Jacksonville to points North

After listening to some wonderful New Orleans jazz last night I decided I can't take several more days in the 90's and the winds are favorable so I am off.  Where?  Savannah, Charleston, Beaufort NC - depends on the offshore winds and my mood.  Right now they look good for the long transit.

Float Plan

Departing Jacksonville at about 9 AM
Offshore
Savannah? Charleston? Beaufort NC? depending on winds
Thanks all

Jacksonville Jazz Festival

Sometimes when cruising you stumble into unexpected pleasures.  After a couple of brutally hot days I was rewarded this evening by the Jacksonville Fl Jazz festival.  Four stages are set up around town with performances tonight, tomorrow and Sunday.  And the best part is it is all free.

Reboot is docked just a bit away from one of the stages so I get to listen from the cockpit.

Nice

Back at Jacksonville Landing

I just finished a very long transit from St. Augustine to Jacksonville Landing.  I used the ICW since the winds were forecast from the North.  And from the North they were - peaking at 25 knots.  It was not a fun trip.  First, the current was against me leaving St. Augustine.  Then I got rained on.  The current and strong winds continued to slow my progress most of the day - I never saw 4 knots and most of the time saw 2.5 to 3.  Until, of course, I turned into the St. John river.  At that point I picked up a 2.5 to 3 knot push and rocketed up to Jacksonville at 7 to 8 knots.  Of course as a result the rate of close of the several ocean going ships in the channel was in the neighborhood of 16 to 18 knots.  Boy, they really look big when they close that fast.

I came into Jacksonville Landing rigged on the wrong side, I though that the current would ebb enough close to shore that I could tie up with my stern to the current.  Of course that didn't work out so I had to spin around and re-rig everything on the other side in a 3 knot current between two bridges.

The good news, my XO kitten took the trip in stride.  So I am going to make the final adoption arrangements tomorrow.

LESSONS LEARNED:  Don't put your tool box on top of the compass.  But that is a story for another day.

St Augustine, FL

Report:
1) Wonderful Towboat US - they brought me in and got me settled when I was having fuel problems.
2)  St. Augustine Municipal Marina - clean, well staffed, helpful, competitively priced.  A bit tricky to get in, the currents around the Bridge of Lyons are pretty severe.  Once in the slip they are not a concern.  Showers and rest rooms (at least the mens') were clean and well cared for.
3) The city was a big disappointment.  First, they roll up the sidewalks at 9 PM.  Not much fun for a sailor.  There is a pedestrian only street that is very pretty.  But it is all shops and a couple of very mediocre restaurants  Sort of Duval St. without any bars.  Yes, sounds ugly and it is.  I would be remiss however if I did not point out that I saw more very good looking women of all ages in a one hour tour than I have elsewhere except in Key West during Spring Break..

My new roommate

Welcome my new roomate, a Tonkonise kitten. He is about 6 months old and is adjusting to life on a moving floor. I wish I was smart enough to have named him, but I think I will take some time to get the right combination of behavior and "saltiness" before we agree on a name. "We", yes, of course, he does have to agree to respond to it!

St Augustine

Currently in St Augustine.  Changing fuel filters.  Hopefully adopting a Tonkinese kitten.  Then off to Jacksonville - NAS - for further boat work - a couple of days - then off to Beaufort, NC and the Chesapeake Bay.

Current Position

At 6:52 AM on 5/22/2010 Reboot (and I) were at 29°53.77'N 081°18.55'W heading 053T at 0.0.

Current Position

At 6:56 AM on 5/21/2010 Reboot (and I) were at 29°03.53'N 080°26.96'W heading 332T at 3.6.

Becalmed at 5 knots

It has been a strange couple of days. I left Key West for Jacksonville FL on my way North for the summer. (Yes, I intend to go to Mexico and Belize but in October. Its an insurance thing.)

There has been almost no wind so I have motored a lot. This is a problem as I don't carry all that much fuel, but since I am traveling along the coast I can afford to burn fuel as I can always duck in for more. Today I was off Miami in the middle of the Gulf Stream. No wind, but I was sailing at 5 knots on the combination of current and wave action. Most of the time the sails were flapping in the breeze. Weird! Then we got a series of storms and I was doing 8 knots with just the main up. Fortunately I got to watch the thunderstorm behind me rather than being in it. The weather has passed over me and now the wind is back to 2 knots.

I am looking forward to Jacksonville as I intend to adopt a kitten to keep me company. We will see how that goes.

At the moment I am off Fort Worth and there is not another boat within 16 miles of my location.

Current Position

At 11:05 PM on 5/19/2010 Reboot (and I) were at 26°44.34'N 079°44.70'W heading 008T at 6.3.

Float Plan

All:

Planned departure from Key West either Monday May 17th PM or Tuesday May 18th early AM. Destination is direct Jacksonville FL. Original course up the Hawk Channel to take advantage of flat seas as the wind will be in my face. Depending upon circumstances I may either anchor out at night or go offshore to pick up the Gulf Stream and get the push north. I will keep you all advised.

Roger

Key West to Galveston aboard Kipeki

I am now in Galveston TX waiting for a flight back to Key West.  I intended to drive only to find out that the rental car alone was almost twice the airfare.  Of course then there would be gasoline and hotel rooms if I stopped to visit museums along the way.

The trip was pretty easy.  We spent quite a bit of time with very low winds and since we needed to conserve fuel we did bump around a lot.  At one point when we were becalmed we just let the boat drift and went swimming in 10,000 feet of water.  We had a lot of fun swinging off the halyard into the water.  We were also visited on a daily basis by an ever increasing pod of dolphins.  I have film of both, I will post it when I get back to the necessary cables to transfer it from my camera.

For those of you who were following our progress on shiptrac.org we did actually find a wormhole that permitted us to end up in the southeast Atlantic for a bit.  We were hoping to catch up with our friend "Sweak" who is transiting a boat to Africa.  But the wormhole collapsed before we were able to find him and we ended up back in the Gulf of Mexico for our next report.

The trip into Galveston via the fairways that avoid the oil platforms was a bit less difficult than expected.  We did the transit at night and did not realize how many ships just loiter around near the oil wells.  Once we got the general gestalt sorted out on the radar we were able to calm down quite a bit.  We entered the Galveston channel at dawn with 6 - 8 foot rollers on the stern and lots of ship traffic.  And of course when it came time to tie up the winds decided to blow at 35 knots.  But, as Willie the S says, "All's well that ends well."