Day 2 - St Augustine Florida
Magic Friday
Phil, Di and Annelise
Sun 12 Feb 2017 18:18
After brief spell motoring during the night (no wind) - a welcome sunrise brought fresh winds for the south-west - perfect for our course to St Augustine. Mini-Magic still faithfully following us as we warmed up in the clear blue skies.....that was until we were just short of the safe water bouy marking the entrance - the sun disappeared, the marker bouy disappeared and then the two shrimpers less than 500m away also disappeared - a morning mist rolling off the land engulfed us all! Out came the "blow-into" fog horn. All eyes on deck and a careful watch on the AIS!
Creeping slowly along, the marker bouy eventually came into sight - along with a couple of other small fishing boats! No hope to attempt an entrance across a tricky shallow area of shifting shoals until we had a clear vision. Circling round the maker bouy like planes stacked over Heathrow we waited for the mist to clear. A call to the marina confirmed the red bouys were in place and that they expected the mist to lift around 09:30-10:00 - just on high tide - which is what we needed to get in - and we had been so careful to plan our arrival time for!
Patience prevailed - at 09:40 a.m. patches of clear water appeared and then all was revealed - a green and red bouy marking the start of the passage through the shoals, three further red bouys marking the northern limit and the beach shoreline - off we went. No problems, plenty of water (2m under the keel) - we were in. Reserved mooring bouy picked up just off the downtown sidewalk and south of the fort. A pleasant afternoon spent resting on deck and watching all the activity in the bay - including several cannon shots from the fort for the tourist groups!
As the sun set, the transom bbq was lit and card games played (10 clues) while chops cooked on the coals. Perfect!
Phil and Di
