2024 Heading South

The offshore distance from Lake Worth to Biscayne Bay is approximately 70 miles. This meant that even departing at 6:00 am, we would likely arrive just as the sun was setting. We pulled anchor at 6:00 am and maintained a speed of around 6 knots, arriving just outside Noname Harbor at sunset. While this anchorage is typically exposed, the wind had dropped to less than 5 knots, and with minimal wave action, we enjoyed a peaceful night at anchor. 11/27 70 nmiles

                                                                     After a night in Fort Pierce, we set off early to cover the 60 miles to Lake Worth in a single day. With light winds, we motored, motor-sailed, and trolled a fishing line in 30-40 feet of water. Along the way, we were lucky enough to witness a humpback whale breaching! We arrived just before dark and found a suitable anchorage near Phil Foster Park, where we plan to snorkel tomorrow.

We caught the 8:30 bridge opening and started motor sailing South. The East wind was on the beam and we were able to cut the motor for a while and enjoy sailing.  This was a single over night sail. We arrived at Forte Pierce inlet around 2:00 pm with a strong flooding tide. We found a nice anchorage very close to the inlet for a quick departure tomorrow. 11/24 164 nmiles

  We enjoyed the city of St. Augustine, especially daily showers. That is included in the mooring ball fee and they have washers and dryers as well. My friend Skip had been delayed in Savannah, so we got to meet up with him and his wife Louise for dinner. There was much to explore and we did make the most of our time there checking out the Forte, beach, and Sailor’s Exchange a huge used sailing equipment shop.  The weather had started to settle down so it was time to head back out for Forte Pierce. 11/18-11/23

  I am not going to include my land adventures in this blog. I will be taking many days exploring the towns along the way but if I include writing about those trips I am afraid I will never get the sea travel completed. So we knew the best current situation in the Winyah River would be later in the afternoon so we fueled up and left Georgetown for an Anchorage next the inlet. We timed it right and had no problem heading thru this bumpy inlet. The wind was 5-10kt from the North, not enough to sail so we motored. There was a bit of a swell but nothing too bad. The two night trip was uneventful. We did have a group of dolphins playing tag with us more of the way. We arrived at St Augustine inlet a bit early and killed sometime as our mooring ball would not be ready til 11:00. We made the 11:00 bridge opening and fueled up at the marina. Luck was with us as we were assign the #1 mooring ball, the closest to the dinghy dock. Greg got the dinghy in the water and we started to explore the...

We had a peaceful night at the anchorage. A very favorable current pushed us toward Georgetown so we arrived there early Afternoon. It was a super low tide and the depth sounder was reading much lower than Aquamaps. After plowing in the mud we opted to stay closer to the entrance even though the charted water was deep further up to channel. The town of Georgetown is a great tourist destination and we would enjoy the next several days checking out the town.  26 nmiles