Robert and I did a little provisioning, getting some of the essentials for ocean voyaging...cold cuts, some cheese, some crackers
Tuesday morning, Nov 3 was rainy, cold and a bit blustery but we cast off at 7:30 am, aided by our good friends Hayden and Radeen
Off we went into the cold and dreary morning.
We passed Fort Sumter on the way out..its a share the city or federal government hasn't invested anything in restoring what is now a burnt out hull
It soon cleared, the temperature rose, but the wind died and we motored on through the day and night, logging 155 miles that first 24 hour period.
The watch Robert favors at night is 3 hours on, 3 hours off, which is too long to watch and too short to sleep...so its a good compromise...there really is no good watch schedule for just two people.
By morning we were off Jacksonville and turned south towards Miami. The main determinant of our route is the gulf stream and the strategy is to maximize speed and minimize total distance travelling. I purchased route and weather planning from Chris Parker, a well known (in eastern seabord cruising circles as an excellent weatherman.
He did get the route perfect for us, as we had no adverse currents during the entire trip, but the weather prediction, especially as regards the strength and direction of the wind was entirely wrong for the latter two days of the trip. It ended up being on the nose for the second of our three days and much stronger (15 -22 as compared to the predicted 5 - 10 knots...the wind strength and direction led to a bumpy ride for the latter two days.
On Wednesday eveining the wind was on our nose (not on our beam) and the wind induced waves were also on our nose from Jacksonville to Cape Canaveral. The boat was "hobby horsing" all through the night, making precious little headway.
Around 5am Thursday morning we passed the Cape and turned more westerly, putting both the wind and the waves on our beam. On the one hand we were finally able to sail, but on the other hand we had traded the up and down hobby horsing for a side to side rolling ride....Its hard to decide which was worse.
On Thursday the skys were lcear and the weather warm...actually it was hot and humid, but it wasn't raining and we were making good time again.
We were joined by dolphins through much of the day which was fun to watch
The night was clear but the wind got stronger (gusting into the 20's) we sailed for a while but then we put in some reefs and ran the motor (slowly). One nice thing was the boom brake that I had installed last year worked wonderfully, holding the boom tight against the main sheet controlling the main regardless of the wind strength and direction.
There were several exciting moments passing some of the inlets as impressively large boats came in and out. Passing Lake Worth inlet an large mostly unlit cargo ship steamed out of the inlet, which I saw on both the AIS and the radar, but I couldn't see it againsts all the lights of the shoreline. I radioed the captain (AIS provided the name of the boat) and asked if he saw me. He responded by turning on all his lights and suddenly an enormous brightly light structure loomed right in front of me!. I made a shart irght (starboard) turn, barely missing an embarrasing (and dangerous) collision. I was no longer sleepy the rest of that night!
Several squalls passed during the night...they are kind of fun to watch on radar, and the ones that missed us were the most fun.
As tye sun rose on Friday we were off South Beach rushing toward Government cut, the inlet for Miami.
Coincidentally a large cruise ship was entering the inlet at the same time and we stopped tp l;et oiit pass.
But soon it was on to Miami snd through its harbor to Biscayne Bay and the Dinner Key Marina...the end of an almost one month voyage.
