Our last long journey home

We left the Dry Tortugas and started making our way north to Savannah, Georgia. Not knowing how long we would go without stopping, I prepped all the food for a passage. It is very difficult to cook when we are underway, especially if it is wavy. Also, when we are on a watch schedule we don’t all eat at the same time. We will usually have a dinner together, but the rest of the day everyone grazes depending on where they are with naps, hunger, and seasickness. Generally we keep out a basket of free-for-all snacks. It usually has a combination of crackers, nuts, trail mix, granola bars. It is on the salon table to it is easy to access without going downstairs in rocky seas.

We also have applesauce, apples, ginger ale, and canned fruit in the fridge. In addition I will frequently make some sort of combination of tuna salad, chicken salad, or bean salad to be eaten with crackers, triscuits, or tortillas.

I will also generally prep some meals. For example one night we knew we wanted to have spaghetti. It is very difficult to boil water to make the pasta, the pot wants to slide all around and someone has to stand there and hold it. Therefore I make as much as possible ahead of time so all it needs is a quick reheat. That and some fresh baked bread and we are ready to go.

The first night of our leg we sailed almost 36 hours from the Dry Tortugas to Biscayne Bay in Miami. While we were en route I was able to contact Customs and Border Protection using their phone app and officially check in to the United States.

After resting and letting a storm pass we then went back out into the ocean from Miami to Fort Pierce. We were able once again to sail offshore, then tuck in to the inlet and anchor while another northern front passed. We only anchored for a few hours. Kim dropped anchor at 3:30 and Aislin and I were up raising the anchor by 6:30. Our anchored neighbors probably thought we had lost our minds.

The next morning we decided to continue our journey northward, but due to yet another northern front we motored up the ICW. Here is an example of a weather forecast. Red is higher winds. As you can see they are coming from the north. Not only would we be having to tack back and forth, zig-zagging our way up north against the wind, but also the wind is going against a northern current which causes large waves and makes for a rocky ride.

Fortunately for us we have the option to motor up the ICW.

Advantage: Protection from wind and waves. Occasional internet connection so kids can do school underway. No seasickness. Can cook, clean, and even do projects while underway.

Disadvantage: It is slow–we only motor at about 5-6 knots. There are dolphins, but other than that, mile after mile after mile of marsh. Unlike offshore passages where the helms person is able to do a lot with the autopilot and occasional 360 checks, when we are in the ICW the helms person’s job is more like driving a car. He/she has to be very involved watching for traffic, staying in narrow lanes, and managing bridges. Also when we do the ICW we anchor every night. Obviously offshore we continue going all night, but it is more difficult in the ICW to follow the markers and not run aground. While it is nice for sleeping, it makes the trip that much longer.

In this case, we needed protection from the weather so we motored from Fort Pierce all the way up to Saint Augustine.

We left Saint Augustine and returned to the ocean. We had planned to go for 28 hours or so to Savannah. However, the wind and waves were much higher than predicted. We were sailing straight into the wind. We spent all day zigzagging our way from St Augustine to the St John’s Inlet and by midnight were able to anchor in Jacksonville. In a car this trip takes less than an hour. For us it was about 14 hours. Then next morning we got up and decided even though I really really don’t like the ICW in Georgia, I did not want to go back out there in that mess.

Florida ICW is boring, Georgia is worse. Instead of being a relatively straight shot, the ICW serpentines through the marsh. The tides are 6-8 feet in Georgia (only 1-2 in Florida), meaning that the current is stronger (good if going with you, terrible if you are going against it). According to official sources, the Federal project depth for the Georgia portion of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from the Savannah River at the (South Carolina/Georgia State Line) to St. Marys River at the (Georgia / Florida State Line) is 12 feet. The actual depths in the channels may vary due to shoaling. Our boat has a draft of 4.5 feet yet we have morning wagers for how many times we will run aground that day.

And yes, we ran aground. Right in the middle of the channel. Fortunately it is soft mud and so it doesn’t cause any damage to the bottom of the boat, it is just aggravating. We actually ran aground twice. The wind and current broke us free once and pushed us to the west side of the channel and we were floating, then when we tried to return to the middle of the channel we ran aground again— thus Aislin won the bet that day.

We called SeaTow and the captain came out and pulled us off the shoal.

Fortunately we are members and so the service was free. The Seatow guy was able to pull us to deep water in about 10 minutes. I did receive an invoice however. If we were not members it would have cost us $300 hour at 1.5 hours (counts entire travel time to and from) + $15/foot x 43 feet of boat. In total it was $1100. Wow!!! If we weren’t members we would have just sat there a few hours and waited for the tide to rise.

We did have some excitement crossing Cumberland Sound at Saint Mary’s. As we pulled into the sound I noticed 5 Coast Guard boats running around. They hailed each of us one by one on the radio. The Coastie I spoke with on the radio was really nice. He just asked us our destination and then diverted us. But it was a little disconcerting to see another guy manning the machine gun turret on the bow. I’m not sure what they thought our catamaran at 5 knots would do against Navy warships and a nuclear submarine, but they were ready just in case. We were corralled with 5 other boats at the west end of the sound towards the St Mary’s river while the parade of Coast Guard and Navy boats escorted a submarine out to sea.

Once the parade of ships went by we were then free to continue on our way. We made our way through the Georgia marshes to further incident.

In total our trip from Dry Tortugas to Thunderbolt, GA took us 10 days with stops in Miami, Fort Pierce, Melbourne, New Smyrna Beach, Saint Augustine, Jacksonville, plus two anchorages in random Georgia marshes, but we finally made it.