Jekyll Island GA to St. Augustine FL

—Blogpost written by Bob

Jekyll Island GA to Fort George River FL

A spectacular sunset from Jekyll
Harbor Marina last night.

We had a nice stay at Jekyll Harbor Marina and may make this a regular stop in the future.  We were rewarded with one of the best sunsets of the trip (shown above).

With a 50-mile long day ahead of us, we left Jekyll Harbor Marina early (7:15 AM) on Thursday, November 21, 2019.  From Jekyll Harbor Marina, it was easy getting back on the ICW.  We misjudged the direction of the tidal flow in the morning, taking the marina’s word for it, but it didn’t prove to be a problem because there was plenty of space between boats on the face dock. (It is best to power into the tidal current when leaving a dock because of increased steerage control—it’s kinda like an airplane taking off into the wind.)


The temperature was comfortable from the get go in the morning and got warmer as we headed further south.  We had full sunshine and no cloud cover as we motored past Little Cumberland Island and then Cumberland Island on the Cumberland River.

We had quiche for breakfast underway—my favorite boat breakfast. We passed our cruising friends on a C&C, s/v “Sequel 2...” (like yesterday) at about 8:45 AM.

At about 10 AM we went hard aground (at dead low tide) in an area that was not marked very well and was severely shoaled. A power boat (m/v Emily) went aground right after us, slightly to our port. As we were aground s/v “Sequel to...” passed us in deep water far to our port and communicated where the deeper (12+ feet) water was located. (This shoal area was located on the Cumberland Dividing River at G59A, R60, R60A, R62, and R62A near MM 703.)

After some tide effects and jockeying, m/v Emily got off the shoal first. After m/v Emily was off, we put the transmission in reverse and slowly backed out of the shoaled area.  We then steered to port and found the deeper water. I immediately moved my waypoints and added more so that I can avoid this pitfall next time.  We were aground for about 1/2 hour and this was our first major grounding of this season--I hope it was the last!

The red line shows our track through the shoal
area.  We entered the area on the upper
left and exited on the lower center.
The red X's are my new
waypoints where the
water is deeper.

We crossed the Georgia-Florida state line at 12:20 PM today!

The paper mill at Fernandina Beach was the first
thing we saw after entering Florida.

As we were going through the area known as Fernandina Shallows, I followed Bob Sherer’s waypoints and they looked great, particularly if we are ever caught at low tide in this area (like we were once before).

s/v "Sequel 2..."

We anchored in Fort George River at 3:15 PM.  (We anchored in this river previously). Today, we traveled 51 miles in 8 hours for an average speed of 6.4 mph, which wasn't bad considering that we were hard aground for 1/2 hour.  We had a long hard day and we are looking forward to a restful sleep tonight and an easy 30-mile day tomorrow.

The last sailboat of the day comes past
our anchorage as the sun sets.

Fort George River to Tolomato River

Because our mooring rental doesn't begin until noon on Saturday, today's 30-mile long trip simply positions us so that we can make it to St. Augustine Municipal Marina on schedule.  We could have made it all the way to St. Augustine today.

We weighed anchor and got underway on the ICW by 8:10 AM.  Almost immediately the ICW took and unexpected turn to port and was marked with a green buoy.  This was nothing compared to the ICW course changes we encountered later just south of the St. John’s River.  (Much later, I had to go back into the chart plotter and add waypoints according to our path.)  On the chart plotter it looked like we were going over an island but we were in over 20 feet of water! (I suspect that a recent hurricane changed the sea bottom in this area.). Fortunately, it was marked well with buoys and day marks but the old (no longer valid) day marks were still in place adding to some confusion. (...and I thought today would be easy!)

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There have been several areas that we’ve encountered where the so-called "magenta line" indicating the path of the ICW is nonexistent, and typically where it is most critical.  I don’t know if it’s the chart card manufacturer’s (C-MAP) or the government’s fault (since they perform the marine surveys and make the electronic charts).  This is a reminder that I have to order new electronic charts soon but I'm not so sure that C-MAP is my best option.

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As we went under the second fixed bridge south of the St. Johns River, Atlantic Beach Bridge, we encountered nearly 4 knots of tidal current against us because a large inland body of water funneled down at the bridge on its way out to the St. Johns River and eventually out the ocean.

Maggie made a delicious meatloaf in the oven for lunch while we were underway and a baked apple for dessert!  (Recently, we've been having our main meal at lunchtime and just snacking in the evening at Happy Hour instead of having a large meal late in the day.)

We anchored for the day at 12:40 PM in a nice anchorage area (at MM 765) along the Tolomato River in 10 feet of water and 13 miles away from St. Augustine.  The afternoon was nice and warm--the temperature reached 80 degrees!   We changed into shorts and t-shirts and opened the side windows on the cockpit enclosure.  The evening low temperature was in the mid-50's.

A view looking north from today's anchorage.  
We've anchored in the Tolomato River 
previously but not in this spot.

Tolomato River to St. Augustine

Even though we only had 13 miles ahead of us today, I wanted to time our travel to coordinate it with an 11 AM opening of the Bridge of the Lions in St. Augustine.  (The Penn State-Ohio State game starts at noon!)  We will have the tidal current against us in the morning, so I used a 5-knot boat speed for my time estimate.

We weighed anchor at 7:30 AM, conservatively allowing 3-1/2 hours to get to the Bridge of the Lions.  We arrived at Bridge of the Lions before 9:00 AM because the tidal current was with us!  We made it through the 9:30 opening but had to wait until 11 AM for our mooring to open up.  We topped off our diesel tanks (10 gallons) and filled one 5-gallon tank with gasoline for our dinghy engine.  We also filled our fresh water tanks.

While I was waiting for our mooring ball to open up I asked the marina guys about how often the mooring balls get inspected.  They told me that all mooring get inspected by a diver twice a year and the underwater components (except for the anchor) were recently changed out.

We were on mooring buoy #1
in St. Augustine Municipal Marina.

In the afternoon we watched the entire Penn State-Ohio State game on our onboard TV.  Unfortunately, Penn State lost 28 to 17.  Penn State is now 9-2 on the season and play Rutgers next Saturday.

I will be here with the boat (and Lola) until December 5 while Maggie flies north to Johnstown PA to be with her two of her daughters for over a week, including Thanksgiving...


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