{"id":956,"date":"2016-12-07T15:50:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T15:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/?p=956"},"modified":"2016-12-07T15:57:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T15:57:00","slug":"oh-what-a-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/?p=956","title":{"rendered":"Oh, what a night…."},"content":{"rendered":"

2 -3 December 2016 – Brunswick, Georgia – St. Augustine, Florida<\/p>\n

We were starting to think we should plan Christmas holidays in Georgia.\u00a0 Looking at the upcoming weather forecasts we decided if we don\u2019t leave today we\u2019ll be here for probably another week.<\/p>\n

There was some discrepancy regarding today\u2019s forecast.\u00a0 We were hoping the more mild wind predictions would prove to be the reality.\u00a0 One forecast predicted 10 knot winds with gusts to 15, while another predicted 10-15 with gusts to 20 and seas up to 6\u2019 or a bit more.<\/p>\n

We left the Brunswick Landing Marina around 1430 wanting to make it through St. Simon\u2019s Inlet into the open ocean before sunset and hoping to reach the sea buoy at St. Augustine, Florida no earlier than 7am with first light.\u00a0 We had never navigated St. Augustine Inlet before.\u00a0 The buoys are not lit and we definitely didn\u2019t want to even attempt it in the dark.<\/p>\n

\"p1030150\"As we backtracked through St. Simon\u2019s Inlet, we kept our eyes open for dolphins.\u00a0 Playful dolphin sightings have proven to be good harbingers for comfortable off shore passages. But alas, today there were no sightings.\u00a0 As the sun was setting\u00a0 we did see a turtle swim by, and hoped that would work as well.<\/p>\n

The evening started quietly with calm waters and the wind directly behind us.\u00a0 Knowing we needed to take it slow and average somewhere near 5 knots per hour we didn\u2019t raise the sails so we could better control our speed.\u00a0 With the wind direction straight behind us, we would also have had to be careful not to jibe if the sails were up.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long after though that the wind piped up and so did the seas.\u00a0 By midnight the boat was rolling quite a bit and we decided the more pessimistic forecast is proving itself to be.\u00a0 With the motion, it was hard to sleep, and neither of us really felt like eating very much.<\/p>\n

Even with holding back the RPMs on the engine, we were making faster time than we wanted, and Bob changed our course to add some miles to the passage and go further out to sea so we wouldn\u2019t arrive at the sea buoy too early.\u00a0 This change in direction meant the 6 foot waves were now coming across our beam (side of the boat) which made for even more uncomfortable motion.\u00a0 The boat was rolling from side to side, and you had to hang on to something to keep your balance or be able to move about.<\/p>\n

They were short choppy waves with a\u00a0period of no more than 4 – 5 seconds between just made for an overall uncomfortable night with very little sleep. \u00a0Neither of us were having fun.<\/p>\n

Even with the altered course we arrived before the sun, and so to waste more time waiting for the light Bob steered the boat directly into waves which would also get us into a better approach position but also continued our discomfort.\u00a0 Pitching into 6 – 8 foot choppy waves with a period of no more than 4-5 seconds, made for a hobby horse motion, which at a slow speed of 1 knot was probably better than having them powering through them or taking them on the beam.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the motion finally got to Christina and she did everything she could to just hang on and not \u201close her cookies\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"p1030153\"The sun finally started to make its appearance and we found our way to the sea buoy and found the channel markers, watching the path the outbound powerboats were taking. The waves were still pounding us, but now from the starboard side.\u00a0 Christina was recovering and actually able to help navigate. \u00a0\"p1030154\"<\/p>\n

By 0800 we approached the north St. Augustine mooring field, radioed the dock master to get our assigned ball, and tied up without incident.<\/p>\n

As Bob reached for a beer (0800 means nothing when you have been up all night and have no where to go but bed in the morning) Christina called out for one too.\u00a0 Finding herself hungry from not eating much for the past 17 hours, she pulled out the donuts that were meant to be our pre-dawn treat, and proceeded to discover beer and donuts make an awesome combination for an after passage breakfast.<\/p>\n

\"p1030155\"It seems like overtime we are in St. Augustine there is a parade.\u00a0 Today we were able to enjoy the Christmas parade from our mooring. \u00a0\"p1030156\"<\/p>\n

We ultimately did not take that planned nap, but instead went to town using the free water taxi to find a place for lunch – enjoying some great creole and etouffee at Harry\u2019s.\u00a0 The historic town of St. Augustine is definitely worth seeing and exploring more, but not today.\u00a0 We were back on the boat by1400 (2pm) and asleep a few hours later for a nice long quiet night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 -3 December 2016 – Brunswick, Georgia – St. Augustine, Florida We were starting to think we should plan Christmas holidays in Georgia.\u00a0 Looking at the upcoming weather forecasts we decided if we don\u2019t leave today we\u2019ll be here for probably another week. There was some discrepancy regarding today\u2019s forecast.\u00a0 We were hoping the more … Continue reading Oh, what a night….<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=956"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":965,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions\/965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}