savannah to lake worth

[garryod56]

good morning,
i fractured my left arm helping a fellow yachtsman and am leaving my hurricane berth one month later than anticipated.
i intend to set sail on saturday morning.
50' ketch-6' draft-73' mast -singlehanding.
as i do not wish to unduly stress left arm i wish to try and sail outside to lake worth in a series of daytrips eg 7am to 5pm.would anticipate average speed of 6.5 kn so say 70 nm per day.
i am from europe and would appreciate any routing advice using safe inlets.
thank you.
garryod56

[imagine2frolic]

I think you need to get some ICW charts,

[Chuck Baier]

You are not going to find day hops along the Florida coast for your vessel. From Savanna the next inlet is St. Mary's Georgia. The next inlet south you can use will be Port Canaveral, and from there probably Lake Worth. Your mast will be a problem and some inlets you can use will have bridges you can not transit once inside and no place to anchor. You need to get good charts for the area with bridge clearances on the ICW. Many inlets along that coast look good but in reality are too shallow to enter.

[imagine2frolic]

and rethink your situation. There will be someplaces you can enter the ICW, and some you won't be able to. The mast is not going to allow you to do the ICW. 65FT. is the standard bridge that is fixed.

You can anchor inside Jacksonville, St. Augustine is questionable, Daytona (Ponce Inlet) for sure, I don't know about the Cape, but I think that's it until West Palm

[Vasco]

From Savannah your next stop would be St. Marys River. You can anchor there at Fernandina Beach or up the river a bit at Cumberland Island. From there the next stop could be St. Augustine, anchor north of the bridge. Next Ponce Inlet, I'm not familiar with the anchorages here. Next stop, Canaveral. You can anchor west of the lock. Once you get through the lock you can anchor north or south of the lock. There is no anchorage east of the lock. Ft. Pierce is next and you might find anchoring room north on the ICW, just south of the bridge or by the islets approaching the ICW. There's a good anchorage south but your mast is too high. Next stop, Lake Worth. Of all these inlets, Ponce is the trickiest. Get some inlet charts and call Seatow or TowboatUS for local knowledge.

[camaraderie]

Chuck/Vasco...you missed St. Simon's Island Inlet before the St. Mary's. It is a fine inlet in most weather but the markers once inside the inlet to change around a bit. Last time through I had to hug the north side of the inlet. Golden Isles Marina is just north of the inlet and there is also a small anchorage directly south of the marina.
St. Mary's is then a short days sail.
Strongly recommend getting a copy of Dodge's Guide to SE US Inlets which has waypoints and directions and chartlets and pictures of each navigable inlet.
In order north to south after St. Mary's River...the sailboat navigable inlets on the Florida coast are the St. Johns River (JacksonvilleBeach), St.Augustine, Ponce Inlet, Cape Canaveral, Ft.Pierce, Jupiter, Lake Worth, Lauderdale, Miami.
Of these...I would eliminate St. Augustine, Ponce and Jupiter as bad weather choices to try to put in to. The others are fine in most weather though attention must be paid to tidal current vs. wind in the St. John's and Ft. Pierce particularly.

[SCCatSailor]

I've also used both St. Catherine's Inlet and Sapelo Sound in good weather. There are decent anchorages behind St. Catherine's Island, and I think it's about 50 miles or so to St. Mary's inlet from there.

[Chuck Baier]

Originally Posted by SCCatSailor

I've also used both St. Catherine's Inlet and Sapelo Sound in good weather. There are decent anchorages behind St. Catherine's Island, and I think it's about 50 miles or so to St. Mary's inlet from there.

Looks like you have a cat so doubt your draft is 6 feet. Draft and mast height is his big consideration.

[SCCatSailor]

I noted his draft in his original post; that's why I left out a couple of other inlets I've used. The two I mentioned could accomodate a 6 foot draft in settled weather. As to the mast height, there are no overhead obstacles at these inlets, and it was already made clear that he couldn't use the ICW. The point of using any inlets was as an overnight stopping point on his way south.

[djmarchand]

Go to NOAA to view NOAA charts. As others have noted St Marys, St Augustine, Cape Canaveral and Ft Pierce are all weather inlets that have no bridges or only bascule bridge blocking your progress.

David