To Canaveral
02 May 2020 | Cape Canaveral, FL
Cap'n Andy | Breezy
I was worried that they would want to motor up the ICW, tedious, waiting for bridges to open, motoring, keeping inside the buoys while outside at sea perfect conditions were developing. Happily they eagerly got the dinghy raised again on the davits using a spare piece of line to hoist the stern. We went out again. They were worried that I would want to go way out to the Gulf Stream again, but that option was gone, our best bet was to follow the coast and head to a point clear of Cape Canaveral up North.
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We were close reaching in 10-15 gusting to 20 and barreling along like a freight train again. Very nice conditions. Wind was ENE and forecast to slowly clock to SE. Once again we had perfect conditions. A little rough but not as rough as yesterday, boat speed over the ground was hitting low double digits 11 and 12 knots. We could be clear of Cape Canaveral by about 10 at night. Saint Augustine would be about another hundred miles. The forecast was for the clocking wind to swing to the NW and then abruptly shift to NE with stormy weather included in this shift. It would be good to get into St. Augustine before then and we were well on our way.
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As the day wore on it became evident crew was still not completely well, in fact he had to relieve himself of his breakfast. It was his own cooking. Owner wasn't seasick but didn't feel comfortable. I didn't feel conditions were uncomfortable at all, this was some fine sailing.
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We started organizing the overnight watch schedule and then the owner said he didn't think he could sleep on the boat in these conditions. Also he said he didn't think he could eat unless we had smoother conditions or went into port. I had to consider I would be sailing the boat without help if both these guys were down with mal de mer. At that point the only port available was Port Canaveral which I had never been in and had no knowledge of. I was OK with continuing on to the cape and then bearing off for St. Augustine. We would be above the cape and it would shelter us from the wind as it blew more from the South. Then it would go SW and we would be port reaching in smooth seas to St. Augustine.
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We researched the ICW guide and any chart information about Port Canaveral. There was a barge canal with a lock and a triple drawbridge. We did not know what would be available to us to tie up or to anchor in the night in a strange place. We were now sailing on a starboard broad reach and we would have to gybe to port to go into Port Canaveral. There was still our original option to continue to round the cape, but it was looking more and more that the owner and crew would much rather take their chances at Port Canaveral. We would have to sail until the port was due West, then gybe and sail in on a port broad reach.
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I was going to take the midnight watch and I felt like getting some rest. The boat was on autopilot and sailing on its own but lots of wallowing in the swells. I said I would check on our course and look for the time to gybe on the navigation laptop but the laptop was dead. I found that our jouncing around had loosened the DC plug at the nav station and the laptop had used up its batteries. I plugged it back in and it began to charge. I waited a couple minutes and tried to reboot it. It did not finish the reboot and the DC charge cable was dead. They said it was probably due to the ship's batteries being down in voltage. I reported that the time to gybe would be when the port was due West.
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I laid down to rest in the cabin and then got an idea. Why not start the engine and motorsail, charge the batteries, and maybe we can get the boat ready to enter port in a while. We had determined that the lock in the canal would not open before 6 AM. We would have to find a place to anchor or tie up when we went in. There was a chance we would be out of luck.
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At 11 PM I helped get the sails rolled up, but crew did most of the heavy lifting. The course was changed to directly for the port's sea buoy. Forget about gybing and all that. Back to rest in the cabin.
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I came up on deck and we were about 1 hour from entering the port. I was resigned to it. We were not capable of sailing overnight in heavy weather. We suddenly were faced with a ship coming out of the port. It was turning at the only turn in the approach and we stayed on the inside of the turn on the port side of the channel. We faced a tugboat also coming along with the ship and on the inside of the turn. Once clear of them it was a relief to enter the Canaveral Barge Canal and look for a spot to stop. We settled on tying up to a fuel dock. It was 1:30 AM and of course there was no one around.
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We slept soundly. I awoke after a couple of hours to the sound of heavy rain. Wind was buffeting the boat and it was straining at its lines. In the morning the owner said a storm had come through. I immediately thought of what it would have been like if we had continued up and around the Cape. I said he made a good call to come into port and tie up for the night. The fuel dock charged him $2 a foot for tying up, high but not excessive. Well worth it.
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