Fort Pierce, Florida

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The trip from St-Marys to Fort Pierce was rather uneventful compared with some of our other night ventures, but it certainly did have some moments. We left St Marys close to 5 am Saturday morning in order to be washed out with the rather strong tide and to reach our destination of Fort Pierce in daylight the next day. It was a calm, cold dark morning. While Marty slowly weaved his way out along the snaking St Marys river, I looked for the unlit channel markers and the little yellow or white specs dotting the water so as to not get snagged in the crab traps below. After what seemed like a really long time in the bitter north wind we finally came out to big water and big channels and I came back to the protection of the cockpit to continue my watch of the water. Just as we were about to pass Cumberland Island and put up the sail, the motor lurched and spit out extra nasty smelling smoke. Marty cut the throttle right away, then after a few moments tried to slowly raise it- motor still sounded strange. We quickly cut the throttle again and pulled out the head sail. We presumed we had somehow snagged a crab trap, even though we were now in the big channel and there shoul not be any there at all. It felt like there was something wrapped around the propelor. The good news was that the wind was favourable for us to sail into Fernandina Beach to get help. When we were all ready to make a landing and almost lined up with the channel to Fernandina Beach we decided to try the motor one last time....... up, up, up and still no noise, resistance or bad smell. Cautiously we kept going, easing the motor back up to our required RMP and still no issues. Whatever was stuck seemed to have dislodged itself. We decided to take a chance and keep going, and we sailed past Amelia Island and out to sea with no further issues.

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Comments

[CATHIAMOA]

GOOD!