At 11:00 GMT, we weighed anchor and headed towards the St. Mary's inlet on our way to West Palm Beach. It was a stressful trip for several reasons. I had plotted the course out of Fernindina Beach to close to the buoys that Mike was steering to. It was also foggy and smoky from the paper mills. However, we made it out with no problems just as the sun broke the horizon.
As we were leaving the St. Mary's River a fishing boat with nets out came up behind us. We attempted to call him on the VHF. He was not maintaining a proper radio watch; of course he did not answer us. At 11:58 GMT, we sighted dolphins at the end of the jetty to the St. Mary's inlet.
At 12: 19 G M T, a courteous fishermen waited outside the channel for us to pass by before he continued on across the channel with his nets out. At 12: 30 GMT, we made our turn south. We had east to southeast winds, and 2 to 3 foot swells.
Mike and I have found that three hours on, three hours off watch rotation works well for us when we are under way. During the day, we relax the schedule somewhat. Occasionally if we are feeling up to it, we will extend our night watches as well.
Today we ate real food under way. For breakfast I made cinnamon buns. Of course, they were out of the can and simple to make. After breakfast, we saw Dolphins playing in the waves everywhere. Then, I went below to sleep.
At 17:00 GMT, I got up and fixed us hamburgers for lunch. After lunch, Mike sacked out while I stood watch. At 19:50 GMT, Mike was once again up, and we saw a sea turtle getting a suntan. We turned to avoid the sea turtle, and just as Mike tried to take a picture of him, he became camera shy and dove underwater. Mike still isn't sure he got the picture. We won't know until we get the film developed.
With Mike awake and on watch, I headed below to sleep again.
At 20:50 GMT, we saw dolphins! They also saw us! They made a beeline for our bow wake. Mike asked me if I wanted to go see the dolphins. We moved our tethers down into the forward jack lines keeping tethered in the entire time. Mike went forward port, I went forward starboard. We met at the bow and watched dolphins play for 20 minutes. They would jump out of the water, do 360 degree roles, and occasionally they would roll on their sides and watch us. We need to see how these pictures turn out also.
At 22:00 GMT, I headed below to fix dinner. We were going to have stew. I was inspired by Mona on Mutual Fun. During their aborted trip to Bermuda, she fixed stew several times in near gale force the conditions. I fixed stew in two to three foot swells, and eight knot winds.
After dinner, I headed below to get some sleep. At 22:48 GMT, Mike saw a single dolphin leaping out of the water several times about four feet off our starboard side. He received a private show.
At 02:00 GMT, December 21, I came on watch to winds that were good for sailing. I let the jib out further. The wind, noting that I had put the jib out further, promptly changed directions. So I put the jib back in, not completely, but enough so that it was sheeted in tightly.
At 05:00 GMT, Mike came on watch just as I was about to let the jib out again. He told me that he preferred the jib left where it was because it was night and the probability for squalls was high. Besides, common theory states that you should reduce sails at night.
Shortly after I went below, the first squall hit. Winds gusted to 24 knots; Mike was very happy that I had not put the jib out further. In fact, when I came back on watch, Mike repeated this incident to me, and made me repeat, "At night, we reduced sail. "
I had about two hours of quiet on my watch before the next set of squalls hit. I noted a darkening of this sky forward, so I set the radar to view atmospheric conditions. I saw two heavy lines of squalls directly in our path. If I altered course to 164 degrees, from 175 degrees, we would pass between the two squall lines. I went below and set the port radar to view atmospheric conditions, altered course, and made a note in the log about what I had done. Mike woke up just as we were hitting the edge of the squall line and approved of my course of action.
After a magnificent sunrise, I went below to get some sleep. Little did I know that this would be the last relatively smooth portion of our trip. I woke up at 13:00 GMT to Mike talking to Eric on Ehlissia. They figured that they would give us a call on the VHF to see if we were nearby. They were located in Vero Beach.
Shortly after I woke up, the seas moved solidly into the 4 ft. swell and chop range. There was also an occasional rogue of six plus feet. By this time Mike felt that it was too rough for him to get any sleep. So together we navigated the seas with multiple "Bell ringers" and many "Hold ons." The boat, of course, performed beautifully. Our nerves, and stomachs, on the other hand, were a tad bit frayed
When we reached the inlet it was my job to bring us in. I have shot this inlet several times, so I knew approximately what to expect. Because of the prevailing northeast current, I took the boat almost even with the green buoy before making my turn. The boat passed through beam to beautifully. Now that I had the waves on my port aft quarter, my biggest worry was staying inside the buoys.
Just as I passed inside the jetties, we saw a two hundred + foot boat heading out. We hugged the red buoys, they hugged the green ones. We passed port to port as is customary. As soon as it quieted down, Mike took the helm while I went below to plot our course to our anchorage. In short order we arrived and dropped anchor at 19:30 GMT.
We cleaned up the outside of the boat, and brought in our "Oh shit" bag; then we both headed below for breakfast. While I cooked, Mike tried to sign on to send a mail saying we had arrived. We wound up calling my parents since we could not reach Yvonne who usually sends mails when we cannot get connected. After showering, we both sacked out. I woke up about 12:00 GMT or 19:00 EST. I managed to get connected and mail went out.
I went back to sleep at 23:00 EST. Mike was asleep the entire time!
Voyages