We're On Our Way......Goodbye, Jekyll Island
09 February 2010 | Vero Beach, Florida
Warmer than Jekyll Island, that's for sure!!!!!
We did it! We did it!
The Jekyll Island Vortex is incredibly strong, but we managed to pull away.
What really got us moving to get all the last minute things done, was the fact
that our friends Red, Liz and their son Freddie aboard s/v Shiver, were leaving. We were hoping to sail south with them.
We finally were seeing the end of the toe rail job, so Michael and I could get to all the other jobs that had been on hold.
The plan had been to leave just before high tide on Saturday (Feb. 6) and back track north along Jekyll River and then out onto the ocean via St Simon's Sound. On Saturday morning, when we started the engine to be sure that the exhaust leak was really fixed, we discovered another problem.
When turning the ignition key there was a rapid clicking sound.
As the hours passed and Michael tried to remedy the problem, high tide approached. We needed to leave at high tide, because 'Shiver' has a nearly
8 foot draft. The tides at Jekyll are 8 foot tides. Correct timing is essential to get out of the River.
The problem with the starter was not becoming clear. Michael continued to work on it, but now the tide had turned. Shiver could still make it out, but they
decided to wait.
The next morning, Michael was back at it and around noon, the decision was made to leave with Shiver, even though the fix he'd done was not a true repair.
So, at about 13:30, we set sail.
By about 14:30, we were out on the ocean. The wind was from the north east and only about 10 knots. A nice gentle way to begin. We spent most the day and that night motor sailing. During the night, on Michael's watch, the wind picked up some and he turned off the engine and we sailed all day Monday. We had all three sails up and were doing about 6.5 to 8.5 knots. Monday night the winds died down so we ended up motoring with the main sail up until we reached the entrance to the Fort Pierce channel at around 6:30 am.
There are strong winds predicted for the next couple of days, so we decided to stop at Vero Beach Marina and pick up a mooring ball. Shiver is rafted to us.
To our great surprise and delight, Kathy, George, their son Ben and dog Cooper are also moored here. And, and! not an hour after we arrived, Passages sailed in, with Faith, Boyd, Paul and Nicole.
These two boats are ones we spent lots of time with at Jekyll Island.
Passages left about a week and a half ago and Ishmael left last Wednesday.
We did not expect to see them again so soon.
Shiver, Passages, Ishmael and Gromit crews met on land and had a great catching up session, while the kids played, played and played. Fun was had by all!