Breakfast in the " yatch" in Palm Beach, after the storm

The autopilot stopped working and the alternator was not charging and to add insult to injury, the skies opened as Far Away and Blue Phoenix were making their way into Palm Beach. But all ended well and the crew managed to anchor, eat and drop dead after a long 200 mile trip from St. Augustine.
Today after fiddling with the alternator and the autopilot they had a scrumptious baked breakfast and were off in Blue Phoenix's dinghy to research marinas in the area to leave the boats. From the looks of the breakfast I see they do not miss me. I miss them though, because it's cold, gray and snowflakes are falling mixed with the rain!

Another offshore

After to days of R&R in St. Augustine, Far Away and Blue Phoenix continued their voyage south. The current was very strong this morning when they tried to leave and were forced to wait for slack tide. Unfortunately the Pacific Craft from Annapolis on the next slip insisted on going out and hit our sterm, damaging the wind vane and almost taking the outboard with it!
Last time I talked they had travelled 30 miles and were motorsailing. If all goes well they should be resting in Palm Beach tomorrow.

wind² + not enough scope= drag, drag, drag

Last minute news:
At 5 am this morning Far Away's lone crewman heard a weird noise and found the raft up was moving fast towards other anchored boats. After a good deal of scrambling, the boats were untied but Juan was alone in Far Away, so he went around for a while until the bridge opened and then he docked at the marina.
The shock must have been good for his brain cells because he managed to fix the fridge. So as of this hour (but we do not know until when) Far Away has 0 problems! (Oh how I miss her!)

St. Augustine

My accounts now are of course second hand, I am back home while Juan is still going further South. Yesterday one of the crew members in Blue Phoenix, Juan José, defected and joined forces with Far Away to take it to St. Augustine. They sailed 70% of the time and apparently raced for a bottle of wine. They say they won by two miles, at least. The day was beautiful but the wind was light so they did not arrive until eight pm and had a hard time getting into St. Augustine because the channel is not as well marked as in Fernandina and there is shoaling, but all went well and by 9 they were rafted up and ready. Today they stay put, waiting for Nelson to arrive.

New crew member

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Faraway fixed

The O ring of the injector pump probably broke and fell with the vibration, so the other singing sailor, Fernando, replaced it with the O ring from an old sparkplug and voilá! Genius! (Watch out Tom for that FG title, it's in jeopardy!)
But of course once something was fixed, something else broke: this time the fridge. But we stuffed it with ice and it will have to do until it gets to FLL or Miami, or somewhere in between.
While I take my taxi to Jacksonville airport, Juan and hopefully one of the three crew members from Blue Phoenix, will sail to St. Augustine. Nelson will join him there for the final leg.
For a while I will forget about weather reports and diesel engines, but I will continue to hear it purring as I sleep.
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Bye Faraway, hello DC

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Engine fixed! Thanks to one of the singing sailors!

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The little boat that almost couldn't but did!

A glorious sunny day and flat seas were waiting for us as we left the Port Royal inlet into the ocean. A power boater's dream: mirror flat. About two hours into the passage as we were getting ready to relax, the smell of diesel overpowered us. Juan had been noticing droplets of fuel around one of the injector pumps and was hoping it would hold until Faraway was in Miami. It didn't and the droplets became a thin spray. After an hour debating whether to turn back, two calls to Marco and suggestions from Blue Phoenix, we tied a piece cloth around the injector, let it fall inside a plastic cup and collected the fuel there. There was no wind so we could not help the engine with the sails. We put them up any way because any whiff helped.
Twelve long hours later, we headed into St. Mary's cut. A very different cut from the one we faced last time: no waves, no submarines hailing; the only challenge was making sure we saw the markers.
The crew is showered, clean and happy. Tomorrow we will worry about repairs...
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Captain in T shirt, finally!

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Far Away in Florida

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Chilly night

I feel I have been cheated by the weather. By now we should have peeled a couple of layers of clothing but there were frost advisories for this area and it's been cold, really, really cold. Yesterday the weather forecast proved right, we had strong winds all the way which made it even chillier. The last time we had been in this part of the waterway was in 2001 on Zingaro's maiden voyage. It is very beautiful. The anchorage last night was peaceful and the sunrise stunning (in spite of the 30 degrees). We stopped at the Beaufort city dock for fuel and ice and were impressed by what we could see of the cityit. Beaufort definitely deserves a visit. We are now heading for the Port Royal inlet and if all goes well we should wake up in Fernandina tomorrow.
As I was writing this blog we caught sight of a bunch of pelicans and dolphins feasting on some poor fish. I was not quick enough to take the picture with my blackberry, maybe next time.
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Sunrise at Brickyard Point

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Towards Beaufort, SC

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And a happy Thanksgiving it was!

