Nov 13

Today, we motored all day in the ICW.  It's still to rough out in the ocean for timid sailors like us.  Seas are 10 to 12 feet.

We went through Jacksonville Florida this morning.  But the navigator (me) got the Captain (Joe) messed up and we went up the river rather than following the ICW.  After discovering this, we turned around and I'm trying to forget it.  However, later when we got in the waterway, Joe promptly ran the boat aground (which is pretty easy in this area).  Fortunately, we were able to extract ourselves from the sandbar with a little reverse on the engine.

We stopped for lunch and a run to a West Marine Store South of Jacksonville.  We found that we didn't have any paper charts for Florida - and they are pretty important to know where you're going.  They may help us keep from going aground some.  (I think this is the 3rd time this trip).

It's interesting on the waterway here.  There are LOTS of real fine homes, just like around Myrtle Beach.

And some of the real fine home have lots of toys.

We're anchored in a very secluded creek just of the waterway tonight. 

MAYBE tomorrow we can get back in the ocean for a couple of days.

Nov 12

Friday, Nov 12

We up anchor early today and head down the ICW behind Jekyl Island to get fuel and water.  After refueling and traveling on down, the ICW intersects the next inlet right on the ocean.  We decide that we have the time and only plan to travel about 15 miles further today, so decide we might as well go on the outside.

This ends up being one of the most challenging and exciting sails I have ever taken.  The winds are running 15 to 20 knots out of the North and there are heavy swell of 8 to 10 feet and their are lots of shallow water right around the channel going out.  The combination of these  gives Eureka (and crew) the ride of our lives.  We have breaking seas and rolling seas laying Eureka 40 + degrees on her side.  The boat handles all of this in stride.  The crew just hangs on.  This short video clip will give you some idea of the ride - however we couldn't take video when it got rough, we were just hanging on.

We run downwind with the rolling seas following us, giving the autopilot more of a challenge than it can handle most of the time so we are hand steering trying to keep the boat on a heading of 180 degrees.

We come in the St Marys inlet which is the dividing line between Georgia and Florida and get out of the action.  We travel several miles down the ICW and end up anchoring in the middle of nowhere just off the waterway.  As the picture shows, we are at least a mile out in what I guess you could call a swamp that has deep water channels running through it.  There doesn't seem to be anyone else within sight.  The evening should be quiet.

We're finding planning to be useless.  Every plan we make we change.  It looks like we "MIGHT" make Jacksonville or vicinity tomorrow.

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.

Nov 6 - 9

Georgetown Nov 5-9

Georgetown to Sapelo Sound

After determining that we had a faulty alternator and getting Bruce Brainard to work on it, we planned to stay in Georgetown until Wednesday. So we settled in for the stay.

Bruce plays bass in a band “Foreclosure” and he told us about the “Taste of Georgetown" that would be held Saturday in downtown. His band was playing.

Saturday, we awoke to bone chilling cold in the upper 30's. Deju vous all over again.

We walked downtown around noon, watched the band (their fingers were cold), and decided we wanted a good cheeseburger from “the Big Tuna” on the waterfront. After lunch we went back and listened to the band and had dessert.

Georgetown has a community theater and had a show of Broadway Musicals playing Saturday evening, so we went to it. It was some good singing and we enjoyed it. They have a great theater and it was full. We sat in the balcony, but the sound and view were great.

Sunday, we decided we needed some supplies (i.e. a space heater) from Walmart. We checked the GPS and it was about a 3 mile walk. We needed the exercise. We picked up a few things (space heater) at Walmart and decided that we could afford a taxi back to the boat.

Monday morning Bruce called and said he had located a new alternator. We could drive to Charleston and pick it up or have it shipped. We opted to rent a car and drove to Charleston. We picked up a couple movies at The Red Box on the way back and that provided our evening entertainment.

Tuesday morning Bruce came over and had the alternator fixed by 11:00. By 11:30 we were underway headed out to the Ocean for our first real opportunity to sail offshore on the trip.

We had a destination of Beaufort SC, figuring we would arrive around 6 or 7 am Wednesday morning.

Our trip South this time is our first overnighter on Eureka.

Weather called for north winds around 10 knots and we were excited that we could probably sail all night.

 Ends up that most of the night the winds were out of the Southwest, so we ended up motoring until around 2 am. Then the winds started clocking to the Northwest. We put up the sails around 2 am and shut down the engine. It's 8:30 am now and we're still under sail.

This was our first overnight offshore sailing.  It is incredible to sail at night offshore with no lights to interfere with seeing the sky.  There was no moon after about 10:30 and it really gets dark.  You can't tell the sky from earth.  It all is black.  The starts are magnificent.  You can see millions.   Sailing in the dark compares somewhat with flying by instrument in an airplane.  You have to depend on your compass and GPS - sailing by instrument - because there are no visual references.

Sailing at night is a whole new perspective.  With the engine off and no night at all, you can barely see the bow wave.  It seems that you are moving fast looking at the bow wave.  We did average about 5.7 knots. 

The whole trip ended up to be 171 nautical miles for the 28 hours.

We decided that we need to get further South while conditions are good, so we have a tentative destination of St. Catherines Sound about 40 NM further South than Charleston. We should arrive around 1 or 2 PM this afternoon.

During the overnight, Joe and I took alternate short naps, with both of bringing our sleeping bags on deck while the other was on-watch. That worked out well, although it was rather cool all night.

The sunset and sunrise were nice and the weather is still looking great.

September 10

Turns out that we decided to go into Sapelo Sound for the evening.  It's further South and we were able to make it before dark. 

We anchored in a beautiful place off Sapelo Island and met a couple (Lilly and George Haywood) on a trawler from the area.  They told us some interesting information about the area. 

This reminds us a little of Cape Lookout because it is so isolated and well preserved.

The Journey to date