CruisingKatmandu

 We went outside had a nice sale to St Simons. Winds and waves were mostly out of the East. We approached and tied up at the fuel dock like pros. The sail drives are using less fuel the more we motor sail instead of only motoring. We had a Nice Anchorage next to the marina that is not requiring anyone to use an anchor light.  Ours is on the blink. I have been using a bright LED lantern to light the mast and spreaders at other anchorages. Incredibly, we have only docked at a marina overnight one time in the 66 days of this cruise. Thinking that the winds would be too high we opted to go ICW. There are too many crab traps in the channel. We felt a suspicious vibration in the boat. So Ben had to swim under the boat and cut loose the rope that was tangled in the sail drive. The water wasn't too terribly cold. We clocked 8 hours without going aground by following the magenta line diligently. There were unusually low tides. We anchored in Kilkinney Creek just past St Catherine's Sou...

We left the mooring ball in St. Augustine after a relaxing night.   Yesterday was another breezy day on the ICW from St Augustine. It was good in the morning, calm but gradually picked up to gusting to 21 knots. So after traveling 40 NM we decided to stop at Mayport. There's a nice free dock at Sisters Creek. Ben had a nice walk across the bridge while I took a nap. We saw Dick and Sue Wing son-in-law on Sayonara pass by. Last time we saw them was leaving Cocoa. Chilly Thursday morning at Sisters Creek free dock it's 60°. Our summer vacation is over. We realize that May can be chilly in sunny Florida. With the wind still coming from the north we are going to go to Fernandina today and hopefully go out the inlet for some more ocean time and make St Simons tonight. St. Augustine and  Fort Sisters Creek at Mayport Night life at St. Augustine 

                 Katmandu's 6 solar panels.  The view from up top near Marine Land I'd like to build a dock like this!           Many abandoned boats on ICW 

 Story line to added later: Launch of SpaceX Heavy  Navy SEAL Navy SEAL Museum Ft. Pierce  Waiting out a 2 hour deluge Our Dana Beach? SpaceX Launch Hail, wind and lightning storm Uh oh, batten down the hatches!  Hail!

Wreck of Benwood Porkfish from Grunt family, oink, oink Trumpet fish, TaDa! The Wreck of Benwood Other scuba divers with cameras Squirrel Fish Yours truly Wreck of Benwood Grouper  

Pennykamp is a Florida State park with lots of amenities: camping, museum, aquarium, beach, boats for snorkel trips, a dive shop and  dive boats. The boat camping is on hold because they are repairing the docks. The mooring balls are available but their erroneous website lists the mooring balls as unavailable until September. I kept calling the dive shop until I got a real person on the line to make an inquiry. Tenacity is the key to succeeding in life! Consequently we were the only boat on a mooring ball in the park.  The dive shop folks set us up with a dive to the 40 ' deep wreck of the Benwood, a WWII ship. It had a collision with another ship. The captain was running with their lights off and in quiet mode because German U-boats were rumored to be in the area. Poor sailors The second dive was Molasses Reef where we swam through coral arches.  We left Pennykamp with fond memories at daybreak so to make 60 NM to Fort Lauderdale before sunset. It was time to leave the K...