We headed out from charleston on Wednesday at noon and soon were far enough out to sea that we had no cellular contact. As a result I wasn't able to post blogs and so made notes every day and post them here now
Day 1
After a great weekend and Monday at home joined by Ben, Tonya, Asher and Arya who had come down for Ben's book presentation at the Enoch Pratt library (which was wonderful),
I flew back to charleston Tuesday morning, arriving back at the boat by 11am.
Bruce Gregory and his friend George Healy arrived at the boat around 5 pm on Tuesday.
We had a nice dinner that evening, slept well, and made preparations to leave on Wednesday around high tide, which was at 11:30am. We checked the weather and it looks good for the entire trip!!
Bruce went to return his rental car that he had used to drive up from Florida while George and I went shopping for more provisions we regrouped by 11 and started getting ready to go
We slipped the lines at noon and headed ohut to sea.
The seas are calm, the winds light, the sun is shining. Just wonderful. We have a sail up, but the motor is going at 2700 rpm and we are doing about 6.3 knots. If we can keep this up (doubtful) we'll be in Miami by noon on Saturday
George is an excellent cook and enjoys preparing interesting dishes. He made sandwiches with cold cuts and sunny side up eggs on top for a late breakfast and at 5pm made a 5 cheese salad and chicken noodle soup for dinner
The sea is beautiful with slow rollers giving a gentle rocking. No other boats or anything around. No birds even. But lots of flies that came along for the trip
Sunset was at 5:30 and was lovely
We started 2 hour watches at 6 pm with Bruce first, George second, me third (10-12 then 4-6)
My first watch began at 10 pm immediately on coming on deck I noted a large ship off our starboard port, several miles off but headed towards us. The AIS system confirmed his direction and gave his name, but when I called the ship on the VHF radio there was no response. So I just changed course 20 degrees to port and ENT around him. He was a large car carrier and it is not at all clear why he didn't respond.
A short time later the AIS showed another large vessel headed towards us (all these ships were headed for Savannah) but he did respond to the radio and went behind us. Much more civilized
Soon after that I noted a large orange object off our port beam. I couldn't imagine what sort of ship this might be, and it didn't show on the AIS. ABOUT 10 minutes later it became clear that this was merely the rising moon. It was half full but impressively bright and it became much easier to see for the rest of the night
I had no more contacts, real or imaginary for the rest of my watch
Bruce relieved me at midnight and I lied down to get some rest
My bed while at sea is one of the settees that is set up with a lee cloth so I can't roll out when the boat heels. I wrapped myself in a sleeping bag (leaving my clothes on in case I was needed above) and slept - more or less - till 4 am when it was time for my next watch.
I had no contacts but did get to see a beautiful dawn and sunrise beginning at 5 am
Day 2
Everyone rose by 8 am and I went down to wash up, change underwear and socks, brush my teeth, shave and take my pills
By this time George had made us all his specialty sandwich of cold cuts with a sunny side egg on top all in a nice roll
We reached the Georgia- Florida border at 11am and turned left towards Cape Caneveral, 127 miles south. After that it is 170 miles to Miami. Our navigation computers are predicting a noon arrival on Saturday at dinner key marina. We'll see
Last night was much like the night before, but the temperature was up (70 degrees all night), the wind calmer, and the contacts fewer (one cruise ship all light up, with a friendly captain)
Clouds began forming by daybreak, the winds built to 15 - 20 and seas became a little tougher. After an initial attempt to sail we went back to motor-sailing to maintain our expected mid-day arrival at Dinner Key on Saturday (tomorrow)
George made another superb breakfast (turkey sausage and scrambled eggs) after which Bruce and George turned in for a nap and I kept the helm (which means the autopilots tears the boat while I huddle under the dodger)
Day 3
We closed the Florida coast near Vero beach and turned south at 5 miles out, paralleling the coast. Before we turned it was windy and rolly, after the turn it appeared calmer, in part because the wind was now behind us and in past because the front was turning north while we were heading south. In any event it was appreciated
At the rate we are going - 6.5 knots we'll be in dinner key before noon tomorrow (Saturday)
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