Kaimusailing

We needed to get reorganized. Coffee and bacon were prepared by crew and I made an omelet of various cheeses and 9 eggs. Split 3 ways it was adequate and of course they complimented me, people are so polite. We listened on channel 13 on the VHF which was the canal lock channel to hear how it was hailed.
.
We got underway and hailed the triple drawbridge, went through, hailed the canal lock, entered the lock and tied up to the side, the lock flooded about 1 foot more, then opened for us to continue. I went below to see if the laptop had now recharged, I could begin to write about all this. Owner and crew asked if I was going to say good things about them, and I must say they were learning by doing and checking off all the boxes, North wind in the Gulf Stream, dealing with sea sickness, I just hope they would continue and not lose heart.
.
The sail boat is a Gulfstar 44 and has some custom features, a relatively new engine and new generator. It has a nice hard dodger with solar panels, large battery capacity, good refrigeration, and all in all is a good blue water sailboat.
.
After passing through the canal lock and drawbridges at Cape Canaveral we continued West to join the North and South ICW and turned North. The owner was at the helm and crew was assisting him. They had no need of me now that we were in the ICW. After a while I came up on deck and found them setting the mainsail. They asked me about the set of the sail, how did it look. It looked well set. They hadn't done a lot of sailing until now, but they were quickly becoming proficient. Nomenclature would have to wait. I'll tie this thing back here to that over there. Later after the main had been rolled up and we had gone through a rain shower the genoa was set. I found out about it when I came on deck and the boat was doing over 7 knots in a narrow channel. The sail was pulling hard. How could they manage this with so little experience.
.
I worked out a plan of what we could accomplish in that day. We probably couldn't make St. Augustine, over a hundred miles from our start, but we could make Daytona, only about 45 miles. Our speed wasn't constant. We might pull into Daytona in late afternoon with plenty of daylight left and no easy place to anchor for a long stretch up the ICW. I thought about leaving the ICW at Ponce Inlet and sailing directly to St. Marys overnight. The owner declined. He liked to sleep and dine in quiet waters in a harbor. Perhaps he will develop more confidence and experience and move up to more ocean sailing and overnight sailing.
.
We continued up the ICW past New Smyrna Beach and the Ponce Inlet lighthouse that I had visited with my daughter not too long ago. On we went into Daytona and anchored just North of the Seabreeze Bridges. I joked that they were the Breezeway Pizza Bridges. Owner and crew wanted to go to shore while I had to do some work on the blog now that I had cellular service. It is a nice anchorage.
.
The Gulfstar 44 and 45 are center cockpit sailboats with good performance and very nice standard amenities. Our boat had a mainsail that roller furled into the mast. Maybe it can be lubricated, but for some reason it is very difficult to roll it out and in. The mainsheet track is short and the boom has no vang. The genoa and staysail winches are good sized, and well placed. We used the port staysail sheet winch for both the mainsail outhaul and the mainsail furling line. The starboard staysail sheet winch was used for the genoa furling line. The instruments on our boat needed repair or replacement for the most part. The autopilot did the job but had incorrect compass readings displayed. The Raymarine chart plotter in the cockpit was adequate until we got to Fort Pierce, that was the North edge of the installed charts. This boat had what I think is a custom hard dodger that works really well. Electronics and crew are protected from wind and rain, yet visibility through the clear plastic enclosure panels is adequate, causes some distortion, and when salt starts to accumulate become less transparent.
.
In the galley the stove which I believe is stock was inadequate for real cooking. I'm sure it will get an upgrade from the owner. Otherwise the galley is well laid out and there is enough storage for normal sailing cooks. The reefer, fridge, was large and deep and froze things in the freezer and even started to freeze some of the adjacent refrigerated items.
.
We got underway early the next morning and headed North on the ICW from Daytona. There was a string of boats following one another. Some we had passed on our way into Daytona, but the overnight resets the running order. We ate breakfast underway. The owner like his eggs over easy and a little runny, so I made them that way. Crew said he wouldn't mind scrambled or an omelet if I was going to make one. The previous breakfast was a 9 egg omelet which took forever to cook on the little stove. I wasn't going to do that again. I scrambled 6 eggs along with half a package of colby/monterrey jack cheese cubes. I seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning. It was quite good. The coffee from a french press had grounds at the bottom of the cup. I prefer a Melitta cone filter. Quick and easy and might make the best cup of coffee of all.
.
We were looking on our navigation devices, mostly cell phones, for opening bridges. We had cellular coverage. I received texts, email, and Skype. I sent photos and screen shots of our travel to interested parties. I found out my wind turbine had lost its blades but they were on deck, I hoped not damaged too badly, I would have had to take them off anyway to trouble shoot the unit. I wonder why they came off. Friends along the ICW let me know of good places to stop and where good food could be had. I also received reports of shoaling.
.
We took turns at the helm, hailing bridges to open, and it was a pleasant day, not too hot, clear. Lots of power boaters out creating their large wakes and jouncing us around. One small fishing boat said up to us "Crazy People". I received advice to leave the ICW at St. Augustine and head directly to St. Marys from there. It would be 6 hours and we could be in Cumberland Sound. Owner and crew were not in favor of going to sea again. What was pleasant to us all was not rewarding to me. I didn't need to go motoring on the ICW, I needed to go sailing in the ocean. But our trip on the ICW was more liberating than what was going on on land.
.
We didn't stop at St. Augustine. I learned a little more about the layout of the town and its inlets and access to the sea. We might make it as far as Jacksonville Beach on this day. There was an anchorage listed in the ICW guide past Jacksonville Beach on the other side of the St. Johns River. Owner was trying to troll for fish and said we must slow down. We wouldn't make it to our anchorage in daylight, maybe we'd have to find another one. I said so. Owner said speed back up. 2500 rpm and about 7 knots of speed or better.
.
The plan was to start dinner about a half hour before anchoring, then the crew could eat immediately after anchoring without waiting for dinner. The chosen meal was ham and collard greens with new potatoes, a Southern dish. I ended up selected to cook it. A Northerner who had never cooked collard greens before. Blasphemy.
.
I dug out more cheese, this time havarti, a can of collard greens, two slices of bacon, 2.7 lbs of pork chops, a can of new potatoes, and some Montreal seasoning. We were very limited in the galley with seasonings, etc. Someday this galley will be properly stocked. I trimmed bone and fat from the chops and diced them, chopped the bacon into small pieces, opened the cans, ta da. The bacon was fried first to render some bacon fat into the pan, then the diced pork was added and browned, kind of stir fried, then the greens were added. The mixture was heated until it bubbled and I stirred it to keep what was on the bottom from burning. The potatoes were sliced and pressed into the surface of the mixture and then havarti slices were layered over the whole thing. The pan was covered and the heat turned off. I was called on deck to help with navigation to our anchorage. I returned and turned on the heat again for a bit, then shut it off.
.
Owner and crew had anchoring down pat. It took them 2 tries to get the anchor set. How deep was it? My chart (NOAA) said we were on the edge of a patch that was barely awash at low water, owner's chart (navionics) said it was about 10 feet of water at MLW. We'll see.
.
I took a photo as the sun was setting. We dug into the concoction in the pan and it quickly disappeared. Food at sea doesn't last long. I wasn't too thrilled with the dinner, but owner said he'd like to get the recipe. People are so polite.
.
The image is a screen shot of our anchorage near buoy 85 on the ICW just North of the St. Johns River.