We decided to go outside again. In addition to the bridge I wrote about in the post “10 Miles Without an Accident” there were six more bridges the next day. With all the wind and a tide range of between 6 and 8 feet there were many complex issues to deal with at each one. Bridge height, horizontal clearance, water depth, and extreme current all combined throughout day to make it quite challenging. As a final test the marina that we chose to stay at for the night was just at the last bridge of the day and when we called for rates and to make sure they had space the friendly lady that answered the phone was kind enough to inform us that the entrance of the marina sometimes had a “bit of current” but after we’d passed the first marker “it would drop off”.
In the end the marina entrance turned out to be the most difficult spot of the day due to an unfortunate combination of factors. First, there was an obscene amount of current rather then a “bit”. Second there were 3 Border Control powerboats who decided that they could “sneak” into the channel before us if they just used enough horsepower and butt into line. Lastly the entrance was narrow and with tide at a full flow out shallow as well. With the need to slow in order to avoid running over the Border Patrol boats we were impacted even more by the current.
One of the important things that I’m learning on this trip is that in order to have control of the boat you must have water moving across the rudder, so slowing isn’t always desirable as it might seem as it makes boat control more difficult. Once we made it in and negotiated a 180 turn in the marina so we could tie up starboard side to as the marina requested I could see that Boyd was pale.
This is the guy that I’d vote for to ride out a gale (and technically we already have). He asked, “Did you feel that hump of water?”. Apparently there was so much current in the entrance to the channel and it was at an angle because it was running out and then under the bridge (in a spot that the bridge was only about 10-20 ft high off the water) that it created the same effect you see in river rapids with a huge hump in the center of the entrance. The boat had actually shimmied sideways – all 44 thousand pounds of her- as though to be dragged back out of the channel and under the bridge. Had we lost engines at that moment that’s exactly what would have happened. It would have been unrecoverable. Only Boyd’s steady hand and refusal to panic kept us from becoming victim of these factors.
When checking into the marina the other cruisers, who unbeknownst to us had been watching us coming in the channel acknowledged the difficulty of the entry (due to the timing with tide and current and other boats entering) and noted their collective approval. Impressing all of them was definitely not an easy feat considering their combined experience level. Actually considering the conditions I’m surprised they didn’t stand up and hold up cards with 10’s on them.
After two days of fighting the current, tide, timing, bridge heights and such it’s no surprise we decided to go outside. Boyd didn’t want to mess with another hundred miles of ICW to make it to Cape Canaveral so we jumped from St. Augustine directly to Cape Canaveral.
It was a rather uneventful transit with the only real complications being that Nicole and I were seasick. Nothing too surprising there, we have gotten better but when the waves come across the boat from either side we find it’s hard to keep lunch down.
Twenty hours from St Augustine to Cape Canaveral and not a single bridge. Nothing could please Boyd more… wait, we sailed.. it was the perfect trip for him!