Lesson for the day … never rule out the possibility of unexpected circumstance altering your course!
We had pretty much resolved ourselves to the fact that we’d wouldn't be leaving BLM on a full moon -- Wednesday, 1/20 -- meaning that we’d miss a 2-day window of sunny, 70degree weather with calm seas. Our next window was Sunday, but there'd be no full moon to keep us company on an overnight passage down the coast of Florida..
Our morning ritual of whittling down the “to do” list was still unbalanced, try as we might to drop items from the list (“Who’s idea was that anyway?”), or move them to a 2nd tier “to do” list (“Yeah, these things really need attention, just not right now”) … we still had a few more boat parts to order (Just how many spares does a boat need to carry? Apparently, never enough) but we could complete that in Lake Worth. But we still had 2 packages and 2 letters in transit.
So what a pleasant surprise when both packages of boat parts arrived today, something we weren’t expecting until Thursday or Friday. Wow … our lists are now in balance! The letters can easily be forwarded to us by our dockmates … so in a matter of 15 minutes, we decided to go for the full moon sail and started on just the things we had to do before leaving BLM … fill up on water, fill the spare diesel jugs and spare water jugs, lash all jugs to the rail, wash the sheets, store our new folding bikes in the anchor locker (It is a sweet fit and the bikes are perfect for us. It’s going to be so nice to have a form of land transportation on this cruise) … but first, ride to the liquor store before putting the bikes away …. (we’ve got to start stocking up on beer b/c it’s too expensive in the Bahamas to buy!)
We were quite impressed with ourselves that we were able to get to a state of readiness so quickly …. Even though we’ve had our mind focused on leaving since after the holidays! We even had time for one last game with Dominos with some of our favorite people at BLM – Ann and Lynn, Sherri and Clyde. We brought our Bahamas maps and Pussers rum, and between the game, the shots and the animated discussions of passages past, we had a wonderful last night in Brunswick and still made it back to the boat by 10:30! We truly have never liked the people at a marina more than here.
It was a lucky morning when the 7am alarm was greeted with a weather report of a dense fog warning for St Simons Sound until 10:00am. Ok, twist my arm a little harder and I’ll go back to sleep for 2 hours! Leaving the marina, Cindy greeted us with a run down the dock waving an envelope…so we are only waiting on one piece of mail to be forwarded to us in Lake Worth.
Cloudy skies in morning...
... cleared out for a beautiful afternoon sail. Not another boat in sight. What a fabulous way to travel!
Look ... no hands! The new autopilot handled perfectly. It maintains the compass heading you give it, and you can easily check its accuracy with the GPS. The route was particularly easy because we were basically running straight down the coast (the rhumb line), so there were only two route adjustments required on our path 10 miles offshore.
The first leg of the trip down to St Marys River is very familiar to us by now … so this was an easy stretch to get used to life on the boat again. Stopping at Cumberland Island was our bail out point if the weather or our sea legs warranted nixing the idea of an overnight passage. But it was a glorious day and nobody wanted to stop when we were offshore from St Marys. The weather was delightful -- clear, sunny, 70 degrees, west wind 8-10 knots. We put up all 4 sails and motor-sailed an easy 7 knots. Simply cannot get enough of days like this.
Sunset at 5:40pm
Moonrise at 5:50pm
The overnight passage was one of the best days of my life! The seas were calm, the boat traffic light, the shrimpers predictable … at about 9 miles offshore, our only compliant was the loss of cell phone service. The moon was incredible … beyond words. It shown like a soft search light on our boat … the entire deck was covered in light. It was like sailing at twilight … all night long! I took over from Dan at midnight, and when he popped his head up 2 hours later, I told him to go back to sleep b/c the night was too beautiful to leave. In fact, he slept until 5am, and I completed my first solo watch on Maja!
Yes, that autopilot is the best thing we’ve ever bought! I wouldn’t have enjoyed this lovely night if I had to hand steer … but just staying awake to look at the stars, watch the ocean roll up and under the hull, check out the shoreline with the binoculars, and check the GPS heading and engine gauges every 10 minutes, this I can do! In fact, I’m making it a rule to try and be sailing overnight for every fully moon!
Sunrise at sea.
Moon set at dawn.
We arrived at our first stop, the Ponce Inlet (north of Titusville) at 9:30, with a dilemma on our hands. We needed fuel, and the Ponce Inlet is an easy way to access the ICW and cruise down through Titusville and Cape Canaveral. OR, we could get fuel and return to the ocean and make a 2nd overnight passage to Vero Beach. Thursday will be the last night of the full moon. The dilemma is the weather … as usual ... rain should start overnight and extend as thunderstorms through Friday. Winds will increase to 30 knots. Temps will drop back into the 40s. It's rather hard to rationale that forecast, when we're sitting the cockpit in shorts and tee shirts with 75deg of clear, blue sky!!
But, Captn Dan didn’t want to ruin the high from last night’s sail, so we took the ICW route, looking for a place to hole up safely for a couple of days. The inland route is beautiful, I ain’t gonna lie … but right away, I was reminded of why I prefer sailing offshore where we never encountered another boat or bridge or depth less than 45ft! Yikes … back to watching for channel markers, never taking an eye off the depth sounder, seriously studying the GPS … and of course, no autopilot.
Passing thru bridge
View from the sterm
Pretty scenery everywhere ...
Just too many damn bridges!
And of course -- the barges! Something else we don't face offshore! We met up with a barge coming thru the Haulover Canal, so we had to pull aside and wait for his passing … and that totally put us off our schedule to make the bridge openings thru Titusville. When given the decision to motor around in circles for an hour to catch the next opening, or pull into the Titusville Muncipal Marina, I voted for the marina (and I guess my vote counts the most in these types of decisions!). Plus, there is stormy weather predicted to pass our way, so tying up in a marina seems prudent ....
We traveled 166 miles in 30 hours. We’ve gotten one overnight passage under our belts. And we are in Florida. Simply cannot get enough of days like this!
Titusville Muncipal Marina
1 comment:
What a great journey! I can't help but be jealous to hear about your adventures out on the ocean under a full moon and wish that I were there too! I will miss the constant postings since your internet won't be as reliable - but keep it up with the pictures and great narrative. If I can't be there I want to at least be able to see how much fun you're having!!!
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