Cheryl's Notes:

We woke up Monday morning to gray fog. We checked with our new friends on Presto, and they were going to try the offshore passage. We had a weather window of 2-4 foot seas and winds of 5-10 knots. We got prepped and were underway by 9:30. We had to travel down to the Port Royal Sound and then headed offshore. This will be my first true offshore passage. The exit out to deep water was choppier than the whole ride south. John will tell you that I played the navigation route in a true straight line south. I took us farther offshore than we needed to be. At one time we were 26 miles offshore.

Navigating offshore overnight is a whole new ballgame. Picture this. You are going to travel over the river and through the woods to go to Granny's home for Thanksgiving and it is going to take you all night to get there. Now, plot your course on your car's GPS system, start the car in forward motion, turn on the autopilot and try to sit back and relax. Oh, I forgot to mention that it is cloudy, so there are no stars or moon out and there are no streetlights along the whole route. Got the picture? Now do this in a 36 foot boat that is traveling in water that is 60 to 75 feet deep. In addition, the Coast Guard issued a warning that a 40-50 tree, complete with a giant root system was floating in the water at a certain latitude and longitude position. Great, find the trees position and calculate if it will be floating anywhere near your plotted course.

The good news is that the boat performed perfectly, and nothing went bump in the night. The enclosure made the whole trip comfortable and dry. The only complication of the whole evening is that John was completely incapacitated as soon as the sun set. John can take the most extreme wind and wave action as long as it is light out. As soon as the sun sets, and he can no longer see a horizon for direction, he gets very seasick. I was completely in charge of navigation and piloting for over twelve hours. As soon as the sun rose the next morning, John was able to step back up to the helm. He was a little shaky, but was able to function again. I, on the other hand was completely exhausted and a little overwhelmed. When we cross over to the Bahamas, I know that I will have to sleep all day so that I can be at my best for the overnight. Hopefully, we will have a nice bright night with stars and a full moon.

We entered Fernandina Beach (Yea, we are finally in Florida) and stopped at the local marina to fuel up. We were so tired that we considered staying put for the night. But, the mooring balls were all taken, and the anchorage was full, so we continued on farther south. We anchored in Fort George River and called it a day about noon. After a hot shower and some lunch, we both crashed for a long nap. We woke up long enough to play some cribbage, have dinner and then back down for a good long nights sleep. Our goal is to make it to St. Augustine tomorrow.

John's Notes:

This was my third overnight passage in the last couple of years. It's also the third time that I have been under the weather about an hour after sunset. Not sure what is causing it. About 12 years ago I developed a condition known as tinnitus. It's a more or less constant ringing in my ears. Doctors told me at that time, that is possible that it is a latent effect from Viet Nam and not all that uncommon. The problem is, there isn't much you can do about it. I know that when I'm under lots of stress or around loud background noise, the band width of the ringing in my ears gets worse. In any event, I never had much of a problem with motion sickness till I developed this condition. I may not have much more offshore work in my future. Just have to see what happens.

I think I have to start looking into Cheryl's attention span. She always has to be doing something. During our overnight passage I'm sitting in the cockpit not being particularly helpful to her but not worried because she knows what she is doing. She did, however, avail herself of the opportunity to use all the navigation equipment aboard the boat. She just loves to play with electronic stuff. I'm guessing that if God had not intended a use for all the buttons on this equipment, He would not have let Raymarine invent them. We have radar, chart plotters (2), wind, speed, depth instruments and radios all at your finger tips. Pushing any of the control buttons on any of the instruments gives off an audible sound. In fact, if you push a button that is not intended to be pushed or is not a possible selection for what you are doing, you get a chorus of beeps. At certain points during the night it sounded like she was conducting a symphony. There were lots of sounds coming out of the old equipment. I can see it now, having to return some of the units to the manufacturer for repair because the micro switch buttons are worn out.