Last night we had gone fairly far out in the ocean to get around Frying Pan Shoals which we passed around midnight and then spent the rest of the night and morning aiming towards the vicinity of Charleston, which we passed around noontime. We want to get closer to shore to stay inside of the gulf stream which is flowing north at about 4 knots. We will turn south near Charleston, aiming towards St Augustine where we will turn south East towards Cape Canaveral, again staying close to shore. Fort Pierce is then beyond the cape
While I was sleeping this morning between 6 and 8 am several dolphins joined us and frolicked araound the boat for a while before taking their leave. I missed them, but did appreciate the long nap
Sure enough, around 10:30 this morning, while we were having brunch (scrambled eggs, cheese, bell peppers cooked exceedingly well by Drew) a small pod of dolphins came to visit, stayed for a few minutes and then left, presumably to find more interesting people or better food (we didn’t feed them)
They came a third time in the afternoon and this time Adam went up to the bow, hung over the anchor, and got great video of a group of 5 dolphins playing around the bow. Sadly this blogging software doesn’t let me include videos so here are some stills I took
We spent the rest of the day motoring down the South Carolina coast and on into Georgia waters. We saw few other boats and actually nothing except the dolphins kept us company this day
The day turned cloudy suggesting showers this evening (as predicted). The predictions are also for decreasing winds which will turn onto our nose by Thursday, more motoring and less sailing may be in our future
In fact the rains held off till about 9pm and happily there was no associated lightening or significant winds. Wrapped up in the cockpit enclosure no one even got wet!
With the experience of my prior trips to Florida, without an enclosure I had brought along a full set of foul weather gear - jackets (3 actually, of different weights and insulation), waterproof pant/bib set, boots, watch cap....all unnecessary as we sat warm and dry as a bug in a rug in the cozy enclosure. Even the heater on which Drew worked so hard to fix for the ocean leg of the voyage has not been needed and in fact an air conditioner would be more useful just now!
I saw no boats during my watch (which makes me worry that they were there but I just didn’t see them, but they didn’t show up on radar either)
On his watch Drew interacted with a large boat that eventually passed astern and then with a Coast Guard cutter towing a vessel that asked Drew to change course to be certain we would not collide. It worked out well
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