Leaving St. Augustine
We left out of St.Augustine around 7am headed South again on the Intracoastal.
Originally, the plan was to make the entire run to Titusville in one day. After plotting out our course the night before that idea seemed a little too ambitious. It would have been about a 10 hour cruise if everything went perfectly.
Trips like this never go as planned, So many things can add time to the route along the way. Weather, no-wake zones, congested areas and the time it takes to get into and tied up at the destination can turn a 10 hour cruise into 12+. Considering we had the dogs with us as well, that would just be too much. So we decided on a more leisurely 6 ’ish hour run, but even that didn’t work as planned.
We found a spot in New Smyrna Beach on the chart that looked like a great place to Anchor, also it was in that 5-6 hour range we wanted. Once we got there we would either grill some chicken for dinner or dinghy over to a nearby restaurant. All dependent on when we actually got there and settled.
We actually did very well on our time estimate. We arrived at Chicken Island around 1:45 and began the process of finding a spot to anchor for the night.
On the South side of the Island there were already plenty of boats anchored. The one spot we tried anchoring and thought was good just made us swing into the channel. No good.
Then we tried the west side. After running aground a few times we gave up. Heavy shoaling area, depth would go from 10’ to 3’ within a boat length.
Last try was the North side. No boats except for one catamaran so we went for it. Good depth and felt comfortable with the current. We had to try setting the anchor a few times before we felt comfortable. Once set, I launched the Dinghy to take the dogs to shore. I took Dusty first. Both are too much to handle at the same time.
Me and Dusty were checking out the Island and within 5 minutes of this picture Heather sends me a text. “Boats are passing between us and the Island, did we swing into the Channel Again?”. I looked up to where the boat should be and instead it was drifting across the channel towards the north shore. The Anchor lost its hold.
I pushed the Dinghy off the beach with Dusty and rushed over to get control of our boat before it drifted into the marina nearby. I think the anchor caught again on the north side of the channel but it was pretty tense for a bit.
After that we were done with this place, we had spent more than an hour trying to anchor up safely and it just wasn’t working. Called the nearby marinas for a slip and they were all booked. So we looked at the chart again and found a spot a little south past the next bridge that looked promising.
We anchored solid instantly in the new area and it just felt so much better here. Chicken Island had way too many boats, heavy current, shallow water…..just stressful. It was around 4 when we settled at the alternate anchorage, so our 6 hour cruise turned into 9 just like that.
The new anchorage had some beachy areas nearby that were great. We cooked our chicken for dinner and had a good night.
