July 18 - 20
We are leaving Miami this morning. The plan is to go almost due north to Charleston, SC. The route plan will take us in the Gulf Stream for a large part of the trip, but I don't know exactly how much of a boost in speed we will get. I have estimated the trip at an average of 5.0 kts to take 3 days and 16 hours. At 5.5 kts, it will be closer to three days. Because of the unpredictable nature of this, I'm not worried about leaving at a precise time. So, after a light breakfast, we back out of the slip about 09:20. This in itself was a good trick. As I stated before, the marina has a lot of swell and current running through it, and there has been a strong east wind blowing the entire time we have been here. This wind was pinning us against the dock. I had two lines to the other side of the slip, which is almost twice as wide as the boat, which were very tight to hold us slightly off the other side. My plan was to keep the bow line on the windward side around the dock cleat with Barb holding it, while untying all the rest. I thought then when I backed up a little, it would pull us off the dock and then Barb could let that last line go and we would back out. Well, the plan probably would have worked if I had used the stern line instead of the bow line. In the end, it wasn't pretty, but we got out of the slip with no damage. We motored over to the fuel dock and tied up to fill up. We don't need much fuel, but I want to go offshore with a full load.
By 09:50 we were pulling out of the marina. We originally chose this marina because it is the first one inside the entrance channel to Miami. So, less time would be spent getting in and out of port. This proved to be bad because the marina was so affected by the ocean swell. The entrance channel, called Government Cut, goes pretty much due east from the marina, and the wind and the ocean swell have been coming from the east for days now. It also didn't help that we probably timed the departure with an outgoing tide which would be colliding with the incoming swell. The end result was about 6 to 8 foot waves coming in the channel, very close together. We had no choice but to crash right through them. At full speed, we beat our way out of this mile long channel. Many times, we buried the bow in a wave and water came up the deck and about halfway up the dodger. I'm sure glad we have the dodger. Twice, we rode up one wave, crashed down in the trough only to have the next wave crash down on the deck and wash entirely over the cockpit enclosure. It was quite a ride. Barb and the cat stayed below, just a little freaked out, while I just ran us as fast as possible toward the calmer waters that I could see outside the shoreline. Once we were clear of the shore, I was able to steer slightly north and get out of the main channel. The seas out there were still running pretty good, about 4 to 5 feet, but nothing like in the channel. We continued to motor northeast for about six or seven miles, looking for the Gulf Stream. Watching our track on the chart plotter, it was obvious we did not have to go even the eight miles that the forecast had said to find the Stream. We were being set north considerably already. So, we turned north, put up the sails and killed the motor. The wind was from the east at between eight and twelve knots. We were sailing in the Gulf Stream.
A small digression here for those of you not familiar with what the Gulf Stream is. It is a river of warm water which flows through the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe. It's course and boundaries change daily, but it basically comes very close to shore near Miami, flows north to about Jacksonville, turns northeast past North Carolina, and then continues northeast out to sea and eventually gets to northern Europe. Obviously you cannot see where the current changes, but you can tell from the water temperature. In this amazing age of technology, satellites can detect the approximate boundaries of the stream, and various weather websites publish maps that show it graphically. While the Gulf Stream can be a wonderful way to get a boost northbound along the coast, it can also be a very dangerous place to be in the wrong conditions. Just as we encountered leaving the Miami channel, if the wind blows against the current, the waves quickly build to enormous heights and it's not where you want to be in a little sailboat. We had winds directly from the east, and since the Stream runs a little bit northeast, that created seas of about two to four feet. The winds should shift a little more to the southeast the further north we get, so hopefully the seas will calm some.
Whew! What a ride. My 5.0 or 5.5 prediction for figuring the duration of the trip is out the window. Once we were in the stream, we did no less than 8 kts and at least 50% of the time we were over 9 kts. Our peak was 10.8 briefly. This is speed-over-ground as calculated by the GPS. The boat was actually moving through the water at about 5.5 to 6 kts. Once we got off of Cape Canaveral, the Stream widens out a bit, and the current dropped to about 2 kts. So now we were only making about 8 kts over ground. Still a great pace for us. The Stream lasted until sometime off Jacksonville. We were on a course due north to go to Charleston, so as the Stream turned more northeast to go around the Carolinas, we left it. It was amazing that as we left the Stream, there was a sudden slowing. It actually felt like the wind just died, and the boat slowed to about 6.5 kts.
