Almost there. We’ll turn a bit left after the marker in the distance and be on the Atlantic in less than a mile.
We spent one more day in Georgetown after the hurricane. The weather had calmed down and the sun was out. We messed around downtown and had lunch when we saw a crowd, at least by Georgetown standards, gathering on Main Street. It was the big Georgetown Homecoming parade! The largest contingent there was from the Jr. ROTC from 4 of the area schools. The military, especially the Marines, is big in these parts. We watched that, went back to the boat for dinner and then came back downtown to the Strand theatre for “Won’t You be My Neighbor”.
The Jr. ROTC contingents from four area high schools.
The good weather on the Atlantic finally came on Saturday. We had 260 miles to go overall including getting out the inlet at Georgetown and the 23 mile trip from the Jacksonville inlet up the St John river to our marina at Huckins Yacht Corp.
This is the Community Drumline. Not sure how that works, but they did have drums toward the rear.
We left Georgetown at 9:20 but fought quite an incoming tide and did not get out on the open sea until 11:30. The weather could not have been better, the sun was out with totally flat seas and no wind for the entire trip. We had a nice 10 mph breeze because of our forward motion. Ocean travel does not get better than that.
The Homecoming Queen.
Little happened during the daylight or overnight except when we passed the major inlets. We had passed the Charleston inlet during daylight on Saturday and the Brunswick GA inlet during daylight Sunday, but the Savannah inlet was busiest of the three with only New York harbor having more traffic on the east coast. It was the middle of the night and lights were visible from large ships lined up for more than 12 miles to the east waiting their turn to enter the inlet. All were stationary but as we approached going south the closest ship started up westward to the port. AIS said we’d miss it by .2 miles, but then the ship was longer than that (AIS tells us that also), so I just stopped. The pilot boat seemed to pass right in front of us as it came out and did a U turn to catch the ship, after which we continued on our way.
Port side on the way near the end of the Georgetown inlet.
Charleston from about 10 miles out. The cable stay bridge shows in the background.
We arrived at the St John inlet on Sunday about noon. As we went in there were smaller boats fishing along the inlet barriers and the beach was full of SUV’s, reinforcing that it really was Sunday.
It’s Sunday on the beach just north of the Jacksonville inlet. A lot of small boats along the rocks to the right of the picture.
We arrived at the Huckins docs at 2:30. Huckins built boats starting in the 1930’s and just stopped in 2014. Their styles have not changed and today appear retro and somewhat elegant, as if Sue should have a long dress on and me a blazer, tie and yachtsman’s cap. Definitely would not work for us. Even so, Star Gazer will now sit here until its new owners are ready to take it out.
Jack & Sue 