Southbound ’17 – Travel Day 25: Amelia Island, Fl to St. Augustine, Fl

FROM: The Captain –

Conditions: Mostly sunny.  Winds from the north 10-15 mph.  

Distance traveled: 49.2 nautical miles

Time underway: 5 hours 33 minutes

Average Speed: 9.2 knots

Max Speed: 19 knots

Fuel used: 77 gallons

After a well-deserved good night’s sleep, we were treated to a 40-degree morning – and that’s a good thing as it was the warmest morning we’ve had in weeks.  We also weren’t rushing out because we had to wait for the tide to rise a bit so as not to plow our way out of the marina through the mud.  Our original plan was to cruise along the ICW to Marineland which had been recommended to us and is about 20 miles south of St Augustine.  We’ve stayed in St A before and it wasn’t pulling us back.  The marina right in town is also not a draw to us.  But because of our delayed departure and knowing there would be a lot of slow-going today I was concerned about arriving at Marineland at the end of the day on a falling tide – it’s right after a problem area on the waterway.  After a bit of morning research, I identified another marina in St A that looked good and had a spot for us so that was a bit of a relief.

With barely any “extra” water under OLOH we slowly made our way out of Amelia Island Yacht Basin’s narrow channel and back onto the ICW.  After passing through a few well-documented problem areas that required sharp focus we eased into the comfort of our first full day on Florida’s straight-forward waterway.  Something changes about the vibe of it here and you definitely feel like you’re in Florida, even if it’s only 40 degrees outside.

As expected we had a lot of slow-going today including a six-mile stretch of no-wake speeds.  After our day on the water yesterday, we were not at all bothered by the pace and comfortable ride.  And probably because of the wind and cold temps there were few boats on the ICW to contend with.

Pulling into Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor is an interesting experience when the current is ripping just outside of their entry channel – which it’s doing most of the time.  As you are abeam (sideways) to the current when you turn towards the marina the current tries to push you out of the narrow channel.  But when the bow of your boat gets to their breakwater it has the opposite effect of what you might expect…  the current at your bow stops abruptly but the current behind you continues to push your stern.  It’s easy to understand how this can really screw people up.  Fortunately they warned us that this would happen but it wasn’t what I had anticipated.  No problem but definitely a first for this specific situation.

Next stop – Daytona Beach.  See you out there…

Please be sure to subscribe to the blog on the top right of this page to get notified when updates are posted.  And please leave any comments or questions below – we love to hear from you & know that you’re along for the ride!  You can also follow us on Twitter at @MYOLOH and for plenty more pictures and video find us on Instagram.  And the M/Y OLOH Facebook Page is live so please like us & follow us there as well.