Nov 11

Thursday, Nov 11

Sapelo to St Simon

We awakened fairly early and had a casual breakfast and finally got away around 8:45 am.  The weather sounded good and we initially planned another run like the last outside - overnight with a preliminary goal of St. Augustine, FL.

We almost immediately put up the sails as we went out the long channel to the ocean.  As was the case on arrival yesterday, we were going against the tide.  The tides run up to 1.8 knots in this area.  I believe we had more like 2.5 knots.

As we got out, we set our course at 180 degrees with following seas and following winds.  As we settled in, we started cross checking and realized that at the speeds we were running, we would arrive in St. Augustine around 3 am.  Arriving at a strange destination in the dark is not something we want to try, so we start rethinking our destination.

About the same time we are rethinking our destination, the winds have built to 20 knots and the seas are running 4 to 6 feet.  The weather had talked about a strong low pressure near Bermuda that was causing big ocean swales, and we were beginning to really see the swales.  And we were running downwind.  The boat is rolling 30 degrees either side of center, making for rapid changes of up to 50 and 60 degrees.  And the weather forecast is for increasing winds to 15 to 20 knots (which means 20 to 25 knots).

We make a prudent decision that this is not conducive to safe night time operations.  Every time we go on deck we put on a life vest and safety harness - and it's daylight.  It will be much more dangerous and uncomfortable in the dark.

We started looking for reasonable inlets that we can make in daylight and finally decide on St. Simons.

The sailing was a lot of fun, especially when we were able to change course and not be running dead downwind.  Probably the longest, most fun sail we've had.

We arrive at St. Simons around 5 pm, just in time to find a good anchorage before sunset.

Based on the current weather forecast and the fact that we need to get fuel, we will probably take the next leg on the inside.  It looks like by the weekend we should be able to get back outside and make some more great overnight runs.

Our voyage today.

I sure hope so.  It's still a long was to South Florida.