Florida, Passage – Fort Pierce to Jacksonville

We are trying to get up to Jacksonville, Florida before the hurricane season begins.  With the passage of hurricane Arthur, I think we are running a bit late!

But the Bahamas, especially the Abacos, were so lovely it was hard to move on.

As a result we are running behind many other boats that have made their way a lot further north and out of the ‘usual’ track of hurricanes.  I say usual, but this is based on statistical data.  New York is considered well north of the hurricane belt and it got a ‘direct hit’ two years ago.  Remarkably, there were no hurricanes last year! This year we have already had one early in the season.  Hurricane Arthur decided to head very north and hit Canada of all places.

So you make your choices where to go for the stormy season and cross your fingers.  We decided that we would aim for Jacksonville, Florida.  We discussed our reasoning before we left the Abacos, and you can check back on that blog if you missed it.

We still have to sail north to get there and, I have to admit, I question our choice when I see friends in Grenada having a great time on hashes, playing volley ball and doing yoga together.  (See Banyan’s link) But staying north for the season puts us in a good position to visit some more of the Bahamas, Cuba and then head to the western Caribbean next season.

So north we need to go, but again we confront a dilemma.  Do we motor up the protected inland waterways of the ICW, as many of our friends have (see link to Wanderingstar).  Or do we use the northerly flow of the Gulf Stream to sail up the Florida east coast.   We decided to take the cheaper and faster route on the outside.  Save the ICW for the return trip south next season.

We sailed out of the Fort Pierce Inlet and east, to pick up the Gulf Stream.  As soon as we felt the boat being swept north, we turned due north up the coast of Florida.  Wrapped in the Gulf Streams strong current we were able to make 6-7 knots in light winds.

As dusk approached we could see a storm front slowly edging its way towards us.  We knew it was probably going to bring some winds, but the fact a Brown Booby insisted on using our boat for a perch, despite my insistence several times he move on, foretold strong winds.

As thunder and lightning approached we dropped the main sail and got ready to adjust the furling fore sail based on the gust strengths.

The storm passed in a couple of hours.  The sea state settled quickly and we were smoothly running north again in the Gulf Stream.  We lost our weary passenger, but he did leave us a fishy smelling present on the coach roof.  We also missed any view of the fireworks ashore.  At least we had the lighting show as the storm slowly receded away.

The dawn brought a day of easy sailing on flat calm seas.  I never imagined that the Atlantic ocean could be so flat.  Apparently this is not uncommon for this time of year.  Calm settled weather broken up by the occasional summer storm or hurricane.

We had little wind, barely enough to keep steerage, but we drifted along north at 4-5 knots anyway.  Unfortunately, this type of sailing is rubbish for fishing.  As the boat was moving at the speed of the current the lures sat limp in the water.  Instead of being teasing, wiggling flashes of colour they were boring hunks of plastic with hooks.

But, like clock work, with the approaching dusk a storm front moved in from the coast again.  Still running down wind, we dropped the main and got ready for some wind and rain.

This evenings storm brought a lot of rain, thunder and lightning.  I do not like sailing with all that noise and the ‘light show’, but once you are in a thunder storm…well there really is not much you can do about it.  I cowered down below as the humans alternated getting very, very wet.  With ‘horizontal’ winds even the cockpit canopy offers very little shelter. We have side panels, but in the warm tropics, they are not worth the effort.  It is just easier to put on a rain jacket until it passes.

Like most of these evening storms, it passed in a few hours, and the sea state settled before early morning leaving us again with very light winds.

Despite the light winds we made it to the mouth of the St.Johns River by dawn.  It was quite a sight to see the shrimping fleet all out working the banks.  Later we tried this amazing local caught delicacy.

One of the reasons all the shrimpers were out here was the river was emptying into the sea.  This meant we had arrived when the tide was dropping and we would have an adverse current against us.  We could hang out dodging the shrimp fleet or head into the river.  We decided to head in and take it slowly.  It the current was really bad we could anchor up inside and wait it out.

 

 

This river seemed to run forever, but we knew we were approaching Jacksonville when we started to see bridges coming.

Now do not laugh, but not since the humans bought the boat have they taken her under any bridges.  Complete novelty to me, because I was not with them when they originally purchased Spirit of Argo in Jacksonville, Florida and sailed her back to England 12 years ago.

Naturally I was a bit nervous.  First we had some power lines to get under before the first bridge.   That went OK, as they looked well above the top of the mast.

 

 

Once you are past the Main Street Bridge you are in the heart of down town Jacksonville.  To attract visitors to the city centre the council have built a long floating pontoon all along the river front lined with shops, cafes and restaurants.  You can tie up here free and use it as a base to explore the city for up to 3 days.  We asked nicely and got to stay for 4 days.

It is the first time we have tied the boat up to a dock in 11/2 years.  We have been living on the hook until now.

Docking at Jacksonville Landing is cool, but you do feel a little like a fish in a fish bowl and every night the skys fill with returning birds.

Even so we found the dock here a great place for exploring further and checking out places to moor the boat for the season.