Air temp 68, water temp 74, winds SW @ 5
157 nautical miles (2 days), 555 total from Marathon
Another quiet night on the mooring in St. Augustine ends as we prepare for another day out on the ocean. I completed all my engine checks last night so just had to start it this morning, turn on all my electronics, make sure everything was setup in the cockpit then pull the moorings lines. By 6:30am we were motoring through the Bridge of Lions bridge.
Shortly after the bridge we turned into the wind and pulled our our full mainsail (always try to get it out as soon as possible). Then we turned toward the St. Augustine inlet and motored out to sea. There were 3 sailboats in front of us that turned around and came back. I'm thinking, "The seas can't be that bad since it's been calm all night and light winds this morning." Later, we found out they were traveling together and one of them was having autopilot problems so they all turned around. They eventually fixed the problem and we talked with one of them on the radio once we were off-shore. They set a direct course to Charleston and we didn't see them again.
Once into the deep water off the inlet, we turned north, rolled out the full jib and raised our mizzen-sail. The winds were only mid-single-digits so just enough to help move the boat but not enough for us to make St. Mary's before sunset. Our goal was to travel the 50 miles to St. Mary's then sit for a day or two on a mooring in Fernandina Beach. Laura took this video of us sailing off-shore.
The ocean just had a small, maybe 2 foot swell coming from our starboard quarter which only rolled the boat slightly. Having all our big sails up really calms down the boat. Laura and I enjoyed the day on the ocean and even both napped during the afternoon with the boat gently rolling a little from side-to-side. The winds picked up a little so we were able to throttle down the engine just enough to keep around 6 knots.
Dean and Sue were still traveling with us on Autumn Borne and stayed within a couple miles all day.
About an hour north of the inlet, this little yellow-ish bird came on-board and eventually made himself at home in our Hibiscus plant on the back deck. He was joined by his partner (we think) - she didn't have the COVID-19 mask that he was wearing.
Later in the afternoon, I texted Dean about how nice is was today on the ocean and maybe we should change plans to keep going overnight up the coast. An overnight sail would allow us to miss all the shallow and twisty ICW through Georgia and southern South Carolina. Dean and Sue decided it was a good idea so we turned a little more out-to-sea on a better course to Port Royal Sound in the morning or Charleston later in the day. We also setup our cockpit for the overnight sail which entailed moving cushions and pillows around for long-range comfort.
Laura re-heated some frozen spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with a small tossed salad. We try to keep the meals at-sea to something simple so she is not working over a moving stove for too long.
It was a beautiful sunset and Laura got this great picture of Autumn Borne on a fairly calm sea with the beautiful sunset colors. They were 2 miles away from us at this point but she was able to zoom in with her Nikon P900 camera. I think she took about 20 pictures to get this good one because the boat was moving around on the waves a bit.
The moon was just 3 days before full and, with the clear skies, kept us company and lit up the ocean all night.
We've tried several different schedules for overnight sailing over the years and have found that 2 or 3 hour watches don't really allow the off-watch person to get much sleep. We've settled on 4 hour watches which can be extended depending on how tired the person on watch gets near the end. My shift was 10pm - 2am and Laura decided to try and get some sleep shortly after sunset.
It stayed pretty calm until about midnight. I think the land-breezes started to kick in (land cools and the wind picks up in the direction of cooler water) as the southern wind picked up to 15-20 knots. This was a little higher than predicted (of course) and, according to Windfinder, would die back down in a couple hours. I eventually reefed the jib and sheeted the mainsail in tight to try and keep down the roll from the following sea which started building to 3-4 feet. We had pulled down the mizzen before sunset so we wouldn't have to bring it down in the dark if the winds picked up.
On our Garmin chart-plotter, I had the course set for Port Royal Sound (ETA 6am) and the iPad AquaMaps set for North Edisto River (ETA 10am). I was hoping to at least make the North Edisto River on this trip which would make our ICW traveling a little easier over the next few days.
Laura came up around 1:30am without getting much sleep. I went down and slept about an hour on the sofa until a group of larger swells came and rocked the boat enough for me (and the sofa cushions) to slide off onto the floor. Then I tried our bed which is athwart-ships (sideways) so I wouldn't roll off. It was a little better and I think I slept maybe another hour there.
Tuesday, May 5th (Cinco De Mayo!)
Air temp 64, water temp 72, winds S @ 16-20
12 nautical miles (afternoon), 567 total miles from Marathon
Hard to believe this starts our 4th week traveling from Marathon.
Around 5am Laura came downstairs and woke me up. She said Dean had called on the radio and was having overheat problems on his engine. He was going to go in Port Royal Sound to anchor and check it out. I dressed and went up into the cockpit then called Dean on the radio. They had fallen back about 3-4 miles behind us because he had brought his engine to idle when it was overheating. We decided to go in Port Royal with them in case they needed help. I turned Second Wind north and let out the sails for the beam-reach (wind from the side of the boat). I turned off the engine for the first time in 23 hours as the boat zoomed through the waves at 7 knots. Port Royal Sound outer marker was about 6nm away then another 10 miles to shore and the river. This is one of the longest ocean channels on the coast and seems to take forever.
