April 23, 2008 (Wednesday)
Got up and was freezing. Really cold, overcast & just all around crappy. Weather calling for high winds and possible squalls. SD radioed, was now thinking of St. Mary’s instead – no fun on Cumberland with high winds etc. Sounds good – so went to hoist the anchor, only to see Faux (sp?), who we have seen anchored beside us just about everywhere, directly in front of us & c/b on top of the anchor. So radioed SD that we were ready to go, but did want to talk to Faux just in case. Capt’n dinghied over & they said they would fend off or motor forward if they had to. So motored WS forward a bit, Capt’n pulled up about 20’ of chain then chain stopped coming up. What??? Shoot looks like we snagged something – first time. So while SD is waiting for us to get the hook up and Faux is waiting to fend off WS is stuck on something. So motored forward hard & hear a snap, wasn’t thrilled was hoping we didn’t lose my baby – the 60lb CQR – but, luckily didn’t. think we broke it lose there, but Capt’n wanted to back up etc., etc. So finally backed up WS, Capt’n started bringing up the chain & was fine. Got close to Faux, but never close enough that it was a probably, probably since we dragged something across the seafloor & repositioned up. Either way, better safe than sorry. So said good bye to them, & SD had their hook up nice & fast. Followed them out & up the St. Mary’s river. They went to refuel and we went to anchor – only one problem, no charts for the anchorage & Navman even ends there. Haven’t got a clue what the depth is – plus, didn’t help that there were tons of little buoys all over the place, I guess marking fish or crab traps. So motored around & not bad 11 ft, 12 ft etc., but humm 6’ tide, nope won’t work for WS. So headed back near a big trawler where we had seen 15-20 ft... Anchored in 24’, was blowing 15-20 by then and put out around 130’ of chain. Ended up closer to the trawler than we liked & with the current – might not be good. Current swings the boats all around and actually faces them away from the wind & pushes them with the current. So we were not really sure what would happen when the current shifted, so tried to hail the trawler on the VHF. No luck, but did get his attention later. Said we thought we may be too close – he didn’t think so, said the holding was great and he had 150’ out. Plus, was planning on leaving in an hour or so. That’ll work… Well after a while checked the depth sounder, showed 11’, 10’, 9’ – what on earth is going on – we anchored in 24’. Current had now shifted and was now pushing us west and into shallower water. Maybe we should move – tide still has 4’ to fall – no we’ll be okay (Capt.’s normal reply – really doesn’t like to pick up the anchor once it is set & neither do I, but…). So had talked with SD & decided to go in for wings and beer around 4pm – boy, does that sound good. So 4pm & ready to head in, something didn’t seem right so put the Nav instruments on – went to take of the cover for the depth & Capt’n said – Don’t do that… Okay, so now really had to do that… Depth sounder read 6’2 with another 1’ to fall on the tide & WS already sitting in muck – which is what was odd. Super soft & wouldn’t matter if that was all it was going to fall, but couldn’t handle another 1’ and WS sitting in 5’2, just couldn’t …. Capt’n super unhappy about it, but all I wanted was to bring up 10’ of chain and w/b off the low part. Since Capt’n only runs hot or cold – couldn’t do that, mumbled more than a few choice words & went up and hauled in the entire 130’. Now this bites, we now have to re-anchor in 20kts of wind and an opposing current that is pushing the boat the opposite way. Remember the bad time in Charleston trying to do that & don’t even think the current was as strong. Only benefit here had a nice amount of room to deal with. While Capt’n up on the bow still unhappy, moved WS over to where the trawler was, and a little further up the river back towards St. Mary’s etc. Dropped the hook & seemed okay. In 20’ of water and worked well. Okay, now the current has pushed the boat forward over the anchor & anchor is way behind WS – so how on earth do we set it. Hey, lets power forward instead – didn’t make sense, but it did and it worked. Took WS up to 2000 rpm and she didn’t budge, going the wrong way, but she didn’t budge. Well never leave the boat right after we anchor, let alone in 20 knots and have just set the anchor backwards, but those wings and beer just kept calling. So jump in the dink & raced over to meet SD. Figured what’s the worst that could happen – we drag back into the 6’ mark and are right where we would have been before, had we not re-anchored…. Anyway, had a great time, dozen wings for 5.99, huge pitchers of Killian’s for $8.50, boy life is good, Tried the TV again – everybody loves Raymond was on, never really watched it before but was pretty funny. Not as bad as the night before & could handle the TV for 1/2 hour, then that was it for me.
