Beuforft, SC; SM 536 to St. Augustine, FL: SM 778

November 1 and 2, Monday and Tuesday:
Wind turned favorable for another overnight shot. Made 159 miles being off shore up to 25 miles at times. We fueled up and headed down river, stopping for 10 minutes in the open bay drifting with the wheel and autopilot removed to repair the clutch again. Success, and working again OK.
Headed out the channel and were sailing in company with a 40 foot ketch that paced us all thru the night on the same 200 deg magnetic course for 130 miles. The wind took some time to go from south at 10 to ENE at 15-20 knots. We flew main and jib once the wind backed around enough to be able to hold course close hauled. Then when it backed some more we raised the foresail. At dusk we furled the foresail as the forecast called for gusts to 25 and we didn't want to be faced with furling it in heavy seas at night. The autopilot steered the whole way (thank you God) and it was an easy passage except when the wind was directly astern. After an uncontrolled jib due to the wandering course the autopilot steers in quartering seas, we furled the main and motor sailed with jib alone and the boat handled it much better. A clear night with bountiful stars was awesome, as Jupiter set the moon rose. As it was waning the two crescents cleared the horizon first. After reading a bit with my head lamp on while on watch in the cockpit, I looked around to check traffic and saw what at first looked like a ship (and since you can normally see them from way off) this gave me quite a start since it seemed so close. It took a few seconds to relax as I realized it was moon rise. And it was spectacular.
We arrived at the entrance to St. Augustine at 10:30 am. We heard some reports on the radio about shoaling in the channel. In fact quite a few big sport fisherman ran aground in the channel during a big fishing tournament this past week, causing hundreds of thousand dollars worth of damage. When Jason was on watch someone was attempting the inlet and another boat close by kept on hailing on channel 16... get to starboard your going to run aground!!...repeatedly. This was enough warning for us. As we entered we kept the jib flying to limit the rolling. It turned out to be a tough one as the autopilot clutch gave out again only this time stuck in the engaged position. When steering by hand with the autopilot engaged you have to over come the resistance of the motor which is no running, requiring a fair amount of force. The waves were heaped up at the entrance due to an outgoing tide and opposing wind. This created some breakers, furthermore they were quartering on our stern. The end result was the boat slewing around 50 to 60 degrees in each direction as I attempted to keep to within 50 feet of the starboard side of the channel. The Coast Guard had finally addressed the shifting shoal by adding an extra buoy in the channel so at least we could see where the boat was supposed to be. Keeping it there was quite an effort for about a half a mile. Passed the newly constructed Bridge of Lions, which was made to look just like the 70 year old version, only the "Lions" were still in storage so they wouldn't get damaged in the construction.
We took a dock at the Municipal Marina, did some laundry showered and "launched" the bike for a grocery run. I took the "Red Train" tour of the downtown area while Jason worked on applying for some jobs that had just come up on the Internet. This whetted my appetite for seeing some interesting stuff that I didn't have time for on the whirlwind tour. So we elected to stay for another day and play tourist.
Right across the street was a brew pub called the "A1A" which did have great beer. While sipping the suds, there was a big hubbub right out front of the pub. Three cruisers pulled a fellow over and got him out of the car on his knees under gunpoint and handcuffed him. While the canine was going crazy, a total of 7 more cruiser made their appearance making the new total of 10 (how can a small town of 12,000 people have that many cruisers on duty at once?.. must be a wild town). The guy got slung in the back of one cruiser while the dog went wild in the car. A bit of uncontrolled substance perhaps... me thinks.
A little more excitement in the AM when the boat docked beside us got his dingy and davits squashed by a motor cat the made a hash out of pulling out of the dock. The current was carrying him back onto the dock and he didn't account for it, so crunch. The bad part was that he didn't stop, even when the owner was yelling at him. Furthermore since they had all his info at the dock masters hut, they hailed him on channel 16 and called his cell phone. He failed to answer either. The marina called the harbor master and he sent out a fast boat to chase the guy down. Well they got him and made him return to the marina about an hour later. The police were still questioning him when we left to tour the city.
We were able to use the Red Train again as the passes are good for three days. We visited the old fort Castillo de San Marcos, Ripley's believe it or not museum, Flagler College which is housed in Henry Flaglers first grand hotel Florida, and the Lintner Museum housed in another grand old hotel. Litner used to buy up other peoples collections and rarities which are now on display occupying over half of the old hotel. This was really a treat and the highlight of our visit.
We returned to the boat and went out to anchor to avoid another overnight docking charge. We then launched the dinghy and motored back to enjoy a very pleasant dinner at O.C. Whites. A folk guitarist was entertaining on the patio and we eat out under the stars with a warm breeze rustling the bountiful planting around the dining area.
We buzzed back to the boat and hit the hay, but at about 6 am the wind pipped up from the south at about 25 knots. This was opposing the current, so the boat didn't know which way to go against the anchor. As a result it was all over the place and coming very close to a boat that was double anchored and did not swing the same way as us. I stayed up on anchor watch for about 45 minutes playing with the amount of scope we had out to assure myself we wouldn't collide with this neighbor. Only got another few winks before sunrise at 7:45.