Mar 3-4-5, 2021 Winyah Bay, NC to St. Augustine, FL

Second Star is now in St Augustine Florida. This part of the story starts in Georgetown, South Carolina.  

Brent and Lois were busy with minor household (boathold?) chores while the morning rain fell.  A low pressure system passed through just an hour earlier, and on the back side of that low will be several days of settled weather with the right wind for moving south.  This is the first time we have seen this quality of weather.  

A plan began to hatch, but to make it work we must move quickly.  The good weather will be followed by a harsh noreaster that will slam the door closed for going south safely & comfortably.  We cannot get caught out in that.

To get started we need to get back in the ocean.  Going back the way we came in is a firm no as the waves put up by the low are currently slamming the Winyah Bay jetties and wrestling with the huge outgoing tide. We need another way.  We need a backdoor exit. 

After consulting with local fisherman the plan comes together quickly.  Second Star is off the dock just after lunch and moving into the ICW headed south.  Here the ICW through a very large marsh, the kind of marsh where one could get lost in the many navigable waterways leading off in various directions.  Maybe we will be back to explore one day, but right now we are looking for a very specific place:  Five Fathom Cut.  

We leave the assurance of dredged 12 feet deep ICW channels hoping to find deep enough water to slip through.  There are some thin spots but we also do indeed find five full fathoms in one spot in Five Fathom Cut. And dolphins.  We never tire of dolphins.

After a few twists in the channel we can smell the ocean and hear the waves breaking on the reef.  Five Fathom Cut will put us into the ocean in more protected waters just south of the reef near Cape Island Point.  This is what we want. Looking ahead we see the ocean swell but no huge breakers. There is reef on both port and starboard, and a clear channel down the center.

Sails are up!  The storm has left great sailing winds and it is a joy to see Second Star cutting twin ribbons of wake in the ocean again. We will cover half this journey's miles in the first 12 hours of what will be two nights over three calendar days at sea.

We settle into ocean sailing mode. One of us will be on watch every minute of the passage, which eill tske two nights over three calendar days.  We alternate turns at the helm and resting.  Meals are kept simple and we focus on getting enough rest to function well and handle what challenges come.

Every hour our position is charted with notations that track any changes in the weather or ship systems. There are routine checks of every part of the boat from top of the mast to the bilges looking to stay ahead of any problems.  

In the first half of our time at sea Second Star will cover well more than half the passage's miles making good use of perfect sailing conditions.  The weather follows the general trends of the forecast, but none of the five weather modeling systems we consult get the details right.  Still, the real weather is good enough to carry on.  The second half of the journey is in light winds with us intentionally slowing the boat to make a daylight entrance at Saint Augustine with a favorable tide.  

Our route will take Second Star well off shore and even slip along the edge of the gulf stream where the water temperature rises quickly.  The north running gulf stream current will slow our progress so we are careful not to get too far into the gulf stream.

The farther south we go the more frequently we need to steer around areas like this one.  Old vehicles have been sunk to create manmade habitats in ecological preserve areas. Old train & subway cars, navy ships, buses, pallet balls, tugboats are all serving a much higher calling than the junkyard.

Sunrise and sunset over the ocean can be pretty spectacular, and at night the stars are brilliant, the milky way in the background, and even a few shooting stars fall.

We timed our arrival to St Augustine perfectly to make best use of daylight & tide.  The inlet is known to be a bit tricky to line up on, so shouldn't be run in the dark. It's a beautiful city; the historic fort is on the right side of the photo.

A fun surprise was our friends Ed & Lynn (who split their time between  here and their home near us in Virginia), waving to us from thr Bridge of Lions  They snapped this photo as we waited for the bridge opening.

We'll spend a few days here restong and waiting for a good weather window to move to the islands.