April 22, 2008 (Tuesday)
Plans were to head to St. Mary’s today, but got changed. Anything works for WS right now, very flexible either St. Mary’s or Cumberland Island is fine. Looks like Cumberland – Paul’s son works on the Trident subs and getting one ready to go – working 8 – 8 the beginning of the week, so will go to St. Mary’s later. Works for me, weather window to Charleston won’t be until Sat or Sun anyway. So going to head to town later & get something’s etc. Headed in around noon with SD. Talked about Cumberland & will head up at high tide, good think that’s 6pm, guy on the dock just said so. Okay, walked for awhile with them, then they took Mickey back to the boat and we headed back to Fred’s. Not good place to put me – a $$$ store. Needless to say, Capt’n has new leather sandals, I have new leather sandals, we have tons of munchies, a new little pot, that I wasn’t originally allowed to bring (too heavy, sunk the boat) and have reminded the Capt’n of how much I miss, every time I need to cook with it, plus vitamins, cleaning supplies, more chips, more cookies for the Capt’n etc etc… Still thrilled to be back where we can actually eat out with normal prices, so had to stop for lunch again. Stopped at a place called 29South, was excellent. Got “another” shrimp salad, but this one was just shrimp & about 10 very big ones. Capt’n got another salad, but his had pulled pork, fried green tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese (really good for you salad) & a nice cheap beer – think it was Yuengling for $3. Just had water myself & was so nice to just drink as much water as I wanted – ice water too… Couldn’t believe how good it tasted and that I didn’t’ have to worry about wasting it. Probably order water more often now, so precious in the islands and drinking water even more precious… So excellent lunch, then over to the seafood market, got 3 lbs of good size fresh shrimp and a nice huge Salmon fillet, which just smelled oh so fresh, no fishy smell at all…. Then back to the boat to check the tides only to realize that it is LOW tide at 6pm – whoops – not good for heading over to Cumberland Island. Don’t think we’d really have any problem; couple shoals that you don’t want to hit, but don’t really HAVE to go at high tide. SD stopped over & was getting late, all decided to go in the morning instead. Rising tide and just in case, w/b better. Put the TV up to see what would come in, tons of stuff, but all junk. Really, really irritated by it, Capt’n stayed up to watch, but just went back to the aft cabin to get away from it. Just not used to it and seemed so loud & obnoxious on the little boat…
April 21, 2008 (Monday)
Sail through the night was pretty uneventful… Hand steering the first couple shifts with very little wind, but wind picked up a bit & got the monitor back on duty for awhile. For the first time in two nights, got a bit of sleep on one of the off watches. By now closer to Northern Florida and getting cold, had full foul weather gear on and lots underneath. Even though not sleeping, the thought of getting up from a nice warm bed, to go up on watch was not really appealing. Nice when it is finally daylight and knew it wouldn’t be much longer. Just got on watch around 6am & could see something strange in the distance, looked like it was very near the entrance channel to Fernandina… Though I knew what it was, but just wasn’t sure. Radioed SD & said, what the heck is that up there, Susan looked out & radioed back – I think this is the first time you’ve seen a Trident Sub – ha, thought it looked like a sub, but thought I was nuts too. Shouldn’t have though, the Trident Sub base is right here in St. Mary’s area… Paul’s son is crew on one of the subs, which is one reason they live near St. Mary’s’… So, kept an eye on it, sure didn’t want to hit a nuclear sub. Could just hear the news – Half of Florida & Georgia gone as sailboat from Pittsburgh rams nuclear sub in channel…. Just kidding – they have so much protection around them, couldn’t get close if you wanted to. So got up to the channel around 9 am, but forgot how long the channel was. Took a good while to get up to the anchorage at Fernandina. Mooring field there looked inviting, thought about it but didn’t say anything. Then SD radioed that they were picking up one. Sounds like a good idea, huh Capt’n – NO – nice, okay whatever, let’s go anchor 10 miles off in 30’, okay… So got to the anchorage & very deep etc., etc., so okay lets pick up a mooring. So headed over there & SD already grabbed one, then