Overall weather notes: A Gale blows through on Sunday the 2nd and Monday the 3rd with rapidly cooling temperatures. Seas from the Gale will be in excess of 20 feet of frying pan shoals, and 7-11 feet at the sea buoy outside of Southport NC.
Tuesday morning temperatures will be freezing or near freezing warming to the 40f range by 10am. Remnants of the Gale on Monday will be felt into Tuesday morning with winds around 15 knots in Southport and a sea state of 3 to 4 feet. Closer to land being the preference. General sea state close to land will be 2-3 feet through most of the trip.
General Navigation Notes: General track of Eoti though not most efficient will be to stay approximately 3-5 miles offshore following the 50-foot depth line (more or less). With a general north wind this will create a break against building sea state and provide a comfortable buffer. Until the turn south around Fernandina Beach. The goal will be to attempt a 6.5 knot average speed during the trip. This is winter “get there now” type sailing not ride the tide and see what happens.
Tracking: Eoti can be tracked in real time at all times and has both passive and active tracking located on the tracking page. Eoti will maintain a radio, RADAR and AIS assisted watch with two people (helm and look out) on watch at all times. Eoti while underway monitors VHF channel 16 always and has two back up handheld VHF radios.
Tuesday January 4th
Weather Conditions: Days starts with NNE wind 11 to 15 knots. Sunny. Seas 3 to 4 feet at 5 second period. Temperature 39f at 0800. As day progresses wind abates to 11 to 16 knots. Seas are 3 feet at 4 second period. Temperature cools to 49f.
- 0718 Sunrise
- 0800 Depart Safe Harbor Southport Marina (High Tide 0824)
- 0900 Southport Sea Buoy
- 0914 Moonrise
- 1400 South of North Myrtle Beach
- 1530 South of Myrtle Beach
- 1723 Sunset
- 1739 Moonset
- 2000 South East of Georgetown (Winyah River)
Wednesday January 5th
Weather Conditions: Day starts with N wind 4 to 12 knots. Hazy. Seas 2-foot period 5s. Temperature 47f. Wind abates some moving to NW wind at 4-8 knots. Seas remain 2 feet at 5 second period. Temperature approaches 64f cooling into the evening to 50f.
- 0300 Just of Charleston Entrance
- 0721Sunrise
- 1002 Moonrise
- 1230 Off Hilton Head
- 1400 Off of Savannah
- 1737 Sunset
- 2102 Moonset
- 2330 Off Brunswick Georgia
Thursday January 6th
Weather Conditions: Day starts with NW winds 4-9 knots. Hazy. Seas calm. Temperature 48f. Winds will build moving NW to NE before noon. Early evening winds move NE to E. Temperatures remain near constant 61f. Early evening winds move to SE and build to 11 knots.
- 0200 Off Cumberland Island
- 0330 Off Fernandina Beach
- 0630 Off Jacksonville Beach
- 0722 Sunrise
- 1041 Moonrise
- 1100 Arrive Saint Augustine Sea Buoy
- 1123 High Tide Saint Augustine
- 1230 TRY for the 1230 opening Bridge of Lions
- 1245 Arrive Saint Augustine Municipal Marina
- 1740 Sunset
- 2008 Moonset
Navigation Notes: Saint Augustine high tide is 11:23, The bridge of Lions opens for boat traffic, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m, on the hour and half-hour; with no openings at 8 a.m, 12 noon and 5 p.m.
Entering Saint Augustine: Per Mike Alyea on the St. Augustine Cruisers Net, as of 12/29/21 all channel marker buoys, including R8, are in position and no shoaling evident in the marked channel. Start your entry at STA sea buoy on 277 deg mag track to hold the “Great Cross” on the horizon about 10 – 15 degrees left of your bow until you approach R2. From there follow the red and green buoys in towards the ICW with the cross 5 deg right of your bow. Favor the red nuns. Rock jetty to the south has deep water up to the rocks. Leave G59 (ICW can) to starboard as you intersect the ICW. Tide state doesn’t matter too much when entering but can have big effect when exiting if offshore seas are running 3’ or more. Reference tide charts and offshore NOAH NDBC Station 41117. Shallowest depth in the channel is 14’ at low tide over the ebb bar between R2 and R4
General comments: Eoti has a 6-person Zodiac Life raft with supplies, maintains up to date and unexpired signaling devices on board. Eoti, in the dinghy (Dongle) and in the life raft. GEOS SAR services for all crew are maintained and set up through Iridium, and Garmin. All crew have AIS PLBs in their DeckVest PFDs. All crew have lights and whistles in their PFDs.
Weather routing advice and assistance provided by the amazing team of Chris Parker at Marine Weather Center . As much as I plan I like to have a real expert looking over my shoulder and they provide amazing advice for these tender sailors.
Predict Wind Grid:
