Anytime I know we have an early wake up call, I usually beat the alarm. Today was no exception. I woke at 5 to a brilliant, star studded night and couldn’t get back to sleep so I just relaxed and watched the stars slowly disappear. The alarm went off at 6:20; by 7 the anchors were up, we were underway and the sun was beginning it assent.
Shortly after noon all three boats were visited by a small pod of dolphins. They played in the surge and alongside each of the boats. I will have to wait until I download the pictures onto the computer to see if I was able to get any good shots of them jumping. 
They were not our only nature visitors today. While Pete was preparing to add the two jerry cans of diesel into our tank, a small yellow and brown bird almost landed on his side of the boat, even though we were a good 80 miles from land. Apparently, she did the next best thing . . . she headed over to Andiamo and went down below. Once John opened a hatch, she continued on to visit Brunelle, where she apparently met up with her mate. Then it was back to Andiamo then to Pekabu. At first, the bird explored all around. I managed to close the hatch leading below just as a safety. We saw him fly off the rear of the boat, but heard a chirping sound after he had left. Soon we had a pair of birds wandering around the cockpit. One even landed on Pete’s leg and left a deposit. Even though we had put out a dish of water, neither took a drink. Soon they both wandered towards the bow then flew off. No one else reported their return. I hope they made their final destination.  |
| Betty took this picture of Pekabu |
The chores that must be completed with us returning to the states is the placement of the DTOPS sticker for immigration. We put that on the boat today. We will call Immigration when we get into port on Tuesday. Pete thinks, and I agree that there is probably a radio isotope in the sticker that enables tracking so they will know when we reach port. Secondly, we need to use up any fruits and veggies before we make the states; otherwise they need to be dumped overboard before as a precaution. Thankfully, only 1 onion and some lettuce, that was in the back of the fridge and past its prime, went overboard. Everything else will be gone by noon tomorrow. Lastly, we will change out our Bahamian courtesy flag for the “Q” flag tomorrow before entering the Florida.
Since we were taking a diagonal route up the gulf steam, it took a long while before we felt the full affects of the stream; when we did, at one point we hit 12 knots! For most of our time in the fastest part of the stream we were averaging about 8.5 knots. We were a bit surprised when the winds increased around midnight to close to 20 from the SW. With it being so dark and in the gulf stream, the boats started cork screwing. Everyone throttled back so the boats were more manageable. Through the night the handy little walkie talkies kept everyone in touch comfortably. Around 3 AM large ship passed very close by. Working with him, our fleet modified our course.
Pete, knowing that this would be a more challenging night crossing, could not sleep. I was able to grab some sack time. As soon as daylight came, he slept for about two and a half hours on the floor of the cabin while I had the helm. He was covered with salt spray and just too tired to do anything about it. I was afraid to make any changes that might wake him. He is so in tune to the sounds of the boat, a pitch change in the engine or the turn of a winch. Thankfully, I was able to make subtle changes without him being aware.
When he woke, we were able to shut down the engine and just sail for about 2 hours to conserve fuel. We appeared to have less than a quarter of a tank, which should get us to St. Agustine, providing the reading is valid once we return to our horizontal position from the healed, sailing position, which we had at for the past 6 hours. Brunelle has the jerry can of fuel they won’t need to make St. Augustine, but the trick will be the transfer. The other fly in the ointment was the weather forecast. Andiamo had reported that the storms predicted for this evening for the St. Augustine area were now predicted all day. Since about 10 AM, we have been watching the clouds gathering.
We don’t have the speed of Brunelle and Andiamo, so we asked them to go ahead and we will meet them at the marina. A short time later, they radioed back that we would shortly be entering a squall. We were already in the process of downing sails and preparing as we had seen the signs. “Pointing into the storm” was also our heading so we continued to make headway. Shortly after we were back into calm waters and sunshine.
Entry into St. Augustine Inlet was much different than ours last fall. The waters were calm and the current was with us. We stayed close to the red markers, per Jay Bliss’s directions and had nothing less than 15 feet of water. We were secured in our dock at Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor by 3:30 PM. We were able to fuel up right in our dock. Pete filled until the first “burp” at 34.5 gallons. He thinks it probably could have taken more, but was too tired to try. (He originally estimate was 38 gallons.)
Some quick, necessary chores, showers then Pete was asleep. Neither of us had any desire for dinner. I was able to shower and do laundry up at the marina office, then I, too, crashed and burned.
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| Brunelle as she looked yesterday morning leaving Lilly Sand Banks. It will take a few days to realize we really sailed away from such a beautiful place. |
The past 7 weeks went by far too quickly; so did the past 5 months! Another month . . . well, I think will think about that another time.
~ ~ (\_~ ~ ~ Kathy and Pete
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