Day 9 - Hilton Head, SC to St. Augustine, FL

We left Hilton Head hoping for the best with the weather and hoping to make it to Jacksonville or even St Augustine.  Mike checked the marine forecast just to make sure the Atlantic hadn't gotten better, Bob would prefer to go outside, but it still was not looking good out there.

Bob stayed at the helm all morning, making great time through Georgia.  There isn't much there to see along the ICW, just a lot of swamps and a few nice houses that pop up out of no where.  It was just sprinkling a little when we stopped for fuel at 9:30.  I had called a lot of different marina's on fuel prices and found that the best one was about a mile off the ICW.  Our Captain was not happy, but the prices just kept going up the further we went.

Were we stopped, it was a little rustic to say the least.  Bob started questioning the fuel we were putting in, wondering if it was all full of water and/or algae.  I was just hoping and praying it was good, because after going up to pay, it was the cheapest, but he also charged 3% for credit card.  Ugh,  there goes our savings. Bob did request a fuel sample when Mike was almost done filling both tanks, he didn't say anything, so I took that as a good sign.

We took on 200 gallons at $2.93 and then we were off and back on the ICW heading to Florida.  The weather continued to be good.  Just a few little showers and then a little sun.  At 12:30 Mike (aka Gilligan) took over at the helm, and told Bob he would try and make good time!  Bob keeps teasing him that he is a slow poke.

The three of us did well navigating, we only had one little hiccup going through a section on the Crooked River.  All of a sudden we were loosing depth and we were at a split.  We came to a stop and all of a sudden I could see the missing marker laying on top of the water.  We got back in the channel and off we went.  Soon we were heading right at a military submarine.  Very cool, but there were a few patrol boats sitting in front, so we thought it best to keep moving and not stop for photo's.

At round 3:30 we were passing Jacksonville, so we were off to St Augustine.  It is only 30 miles more, but as we rounded the corner, we realized it was going to be a slow 30 miles.  Florida unlike Georgia, has a lot of houses, very nice houses built on the ICW.  Of course, after we were going slow for a little bit, the captain came up to see what the problem was. 

We had some good laughs at Mike's expense, but about 10 miles further we were able to get back up on plain and soon we were in St. Augustine.  I called around to a few marina's and Bob decided on Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor.  It was very nice, with a few mega yachts and a ton of large fishing boats.  The marina was open till 7:00, so we were able to fuel up tonight instead of having to find it tomorrow. 

As Mike was ready to hand the helm back over to Bob for docking, Bob thought this would be a good time for Mike to dock the boat for the first time.  Rick and I handled the fenders and lines, and Mike took a deep breath.  He did awesome, got it right up to the dock without a scratch!

Because we were staying for just one night and it was 5:30, we were able to stay right there for the night.

We were very happy that the saying was true about red sky at night.  It was a good day and tomorrow looks even better.  It looks like we will need to stay on the inside again tomorrow, the waves are expected to build to 7 or 8'.  We also will be loosing Rick tomorrow.  He get's off in Melbourne, so we are going to a nice dinner tonight as a send off.  He will be missed.

We went a total of 216 miles today, so far on the trip we have gone 1613 miles.  When we fueled up we took another 202 gallons.

In the morning we will head to Melbourne and then as far as we can before dark.  We are thinking that we will make it to Palm City tomorrow afternoon.