Ginn Sur Mer to St. Augustine

It’s been a crazy few days for Crimson Kathryn and especially her crew! We were up very early (3am) on Wednesday, April 5th and were underway around 4am. The moon was bright and we could clearly see our way out of Ginn Sur Mer. We had a long 234nm trip ahead of us but the wind was predicted to be fairly strong (12 – 18knots) from east/southeast.

The first 8nm of our trip was very rolly – the wind was on the stern and we only had the main up. Once we turned onto the longest portion of our crossing (about 150nm), we put up all sails and had a great broad reach course. This sail was amazing!! We set our sails and didn’t change them for the whole 150nm! The wind was as predicted and once we entered the Gulf Stream, we were really moving! Our speed was mostly in the low 8knots but we saw 10.5knots and 11knots!! We were halfway to St. Augustine by 7:30pm Wednesday.

Unfortunately our great speed and excellent wind direction both disappeared when we made our turn to head into shore. We made a 30 degree turn and that took us out of the Gulf Stream and made us sail downwind. This course was a bit rolly but mostly it was just slow!! By 8am Thursday the wind started to die down. We decided to take the sails down and just motor the rest of the way.

As we approached the St. Augustine inlet, we were greeted by several dolphins who swam along with us on and off for about an hour. It was lots of fun watching these guys swim towards us and then under the boat and up to the bow.

We arrived at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina a little after 2pm and were secured to a mooring ball before 3pm. After some well deserved showers and some Wi-Fi time, we ordered some dinner and took it back to the boat. We celebrated with a bottle of bubbly and went to bed early!!

Now that we are so far north, it will only take 2 more days to reach Reynolds Park. Our current plan is to leave here on Monday and arrive at Reynolds by Tuesday. Then we start the job of getting the boat ready for storage!