Just as we approached the outer marker, Dean texted me and said he had turned the engine off for awhile then, when he started it up again, the temperature stayed good. He recommended we keep going for maybe North Edisto River entrance in another 20 miles. I turned the boat back downwind and adjusted the sails for the new wind angle. 10 minutes later he texted me again saying he decided to go in and check things out "just in case". Yikes! Sail drill again! I turned the boat back toward the inlet which was now a little behind us. I pulled the sheets in tight for close-hauled sailing and just was able to make it back to the first channel marker without running over any shallow areas. Then we fell off the wind a little and sailed the channel to shore.
Two hours later I was off the ocean and back in calm water although we had slowed to 3.5 knots against the outgoing tidal current. I decided to run into Station Creek and anchor. We had anchored here many times in the past and knew the entrance was easy and deep. This was the sunrise on the way into Port Royal Sound.
Dean hadn't been in here and was a little more skeptical because the charts showed it to be shallow. He eventually decided to come in and anchored just behind us. I think the 4 of us were asleep about 10 minutes later to try and make-up for the lack of sleep last night.
We had logged 157 nautical miles from the mooring in St. Augustine to this anchorage. On the ICW, this would have been about 225 statute miles through the twisty-turny Georgia waters with lots of shallow places where we sometimes have to stop and wait for higher tides. In 27 hours, we had covered the equivalent of 5-6 days of ICW traveling and didn't have to once slow down so a powerboat could pass us without throwing a big wake.
After naps and lunch, we decided to head up river to Beaufort and maybe pick up a mooring for a couple nights. We pulled our anchor just before 2pm and had a very nice motor-sail up the Beaufort River for the 11 miles trip with the tidal current helping this time and averaging 7 knots. Autumn Borne took a little longer naps and decided to stay in Station Creek for the night.
I called the Safe Harbor Downtown Marina (formally Beaufort City Docks) and was able to pick up a mooring for the next two nights. After tying to the mooring, we cleaned up the cockpit from our overnight sail and relax for the rest of the day. Here is Second Wind on the mooring in Beaufort, SC with the Lady's Island Bridge in the background.
We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and Laura made chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice and re-fried beans for our Cinco De Mayo dinner. Also had to include Margaritas. Looks good, right?
We watched a few "Car Masters" shows on Netflix which is our new favorite - some very talented people who are not yelling at each other all the time. Then we hit the sac around 9pm and both fell asleep quickly.
Wednesday, May 6th
Air temp 74, water temp 75, winds W @ 10
Not moving the boat today
We slept almost straight through to 7am - 10 hours. Missing a night's sleep is the best sleeping-pill for the next night.
It was warm in the boat last night as the temps had hit 90 degrees yesterday in Beaufort. Geez. Still feels like Florida - hot and humid. The cabin was 78 degrees when we went to bed and, even with the fan blowing I was warm and thinking about sleeping on the sofa under the open hatches. But, I fell asleep shortly after that and it eventually cooled off.
Today feels cooler with highs only going to near 80 this morning then north winds will cool things down later in the day. Tonight's low is predicted to be 51. Might have to close up!
We worked a few boat projects this morning including organizing our pictures from the past few days and catching up the blog. Autumn Borne picked up a mooring near us around 11am.
Just before 1pm I started untying the dinghy. I had put two extra ratchet-straps on it to prevent swinging while out on the ocean. While I was getting ready to lower the dinghy into the water, I saw a sailboat circle around us trying to tie up to a mooring in front. During a brief conversation, I found out the lady driving was single-handed (alone) and having a problem stopping the boat next to the mooring, running up to the bow, reaching down with a boat hook for the mooring line, then running one of her lines through it. The wind was blowing the boats on moorings all over the place. Tying to a mooring with this current and wind was going to be tough.
I told the gal on Bees Knees I would help her with the mooring in a couple minutes when I had our dinghy in the water. As I plopped the dinghy in the water, I saw another boater had already motored over to the mooring and was helping her. Cool. Lots of help around.
I had texted Dean about giving them a ride into town which they had accepted. On our way over, I saw a powerboat having problems with the mooring so I zoomed over there to help. Laura got the worst of it since I was driving the dinghy. She reached over and pulled up the mooring pendant to run their boat line through the end. The mooring pendant was covered in algae and sea-growth so Laura got pretty dirty. But, those of you that know her understand it didn't bother Laura hardly at all. She just stuck her hands in the water and washed off on the way over to Autumn Borne.
We found the marina dinghy dock then we walked up the ramp and deposited our garbage bags. After spending a little time in the marina office, we split up because I really wanted to take a long walk. Laura and I had a nice 3-mile walk around Beaufort and ended up at the ice cream store (of course). Then a short walk around the waterfront park where we met back up with Dean and Sue. We piled into the dinghy and motored back to the boats. Here's a picture from town of Second Wind on her mooring. She's just to the left of center.
On our way back to the boats I motored out onto the river to see how well the new motor would push the 4 of us in the dink. After just a short time at full throttle, our new Tohatsu 20 popped the dinghy up on plane and we were zooming down the river. Lots of fun for this old river Captain...
Tomorrow we'll head north again on the ICW and should be able to make it near Charleston. Another day through the McClennenville area then a 3rd day up the Waccamaw to Myrtle Beach area. We'll be needing fuel and water in a few days so plans are to stop at Osprey for fuel then overnight in North Myrtle Beach - maybe Myrtle Beach Yacht Club that just reopened after being shutdown for the quarantine. That's the plan for now, we'll see how it goes.
Such nice memories....
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