Mantazas River R38

2/18/16   To 29 48.430N    81 17.014W    R38 Mantazas River

I can't say I surprised as we approached the St. Johns River that Leonard changed his mind.  He said we'd stay in the ICW, with only the Sister Creek Bridge and no flagged shoals, the distance to St. Augustine is shorter on the ICW, and theoretically the currents should even out, it should take less time to stay inside.  However with the tide ebbing and the river flowing out,  it wouldn't take long to reach the Atlantic, so we turned to port to check out conditions offshore.  The fly in the ointment was the forecast for a building NE breeze as the day progressed, building the seas into the 5' range, enough to issue small craft advisories through Friday afternoon.

Sisters Bridge just N of the St Johns River - new 65' bridge under construction

#6 at the shipyard on the St Johns River

It was a bit lumpy getting out the inlet- wind against the current does that.  We hoped the wind would be enough off port to sail once we cleared the breakwater and by 0930 we were having the first sail of the season, averaging 5-6kts toward the St. Augustine inlet under the jib in 15-20 knots of NE breeze. Not bad other than the occasional bigger waves pushing us around.  There was little to see other than a lot of northern gannets and white caps building behind us.

Sailing in the St.Augustine inlet - note the breakers N of the channel

By 1400 we had the St. Augustine sea buoy in sight and Leonard consulted our SE Atlantic Inlet book.  The inlet at St Augustine, like many in the SE, isn't notated on the standard charts since it's constantly changing.  The book, while not totally up to date, gives a reasonable idea of what to expect.  When I'd talked to  the NH folks at Tiger Point, the captain said the buoys were on station this year and the depths good (they'd just come from there), all we had to do was find the sea buoy and follow the marks.  As we headed in, we slurped a bit of the jib for better control, and sailed into the harbor.  Unfortunately our timing for Bridge of Lions was off, so we drifted with the flood tide and wind after rolling up the jib once we were in the harbor.  We cleared the bridge at the 1500 opening with a couple of big sport fish boats.

Waiting for an opening at the Bridge of Lions

With no definite anchorage planned, we headed on our way, taking advantage of the current and wind.  Our first choice was considerably deeper than charted and filled with local anchored vessels (not surprising since when the city installed mooring fields, it forced the locals to move a bit further out).  So we continued a bit further.  We were a bit surprised to see the sport fish who'd cleared the bridge, south bound, with us, heading N as we approached our next spot.  Apparently they weren't happy with where they' planned to anchor.

Early morning light as we pull anchor by R38

Once again, neither paper nor chart plotter chart resembled reality when we reached our destination.  It's deep where the charts show marsh, and skinny where they indicate more water,  and the area's littered with well spaced bobbers.  After feeling our way around, checking the depths (known as the anchor dance), and after the 2nd try, it looked like we'd have both depth and swinging room (just!) between the shoals and bobbers, especially if the wind blew as forecast all night.  The anchor set well, so we should be fine, we just don't want to try to pick our way out between bobbers after dark!  We have a fairly full moon to help illuminate things, but I'm not sure I want to see how close the shoal behind us looks at low tide (we were up 4', almost high tide, when we anchored).

With another early start, we'll slip past the shoals at the Mantanzas Inlet while the tide's up. It would have been ideal if we could've run this section offshore, however arriving at Ponce De Leon Inlet around midnight wouldn't be a great idea.  Tomorrow's forecast is for more easterly winds of 20K and sea of 5 to 7 Ft which make going out and in the entrances a bit tricky.  So we will stay inside for a far as Fort Pierce.  With the forecast decent through the weekend, we'll see how far we get.  Much as we prefer to sit tight on weekends in Florida, we'll continue on our way toward Vero Beach, dealing with the weekend warriors.

Lynnea