When we awoke Wednesday morning the weather window we had been expecting had deteriorated overnight so we debated our options over breakfast. Our 10 am departure was not only based on local tides but more importantly we couldn't arrive in Jacksonville before 6:30 in the morning. The options we had to look at were; 5 more days of ICW motoring, avoiding shoals and traffic, or spend 18 hours offshore in so so conditions. The offshore forecast called for winds of 15-20 knots with gusts to 25 which is nothing for Dagny, the issue was the wind had been out of the north, north east for several days resulting in short step following seas. Unfortunately, we allowed our view of this section of the ICW to cloud our vision as we chose to go offshore. The conditions were far from dangerous but boy were they uncomfortable.

A common sailor's term to describe turbulent waters is "sailing in a washing machine", well this was certainly that and more. Once we cleared the breakwater at the mouth of the Savannah river and turned south the conditions were good as we set a reefed main and poled out 50% of the jenny in 3 to 4 foot seas. Our initial concern was we were going to be way to early arriving off Jacksonville. However, as the afternoon wore on our thoughts turned more to, how much more uncomfortable could this get while we still held on to our cookies. The winds never exceeded 20 knots during the whole trip but as we got a little further offshore the following waves got a little bigger and closer together. Bev and I have done well offshore with motion sickness, we wear pressure bands and usually take a gravel prior to departure. This time around we tried a new product called Motion-ease, a liquid that you put behind your ears. BIG mistake on our part, to start with it the smell is enough to turn your stomach and it certainly didn't work for us. Although I was not sick it made me feel like crap and Bev wasn't so lucky and fell victim to the ills of motion sickness. Needless to say it made for a long night, fortunately it was warm and so we could both spent the night in the cockpit. Nobody wanted to go down below!

As far as the actually trip went, Dagny soldiered on like a champ. As the seas built we took a second reef in the main and reduced the head sail area because we were still ahead our our arrival time, and the last thing we wanted to do was have to bob around off the Jacksonville harbour waiting for daylight. I had noticed early in our trip that Otto the autopilot was wandering a little more than normal so during one of our many weather delays I adjusted the steering cables to help him out. I have to say, he performed like a champ as he took us to our destination. It was a pitch black night, I was not in a tall ship and there certainly weren't any stars to steer by. As the night wore on we rolled in the genny to slow down a little more and at least we got our timing right. We arrivied at the harbour entrance as planned; however, we delayed a bit to allow two freighters to steam by and then we followed the pilot boat through the breakwater.

We were relieved to be in calm waters and took full advantage of the 3 knot flood tide as we roared up the river towards the ICW. The plan was to motor down the ditch and find the first suitable anchorage. Once clear of river traffic I decided it was time to drop the main and tidy things up as Bev took over the helm. As I cleared the lines Bev said " look at the boom it looks out of place" and that was when I discovered we had broken the gooseneck. Since we were heavily reefed the gear had more or less kept the boom in place but as soon as the pressure was off the sail the fitting parted. So, one more item on the do to list but with the help of friends we have some good contacts to follow. Kind of ironic, this is a known issue with these masts that I had planned on changing one day.
So after 2 hours of motoring we finally found a great spot to drop the hook and crash.

Today's picture is of the above mentioned part.