Trip Summary and Highlights

To properly end this story, we felt the need to provide a few statistics and highlights from our journey.  In the end, we learned a few things.

Statistics:

• ·      Departed home:  18 March 2013
• ·      Returned home:  3 July 2013
• ·      Nautical miles traveled: 1938  (statute miles:  2202)
• ·      Total days: 108
• ·      Days in Chesapeake Bay:  54
• ·      Days of weather delay:  23
• ·      Days of mechanical delay:  4
• ·      Total no. of stops:  46
• ·      Stops in Chesapeake Bay:  20, of which 5 were repeat visits
• ·      Weight loss:  Peter = 8 lbs., Lyn = 4 lbs.

Highlights of the trip:

• ·      Annapolis: sailboats racing to the finish line through the mooring field, historic downtown area, Naval Academy museum – model sailing ships
• ·      Chestertown: great crab cakes at the Lemon Tree restaurant, birthplace of Sultana – a full-scale replica of a 1698 British warship, historic district row houses.
• ·      Solomons: Calvert Marine Museum – part aquarium, part shipbuilding museum
• ·      Yorktown: the historic triangle of Yorktown, Williamsburg and Jamestown
• ·      Cape Charles: the watermen unloading their bushels of crabs direct from the boat to the seafood distributors’ trucks, old fashioned modes exemplified by hardware store social gathering area.
• ·      Tangier Island: everybody knows everybody, golf cart transportation, you can walk the whole island in 30 minutes.
• ·      Hampton: I-MAX theatre inside the Virginia Air and Space Center where we saw the latest Star Trek movie in 3-D.
• ·      St. Michaels: Historic town with great maritime museum and a nice anchorage in San Domingo Creek.
• ·      Seeing old friends Bill and Cheryl Mote, and sister Ann with niece Jenny.
• ·      Black bears swimming across bodies of water!
• ·      Wrightsville Beach – a great place to stop at anchor for a while.

What we learned from the trip:

• ·      The best way to lose weight is to take an extended cruise.  It is painless.
• ·      Kite is a very capable and seaworthy boat.  She is comfortable downwind in 25+ knot winds.
• ·      Chesapeake Bay harbors and towns welcome crusiers from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  We were a few weeks early and missed some attractions that were not yet open.
• ·      All the people we met were very nice.  Lots of free advice that we could really use, helpful attitudes of both other boaters and the staff at the marinas we patronized.  Reinforces my belief that most people are decent and want to be nice.
• ·      After 108 days confined to the small spaces of a boat with one other person, many couples might start to get on one another’s nerves.  In our case, it was quite the opposite – we grew closer together.  The shared experiences, shared decisions, meeting the challenges as a team - all built stronger bonds between us.

Day 108 – N 30° 8.792’ W 81° 41.956’ Fleming Island, FL – HOME!

It is uncanny how things seem to work themselves out.  We wanted to get home today, before dark.  We checked our log for the time it took us to get from our anchorage in the St. Johns River to Fernandina Beach in March as we were going north on this trip, and it was 4.5 hours.  And we checked the time it took us to get to the anchorage from downtown and it was 3 hours, and we know that it takes an additional 2 hours from downtown to our home in Fleming Island.  The tidal current in the St. Johns River is the deal maker/breaker.  If it was not flooding when we arrived, we had no chance to make the last 5 hours of the trip.  So Peter consulted his tidal current tables, and the flood would begin at 15:30 at our anchorage location in the St. Johns River, making it 20:30 (exactly the time of sunset) when we should arrive home.  Working the times backwards, meant that we should leave Fernandina Beach at 11:00 in order to arrive at the St. Johns River at 15:30.  So that is what we did.

