St Augustine, FL to Brunswick Landing Marina, Brunswick, GA

July 1, 2016

We awoke around 5 am so that we would have time to take Sasha to shore and still leave around 6 am at first light.  According to Rob, it stormed at some point during the night, but I apparently slept right through it.  I guess I figured that the mooring field has been around a long time and Rob had put a backup line through the mooring thimble, so a little rocking and rolling didn’t bother me.

Another beautiful morning on the AICW

We cast off at 6 am even though the light was still pretty dim, because we had to go slow through the Bridge of Lions, which is pretty much right at the Municipal Marina.  The clearance marker indicated 19 ft with an additional 4 ft at center, so we were able to go right on through.  By the time we got to the St Augustine inlet, there was plenty of light to see the channel markers and to decipher which ones would get us back into the AICW on the other side.  Some inlets have plenty of water and easy markers to follow, but others are prone to shoaling because of the tidal currents, so sometimes you have to follow a fairly narrow channel even though it looks like there is a wide swath of water.  The St Augustine inlet is somewhere in-between, with a fairly straight channel but a fairly narrow entry back into the AICW, so we wanted to cross it in full daylight.

All of the blue and some of the green are water, depending on the tide status, so you can see how easy it would be to get into shallow water if you can't see the red and green channel markers.

We had worked out most of our first day jitters yesterday, so we were able to enjoy cruising and taking in the sights.  Once past the inlets, the AICW winds through salt marshes, which have large patches of marsh grasses but little visible solid ground.

 

Looking past the inlet to the Atlantic Ocean

Fisherman on the sandy beach near the inlet

Roseate spoonbills and pelicans along the AICW

It's a long walk out to this fishing dock

Where the AICW does run along solid ground, generally there are waterfront homes with docks lining the channel, so occasionally we slowed down to decrease our wake, especially if the channel was narrow.

Landcaped golfer

Kids doing what kids do.  The guys in the water (bottom right) called out, "Watch this!", and did backflips for us.

The only bridge with low clearance today was the Kingsley Creek Railroad Swing Bridge.  It has a clearance of 5 ft but is left in the open position unless a train is approaching to cross.  Of course you always think that the time the train will be crossing is when you are approaching, but we got through it with no problem.

Kingsley Creek Railroad Swing Bridge

Narrow AICW channel

Our planned stop was Brunswick, GA, which would be a 100 mile trip.  Our alternatives were Fernandino Beach and Jekyll Island.  We wanted to get fuel in Brunswick, because their price was 37 cents cheaper than Jekyll Island, and it is always nice to be able to get fuel where you are going to dock since it saves you an extra stop.

Cool tree along the AICW

We saw lots of dolphins, but it's hard to get a good picture because the water has a lot of silt in it

With the tidal currents seeming to slow us down more than they pushed us faster, we figured we would get to Brunswick Landing close to 5:30 pm, a half hour after their usual closing time.  The dockmaster told us he would stay late to get us fueled since we wanted to leave at first light in the morning, but he didn’t tell us that they generally charge $40 for staying late even though Rob specifically asked him if there would be any additional fees when he was asking about the fuel and dockage charges.  He was very nice and ended up charging us only half of the fee after Rob reminded him that he had specifically asked about extra fees and explained that he had figured out that he was saving about $50 over Jekyll Island with the dockage and fuel savings, even though we had to go about 5 miles off of the AICW to get to Brunswick Landing.

The Sidney Lanier Bridge, near Brunswick, GA, has 185 ft of vertical clearance to accommodate large ocean vessels

Ocean-going tug

Huge cargo ship docked at a facility near Brunswick Landing Marina

The marina is quite large and has large grounds as well – perfect for Frisbee with Sasha!  There is a yacht club on the grounds where there are frequent social gatherings according to a gentleman we met from one of the other boats.  They also have free PBR on tap and free wine 3 days a week, but the club house wasn’t very busy due to there being a festival at the nearby downtown.

Visiting with John, who lives on a sailboat a few docks over

We had had a long day and still had to fix something for supper, so we didn’t plan on walking the short distance to downtown.  The gentleman we met had planned on going downtown, but then we got to visiting and looking at each other’s boats, so he didn’t end up going after all.  He had done quite a bit of work on his own boat, so he and Rob talked about projects that they had done and projects that they hoped to do in the future.  We have always said that the best part of cruising is the people we have met along the way, and tonight was no exception.