Cumberland Island to St Augustine, Fl

We leave early as we are going to run offshore.  St Mary's inlet, like Charleston's, is large and it is at least a 4 miles out to the ocean as there are jetties on either side.  Fortunately, we have an outgoing tide and we are doing close to 7 knots at less than half throttle.  We hit the end of the jetty and turn south into a southeast wind, so there is no sailing today with the wind on our nose.  The good news is that we do not have to deal with the green head flies or currents, but will have to deal the wind. 

It is an easy motor down the coast.  We are fully using the new autopilot.  Beth asks, "Of all the new items that we put on the boat, which one is the best one that we used on the trip?"  I have to think; the autopilot allows me to keep on course, while the shade cloths kept the green head flies out (and the flies do love me).  Tough call.  Well, here comes the afternoon storms, so we are trying to outrun the thunderstorms.  We get a little rain with no lightning.  Nice.

I have never been in through the St Augustine inlet and the charts offer no advice since the sandbars are always shifting.   We get to the inlet and it is cloudy.  Off to starboard, I can see waves breaking, so I am steering out to sea.  I can see a boat in tow by Tow Boats US, so I figure I can follow them in.  As we are trying to catch them, the Tow Boat captain calls me and notes that I am close to the sandbar, and if I am going in the inlet.  I replied yes, and then he asks if I am familiar with the inlet and I say no.  He notes that I need to go further out and then turn into the inlet.  I follow his advice and we make it into the anchorage.

We call the marina and get our mooring ball assignment.  It is on the north side of the bridge, near the street.  Beth takes a bunch of pictures, but after we settle, we realize the we can hear the street.  We are lucky that it is a Sunday and then it finally calms down.