Things seldom go exactly as planned, but today' s events were remarkable in that sense. As we set out to sail on the "outside�, that is outside the ICW in the Atlantic, both to get some more experience on open ocean as well as make up some time, things started out well with good winds and 2-3 foot seas for the duration of the day. The skies were mostly clear and sunny. We spent the day motor sailing off the coast, resting up and making final preps for an overnight passage from St. Augustine to St. Catherine' s Inlet in Georgia about 100 miles to the north.

Conditions can change both drastically and rapidly, especially on the water, and as the day wore on the clouds rolled in and the evening promised to bring the 30% chance of thunderstorms that were forecast by NOAA. The winds began out of the West as we left St. Augustine and throughout the day we saw them shift completely around the compass, becoming SW and back to West by nightfall as the storm clouds rolled in over the shoreline some 10 miles to the west of us.

The short version is we sustained some damage to the boat as the Genoa sail (although reefed down to handle the conditions) was shredded by the storm winds and the dinghy swung free of its harness to tear the stern light off, which in turn shorted out the forward running lights. We were able to regain control of things and make our way to the St. Mary' s Entrance 15 miles to the SW and finally set our anchor at about 4 AM Wednesday morning.

Luckily neither Carrie nor I (nor the cats) sustained any physical damage other than fatigue from working under some extreme conditions. We're looking locally for a temporary replacement for our headsail and a new stern light so we can continue our journey north. We're both very thankful for being as prepared as we were but also reviewing our equipment and procedures to hopefully avoid a repeat of our first night in the Atlantic.