ICW Mile 780: St. Augustine, Florida
Ship Graveyard
We arrived at St. Augustine today after two nerve-wracking days down the ICW from Cumberland Island. The weather has been unsettled so we decided to stay “inside”. Yesterday we timed our departure to traverse the route near low tide because we heard the bridges were “low” for 65 feet. We moved out of our anchorage at a fast clip as we were going with the tide, but after about an hour we were fighting the current and moving at a snail’s pace.
Passing Fernandina Beach we started noticing all the damage from hurricane Matthew. The pic above shows what looked like a relatively new boat wreck, we thought from the hurricane. In the foreground are masts from a much older wreck sticking out of the water. Apparently this is where many boats go to die.
Most of the docks along the 65-mile stretch between Cumberland and St. Augustine were trashed. There were several large but empty marinas along the way. But this was not our main problem. The tide in this area is extreme and so are the currents.
As I mentioned, we spent the entire day yesterday moving at low tide and we ran into problems with shallow water. As sunset was approaching, we were within ten minutes of our dock when a motorboat passed us. Shelly politely steered to the right to give them room but their wake knocked us into the shallows and we grounded out. We were stuck! A primary rule on the ICW: Never, never, never move over for someone to pass, let them go around you. We knew that but being good guys we were trying to be nice…
We knew the tide would lift us off at some point, so we waited. I had almost no patience after the long day and being so close to our endpoint, but there was nothing to be done. After about 30 minutes Shelly noticed that our bow had moved and maybe we could back out of the mud. We tried it and it worked! Shelly the genius!
We grounded out two more times just after that but were able to immediately pull ourselves off. We finally got to the free dock outside Jacksonville and there was one tight space left. Fortunately for us there were about five people there to help get us into place, we couldn’t have squeezed onto the dock otherwise. One of the great things about the cruising community, lots of help from those who have been in the same situation as you.
We planned to go at high tide today, and though passing under no less than 7 bridges we had zero problems with our mast or with shallow water. The current was of a challenge, but much easier overall than the day before. Bottom line, sailing in the ocean is much better for Good Karma!
We are hanging out here for a week to rest and visit friends. More later!
Summer-Like Clouds Near St. Augustine