We left Beaufort, NC at 7 am with a forecast of very light winds, so of course as soon as we could we opened the genoa and the main sail. Less than an hour later it started to rain and we had 18 knot winds on a reach. So of course we had to scramble as fast as we could to bring down the sails so as to avoid having to wear the boat as a hat! Talk about reliable forecasts.
Nevertheless, once we had adequately powered the boat, with two reefs and the stay sail, the passage was OK. The waves were not big but they came from everywhere so it was rolly. Maybe because of the thanksgiving holiday we had no traffic whatsoever.
The dawn brought us the first sunny day in a week and had dolphins swimming around us, always a good omen and it reminded us of why we do this!
We arrived in Charleston at 4 pm with a forecast of 25 knot winds for last night and today, so we prudently tied to the city dock and had our thanksgiving dinner there.
Given the forecast for today we have taken the "inside" route, and will probably spend the night
In Beaufort, SC.
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In Beaufort getting ready for an overnight offshore to Charleston

Last night we anchored near Oriental, for a last raft up with Beau Soleil before they take off to the Keys. They arrived earlier at the anchorage and were waiting for us with cocktails. We had dinner aboard FarAway and sang until we ran out of songs.
Today we did not leave too early because we were only three hours away from Beaufort where we are spending the night. Beau Soleil did not stop, they went directly offshore, although we were sad to leave them we  made plans to maybe meet up again in Key West. Shawna must definitely be made a Spooner. Only she'll be the lead singer now.
We hired a taxi this afternoon after having tried and been sadly disappointed at the "best burgers in Beaufort" and went to the supermarket and the hardware store, we are ready to cross the ocean! Although last night Juan checked the oil in the engine and it seemed to be very low, yet another cause of concern, but we bought plenty of oil and hopefully we'll make it in one piece to Florida. The weather tomorrow will apparently be good so we will try the offshore passage to Charleston. If all goes well we should be there by Thursday afternoon.

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Arriving in Beaufort

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Plodding along

A mostly uneventful day motorsailing down the Alligator River. We stopped shortly at Coinjock to get rid of trash and buy a few gallons of water. Beau Soleil had to fix the transmission cable but in half an hour we were underway.
The wind picked up in the afternoon so we did not dare to raft up. We anchored in the bay before the long canal starts and in spite of the wind all anchors held and we had a good night sleep. We let the wind make the music.
Today we turned on the engine at 6am as scheduled but it started squealing. After a few minutes of stress Juan tightened the belt on the engine and the squaling stopped. All of last night and along the canal we had no cell phone signal. The sat phone proved its worth again, at least to assuage my incommunicado-phobia.
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Another Day, A Better day

We did not do a lot distance wise but had a very good day. We started from Hampton at 10 after Juan walked around unsuccessfully trying to find the spare parts Beau Soleil had lent us.

We found a fuel leak at the filter the mechanic changed in Solomons but once the engine heated it must have expanded and it stopped. And that was the extent of our misadventures for the day.

We had a longer than usual wait at the locks so we only made it past the bridge at Pungo Ferry. Beau Soleil anchored and we tied alongside along with Blue Phoenix. We ate well, drank wine and sang. Both crew members in Blue Phoenix can really play the guitar, and they brought theirs along so we had two. Shawna can really, professionally sing. The only problem was the age gap between us that made it harder to find common ground! She was not born for most of our songs! We will have to brush up our Melissa Etheridge and Alanis Morissette to keep up!!

Fleet Complete

What a long day yesterday! We left at 5:55 from Solomon's and got into a windy and surprisingly wavy bay. We sailed downwind with the waves folowing and made very good speed just with the genoa but the wave action was so uncomfortable and unexpected that when I went down to make coffee it caught me unawares and made me fly to the other side of the boat. Nothing broken though, just bruised.

Then the head broke, so we spent twelve long hours studying up to be hired for the trapeze at the Cirque du Soleil, using the railings as props.

We made it into hampton, met our friends at Beau Soleil, who kindly lent us spares to fix the head, had a nice hot shower at Bluewater marina and slept.

Today we begin the odissey in the intercoastal: bridge openings, the lock and depth restriction ...

Lazy Rainy Day in Solomon's

By the time the fuel had been pumped out and filters replaced and tanks filled again it was almost one and it was raining so we decided to anchor and stay put for the day. We slept, and read and Juan fixed things here and there. Luckily it's not cold: we even had dinner in the cockpit, with the enclosure, of course. Tomorrow we leave before dawn because we have a long day ahead if we want to reach Hampton. Beau Soleil, who will also be buddy boating with us is having their canvas done in Hapmton and that was also delayed, so if all goes well, we'll be leaving Hampton on Saturday! The weather forecast is good but the wind will be on our nose, so we will test the engine.

Not too far away

I have been saying that the true adventure this time would be the boat. I should have kept my mouth shut. We finally left the dock at 3:45 after much pushing and goading our buddy boat, Blue Phoenix. The wind was perfect and we were sailing at 6.5 knots on a broad reach most of the time, but as it got dark and we had some close encounters with a couple of large freighters, we turned the engine on and decided to stop at Solomon's island for the night. But the engine thought otherwise and started sputtering and stopping. We had the main up so we sailed on, let it cool, tried again, until we finally tied at a mooring ball in Zahneiser's marina. Our fuel is old and looks like chocolate. We tied at their working dock and will have it pumped out. Hopefully by midday we'll be able to start again. Blue Phoenix followed us and stood ready to lend a hand. Fortunately it was not necessary. They are dealing with their own gremlims, they have two autopilots and none of them worked!!
Some of the sexy sailors managed to come to Holiday Point Marina to see us off and it was great.