saw two beside then so went over to them to pick one up, but no pennant on it. Looked around & all the boats on the moorings had their lines attached to pennants from the mooring… Didn’t make sense – Capt’n just wanted to put a line through the eye, but didn’t want to, didn’t make sense… Okay, so Capt’n bitching that how come they can come in and be lucky enough to pick up the last one – well maybe because you didn’t want one to begin with & took us forever to get over here. So now back to the anchorage (actually just right across from the moorings) & saw 11’ on the way back, not good when 6’ up on the tide right now, next depth, 19. So Capt’n says where do you want to go – over there by the black sail boat & drop the hook on his stern. So heading over there and get there depth now near 30 & Capt’n not happy (besides still ranting about the last mooring), so he now wants to look around. Gets worse and now he’s really not happy, and yelling what do you want to do, WT? do you think – anchor behind the black sailboat, then why did we go over here – because you wanted to look around, NO I didn’t you did, I was happy behind the black sailboat, no – you said it was too deep – No I didn’t say anything, WELL I surely wasn’t arguing with myself, uh hate to tell you this, but yes you were Capt’n. So ended up dropping the hook in 26’ beside/behind the black sailboat. Set nicely and were right across from the mooring field. Then looked over and saw SD move and anchor right beside the mooring field. Seems that all of them were reserved and they got kicked off. WELL – see at least we didn’t get kicked off – which is probably why no pennant, don’t put them on until the boat comes in that reserved it…. So really beat, but have to clear customs. Had called earlier, but needed to call when WS got anchored too. Had been told our Decal was all we needed & we could just phone our arrival in, but was reading the 2008 Florida & Bahamas cruising guide and said you could only do that if you signed up for the Local Boaters Option program. WHAT – had never heard of that before – looks like a lot of people w/b in for a surprise. So called customs & got an appt. for 1pm – good enough time to take a shower and head in, but no time to rest. SD wasn’t going to go in today, pretty beat & said they’d just clear in tomorrow morning. So dinghied in at 12:30 and got to the office early, short walk and was nice. Customs officer was a young guy and super nice. Mentioned the Local Boater Option program and explained our misinformation etc., so he signed us up for it & said next time it s/b just a phone call. Great – really nice man and made clearing in so easy. Took a walk to find something to eat, stumbled into the Happy Tomato. Ended up with a salad with seafood salad on top – Capt’n had a chef salad – AND two Dos Equis (sp???) for ONLY $3 a piece. Still not dirt cheap, but good price for a good Mexican Beer… Sure beats the $5 Kaliks, even though I love them $5 for a beer is tough. So then managed to drag ourselves to Fred’s, had though it was a small supermarket, but was more like a dollar store with some food items. Was great though, actually had pretzels, chips etc., etc. for $1 – holy crap – sure beats Exuma markets $5 for a bag of chips… So grabbed a couple items and headed back to the boat. Saw SD’s dinghy tied up, so assumed they rested & decided to come in anyway, probably a good idea. So back to the boat, got the mess cleaned up from being offshore – seems nothing gets put away etc., just usually too tired through the night etc. Got the Mahi Mahi out for dinner. Humm, seems like the Capt’n skimped on the directions. Still had the bloodline and the bones…. Got the book out & was super easy to remove them, just made the fillets into different cuts. Very few bones at all & easy to get out. So in the meantime, Capt’n rested etc…. must be good to be King…. Oh yeah, stopped at the wine store & bought a bottle for dinner, plus had Yuengling Lager Light for $11 a 12/pk. Works for me, had a couple on SD at great Sale & really good light beer. Then got ice at the fish market & couldn’t pass up the 12/pk of Miller Lite that kept calling my name from the cooler… How nice to have beer again – that I can actually drink without a care in the world. Like it grows on trees now or something – don’t have to treat it like gold anymore – m/b heaven! Well back to the story – SD came over around 6 & we opened a “Great” bottle of champagne, had some wine & had the Mahi Mahi with Caribbean Rice & steamed veggies… Very good dinner, had fun. Susan and Paul left & I just literally crashed instantly. They were rowing, both dinghy motors had issues. Capt’n watched for them to go back, but with the strong current, they weren’t making it. So Capt’n went & towed them back – think he tried to wake me up to help but, no chance – was dead to the world at that point…
