Three blogs in three days! But this third blog brings our travels up-to-date and is posted from our current location of Mayport, FL, twenty miles from Jacksonville.
Larry's log of our crossing:
Saturday morning, May 16, Sea Dancer, Southern Estates and Solar Eclipse leave just ahead of us as we all go west across the Abacos and the Little Bahama Bank. With a light wind at our backs, we motor sail. Late in the afternoon, our friends turn southwest to stop at an anchorage by the Mangrove waypoint for a couple hours of rest and then sail on to Ft. Pierce, FL, while Paula and I keep going west for we are going to Brunswick, GA to work on our boat. Doug on Solar Eclipse, had recommended someone there to help us with some of the work.
Around midnight, we entered the Atlantic and headed into the Gulf Stream. The wind was light and the seas were 2-3 feet, very comfortable conditions. We angled our direction so that we would be in the Gulf Stream for as long as possible, letting it push us along. We were 50-60 miles off shore. We would leave the Stream as we headed toward the Ponce de Leon to spend Sunday night in Daytona Beach. The wind continued to be light, and even with the Gulf Stream current, our progress was not as good as I had planned, and making the Ponce de Leon inlet before dark was not looking good. I avoid going into an unfamiliar inlet at night. Paula suggested we go in at Cape Canaveral, but it was still early in the day. I said, "Let's just sail on to Georgia; we can make it before the bad weather and we will be there." Big Mistake! We continued to go with the Stream for a while, but then angled away from it; we needed to get out of it as the front, and possible north wind, approached. Counter current, eddie, I don't know! Here comes the wind, rain, lightning and we are going very slow. By morning winds are in the 30's, and up to 40 knots. The seas are building larger and the swells were too. We are going so slow that we can't make the Brunswick inlet (40 nautical miles away) by nightfall. Paula said it seemed as if we were in slow motion as we watched the boat travel the waves and swells so expertly. We decided to turn toward St. Mary's inlet (20 nautical miles due west) on the Georgia/Florida border. I build up some nerve to make the turn and three big waves pass and then a smaller one that I turn on top of. I don't believe it. We are going 8 knots with 3 reefs in our mainsail with no staysail or jib up. We were going 2 knots before we turned. I don't like the angle of the waves going to the St. Mary's inlet, so we turn just a few degrees to port and go to the Jacksonville, Florida inlet on the St. Johns River. A pod of dolphins joined us for an hour, adding a bit of sunshine to a rainy, windy day.
We stopped at the first marina we came to, which is in Mayport. The marina is being remodeled, so we are tied up on the outside of the only dock left and have had sustained 40 to 50 knot wind and 10 inches of rain. We have 8 docks lines on and every fender that we have plus a few from the marina. We are in the process of replacing our voltage regulator, which was apparently hit by lightning, though we never saw it happen. Our wind generator also is not working and was probably also hit, but we'll have that checked later.
We were never in any danger of anything happening to us, but weather service, such as Chris Parker (a former sailboat cruiser) weather reports, are so good these days that you do not need to get into bad weather while cruising and be uncomfortable at sea. Although it was kind of fun!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Larry and Paula, while in Brunswick, watch for "Sol Y Mar" - a 45 ft Beneteau to arrive in the next week or so. They are currently in the Exumas but heading there fast. Onboard is Pat and Dory Colvin. They are from Ft. Worth and were on Texoma for many years and our boat neighbors. They are just wrapping up 8 years of cruising and settling down in Brunswick. Very Good people and a wealth of cruising knowledge. Tell them David & Lori said "Hi".
Post a Comment