May 18, 2008.

We got up early and headed over to the fuel dock before they were open. We just wanted to pump out our holding tank and top off the water tank. So with those things accomplished we were headed south for the Fort Pierce Inlet.

Now, going south to go north may seem a little odd but I did some figurin’. Because of the shoals that extend out from Cape Canaveral, one lock to transit and a bridge with a 3 hour dinner time closing we decided to go further to get there quicker. So instead of motoring 55 miles up the ICW (which would suck on the weekend) to the Inlet at Cape Canaveral and then going out; we decided to backtrack 13 miles and go out the Fort Pierce Inlet. This would save us the time spent at the lock; we wouldn’t have to wait until after 1800 hours to have the bridge open and we wouldn’t have to do the ICW in Florida on a weekend.

We headed south and were out the inlet with the sails up and the engine off by 0930. The wind was supposed to be from the west at 5 to 10 knots. We found ourselves with 12 knots from the west and we were moving along at a little better than 6 knots, fantastic…..for 2 hours. Then the wind dropped to 3 knots and we were ghosting along at 1.7 knots.

It took us over 2 hours to cover the next 4 miles. Shit. There was no way I was willing to motor across 160 miles of open ocean. Just not doing it, no way. Fortunately that was the worst part of the day. The winds remained light for the rest of the day as we moved along at between 3 and 4 knots. When we hit 4 and a half knots it felt as if we were flying.

We had several squalls blow through and each one brought us a different wind. The biggest winds we saw were only 15 knots but they were from every direction. We even had to tack once without changing our course as the winds clocked abruptly around.

The AIS worked beautifully as we worked our way north. The day was hot and hazy. Visibility was deceptive. At first glance I was sure that visibility was unlimited but the AIS was telling me that there was a Disney cruise ship several hundred feet long 8 miles off our port bow. Since his course and speed were displayed on our chartplotter we knew that he would be crossing our bow at a safe distance. It was a little disconcerting that we couldn’t see him even though we knew he was there. We know all about 7 miles and the curve of the earth but he’s got to be pretty freakin’ tall so we should be able to see him. Finally when he was about 5 miles out and directly in front of us we saw him come looming out of the haze. The boat was entirely white against a white backdrop. He wasn’t just some speck on the horizon either. He was like 9 stories tall and big as hell moving along at 17 knots as he crossed our bow.

It wasn’t a close call or anything but it was a good lesson for us. Because the AIS told us he was there we weren’t shocked when he appeared out of nowhere on what we thought was a crystal clear day. Up until that moment we didn’t know how far we weren’t seeing. It looked like a clear day with unlimited visibility. With no frame of reference it was really was very deceiving.

We don’t really ever use the radar during daylight unless the weather is nasty because it uses so much power. We always have the radar on at night and all the power we expend at night is replenished during the following day by the solar panels. We may have to reexamine our policy on that.

Intermittently during the evening we had to start the engine as we became becalmed here and there. Finally after dark the wind started to build and we found ourselves close hauled in 15 knots of wind. We were moving along nicely and didn’t have to restart the engine until 1100 hours on Sunday morning when the wind died yet again.

Because of the lower than predicted wind speeds our arrival in Saint Augustine wasn’t until 1600 hours. All in all our trip ended up taking 33 hours to cover 180 miles with us running the engine for close to 9 of those 33 hours. It was maddening as our boat speed varied from 1.7 knots to finally 8 knots for the last 2 hours of our trip.

Of course the fun didn’t end with our safe arrival in port. When we got to the anchorage we found it to be moderately crowded. Unfortunately, when there are not many boats around people tend to take advantage of the situation. This guys got 150 feet out, that guys got 2 anchors out, this ones only got 75 feet out. It sucks if everyone’s not on the same page.

We dropped and set the hook and I lowered the dink and took the dogs to shore. When I got back I had a boat too close on either side of us. It was our fault as we had anchored between them not realizing that they both had a ridiculous amount of chain out. So we raised the anchor and picked a new spot.

After we drop and set the hook the guy on the boat behind us yelled to us that when the tide changed he almost reached the boat in front of us. Turned out he had 200 feet of rode out because he likes to “sleep” at night. So that meant that when the tide turned, he’d definitely hit us. Shit. On the bright side though that meant it would be easy for me to climb aboard his boat and shove about 120 feet of his chain right in his ass. While this point appealed to the sleep deprived part of me, what it boiled down too is that we had to haul the anchor yet again. Shit.

This time we hauled the anchor and crossed the channel to the other side of the river. Nobody ever anchors over there and I’m not sure why as it turns out to be plenty deep and we’re all alone on this side of the river. While tempted to lay out 200 cubits of chain to claim this entire part of the planet as ours we settled on 80 feet and slept just fine.