Day 3..making miles in the Gulf Stream

Day Three

Well, at around 4 this morning (Monday morning) the wind finally clicked around to the southeast. Unfortunately, it also died. 

Beginning at around 11pm of the first day (Saturday..it's getting hard for me to remember what day it is out here in the ocean, so I keep stating the obvious) we had been sailing, only using the engine twice a day for about an hour to charge the batteries. That ended at 4 this morning. It was great while it lasted. At one point early Sunday morning the wind started gusting into the low 20's on a beam reach. I was doing 11 knots - 7 knots by sail and a 4 knot current as a boost..awesome

Today is bright, sunny,warm, and no wind, so we are motoring to Moorhead city (twin city with Beaufort, NC. We expect to get there tomorrow (Tuesday evening..see, there I go again) sometime between 6 and 8 pm. We'll pull into a marina for the night and then off at first light for the Pungo river (up Adam's Creek, across Pimlico Sound, and then up the Pungo to a marina near the entrance to the Alligator-Pungo canal (a 28 mile long narrow canal with no place to stop or pull-over. Then up the Alligator river to the Albemarle sound the up the Elizabeth river to Coinjock, home of the 33oz prime rib. Can't wait!!

Notice in the photo how flat the ocean is today.. And how empty. We have no company excepting some flying fish which come sailing by from time to time

If take more pictures, but they'd all look like the first one

I'll see ifI can catch a photo of a flying fish, but it's doubtful

Nope, no fish. Ah well

Day 2...on the high seas

It's 1:45 of the second day at sea, enroute to morehead city. We are sailing now (engine is off) heading due north with winds at 15 knots from the East - a beam reach. We are doing over 9 knots, in part because we are in the Gulf Stream which adds 3-4 knots to our speed. To maximize this effect we are on a route suggested by Jenifer Clarke who sent me the coordinates on Friday. So far it has worked out as predicted. If this keeps up we won't have to stop for fuel till Beaufort

We are about 50 miles off shore so no cell phone or internet connectivity. I'm writing this draft using a program called iawriter on my cellphone as I decline in the cockpit. Robert just went down to take a nap. I had mine earlier

Last night was cold and windy. Up to 23 knots, and to be honest being on watch was not a lot of fun. But today is beautiful..sunny, warm, nice 15 knot breeze. Hope it stays this way. 

Had an accident this morning. I was making coffee, pouring hot water through a filter cone with ground into a thermos when the boat lurched and I went flying. I let go of the tea kettle but foolishly held onto the filter. Coffee grounds and hot water every, and unfortunately a little bit on my ankle, raising a small blister. I cleaned up everything, then put some neosporin on my ankle. A bit later Robert, who was a podiatrist suggested a bandage with some Aloe and so that's what I have now. I'll change the bandage in the morning and perhaps add more neosporin to the mix

My seasickness has faded but I still don't have much appetite. It will be soup and crackers for dinner

I'll have to wait to post this till we get closer to land. Probably Tuesday

almost ready

Today was all about getting ready. 

Tidied up the boat. Stowed most of the loose stuff, Tied up the Fortress anchor at the bow (coming down I had stowed it in the forecabin, but this time I hope to sleep there). but I did stow the folding bike in the forecabin bed next to me...not the best sleeping companion, but what can I do...

Robert Brown showed up around 10:30am. we stowed his gear and then went off to Publix (he still had his rental car) to buy provisions...way overstocked...it will be a challenge to get through even half the provisions...we'll eat well in Baltimore!!

Returned the car, had a nice lunch in Monty's, then back to the boat to finish up. Got vital information about the gulf stream from Jenifer Clark and weather information from her husband Dane Clark...both predicting good news and great directions about where to find the best current to speed us on our way....hoping it works out...we'll see tomorrow.

The current plan is to leave around daylight in the morning, move as fast as we can and hope to get to Beaufort by Tuesday morning then just keep moving across Pimlico sound and up the Pungo river to Dawry creek by end of day Tuesday. Then through the Alligator-Pungo canal, across the Albemarle sound and up the Elizabeth river to Coijnock...

Coinjock, as you'll remember is where they have the fantastic 33oz Prime Rib dinner that I've been lusting after I first had it 3 years ago...As wonderful as it was going down the Dismal Swamp last fall, a serious problem with that route is that it by passed Coinjock...That failing will be remedied on this trip!

OK..pictures tomorrow...I promise!

Coming home

and so begins the trip back home!

I flew down to Miami today to begin (finalize actually) preparations for the trip home. Robert Brown, a delivery captain strongly recommended by Alecia Bittner (he helped Dan bring their boat "Far Niente" to Baltimore) will be joining me tomorrow. We will make a run to Publix to by provisions and then we'll start out - probably Saturday morning.

The route, which again you can follow by clicking on the "Click Here" button to the right of this column,  will start with an offshore sail from Coconut Grove to Morehead City/Beaufort, NC. It should take ~3 days if we get reasonable winds (predicted 10-15 from the east) and a boost from the Gulf Stream (as much as 3 knots if we are luck). Its about 600 miles and at 8 - 9  knots should take 66-75 hours..but we'll see.

Then its up the ICW to Norfolk, then up the Chesapeake to Baltimore...I'm lookig forward to seeing some of  the places we passed on the way down, but hopefully with much warmer weather..again, we'll see.

I'll try to take lots of pictures of the sights along the way and relate interesting features of the trip.