I am running the three days of this passage together rather than do it all exactly chronologically, because frankly, not much happened. The weather was great all the way. The first night out, we had a few small showers but no heavy wind or lightening. The rest of the time it was clear. We had an almost full moon both nights which rose a couple of hours before dusk and set a couple hours before dawn, giving us great visibility most of the night.
The first night out, about 04:00, we were just switching watches. The moon had just set and it was quite dark. We were still sailing, so the only noise was the sounds of the water rushing past the hull. We both then noticed the phosphorescence. We have always read about the phosphorescence in the water, and we have experienced it while flushing the head in the dark, but never while underway. On both sides of the boat, from about midway along the hull it looked like a stream of sparks in the water. It was very cool. The second night we did not see any. This is caused by disturbing little creatures in the water that have a phosphorescent nature, like fireflies.
I was really surprised at how little other traffic we saw all the way. After dealing with all the little boats running in and out of the Keys, we only saw about eight ships on this entire passage. Most were several miles further offshore and of no concern to us. One was very interesting though. We had heard a couple of Navy ships talking to each other occasionally on the radio during the second night. We were somewhere off Jacksonville at this time. We were out of the Stream, and the wind had died, so we were motor-sailing. During Barb's 20:00 to 24:00 watch, she had noticed lights several miles away towards the coast. They seemed to be going south. This far offshore, the VHF radio had been very quiet. We only heard the occasional Coast Guard broadcast. Suddenly, there was a loud, clear broadcast. It said "Vessel at (gave GPS coordinates) on a course of five degrees this is Warship 79." The radio woke me, and Barb also grabbed my foot to wake me, as she is not comfortable talking on the radio. I took a few seconds to clear my head, looked at our GPS position, and then said "Warship hailing another vessel, please repeat." They did, and it was obvious they were talking to us. I said our name and asked how I could help them. They replied that they were on a southbound course, and they would like to turn to the northeast and open her up to about 15 kts which would take them across our path a little in front of us. They wanted to know if that was ok with us. I replied that anything they wanted to do was fine with me, and that we would reduce our speed to stay well out of their way. They politely thanked us and wished us a safe trip. At this point I used a feature of our radar that I had not had occasion to use yet. It is called MARPA, and the way it works is that you pick the echo on the radar screen and identify it as a target. The radar then pops up a box where it calculates the target's speed and course, and if you are on a collision course it tells you when you are going to hit. So, we slowed down a little, and watched the radar as the warship turned and took off. They did exactly as they said. Once they were past our path, I hailed them again and confirmed they were going to keep going on the same heading. They said they were, so we picked our speed back up. It was kinda cool that the Navy actually asked us if they were going to get in our way.
During the second day out, we had another cool military encounter. Early in the afternoon, we both thought we heard a plane. The sound seemed to be coming from west of us, towards the coast. We looked, but didn't see anything, and the noise faded. A couple minutes later, we heard it again, but now from the east of us. We looked and this time we saw a plane coming at us from the east, quite low. This was a military gray jet, but not a fighter jet. It passed right over us from east to west. It then circled about two miles distant, and came back from our stern. As it passed over us this time, they waved the wings back and forth to say hi. I looked carefully, but did not see any identification to know if this was a Coast Guard , Navy, or Air Force plane. About an hour later, here they came again from the stern, and again they waved as they passed. About an hour later, they came by a third time. That was the last we saw of them. They never said anything to us on the radio, so I assume they we just out on a training mission and we were their entertainment. I think I had neglected to mention several logs ago that somewhere between Tampa and Marathon, a Coast Guard helicopter which was searching for a boat in distress had flown out directly to us and hailed us on the radio to ask if we had heard the distress call. We had not, so we were of no help to them, but it was cool that they actually spoke to us on the radio. That's why I assume this jet was not on a search mission.
On Wednesday, our third day out, we lost the wind pretty much entirely. Since we had made such good time so far, Charleston was within reach before dark if we motored. So, on came the iron genny (a referral to the sail of last resort) and we motored the rest of the way in. One thing I have not gotten used to yet is the concept of 'we get there when we get there'. This should be my attitude, but since we are trying to make an aggressive schedule I still want to push it and make a destination. I hope I get better about this as time goes on.
