Charleston To Points South

Once again, I am far behind on the blog post thing and once again I apologize.

The news seems to pile up and then it's forgotten. I'll go back to the Charleston, S.C., to Fernandina Beach, Fl. passage:

Our first offshore catch!

As seems to be our want, we had a pretty good first day of sailing. Downwind with fairly moderate seas and winds -- we were doing about 6 knots. Noi threw in the trolling line -- an exercise that has a tinge of futility about it aboard Symbiosis. However, several hours later, we heard the distinctive whirr of "fish on" and I went to reel it in. Inexperienced offshore fishermen (and women) often lose the catch at this point, and I fully expected to be one of them. The tension on the reel wasn't quite right either, and the line was getting bunched up on the spool as I tried to bring it in. Much to our surprise and delight, we did manage to land a tuna (later identified as a Black Fin). Sushi! Noi, who had been a bit sea sick, revived and filleted the catch. Morgan and I ate pieces with soy sauce and wasabi and Noi saved the rest for cooking later.

sashimi.

By the way, thanks to Lisa Borre and David Barker for the reel and lure that made the catch!

Toward the afternoon of the day of the big catch, the wind and waves started to pick up. The bad news was that it was fairly miserable for several hours -- the good news is that the following sea and 30-knot gusts pushed us along like a freight train. We made the passage in 24 hours, instead of the 30 we had anticipated.

But it was a rough trip for us all -- especially Noi. I had been watching the weather and hoping to have a relatively easy passage, but the forecast was a bit off for that second day -- it had been calling for 20 knots and seas of 3-4 feet. Not too bad. However, it turned out more like 25-30 knots and seas of 5-7 feet (and short period, meaning the waves are close together). Those are the sort of conditions that are decidedly unpleasant.

Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island is an interesting, touristy place and we enjoyed a few days there, staying at Amelia Island Yacht Basin. Not nearly as nice as our arrangement in Charleson, but cosy for a few days.

I hope I am not deceiving myself (or jinxing something) as a I observe a positive trend -- we seem to be breaking fewer big things offshore. Ever since leaving Magothy Marina on Oct. 20, our journey has been one extended shakedown cruise. One seemly minor, but annoying breakage along the way has been the Dyneema lifelines. I chose Dyneema (instead of stainless steel) at the suggestion of a salesman whose record on such things I'd learned to trust over the years. Unfortunately, the (stretchy) Dyneema has proven totally unsuitable for said application. Despite locking turnbuckles and even adding Loctite to them, three have spun out and gone overboard -- at nearly $50 a pop. I have been looking for a cheap replacement for the turnbuckles, but most of the hardware stores we encounter are not very well stocked.

St. Augustine from the mooring field.

Anyway, departing Fernandina Beach, we went "inside" (i.e., the ICW) to St. Augustine, a lovely little city with a lot of history. We picked up a mooring run by the municipal marina there (complete with free water taxi), just south of the "Bridge of Lions." The town, the oldest continually occupied in the continental U.S., is quaint and touristy. Castillo de San Marcos, a 16th-Century Spanish fort that stands guard over the inlet is quite interesting.

Among other things, we met Heather at Mary's Harborview Cafe (great breakfast!). Heather is the sister-in-law of Pat & Bruce Blair, our longtime Magothy Marina pals. It's a small world!

With Heather at Mary's Harborview Cafe.

Unfortunately, we could only stay two nights as a big sailing rally had all the slips and moorings taken. We could have anchored out for another day or two but the current is fierce and rowing our dingy through it is not appealing. You're probably wondering why we don't have an outboard. Good question. I weighed the pros and cons, the expense, etc., and decided against it. I consider myself an expert rower, but maybe it wasn't such a wise decision. On the other hand, at St. Augustine, we witnessed an outboard fail (as they are known to do from time to time) and a couple desperately trying to row. They almost didn't make it. So, my theory is that if you can't row it, you shouldn't try it. That, and the current is supposed to get better farther south. We hope. Otherwise, we are going to be spending some money on an outboard.

But, I digress ...

We reluctantly left St. Augustine, but didn't really feel like doing a full-day on the Intercoastal. We were intrigued by a place called Marineland about 20 miles downrange. There didn't look to be much there, but the marina rates were cheap, so what the hell.

So, here we are in Marineland. There are actually a few nice things about the place. We took a guided kayak tour of the estuary here -- a national park that spans tens of thousands of acres. And, today we are going to a dolphin research facility. Also, this place apparently served as the set for Revenge of the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1955), so it's got that going for it!