Forecast was for about 6 knots of wind up to 12 knots of wind, and a nice gentle sail to St. Augustine, Florida. Of course that was not to be. At about 9 pm the winds started picking up, I started feeling lousy (I seem to feel seasick the minute the sun goes down) so went below and lay there in pain and misery, feeling the seas get higher and higher and the wind get faster and faster. I felt like I was in one of those large commercial washing machines, although this one was tilted at an angle. The drone of the engine right outside our cabin didn't help either! Our "bedroom"'s outside "wall" follows the curve of the boat, so it's not straight up and down, but goes up at a gentle curve. I positioned myself right in the crack between this curved wall and the mattress, where it's the most snug and you are most secure, not being rolled around like you would if you were just lying on the mattress, and the boat was heeled over so much that I ended up with more of my back on the wall than on the actual bed, if you can picture that. The boat shuddered and gyrated, I got up a couple of times to see how we were doing, but it was a supreme effort so after doing that twice, I gave up. The only thing for me was to just lie there and let this bucking bronco do what she had to do. I would have taken photos of the portholes (under water because the boat was on it's ear) but it was too much of an effort to even lift my arm. Ugh. At about 3 am, Phillip came below to tell me that the wind was directly from the south (on the nose), and that at this rate, we wouldn't get to St. Augustine for another 24 hours, so he recommended turning in to Fernandina Beach, Fl, 18 miles away (still a good 4 hours for us). So that's what we did - but it was still a very rough time - we didn't enter the channel until about 7.30 because it was still dark, overcast, raining and windy and with an unknown port, it's not the wisest thing to enter it in the dark. Anyway, I surfaced about 7.30 am, my eyes wild, my hair in such a state, with so many well formed nests that even the pickiest weaver bird wife would have been impressed, and clung on in the cockpit getting some lovely fresh sea air until we entered the Cumberland Sound. The tide was going in, so we averaged 8.8 knots (for us that's lightning fast) and motored the short distance to this awful industrial looking town (Fernandina Beach), which is at mile marker 717. There are two huge factories (paper I think) on the water, nestled inbetween which is a cute looking town - but the smells and sights of the factories are such a turn off.
Having said that, we were thrilled to be in peace and quiet - Phillip feeling tired after being up the whole night, me exhausted from clinging to life in my cabin all night (I'm entitled to be a bit of a drama queen at this point), feeling awful - so we anchored and went to bed. Still nothing on any of the weather channels about rough winds out there - they still say there are 6 knots of wind everywhere - wait until I get my hands around that fella's neck who reads the forecasts (probably an automated voice).
Tomorrow, Tuesday 6th October, we'll probably motor on the ICW to St. Augustine. I just couldn't face going out to sea again, not just yet. Remind me why I'm here, someone, please?