During this last day, we saw the only sea life that we have seen on this leg. We saw two sea turtles swimming on the surface near us, one dolphin who popped up right next to us, took a look and disappeared, and lots of flying fish.
We have found a few new problems with the boat along the way. We are getting a lot of water coming through the rudder shaft stuffing box while underway. This isn't a problem unless we are on a starboard tack. The bilge pump is mounted on the starboard side of the boat, and the bilge is very shallow, so when we are on a starboard tack, the water collects on the port side of the bilge and can run out onto the galley floor which is a few inches lower than the main saloon floor and makes a nice puddle. Barb had been bailing this puddle every couple of hours while we were heeled over to keep it from getting out of hand. This leak is not going to sink the boat, but it is very annoying, especially when sailing. A couple hours out of Charleston, while motoring, I came below and noticed the battery voltage was at 16.15. This is way too high. Since we were motoring, I figured the voltage regulator wasn't doing it's job. Rather than cook the batteries, I disconnected the battery wire from the alternator. We found a hatch that leaked when we were pounding out of Miami, and one of the engine compartment doors doesn't stay latched, so it has been duct taped.
About midday on the third day, I used the satellite phone to check my cell phone voice mail to see if Wayne & Nancy had left a message about what marina they were in. They had, and they were in the Charleston City Marina, which had sounded to me like our best bet from reading the Waterway Guide. I then called the marina to make a reservation. Turned out they had an empty slip right next to Wayne & Nancy, so we requested that. About 17:30 we approached the marina, which is right near downtown Charleston. We tied up at the fuel dock and filled up. It was nice that we had covered about 435 miles on this leg and only took 35 gallons of fuel. We then moved over to our slip. This marina is very nice. It appears to have been recently rebuilt around an old marina. There are remnants of the old concrete docks which now just act as breakwaters, and the new floating docks are built around these old docks. They have dock hands who run around on golf carts to help you with your lines. We are quite a ways from the main street entrance, but if you call the office, they will come give you a ride in a golf cart, especially if you have groceries or laundry or something.
We got tied up and knocked on Dances With Dragons. Wayne & Nancy had been napping and had not heard us docking. It was good to see them and as soon as we had our boat plugged in and the air conditioners running, we went aboard their boat for a welcome rum drink. We started chatting and catching up on our journeys, and next thing you know, one of the dock hands was knocking on the boat. Well, two hours had passed, and I had never gone up to the office to check in. Oops. I apologized, and the guy gave me a ride to the office. We took care of the paperwork and I walked back to the boat. After one more drink, Barb and I headed up to the showers to rinse off all the salt. It felt good to be clean again. We were in bed by about 22:00 for a good night's sleep.
GPS N 32-46.795 W 79-57.308 Miles made good this leg 435. Total miles covered 1534.
July 21
We slept in until about 09:00 this morning. The marina proved to be very secure. This marina is actually in a river. There is about a five foot tidal change, so the current can run through the marina pretty swiftly. But, we are tied so the current will either hit the bow or the stern, so we don't really notice it.
We relaxed over coffee and browsed the net some for a couple of hours. About noon, we joined Wayne & Nancy for lunch at a restaurant that is actually part of the marina complex. After lunch I started to tackle the list of repairs I want to get done here. I started with a call to Catalina to find out what size of packing material the rudder shaft stuffing box uses. Warren there gave me a number of the stuffing box supplier. I called them and after a while I got a call back with the info. Tomorrow I'll take the marina shuttle to West Marine to get packing material. I then checked out the voltage regulator. I took it apart and saw no evidence of fried components. I then put it back in, hooked up the alternator and started testing voltages. It seemed to be working fine now. It is a standard voltage regulator that was used on 1980's vintage Fords, so I'll get a spare. I fixed the gasket on the leaking hatch, repaired the latch on the engine room door, changed the fuel filter, tightened the belts, and checked the oil. Overall it was a productive afternoon.
This evening we ate aboard and I wrote the log. Tomorrow we will start plotting our next leg. Tropical Storm Franklin has just been named in The Bahamas, so we need to consider that. The offshore forecast for Saturday and Sunday looks like fairly big seas and of course, unfavorable winds, so we may run the Intra-coastal to Norfolk.
GPS N 32-46.795 W 79-57.308 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 1534.