Any insights on St. Augustine FL?

[TeenGee]

It will be fine as long as you don't suck anything up when you start.
You're looking at 4 to 5 foot tides in St. Augustine for the rest of the week.
Just have to time your departures and arrivals.

 

[2kwik4u]

Damnedest thing......tide came back in!

 

[NoFla21]

Damnedest thing......tide came back in!

Hopefully the tides dont ruin the trip too much!

I do have to ask.. How hard is it to put the cover on when its in the water like that?

 

[2kwik4u]

Hopefully the tides dont ruin the trip too much!

I do have to ask.. How hard is it to put the cover on when its in the water like that?

Tides are definitely messing with our plans. Had a couple trips we've abandoned because we wanted to either arrive or leave around low tide. Low tide has the boat completely grounded and not going anywhere. Timing is putting low tide in the 3-5pm window, right when we would be coming/going in the afternoon. Didn't plan on not having that access, but it's nothing we can't do by land as well, just not as much fun.

In terms of getting the cover on while in the water. It's less than ideal, but not terribly hard. As it sits, I just work my way down the port side from inside the boat, then come down the starboard side. Have to open the access fittings and move all the lines and bumpers to the outside of the cover. Then I have to sit on the end of the dock with my feet in the water to reach the rear security straps (which I honestly, probably don't need when not towing), and then tighten down the ratchet strap while I'm sitting there. I've got it down to about a 10min ordeal. It's not terribly hard.

With it being in such shallow water, I turn the bilge off at night as well. The cover goes over the outlet anyway, and if the boat does sink, it's only in about 36in of water at high tide anyway. Not like it's going to sink very far

 

[2kwik4u]

Bunks are replaced. It's hot as dammit down here so I didn't take any pictures. Home Depot cut the boards to length for me. Got new stainless hardware while there, and a staple gun with stainless staples. West Marine in St Augustine had the carpet I needed, and it was on sale.

Worst part was getting the 9'6" long boards from Home Depot to the Airbnb in a Q7!

 

[Babin Farms]

Bunks are replaced. It's hot as dammit down here so I didn't take any pictures. Home Depot cut the boards to length for me. Got new stainless hardware while there, and a staple gun with stainless staples. West Marine in St Augustine had the carpet I needed, and it was on sale.

Worst part was getting the 9'6" long boards from Home Depot to the Airbnb in a Q7!

View attachment 222589

Never a doubt you’d get-r-done?

 

[2kwik4u]

Oldest spent some time on the skimboard yesterday. He's getting really good considering her only gets to practice a few hours every summer!

 

[2kwik4u]

Well, packed and loaded for the journey home. Snapped this last night. Fingers crossed the way up is as smooth as the way down.



Another FL visit ready for the record books.

 

[2kwik4u]

HOME!

11.5hrs from St Augustine, FL to Beckley, WV. Then 7.5hrs from Beckley, WV to Orchard Park, NY.

Here's the total drive time stats. Have about 30miles and an hour added in around St. Augustine.



Had a couple of scares this afternoon. At one point, car threw a "drivetrain malfunction" warning and went into limp mode. Pulled off on shoulder and got the code reader out. Misfires are #4 and #6. I cleared the codes, restarted the car and drove the remaining 200mi home without issue. Car asked for a quart of oil as we got off the interstate here in NY, might be related, dunno.

Also, found this when I was putting the boat into the garage. Hardware on one side is still there but was completely loose. No idea what precipitated that?!?


Otherwise, as best I can tell, boat and trailer survived just fine. New bunks still don't touch the hull where the others were broken. Also, I think the water in St Augustine has more salt than Destin. Hardware on the boat looks much more corroded than the last two times I've been in the gulf. Also, the anode on the pump has some significant signs of corrosion after being in the water (intermittently with the tide issues) for a week.

Overall, I don't think I would take the boat on that trip again. We only used it a few times because of the tides. A lot of our plans were stymied because of timing of dock access. Ultimately we only went out 3 times. Might have been a few more trips if I could have taken more than 8 people. Had 12 in the house and ferrying wasn't as practical as we thought.

Lots of towing for not much water time. Not really the areas fault or the boats fault, just didn't work out. Still had a good time otherwise and glad we made the attempt with the boat.