We had strong southeast winds all day today, and they seemed to overpower the tidal current in all the rivers we were in.  Our boat speed rarely was over 5 knots while we plodded down the ICW at near low tide.  We had to be very vigilant because there are many areas where the depth is questionable, especially at low tide.  We avoided running aground, but in a few locations must have grazed the bottom, as the depth sounder was reading 4.5 feet.  With our slow progress, Peter feared that we would be late arriving at the St. Johns River, which might mean that we would stay at the Jax Municipal Marina overnight and finish the trip tomorrow morning.  So as we emerged into the St. Johns River, we were pleased to note that it was 15:45, only 15 minutes behind schedule.  We were confident we could make up the lost time by motor-sailing, as we were (finally!) able to take advantage of the strong southeast wind making our way west into the St. Johns River.  Sure enough, by the time we had motor-sailed the 3 miles to the anchorage location, we were only 10 minutes behind schedule.  As we continued up the river, we became aware that we would actually arrive downtown before 18:00, where we would have to wait for the Main Street Bridge, which would not open until 18:00 because of rush hour restrictions.  We waited 15 minutes, but that meant that we were still 30 minutes ahead of schedule and would likely arrive home by 20:00 instead of 20:30.

The Jax skyline as we approach Main Street Bridge

Leaving downtown, the river turns south-southeast toward Fleming Island, 10 miles away.  This meant that we could no longer motor-sail.  The strong 20 to 25 knot wind was kicking up 3-foot waves and was blowing right at us, but the tidal current was with us, so they neutralized each other and we motored at 5.5 to 6 knots to our destination, arriving at exactly 20:00 – HOME.

We’ll follow up with some statistics and afterthoughts later, but this journey is finished.

Day 107 – N 30° 40.201’ W 81° 28.159’ Fernandina Beach, FL

While at St. Simons Island, we celebrated our 44^th wedding anniversary with dinner at the Coastal Kitchens restaurant nearby the marina.  As we entered, we met Peggy and Barney Riley, the Catalina dealers that sold us Kite.  We have often met them at the Miami Boat Show and occasionally met them while cruising the local waters.  They joined us for a drink before dinner.  We were discussing our plans, and how a high tide was needed for transiting Jekyll Creek, and Peggy observed that it is better to do it at low tide because then you can see where the channel is (if it is not the channel, it is a mud flat visible only at low tide).  Peter thought that was a significant point and we decided to try out this idea.  There was nothing to lose, because high tide would be at 17:30, and low tide was at 11:30, so if we got stuck at low tide we only had to wait until the tide came in to float away.  On the other hand, if Peggy was right, we would be able to have time to make it to Fernandina Beach, 25 nautical miles closer to Jacksonville, and within one day of home.  Otherwise we would stay the night at Jekyll Harbor Marina, at the south end of Jekyll Creek; two days from home.

Cumberland Island from Cumberland River

You can tell from the title of this entry that Peggy was right.  It was easy to find the channel by staying in the middle between the mud flats on either side, and we never saw less than 6 feet of depth.  After that, we rounded Jekyll Island on the south and crossed St. Andrew Sound in 20 knots of southerly wind, but the water was surprisingly calm with waves under 2 feet, and we were able to motor-sail out to the buoy and tack back into the Cumberland River, continuing motor sailing the entire length of the Cumberland River.  With a favorable tidal current, most of the time we were doing 8 knots! 

At about 14:30 we heard a storm warning for an approaching storm with strong winds and heavy rain that would reach us around 15:30 to 16:00.  We were prepared for it when the winds started to increase, and we were motor-sailing at the time so we reefed down the jib to about ½ its full size and continued on.  The winds were almost 30 knots, and lasted for about 90 minutes, but we were in a more sheltered area than Sapelo Sound, so the seas only kicked up to about 2 feet and we were able to make 3 to 4 knots of headway until the wind subsided at about 17:30.  By this time we were crossing the St. Mary’s River, and 30 minutes later we had arrived at Fernandina Beach. 

Some of our welcoming committee

A welcoming committee of a half-dozen dolphins welcomed us as we entered the harbor.  We picked up a mooring for the night just as the rain started.  It rained for about 20 minutes, but we were below in Kite’s cozy, dry cabin and appreciated the cooling effect of the rain.

We’re ready for this journey to end.  It has been exciting and fun, frustrating at times, but now it is time to become landlubbers again.  It looks like we’ll make it home tomorrow.  We have made arrangements to dock Kite at Fleming Island Marina, the marina next door to our townhouse.  After the 4^th of July, Kite will be hauled out of the water and given a cleaning and fresh coat of anti-fouling paint below the waterline.  While that work is being performed by yard personnel, Lyn and I will polish and wax Kite’s topsides.  Then she will be re-launched and moved to a marina in the Ortega River in Jacksonville, ready for the more mundane existence of day-sailing in the river and occasional long weekend trips with our local friends.

Day 105 – N 31° 09.991’ W 81° 24.874’ St. Simon’s Island, GA

So, here we are once more in St. Simon’s Island, where we spent 5 days on the northbound leg of this cruise trapped by stormy weather.  I’m happy to report that we are not trapped by stormy weather.  Instead it is the tides that have stalled us here.  It is a bit of a long story, so I’ll start at the beginning.

8-foot tides in Georgia - low tide

After leaving Thunderbolt Marina in Savannah as planned, we motored along the ICW at our usual average speed of a little over 5 knots.  Hell’s Gate proved to be no challenge at near high tide (the tides are nearly 8 feet here in Georgia, as you can see in Lyn’s photo), and we planned this part of our trip to coincide with the rising tide in Hell’s Gate.  We were making good speed until we entered Sapelo Sound at around 15:00, and then everything changed.  Our radio, which normally beeps and provides weather alerts as soon as they are issued by the Weather Service, did not warn us of the front and associated high winds that we encountered at Sapelo Sound.  (We later discovered that we had inadvertently disabled the alert feature.)

Low tide - normally poles like this emerge from the water

As soon as we came around the bend in the last river leading into Sapelo Sound, the wind suddenly started increasing and we were getting over 35 knots of wind, directly in front of us.  Sapelo Sound is about 5 miles long, and when strong winds travel across a long fetch of water like that, they build up large, steep waves very quickly.  So as we started to cross Sapelo Sound, we began crashing into these 4 to 5 foot waves, plus the resistance of such high winds, and we soon found ourselves slowed down to around 1 knot maximum speed and unable to control the direction of the boat.  We quickly decided to find an alternative place to anchor.  It was certain that we would be unable to cross Sapelo Sound in such wind conditions.

While we were in Port Royal, we had discussed our return plans with Bill Mote, and he had suggested Thunderbolt Marina, and after that an anchorage in a small river called Wahoo River.  At that time I told him that I preferred the one in Doboy Sound, because it was 3 to 4 hours closer to Jekyll Island, and I wanted to catch the end of the rising tide as we passed through Jekyll Creek.  Lyn had noticed as we approached Sapelo Sound that we were passing Wahoo River, where Bill had recommended the anchorage.  So, as we encountered the stormy conditions of Sapelo Sound and decided to turn around, Lyn said that we were at Wahoo River, so why not seek shelter there?  The adage, “any port in a storm” comes to mind.  But in fact we found excellent shelter from this vicious storm there, plus great holding for our anchor.  We stood an anchor watch for several hours of the remaining daylight, and Kite’s position was unwaveringly the same.  By dusk, the front had passed and the winds abated to 10 to 15 knots with gust to about 20 knots.  We felt safe going to bed, the anchor having been tested in much stronger winds earlier. 

We decided against running the noisy generator so that we would be awakened by the sound of any strengthening of the winds during the night.  We didn’t get a lot of sleep that night because it was a little warm – around 80°F – and we were apprehensive about the strong wind returning.  We had decided to get up at 06:00 so that we could be leaving before 06:30, about 2 hours before low tide in Wahoo River, which Peter had noted on the way in would leave us about 6 feet of water depth to pass through as we exited.  We also realized that with the extra 20 miles to Jekyll Island, we would not be able to make it before high tide, and we would not risk passing through Jekyll Creek after high tide.  So we decided that we would have to settle for St. Simon’s Island, about 5 miles north of Jekyll Creek, and then choose our time to leave based on the tides.

Meanwhile, we have an appointment in Jacksonville on Monday afternoon, so we’ve decided to stay here in St. Simon’s Island until Tuesday, renting a car for the day on Monday to make our appointment in Jacksonville and return to Kite later in the day.  Then we’ll leave on Tuesday, weather permitting, so that we enter Jekyll Creek at 2 hours before high tide, which looks to be 15:30. We’ll leave here at 14:30 and plan to stay at Jekyll Harbor Marina , on the south end of Jekyll Creek, and then continue our return to Jacksonville on Wednesday.