Our
travelling companions, Skip and Gerri Smith, on Yellow Bird got to Oriental, NC on 11/7. We then left on
11/10 for Morehead City, NC to stage for our run from Beaufort, NC to Charleston, SC the following day, a 225 mile run.
It was very cold, at least in the 30’s. This is why we’re going south!
The first leg of our trip was forecasted to
be light winds out of the NE. It was for the first half, but when we rounded Cape Fear, things changed.
We had 15 out of the SW…the exact direction we were sailing. So we got bounced around all
night crashing into the waves, and cold. The boats hobby-horsed all night, a 36 hour trip.
We got into Charleston around cocktail time. It seamed appropriate…so we drank…and
drank.
Charleston is a
neat city with lots of good restaurants and shops. We were tied up at the “Mega Dock” in the
City Marina. There were some real Mega Yachts there. One was named “Kismet”.
It’s huge, over 225 ft. long. They put the smaller boats like our on the far end of this huge
dock. Walking to the office was our daily exercise. They provide a shuttle to get to
downtown so we can spend even more money.
Yellow Bird got a new autopilot during our stay. They had to
hand steer from Beaufort…not fun…and very tiring. We had to stay an extra day waiting for
a weather window. We will be sailing south, and the winds were very strong out of the south.
On 11/17, we left
Charleston at 6:00 AM in fairly cold weather for Fernandina, FL. The early part of the trip had fairly
light winds, but they built at night. Not too bad, and we could motor-sail. The trip
was around 27 hours, but we are now in Florida, so it was warmer.
When we got to Fernandina, we had to wait before entering the inlet
to let a nuclear sub go in front of us. The Navy pulled rank...and won.
After entering the inlet at
Fernandina, FL, we went up the St, Marys River to St. Marys, GA. It’s just 5 miles, but it does go
over the state line. We were treated to an excellent steak dinner at friends of Yellow Bird.
Craig and Maureen Miller have a lovely house, and served up some great food…and drinks. What
hosts, lots of fun.
Upon
leaving for Cape Canaveral, Yellow Bird developed an engine problem. We weren’t very far out, so
we went back to St. Marys. This is when we had a staff meeting to determine what Fine Lion should do.
It was decided that we would take off since we didn’t know the exact problem with Yellow Bird’s engine,
or how long it would take to fix.
We
then left for Cape Canaveral at 9:30 AM. It was a nice day, and much warmer.
The trip was 183 miles (nautical) and took
us 25 hours. The forecast was for 5 kts out of the NNE, but when we got to the Cape at 3:30 in the AM,
it was 15 – 20 out of the east. Needless to say, we had some fairly big 5 – 8 ft. seas.
The good news was the direction. We were sailing around the Cape at 8+kts. That
is a WOW in sailing conditions as it was on our beam. The Cape is really spectacular at night.
There was a space shuttle on the launching pad and it is very lit up at night. You could see it
for miles. We were just 7 miles from it when we rounded at 6:00 in the morning.
We are now waiting in Canaveral
getting some canvas work done, so we’ll be here two days. We will then start down the ICW.
Up to now, we’ve gone outside. That makes it faster, but the weather is not going to cooperate
so we’ll be leaving on Thanksgiving Day to go down the ICW in Florida.
We heard from Yellow Bird that they “may” have a fix for
their engine, and could also be leaving St. Marys on Thanksgiving Day.
That’s all for now…