April 20, 2008 (Sunday)
Were now in the Gulf Stream and moving nicely motor sailing, winds had picked up & 2am time for watch change. SD still nearby & radioed they were going to try to sail. Already had the same idea & Capt’n was pulling out the head sail, just a bit. Winds picked up some and WS was flying. Didn’t realize until later, but SD didn’t put out the head sail during the night, were just using the main. No wonder we just flew away from them. Nice balance for WS, not a ton of headsail out, but doing over 7 knots & not heeling much. Monitor was steering now & made the 2 hour watches a lot easier. Had the Sirius on & the speakers up on deck on – was nice to listen to while all alone up there. Full moon or super close to it that night and was great. By next shift change, could only see SD’s tri-color light on top of the mast, but could pick them up on the radar. Didn’t want to get too far away & starting to look crappy. Had forecast possibility of squalls, but very little chance of actually getting one. Well didn’t look good for a while there, started reminding me of most of our night sails. Start off good or okay, then clouds roll in, no more moon & next come the squalls and zero visibility. Well moon did hide for awhile, got a little, but very little bit of rain, but NO squalls and visibility still pretty good. Although, didn’t matter much anyway, was the Capt’n watch & I w/b down below in a nice warm bed if the squalls hit then…. Anyway, they didn’t & by the next watch from 6-8am, which was mine – winds kept picking up and up. WS now doing 10.5 in the Gulf Stream with only the main & staysail out now. Only probably waves were up and very confused seas. Not too bad, but WS was now heeled a bit and getting knocked around more so than before. Talked to SD & they were now sailing with the Yankee (headsail – just cut different and smaller than a Genoa (the Genny)) up and doing close to the same speed. Was a great ride for quite a while, and even better since it was light out. Winds & waves did die a bit later, but didn’t pull out the Genny, just left the staysail out, wanted SD to catch up. When they did, pulled out the Genny & were doing okay, but couldn’t make the course, winds had now shifted too far to the west. Sailed like that for quite awhile then finally gave up, late afternoon & fired up the iron Genny instead. In the meantime, after one of the Capt.’s watches, looked over in the cockpit and pretty good size flying fish laying there dead in the corner. Told the Capt’n & he went to through it overboard, yelled NO, that’s our bait, what are you doing…? Gave me a dirty look, but didn’t toss it. Did fish in the daylight, so put out the handline and put the little guy on the hook as bait. Capt’n still grumbling on how that was going to work, started putting him on backwards & uh, no Capt’n fish don’t swim backwards, put the hook through so he looks like he swimming. Capt’n doing a wonderful job fishing lately, but obvious not a lot of experience with bait fishing. Haven’t used bait once so far, just the lures & have worked well… but, since the bait just jumped on board, might as well use it. Hate to see the little fish die in vain… And, to our surprise did manage to catch a Mahi Mahi off of the coast of Florida. Monitor was still steering & I was down below, cleaning up dishes, when I head the Capt’n yell. Ran up, slowed the boat just a bit, grabbed the net & got him onto the boat. Well didn’t work really that well, bigger/longer than the tuna, really couldn’t get him into the small net, but did yank him on board. Well, didn’t look like a happy fish & looked like he could use a shot of rum. So, gave him a good splash of Pusser’s down the gills… Started looking better, but still moving, so gave him another shot. Glad that was it, didn’t want to waste good rum. Now what do we do with him – fillet I think – I’ll get the book. Have this Cruisers guide to fishing on board and has be great with step-by-step illustrations…. So, cut here, here etc., & had two nice fillets. Well that was exiting, now back to sailing… So rest of the trip up was a motor sail, as the winds just kept coming around further to the W then NW then eventually almost N.