To start, I'll tell you about my flight down this morning...things were going along well when with about 45 minutes to go before landing in Ft Lauderdale there was a call "is there a Doctor on Board". 4 of us answered the call. Turns out there was a lady near the front of  the plane how was unconscious. She had a thready pulsae, looked ashen, was unresponsive..we dragged her to the front of the plane, lied here down, took her pressure and it was about 65 systolic. breath sounds were difficult to hear. She had a broncoscopy a week ago (her sister traveling with her gave that history) and so we worried about a pneumothorax. We listened for breath sounds again and convinced outselves there were sounds on both sides. Ampng the docs were an interventional cardiologist, a general surgeon, a urologist and me. The surgeon put an IV in and we started running fluids. her legs were elevated, she was given oxygen by mask (I was really impressed how equipped the plane was...we could have done surgery if we felt like it)....she started coming around...the cardiologist yelled for the pilot to land the plane immediately...luckily he responded that the nearest airport was Ft Lauderdale, now about 1/2 hour away...by this time she was groggy but responsive and so we sat her up, seat belted her in and the cardiologist and surgeon sat next to her. 

We landed without further incident, paramedics came aboard and took her off and the rest of us passengers deplaned. The stewardi were effusive with their thanks and gave us drink tickets (one each!) and a few bags of peanuts...hey...it was Southwest....On the way out I saw her in a wheelchair, talking to the paramedics and she looked fine.

Ended up being a nice way to start the trip home

Home again, home again

Some final thoughts

The trip was wonderful in all respects and the end is bittersweet..I'm glad to be back but already missing the voyage. 

I found that i enjoyed the ICW part more than the ocean part, and i believe it was becauseon leaving Charleston I felt a pressure to get to Miami as soon as possible. The most important lesson I learned is that this is all about the voyage, not the destination and I can't enjoy it if I feel I have to be someplace at some time....The next time I"m offshore I'll try and make it a point to forget about where I have to be an enjoy the moment...The negative of that however is that  more time spent offshore increases the odds of bad weather which is at best tiring and uncomfortable...so perhaps, at least for coastal travel, the right thing is to simply stay on the intracoastal!
We'll see.

The Dinner Key Marina is excellent. It is a well designed, well maintained facility (especially considering that it is a city run facility)  the staff is helpful and neighbors on the surrounding boats are friendly

The Marina has two parts. 

One part has over 300 slips, all of good size, with wide piers and very wide fairways that make it easy to maneuver

Notice the Miami skyline in the distance

The other part is a mooring field, with over 300 mooring balls

The mooring field at sunset, taken along the path as I walked to dinner in Coconut Grove

Mooring is cheaper, with more privacy but you have to dinghy ashore. Slips are more expensive with less privacy, but you can just walk down the dock to town or to the bath house. 

There is a "Fresh Produce" supermarket located 10 minutes from the Marina by foot. It much resembles a "Whole Foods"

Molli and I are going to Madison for thanksgiving and then to Miami on December 11 for the weekend and again on December 29 for a week. I'm anxious to get back to the boat

Coming to Miami

By evening the wind picked up to 15 knots out of the west (it had been predicted to be from the Northeast) but this was fine. The seas settled and we were able to motor sail at 6.5-7 knots

After midnight we encountered the western fringes of the Gulf Stream and we had as much as 2 knots against us, which meant we might not make Dinner Key till after dark... Not good. So we hoisted all sails which helped a little, but we were only doing 5.3 knots. I finally decided to come in closer to shore and had to go to about 500 feet off the beach till we were out of the Gulf Stream and could achieve speeds of over 6.5 knots!! I could almost peak in the windows of the condo's we were passing!!

Views of Miami 

More Miami

South Beach. You can almost make out Loews hotel in the middle

We finally made "Government Cut", then internists Miami, motored past Smith and Wilensky, past downtown Miami,  and then into Biscayne Bay

We stopped for fuel at Crandon Park, a small marina, and to my amazement we took 78 gallons. The tank holds 85 gallons and I figured we were one or two gallons shy of that when we left Charleston  so we had maybe 5 gallons left in the tank!!  Now I had two 5 gallon jugs of diesel in the lazerettes and if we had run out we could have refilled, but bum glad we made not. Going forward I will  raise my estimate of fuel usage to 1 gallon per hourl rather than the 0.8 I had been assuming. 

It was another 25 minutes across the Bay to Dinner Key and we got our slip assignment (pier 6, slip 40). I backed in because they have short docks and it makes it easier to get on and off the boat. Backing in was easier with the bow thruster I had added in the spring

We had a "good By" dinner at the Chart House restaurant next door to the Marina and the Bruce and George drove off in their rental car to drive back to New Jersey. I was alone again

This morning I cleaned the boat inside and out, mopping every surface and putting things away. It needed it

I then took a 15 minute walk into Coconut Grove, dropped off the satellite phone and GPIRB location beacon I had rented at the FEDEX to be shipped back  I then found a nice outdoor cafe for lunch (there are many in the Grove). It was 80 degrees so i took an outdoor table to enjoy the weather and the nice people walking by and then. After lunch I wandered around -!its a really neat place - and the stopped for a Gelato.  I may never leave this place

To get to Coconut Grove from the boat you just walk up the dock,!turnnleft along thenwaterbpast the mooring field, then ontobBayshorebdrivebtobMarybstreet which brings you to the corner of. Grand avenue and Main Street which is the center of town  there is a Cheesecake Factory restaurant at that corner, but if you walk down either street you pass many nice outdoor cafes which are more pleasant. The total walk is about 15-20 minutes

I'm gonna love it here

On the high seas - Charleston to Miami

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. 

Bruce

George

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.  

Leaving Charleston

Fishing boat coming in to Charleston

Fort Sumter

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

The Florida coast

At the rate we are going - 6.5 knots we'll be in dinner key before noon tomorrow (Saturday)