Baby It’s cold outside!
22 November 2022 | Fernandina
Paul and Laurie Jones | COLD
30 41.490 'N:81 28.41'W
We spent a couple more days anchored comfortably inside the Oriental harbour break-wall. We borrowed bikes from the Inland Waterway Provision Company to get ourselves around. The town is spread out so the bikes are helpful to get to the stores on the other end of town. I was able to get a couple of good walks in as well. They say you should walk with a purpose so I guess 2 miles to get 5 bananas would count for that! We enjoyed an afternoon coffee on the front porch of The Bean in the sunshine and out of the wind. It is a great place to sit and watch the harbour activity.
Our packages arrived right on schedule, sort of. One delivery went slightly astray and was being returned by the US postal service. We were able to intercept it by hopping on those borrowed bikes again and ripping up to the post office.
The night time temperatures were approaching freezing making it very cold inside the boat in the morning. We are thankful for our generator and heat pump! The boat heats up pretty quickly, however an early morning trip to the head reminds me of an outhouse in the fall!
On Nov 16 we finally departed Oriental for the short run to Beaufort, NC. We were anchored just inside the ocean inlet near the coast guard station by early afternoon. We got busy doing some canvas and zipper repairs, trip planning, weather checking, cooking and meal prep for offshore travel to Charleston. The very windy conditions were due to die off through the night so we made our plan to leave at sunrise. The weather gurus didn’t have that quite right so our departure was delayed a bit. By 10:00 Nov 17 we were hauling anchor, hoisting sail and heading out the Beaufort inlet. We sailed all day with a reefed main and a full headsail. The wind was blowing 10 to 17 knots on the quarter. Seas were about 2 to 3 feet. By sundown the winds were decreasing under 10 knots and the ride was getting pretty rolly with much bigger waves at times. Time to fire up the engine and do some motor-sailing to smooth things out. That was great until the engine started overheating. Back to slow rolly sailing while our mechanic got to work. An impeller change was required. Back to motor-sailing. Briefly, until the temperature gauge started creeping up again. Not fixed but we were able to get a workaround in place. The seawater intake was getting air so one of us would check it every hour or so and release the lid on the strainer to burp the air bubble out.
It was cold!! We had all the layers we have with us on for night time shifts. Long johns, ski socks, sweaters, puffy jackets, foul weather jackets and hats. By 01:00 on Nov 18 we had radio communication with SV UJamN, Jeff and Marsha. They were travelling with Endless Summer, Jos and Erica. They had come around Cape Hatteras and were about 10 miles behind us! Crazy to be on the ocean and find yourself meeting up with someone you know! Our plan was to head for Charleston, SC but plans change, and twenty-four hours into the trip we decided to keep going and head for the St. Mary’s Inlet at Fernandina Beach, FL. It should be warmer in Florida, right? More on that later.
We were visited several times throughout the trip by Dolphins. I love the way they come leaping through the waves. They swing in close to the boat around the cockpit to make eye contact with us humans. They seem to smile and say come on let’s play as they head for the bow of the boat to swim with us for awhile. Normally we would go up to the bow to watch them but it was too freezing cold outside the cockpit enclosure and the seas were pretty rolly.
We had a close encounter of the strange kind when our radar picked up a dangerous target directly in front of the boat. We tracked, whatever it was, doing 120 knots crossing our bow east to west. We couldn’t see it or hear any sound but something was out there. Hmmmm?
Nov 19 at 22:30 we arrived safely at Fernandina Beach, FL. A 60.5 hour straight, 375 nautical mile trip. One of our longer offshore passages. Time for a rum and a goodnight’s sleep!
Now, did I mention it was cold and should be warmer in Florida? It isn’t. We are still cold. It looks like we will continue to be. We will stay put in Fernandina for a few days as a cold-front passes through. We were hoping to see our friend Charlie, MV Osprey, while here, but he is feeling under the weather.
On Nov 20 we moved over to the anchorage just off the marina mooring field near old town Fernandina Beach. We bundled up in our layers again and were joined by Endless Summer as we jumped in the dinghies and headed to town for a walk. On our way across the harbour we stopped to say hello to Bright Ayes, Wayne and Betty. Bright Ayes was our buddy boat as we left the Bahamas, during covid in April 2020! This is the second time we’ve seen them this trip as we had a nice dinner together in Deltaville along with Greg & Glenda. The town had the feeling of getting prepared for a busy week as the USA gets ready to celebrate Thanksgiving this coming Thursday. We stopped in at the oldest bar in the oldest city for some beers. This is probably up for debate as there seems to be quite the competition between Fernandina Beach and St. Augustine for that title. We enjoyed a nice dinner onboard Endless Summer then bundled up again and headed back to 2 Outrageous to turn the heat on! That’s when yes, you guessed it, the generator would not start!
A mechanic’s work is never done. Paul seems to be rolling from one mechanical failure to the next. Lately, he’s continually working on either the engine, transmission or the generator. This trip has been putting his ability to MacGyver solutions to the test!
There are lots of boats in the Fernandina anchorage. The strong current here makes anchoring interesting at the best of times. When there are lots of boats in current and windy conditions it can get pretty crazy. Boats pointing in different directions and sideways or backwards to the wind. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when you are used to your bow pointing to the wind when at anchor. This morning we found ourselves swinging a little to close to the boat next to us so we had to haul up the anchor and move a little further up the Amelia River. Not much, just enough to give a little more room for the tidal current dance! This move was, of course, right in the middle of the generator repair which was inconvenient but you do what you gotta do! I’m happy to report that after a full shift of work the generator is generating again and we are warm. Mechanics note: -first generator failure was a fuel filter. Once that was addressed, the generator fired right up…..once. Next failure was the starter motor…likely the absolutely most difficult component to access on the boat. A fair amount of dismantling followed by spelunking to get at the starter. Luckily we had a spare….of the wrong type! However, managed to swap the failed part from one starter to the other, and we are off and running. There is a saying amongst cruisers that this lifestyle is just fixing your boat in foreign lands….with limited resources!
This morning we are, as far as we know, shipshape and ready to head to Saint Augustine……