We Are At Anchor Tonite

We are at Pine Island, north of St. Augustine, Fl, on the ICW.

We had a very pleasant motorsail - actually a LOT more motoring than motorsailing, but we arrived here about 1600 (4pm) this afternoon.  There was no reason to go any farther, as it got dark before we would have found the next anchorage.  As nice as the chartplotter/gps is, it is not completely accurate, and we found ourselves probably 60-100 feet off centerline today, and in an area where a few feet can mean the difference between 15' and 5 feet, we choose not to tackle the ICW at night.  It is okay for tugs with barges, as they are built to get off of a grounding easily - i.e., huge props and LOTS of power.

But this afternoon was virtually windlass, so we saw 36kts at some times and 5kts of wind at others.  This afternoon was almost windless.  Smooth water meant good travel.  We will leave the anchorage at first light tomorrow morning and hope to make the bridge in St. Augustine before 8am.  If not, we will pull in and perhaps top off the fuel and water.

So the anchorage at pine island is well protected. and it reminds me of the lakes in northern Wisconsin where we used to watch the loons at sunset and early in the morning.  I don't think we will have a haze on the water tomorrow, but it will be a close substitute.

The BIG EVENT today!  We were passing the McCormick Bridge - the beach boulevard bridge, and we noticed a blue sailboat coming north against us.  It was then I realized it was s/v LE'A.  If you look back, it is the boat crew Renne' and I watched the Christmas Boat Parade with in St. Augustine, from Houston, with Janet Cole and Dick Callaway as they are delivering LE'A to Annapolis.

I was a bit excited.  What you don't see is 5 seconds later, we take a sharp turn to the right and head for shore!!  Renne' had taken JonNe' off autopilot to pass them and you notice she is waving too.  We did recover before running aground, but it would have just been another joyous moment in the eventful trip! We had not heard from them is a week or so, and we decided they had already left.  Here, 1,200 miles from home, we passed them on the ICW.  It is a VERY small world! Wish we had thought to get a picture of them.

So we had a glass of wine tonite, no I had two glasses of wine tonite, Renne' decided she had to cut back.  So I got hers.  We are making some ice, and I will have a glass of Jack Daniels before we hit the hay tonite.

Hope to see you soon for sundowners.

JonNe'