first fairly crowded anchorage we’ve been to in a while as the are now 6 boats here. Everyone was trying to get behind the island so we are all packed together. 

    I’m still trying to figure out the tides here. One station tells me high tide will be at 10:30 and another one tells me 8:30. The guide says to go by Palm Valley tide station which is 10 miles away but the St Augustine station is also 10 miles away and has high tide 2 hours earlier. Who knows?? I don’t think it will make any difference to us as we have only the 10 miles to do. We’ll see what happens when the tide flips the boat. Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer than today. 

Also I hope everyone survived the storm all the way up the coast. I know in Vermont they are still having some flooding issues. 

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