Lots of miles in 50 hours

Magnificent, but omious Sunrise
Remember that old saying:
"Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning!"  

 Up at 6 just as the skies were lightening.  Watched a beautiful sunrise as we upped anchor at 6:35 and were underway by 6:40 am.  Several Sport Fishing boats passed us heading out for the day.  We caught the outgoing tide, which made for a quick ride to the Atlantic. 

Current departing Charleston Harbor

     Pete plotted our course and place the weigh points; one for about 30 miles off Fernandina Beach (ICW Entry point on the St. Mary’s River: Georgia to the north and Florida to the south of the River), and the second one for Cape Canaveral Canal. By following this route, we should (hopefully) avoid the Gulf Stream. It is hard to head south with a strong current pulling the boat north!  Just being near it, we could encounter strong eddies that would slow us down and make steering much more difficult. We had also checked the weather numerous times.  Partly cloudy, winds SSW at 10 mph, clocking around at around 1 AM to NNW at 15 mph.  Sounds Good. We should have been able to sail a good part of the time.

Catching a few Zzz's early

     We were able to find a buddy boat, SV WHAT’S NEXT.  Jeanne, Brett, her sister, Suzanne and Marley, their furry companion, jumped 2 days ago from Beauford, NC and were heading to Fernandina Beach.  We checked in every hour and exchanged positions. 

Sunset though the salt sprayed windows

     Remember that nice forecast?  Well. . .It didn’t quite live up to predictions.  In daylight, skies were cloudy and the winds were light.  We were able to add speed by adding the sails.  The SSW winds were only a few points off our nose.  It created a confused chop of 2-4 feet, similar to what we see periodically on the Chesapeake Bay. After a few hours, we took down the sails because the heeling made the steering much more difficult. The boat would come off a wave and quickly pitch to the side. The skies cleared somewhat around 10 pm and we had the half-moon illuminating our way.

     After midnight, the winds shifted directions in a very short time and continued to increase.  Stronger winds equal larger waves. The ride became increasingly rough. At one point, Pete went below and as he reached for a hand grab, the boat pitched and he went down.  Thankfully, nothing serious, but he will be sore tomorrow.

     The moon set close to 2 AM and the stars could be seen through the high clouds.  Even with the haze, the stars were amazing.  By 2:30 AM, our radar stopped functioning. Starlight is not enough to see things in the dark. Now both of us are constantly checking the 360-degree horizon for any lights that could mean a ship might be heading towards us. Thankfully, WHAT’S NEXT has radar and AIS and when something was seen, they would check.  One cargo ship pass in the distance, but we needed to speak with the tug towing barges to pass port to port.

Sunrise over waves that belie their 6-10 foot height

A relaxed day sailor on St Mary's River

Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Beach      

A great way to empty extra fuel tanks

     By sunrise, Pete made the decision to head into Fernandina Beach. Without radar, we can’t do any night traveling.  WHAT’S NEXT will be heading to Amelia Island marina, while we will drop anchor in St Mary’s River on the Georgia side. We anchored off of Cumberland Island before lunch. Cumberland Island looks beautiful, but we will not be exploring it today. After lunch, we put all the things away that shifted, or fell out of place. Washed all the dishes, which couldn’t be washed while in such rough seas. Pete replaced the shower pump, which also died. (WOO HOO! Showers tonight!!!) We transferred fuel from the cans stored on deck. A couple of years ago, Pete found a wonderful syphoning device. A brass ball and fitting, which is connected to a tube, gets agitated, creating a syphon and pulls the fuel up into the tube, which is already placed into the fuel tank. We picked up a 15-foot length of tube and attached the brass fitting to it.  Now, Pete doesn’t have to remove the tanks from the rail. The tube reaches from the cans to the tank. Simply ingenious! Since we once again had phone service, we also caught up on emails, voice mails, and phone calls.

     I could no longer function, so I caught a 90-minute nap before dinner.  Pete opted to stay awake until after dinner. Between us, I don’t think we totaled more than 3 hours sleep.  Needless to say, we were in bed by 8 and asleep, probably by 8:10.

     We had planned to spend 53 hours on the Atlantic covering the 430 miles from Charleston to the Cape Canaveral Canal. Catch up on sleep Friday. Then jump back out from Cape Canaveral, spend 18 hours covering the remaining 123 miles to the Lake Worth Inlet by Sunday. Instead, we only covered 248 miles in 32.5 hours with our decision to enter here near Fernandina. We know we made the right choice, but now our journey will be longer. We need return to Delray to pick up Bailey before completing our trip.

~ ~ ~ /) ~~  K & P