Distance: 305 nm /Time: 50 hrs
Woke up to a very cold (38 degrees) but clear day with winds as forecast out of the NW. The forecast still looked good for offshore, with the winds initially 8-10 knots out of the NW, then dying down later in the day, before picking up again to 12-15 knots out of the west the next day. Maximum seas were forecast to be 4′ with decent periods. So, bundling up in the coldest clothes I had, I weighed anchor right at daybreak and headed south out the Cape Fear Inlet.
The hour and a half trip from the anchorage to offshore was not as cold as I expected since the sun was out and the wind was from behind. It was uneventful except when being passed by a big container ship just as I was exciting the inlet. That was exciting. His wake gave me a pretty good roll. I was so close at one point that I thought about trying to lasso him to get a free ride south, but he ended up turning north, so it was a good thing I didn’t! 😉
After getting offshore, I set my course directly for the St. John’s Inlet at Jacksonville, 280 miles away. The forecast turned out to be fairly accurate, and I did a combination of straight motoring, motor sailing, and sailing the first day. Lot of changes, lots of work. When sunset came around, I decided to just strike the sails and motor through the night as I needed rest.
I was able to get the Garmin chartplotter’s built-in wifi to work, so I could see the radar on one app on my iPad, while using Navionics to track my navigation on another app. I set this by my bunk so that at any given moment I could glance up, make sure we were on course, determine our speed, and see if there were any radar targets. Regardless, I would get up every 30 minutes, take a trip up top to look around, and tweak the radar to make sure the settings were optimal. Then back in the bunk with timer set for another 30 minutes.
The second day was similar to the first but warmer (about 50 degrees). The winds were still forecast to increase to 12-15 out of the west around sunset, but they didn’t actually pick up until about 11 pm. They were perfect for sailing, so I decided to just set the Genoa and mizzen and killed the engine to see what I would get. I ended up with 7-8 knots which was great! Until I realized in the middle of the night that we were actually going too fast! I needed to get to the St. John’s Inlet no earlier than 6 am, but at our present speed, we’d arrive on an outgoing tide. Not only would that put the winds and the current against me when trying to get in, but the current in the St. John’s is very strong, and I would be only able to make a few knots into it. So, after some calculations, around 4 am I decided to strike sail again and motor at 5.5 knots the last couple of hours to the inlet. The winds were forecast to pick up as the night progressed, and I didn’t want to have to try to take the sails down as I approached the inlet with 4′ seas off the nose, and likely with some ship traffic to deal with. So, I did it early.
Arrival was as predicted and right on time. Thankfully, the waves in the inlet were negligible and the current slack when I entered, still before daybreak. But, the flood tide came soon after, which was perfect, allowing me to pick up a following current as the sun rose, and I ended up riding the flood tide the remaining 22 miles, at times seeing almost 8 knots. In fact, that 22 miles up the St. Johns took me only three hours and 10 minutes!
It was a pretty industrial view most of the way up the St. Johns with nothing really pretty or interesting to look at. At least until the end when arriving in downtown Jacksonville; I was surprised during my stay how pretty Jacksonville was and how much I liked it.
The anchorage was located on the inside of a bend of the St. Johns, just past an automobile drawbridge and a train drawbridge. There were already three boats there, but it was another large anchorage, so I picked a spot and dropped the hook, letting out plenty of scope since the current was strong here, and I didn’t know how long I would be staying.
I was extremely happy to have made such good time offshore and then up the river. I had successfully bypassed the dreaded ICW of SC and GA, and was back in the land of sunshine where the temperatures seemed to be at least 10 degrees warmer than it had been in North Carolina. It was great to see palm trees again!
By 9:30 am, I was back in my bunk catching up on some much-needed sleep!