Leaving Florida

April 19th We left the mooring at St. Augustine saying goodbye to one of our favorite stops. Traveling with Release, they pulled off the waterway in Jacksonville Beach to pick up a new anchor. We attempted to anchor that afternnon by the railroad bridge outside of Jacksonville Beach, but Snow Goose didn't want to catch and it was close quarters. We headed down the ICW along with Release in search of better anchorage. Forgetting it was a moon tide which drops low tide by about 18 inches lower than normal, the boats started to experience low water. After bouncing over numerous shoals, Snow Goose managed to make it through. The Release who draws 6 ft (we draw 5 ft) was not that lucky and had to sit on bottom until the tide came in. We anchored just below them in nice 15 ft of water to watch Release. Beyond our anchorage was a yawl sitting on bottom, although he had poorly navigated. The tide came in to Release in a couple of hours and they were freed to anchor just beyond us.

April 20th We traveled on to our last stop in Florida and took a mooring off Amelia Island in Fernandina Beach. It was a short sail from our previous day and so we had all afternoon to enjoy Amelia Island.

April 21st Again we did a very short cruise to Cumberland Island in Georgia. We anchored off the island with the dolphins playing all around us and spent the afternoon touring the island, playing on the beautiful beach and watching the wild horses. We saw the Georgia 30 to 50 lbs. deer and Skipper had a wonderful time chasing turkeys.

April 22nd We decided to take a break from the shallow waters through George, so we left Cumberland Island and had an enjoyable sail outside. We had 10 to 15 knot winds, beautiful sunshine, trailing seas and managed to tuck away another 50 miles. We came back in at Doboy Sound, Georgia and dropped anchor about 5 miles into the inlet.

April 23rd Motored out of Doboy with the sails flying heading for St Catherine's inlet. Another beautiful day with light sailing winds. Anchored just inside St. Catherine's across from a busy beach for small boaters. Prepared Easter eve dinner shared with Release.

April 24th Calm winds and beautiful sunshine. We flew the main sail. We have been having problems with navigation system. We suspect it might be the batteries. We anchored in Broad Creek off Hilton Head where sailors were celebrating Easter. Skipper, Ken and I went in for a dog walk and purchased ice. After doing some investigating, we have decided to purchase new batteries.

April 25th We made some phone calls this AM and ordered new batteries from West Marine. They will bring them down to the dock here at Palmetto Bay Marina. Bill cleaned out the locker, pulled out the old batteries to make room for two additional larger batteries throwing out more stuff and cleaning up more exhaust leak soot. Anyway, Hilton Head is a nice place to be stuck for the day, and we should be all set to head North tomorrow. We need to find a place to settle in for the Wednesday and Thursday's front with high winds.

April 26th We are in Beaufort in a hurricane hole tied up at a private dock. Long story short, Snow Goose did not want to hold at anchor. The first night I woke up to look out the V berth port only to find that we were snuggled up to another anchored unmanned boat. This was at one o'clock am. At 2:30 pm freed finally from the anchor tangle, we again tried to anchor. It was a no go two more times; Finally, at 5 am we rafted to Release. We waited for the tide wind and current to take another direction in the morning and anchored again. By 2 pm we started drifting and within seconds were alongside another abandoned boat tangled in their mooring line. Once freed from there, we headed for a dock very kindly offered to us by a resident of the river. The storm system bringing wind and rain/thunderstorm has in fact hung around for two days. Hopefully tomorrow, Friday, April 29th, we will be heading north again on our way toward Charleston. We have never had anchoring problems before, and I hope we never have them again like this. It was a combination of tide and wind setting and resetting our anchor. Anyway, another adventure I do not care to repeat.

April 29th We said goodbye to the Montreal friends who loaned us a dock. We started out up the ICW again from Beaufort and did the 40 plus miles to Steamboat Creek. We rafted with Release in the anchorage and had a pan of nachos and rum together. 7:30 AM we pulled anchor and headed for Charleston and beyond. The sailing was beautiful both days. We did a top speed of 8.1 knots along the way although we had to wait one and one half hours for bridges. We ended up doing 10 hours, going beyond Charleston, with another 40 miles to go tomorrow to get to Georgetown. We will go into a marina in Georgetown and stay overnight. We are again rafted to Release tonight -- it is so fun to be with our friends and Skipper. We connected our chart plotter directly to the battery and all is now fine. 

April 30th  We had a slow day today against the tide the whole way.  We pulled the head sail in and out all day trying to get some help with power.  We FINALLY spotted allegators--many of them!!! And also two bald eagles.  We are in a marina tonight in Georgetown SC.  The shower was wonderful!  We needed fuel and water.  Tomorrow we are off again.