April 19, 2008 (Saturday)
So now it is time to leave the Bahamas, got up & listened to Chris Parker – weather still good, but no matter what, Fernandina is the farthest North we will get. By Tuesday, there will be a CF off the coast of South Carolina, which s/b following a LP system the forms right off the coast. Well, either way – CF or LP not good and will avoid both… Supposed to pull the dink up the night before, but didn’t feel like it and not leaving until at least 8am. Will give SD a head start and don’t want to rush out either way, would like to get to the US at daybreak and head in St. Mary’s inlet to Fernandina then. So, made breakfast & then Capt’n went to get the dink ready to hoist on deck. Could hear choice words from afar – tried to ignore them, but kept getting louder. Oh well, better go up and see what is up. Humm, looks like the dinghy motor doesn’t want to come off – not good. Capt’n trying to use force & asked for screw driver, not good. So, dumb one gives him one, huh…. Capt’n puts screw driver in slot, breaks slot…. More choice words – so DB suggests WD40???? Okay, well maybe that’ll work… So dink motor hoisted up onto WS & now ready to bring up the faithful dink Rats…. Believe it or not, went okay… SD was already hoisting sail, but called over to make sure everything was okay… Fine, w/b right behind…. So, left 5 seconds after they did – so much for the “head start”, but winds were out of the east and very light. Sailing wing & wing and is not WS’s best point of sail. Tough to steer that course too, have tied off the booms, so no accidental jibes, but very hard course to steer in light winds…. So, hey lets put up the whisker pole and hold out the Genny… Great idea, but huge pole and very, very hard to handle. Well – sure proved that – after 45 minutes of listen to the Capt’n screaming this MF-in etc., Capt’n was a super, super unhappy camper… Needed help, but could leave the helm – electronic autopilot wasn’t holding and Monitor doesn’t like to steer in such light air – sorry, Capt’n, you’re on your own…. Not good either – finally the huge pole came crashing down on deck, luckily missing anything it could have done damage on. Capt’n says it hit him in the head, but think he’s just looking for sympathy, so like I said, luckily missed hitting anything that it could have done damage on… Actually, didn’t see it hit him at all & he seemed okay…. So enough for the pole, top of the pole had broken off and now is unusable – another red tag item – so just lashed it to the side deck… Ghosted along for a couple hours under sail then just had enough. Talked to SD on the VHF & felt the same, so fired up the iron Genny’s and motor sailed for a good while. Left the Bahama banks later than we thought and didn’t get to the Gulf Stream until late, late Saturday night…
April 18, 2008 (Friday)
Left AP around 8am, was up at 5:30 with an irritating noise against the haul where I sleep…. Actually, think I can hear it now as I type – don’t think that’ll go over too good. Will have to find it this time – need sleep…. Anchored at Great Sale around 3pm and is the last stop in the Bahamas. Took the dink to shore and for a ride – very hard to leave this gorgeous water. So funny, this was the first stop in the Bahamas & got here around 11pm. Tired and not a sole here – WS was all over the place (actually going backward at one point) so disoriented and trying to get close to shore, but not knowing anything. Got frustrated and just dropped the hook in 12’ thinking – just HAD to be close to shore. Woke up the next morning at the very least a mile from shore. Capt’n didn’t trust the Navman and not that comfortable with the Explorer charts yet to trust them… So now, here we sit – right on the edge of the shallows – Navman says it’s only 6’ here, anchored at low tide in 9’6” and is nice. AND --- for once, looks like WS is in the front row. Wow, now that’s a change. Actually, got here early and most boats got here later with their dinks already stowed for the trip, so didn’t come in close to shore. Can’t see why not thought, last chance to get off the boat and on the beach for a couple days. SD pulled in later, so dinghied over to them to see what the plan was for tomorrow. Didn’t want to barge in, but of course ended up going on board…. Had a couple for their “great” beers they have on board and went over what was going on. They plan to leave a bit before us in the morning, 7 or 8 am, and then we’ll follow behind. Have waypoints set for the Gulf Stream & will ride that up as far as possible, then head off for Fernandina.
April 17, 2008 (Thursday)
Still making way to our hoping off spot, Great Sale, but stopped at Allans Pensacola for the night. Nothing here & very shallow, but okay stop. Winds higher than we thought, but had a good sail up, heeled pretty far, but Capt’n had (for some unknown reason) put a reef in the main – which was more than needed if WS was going to fly the full Genny too. WS anchored first, then 6 or 7 more boats later – of course, tried to get in close, but saw 6’5” and backed off. Tide was already coming up, so too low for WS. Went into the beach later, SD had mentioned beach fire & clean up on the VHF from 5 – 6. Sea Duction joined us and boy were they nice. From Nova Scotia & heard them before on the VHF. Great people and had such a nice time talking to them. Found out they were anchored in Green Turtle, White Sound – where we had thought to go to & SD checked out, but didn’t like the closeness for the blow. Seems like over 12 boats dragged, 8 were damaged and a ton of problems at 2:30 am the first night, when the CF hit. Plus, friends of theirs were with the group of boats that left last week and were damaged trying to cross the Gulf Stream… Ended up sending out a mayday, had to abandon their boat & were picked up by the coast guard. Not good & only goes to show, need to be pretty prudent on when to cross. Weather now is supposed to be good, so still going for this weekend… Back to WS and made conch burgers for dinner,