Beautiful day

Hi everyone,

I was underway before sunup this morning, having anchored a few short miles north of St. Augustine. I had picked the spot in expectation of getting hit with a thunderstorm, and indeed, we did. Not too bad, maybe 35 mph winds and the boat got a nice powerwash out of it.

This morning was clear, dry, and windy. It was also cold, which I came to regret later as I stood in the cockpit shivering and wondering where I had stashed my heavy clothing. But it was stunningly beautiful,  2 words I do not customarily employ when describing Florida. You see, Florida used to be a beautiful place, about 200 years ago, before it became absurdly overpopulated and carpet bombed with all manner of misguided and short sighted construction projects. But for a few glorious miles along the ICW in this part of Florida, you can see what it was like. And with a small craft warning in effect, I had it mostly to myself. Bald eagles, lush vegetation, exotic birds, it really was nice. Then, sadly, I returned to the developed areas. Once again, I was struck by all the docks and boathouse that created what looked like a shantytown in a third world country along the shore. It appeared as a veritable thicket of posts and roofs protecting a rather motley armada of boats that stretched for about 10 miles. These were all in front of really quite spectacular homes, which you could barely see through the forest of pilings. Pressure treated pilings, concrete pilings, pilings knocked askew from bad boat handlers, broken pilings, pilings painted to look like barber poles, pilings with Trump flags, weathered pilings in need of replacement,  I mean the whole sorry mess was really something. And almost every house had this farcical erector set on the water. I think I saw 3 houses that didn't. But, I think I get it. They got the place on the water, and by gum, gotta get the boat. And now, I need to shut up, and apologize to all Floridians, because it was a beautiful day!

There were some busy areas. Crossing the St. John's River is a fearsome prospect, and it lived up to its reputation today. There was commercial traffic and the usual strong current. In fact, my speed over the bottom while crossing was only 2 and a half. It was really windy today. The forecast was for 10 to 15, with gusts to 20, but the reality was 20 to 25, with gusts to 30. Another case of NOAA lowballing the windspeed. When I went up Cumberland Sound I was motoring with a favorable tide directly into this wind and the waves were shockingly steep and vicious. Fortunately,  there were no other boats out there to complicate things, so navigation was pretty easy. Tonight, the wind has died, and I am at one of my favorite spots, Plum Orchard on Cumberland Island,  Georgia! I will definitely spend some time here tomorrow.

Best to all, Charlie