Allans-Pensacola to Grand Cays

4-30-2009 Fernandina Beach, Florida. We left Jacksonville at 6:30am to catch the falling tide. We had an unfortunate departure resulting in some fiberglass crunch to our friends boat from ours. Ed takes responsibility and we our friends will need to have it repaired at our expense. We had difficulty leaving the dock with the steering locked and Ed thinking the wheel was hard-over when it was not. Then the current moved the boat before he could correct and steer it away. We are not happy! Also, a freighter snuck up on us on the way out of Mayport. We didn't hear him on the radio and blowing his horn until he was right on us. Our friends were trying to warn us but somehow Ed missed all the signals with the engine noise, limited visibility forward and no visibility back over the dinghy. Apparently our friends have a picture of us nearly being run over. Anyway, we had a 3 hour motor sail to St. Marys inlet and the harbor at Fernandina where we are anchored for their annual shrimp festival.

4-25-2009 After 44 hours we arrived at Mayport and traveled up stream to Jacksonville, another 3 hours even with the tidal current. We bought fuel and then went across the river to the city center where they provide free docking to encourage boaters to stay and support the local economy. Jacksonville has a wonderful city center with good public transportation, walking lanes on the bridges and beautiful sights.

The crossing was fine and mainly uneventful except for the last gust of wind which forced us to take down our spinaker and then died down so that we motored the final 10 hours. Our average speed was 6.2 knots. We only averaged about 4.5 knots the first day until we hit the gulf stream. The wind was at our back nearly the whole way, if it had been on the beam we would have moved faster as we would have if we had 15-20 knots. But that was not to be and the crossing was very smooth and our timing was good for following the current up the river.

4-23-2009 We are at an anchorage on the west side of Grand Cays staging for the crossing back to Florida. We all swam this afternoon enjoying our last night in the Bahamas for the season. Star Shot left early Friday, motoring in light winds (10Kn). By late morning the winds had built to 10-15 so we decided not to wait for the stronger winds on Saturday and left at 11:45.

4-20-2009 We headed to Double Breasted Cay and then to Grand Cay when the holding was bad at Double Breasted due to the strong tidal currents. We paid only 50 cents/foot at the marina plus $10/day for electricity. Many sports fisherman go in and out here so we saw lots of tuna, wahoo, mahi-mahi and mackeral plus barracuda that they give the locals. We stayed for three days. Two of the places we ate dinner charged only $8 a plate. Freddies was the best because in addition to the ribs he added on two lobster tails plus the beer was cheap ($3).

4-19-2009 Allans-Pensacla Cay was created by the last hurricane which joined the two islands. We arrived there after a few hour sail and then hiked the outer beach by the Atlantic. They had a tree where boaters left signs and floats with their name, boat name and date. Farther up the beach there was a drum set made from barrels and various objects that had washed ashore. We are still traveling with Star Shot, Never Bored and Siya Sinana. We played cards that night, a game they call Peek Peek that I know has a more common name but cannot remember.

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