The morning winds were light and southerly, ideal conditions for exiting the Inlet. Like many East Coast inlets, this one can be quite dangerous when strong easterly winds blow against an outgoing tidal current. But our conditions were perfect. We motored up the ICW and turned east out the channel, hoping for stronger winds offshore to let us shut down the engine and sail.
Every great sailing trip story has to have a lighthouse photo. Here is the Ponce de Leon Inlet lighthouse along the north shore as we exit.
Once clear of the jetties, we turned to the north and let out the sails. For the first time since January we were a sailboat again. The winds did fill in as forecasted and we were soon sailing at 4.5kts to the north almost on course and able to shut down the engine. The wind was just a little too far to the south to let us sail exactly on course, but it was not a problem as there were no obstacles ahead along our broad reach and we would jibe back to the west before morning directly into St Mary's Inlet.
We had seen tons of these jelly fish on the beaches at New Smyrna, and Sue decided to catch one and take a closer look at one not all dried out.
We learned they are "Cannon Ball" jelly fish and do not have the stinging tentacles that more common jelly fish have. Only a few animals eat these jelly fish and there are clearly not enough predators to gobble up the millions of jelly fish that litter the northern Florida beaches.
Every sailing blog trip has to also have dolphin photos. We had a pod of 6-8 dolphins come play with us off the St Augustine shoreline. Unfortunately, because a cloud cover moved over us the waters were fairly deep green instead of clear blue and the dolphins were not as easy to see as they often are. I collected some Go-Pro videos but they are also not as great as some others I have were the water conditions are much better.
And, every ocean passage has to have a beautiful sunset experience. One never gets tired of watching sunsets at sea.
