Inside Again

ICW

30.38.41 N 081 29.48 W

We had a very good night's sleep in a peaceful little side creek on the ICW.   We love it at sea, but the sleep deprivation is tough.   Acknowledged that we do it the worst possible way -- 24-72 hour passages.  That's life.  Besides, when we do come back in, the night's sleep is so delicious.

The weather was the dominant factor yesterday.  The nice winds that we expected Monday morning, then Monday afternoon, then Monday night, finally appeared at 0300 Tuesday morning.   We were heading for Saint Augustine Inlet, but we would have arrived at 0500 in the dark and against an ebb tide.  

I changed the destination to the next inlet up, the Saint John's River.  I targeted 1230 arrival time to conicide with slack tide.   Well, we traveled faster than that too and it looked like 09:30 arrival against a very strong ebb tide.

I changed again to the next inlet up, the Saint Mary's River.   Our projected arrival was 1430, just at slack tide.   I was encouraged by weather reports that suggested that the approaching cold front would not arrive until evening.

That plan fell apart when the cold front arrived at 1030, earlier than expected.   The wind shifted with the front passage.  Naturally, the new direction was right on our nose. Scratch the Saint Mary's Inlet option.  We did a 180 degree turn, going back to the Saint John's River, and entered there arount 1200, just a half hour before slack tide.

Today, we hope to meet some cruising friends in Fernandina, and to convince them to come to Cumberland Island with us.   It appears that the next favorable weather window for going outside will not come until Saturday.