Back in FL!
28 September 2006 | Ft. Pierce, FL
Jeff
Before resuming our travels south we switched out some crew Trish Haitz took Bud's place on the boat. With Helene's passing,the forecast for resuming our offshore passage looked promising so we steered south out of Port Royal Sound, SC our goal was Ft. Pierce, FL. With thunderstorms dancing around the Sound, we motor sailed to the outer buoy. Upon reaching the outer buoy a 20NM trek, be killed the motor and quickly found ourselves becalmed. This passage was certainly different than our last. Confident that we did not have fuel for the entire 300NM passage and counting on winds in our future, we steamed through the night. Each time a whisper of breeze found us we hoisted the sails, killed the diesel, and found ourselves becalmed within two hours. We did reach the Gulf Stream off Cape Canaveral and we joined by playful dolphins and pilot whales for long stretches of time. (see image and note the crystal blue water!)
How you may ask are we sure we entered the stream? While attempting to maintain steerage and forward progress in the light airs on the midnight to four am watch the steering compass and knot meter told me I was slowing moving SW both GPS units we informing me that C'est la Vie and her crew were moving NE over the globe. It took me a few minutes to figure this out and a few hours of light air sailing to escape the Gulf Stream current. The winds arrived none too soon to alleviate our fears over dwindling fuel. Around sunset on day 3 out of Port Royal and just east of Canaveral the winds appeared. Light and on our bow at first they built though the night and allowed us to sail a broad reach into Ft. Pierce Inlet by morning. Our average speed sailing on the final night was over 6kts!
Interesting to note that while both passages were entirely different --
the first passage -strong winds and developed seas and the second passage light airs, calm seas and lots of motoring we averaged 4.5 kts over 260NM on the first passage and 4.6 kts over 300NM on the second passage.
We are unsure of the plan from here, but we will do our best to keep you all updated.