This was not one of our better days of sailing.  In fact it was right up there as one of the worst.  We left our anchorage in Fernandino Beach at 8 am.  We wanted to get out about 7  when it was barely daylight, but had to get fuel and water and there was a wait at the fuel dock.  Once we were on our way, it took about an hour to get out of the channel as the tide was going against us.  Once we got out of the channel and turned south, the winds were not good, so we were only making about 5 kts motorsailing.  Coming north from St. Augustine to Fernandino Beach last July we left at 7:30 am and got in at 4:30.  We were going 6.2-7 kts on that day.  Therefore, we know this would be a longer day than that trip.  We were headed straight into the wind and the seas were about 4 ft. making this a very bouncy day.  We could have stopped at Jacksonville in the early afternoon but decided to keep going to St. Augustine, even though we thought we’d get there after dark. 

We had noticed a small tear in the jib, and in retrospect should have taken it in right away.  Instead we sailed with it out a little longer and the rip got bigger so we took it down.  That’s another lesson learned.   With just the main sail up, we slowed down considerably to about 3.5 kts.  The wind got stronger, the waves got bigger and we were diving into them for most of the afternoon and evening.  We got to our anchorage at 10 pm.

We have been here before and had the waypoints from that visit on our chart plotter.  This isn’t a very busy port, so the channel was empty when we arrived.  Unfortunately, most of the beacons weren’t lit, so I had to sit on the foredeck and shine a spotlight on them.  When we arrived at our anchorage near the Bridge of Lions, there were quit a few boats already anchored here, and some didn’t have their lights on.  We crept around the area until we found a spot where we could fit in.  We’ll be swinging when the tide changes, so we needed more room than we might if we weren’t going to swing.  Hopefully I didn’t wake anyone up shining a spotlight on them, but since many boats don’t use their anchor lights, we had to light them up so we didn’t run into them.

We’ll be here at least through the beginning of the week as we’ll have to find someone to repair the sail.  We were almost on schedule to arrive in Port Canaveral this weekend so Jennifer could visit us for a few days but now that will be next week.