Sunday December 22, 2019
Another day spent with our Florida family. Dan and Bill did errands getting a few things for the boat. They also had to move Trance a few slips down, guess we parked in the wrong one yesterday. Halle and I went food shopping for their Christmas Eve dinner, we spent the day preparing food. More family stopped by, Aunt Joan, Cindy and Bonnie came over for dinner.
Looks like we may have a good weather window in a few days.
Saturday December 21, 2019
Everyday is a Saturday! We left our cul de sac probs around 8:30am went through 6 more bridges and finally ended up at the the Aquamarina Ocean Side Marina. Meet up with Dan’s cousin Bill his wife Halle, their son Jeffery, whom we’ll stay with for a few days.
Friday December 20, 2019
Alarms were set to wake us up at 6:15am, we wanted to see if the space launch at Cape Canaveral would be visible from where we were. Boeing was sending up an unmanned rocket.
Our travels today took us from Ft Pierce to Del Ray Beach FL. 64.4 nautical miles or 74.11 miles. Going through 17 bascule bridges. Some opened upon request others were on the half and the hour, a few were 15 and 45 past the hour. Majority of the bridge operators were polite and timely, but there was one who wouldn’t open the bridge for us. He said we were too far away, our eta was 2 minutes off, but it takes him 2 minutes to open the bridge. We waited there 30 minutes for the next time slot.
We stopped for the night in a cul de sac on the ICW. Looking at google maps, we’re near a Walmart parking lot…our RV on the water.
Thursday December 19, 2019
Left Melbourne FL early morning, outside on the ocean, there are gale force winds and 8-10ft seas hence why we’re still on the ICW. Today winds were 18-24 knots out of the NE. We ended the day anchored in 10 ft of water just south of Ft Pierce FL for the night.
Wednesday December 18, 2019
The wind was howling all night, the night sky lit with cracks of lightning and the roar of thunder. We were anchored overnight in 8 feet of water near the Ponce de Leon inlet where boat was doing 360’s around the anchor chain. Yup that happened. We pulled up anchor at 6:30am headed south. The wind was at our back the entire day, averaging 18-25 occasionally hitting 30 knots,.
Fellow Thistle sailor Michael Paramore had a slip for us at his yacht club in Melbourne FL, we thought if we got up early enough we may be able to make it soon after sunset. Melbourne was about 70 miles away, that’s a lot for a days travel on the ICW. For most of day we had the main out adding 1 to 2 knots of speed with the current averaging over 7 knots, (including waiting for 3 lift bridges), even saw 9 a few times, arrived at 4:30pm. We had dinner with Michael and his girlfriend Nicole at Ichabod’s Dockside Bar & Grill, it was great evening!
Monday December 16, 2019
I used Instacart for the first time! It won’t be the last either. We were ready to leave St. Augustine, but really needed to pick up a few items at a grocery store, nothing was in walking distance. We made our order and Publix delivered, free delivery too, just a tip, which was cheaper than 2 Uber/ Lyft rides. Pretty cool! Delivered right to the dock!
Going through Daytona Beach bridges, we went through a wild storm, rain, thunder, lightning, saw gusts over 30 knots. We motored down the ICW to just south of Daytona Beach, anchoring near the Ponce de Leon inlet for the night. Made dinner, plan on going to bed early as we would like to get “on the road” before sunrise.
Monday December 16, 2019
Motor sailing seems to be the thing when the wind is at the wrong angle, it did however come around later but it was light, 0-12. We docked for the night at City Marina in St Augustine FL.
Sunday December 15, 2019
Departure from Charleston was 8:00am, heading out to the ocean. The winds were 4 out of the South, not a good direction, so we motor sailed through the night to St Augustine FL., about 200 nautical miles.
Danielle and I had the 10pm to 2am watch. It was a very uneventful night. On AIS we were intrigued by a 102 ft pleasure craft named “Sunday Money”. Football player, golfer, bookie or priest? What are your thoughts? Which then lead to a slew of midnight thoughts. Where’s Bruno Mars? (as we’re listening to one of his songs) Which direction are the whales migrating? Did you know there’s a speed limit out here of 10 knots because of the them? Do whales sleep at night? How long to whales and dolphins hold there breath for? Is that condensation on the plastic or fog? Is that a boat or a buoy? Midnight random thoughts on Trance.
Saturday December 14, 2019
We left the dock at 11am with the anticipation the wind would shift to the West. The direction was SW, waves 6-10ft wind 21-26 with gusts to 31knots.
When we tacked,we were heading back to Charleston, not the direction we wanted to go. Our tacking angle was horrible, as we were trying to sail a relative comfortable angle to the wind and waves. After much debate, it was decided to return to City Marina and try again tomorrow, the wind should be lighter. Had dinner on the boat were in bed by 9.
Friday December 13, 2019
We opted to stay another day in Charleston, it was raining and foggy. The day allowed me to catch up on my project. I don’t think I mentioned what that was. I’ve been sewing a cockpit enclosure for the boat. There will be 7 panels attached to each other with zippers and have windows. The process started with creating a pattern using Dura-Skrim.
As dinner time approach, our buddies on svGander suggested we go downtown. It was a very fun night!
Sailing Trance 