Florida Express

At Sea
31 01.06 N 081 12.40 W

Beaufort is a nice place. I wouldn't have minded staying there a few days. However, Libby met some cruisers in the laundry. One of them had been consulting with weather guru Steve Parker. Steve said that Sunday night would not be a good time to be on the coat of Georgia. There is a possibility of tropical storm formation. That motivated us to leave ASAP.

ASAP meant turn of the tide at 1430. However, the wind was still blowing from the south. The forecast said that it would turn NW then N after midnight. I had my doubts, but off we went.

Getting out the 12 mile long channel of Port Royal Sound against the wind and seas was miserable. Tarwathie performs poorly when motoring against a chop. She porpoises, dives her nose into waves, lifts her propeller out of the water and loses forward momentum. The best speed I could manage with full throttle was 3 knots. It was miserable.

When we finally got to the end of the channel, I was able to raise the main sail. That stabilized us. It also put us on a tack pointing toward Africa. Not for long though. Within an hour, the forecasted wind shift came. Soon we were sailing with a double reefed main, plus jib. We were making 6-6.5 knots and heading for our destination.

The wind continued to freshen. An hour later she was moving 7.5-8 knots and becoming impossible to steer. I had to take the main sail down. We still did 6.5 knots on jib only.

The wind still freshened. About four hours later we were sailing 7-7.5 on the jib only. We were nearly close hauled into the wind, and she was becomming difficult to steer again. Finally though, the wind veered to the North (behind us) and the wind speed began declining. We were still able to maintain 6 knots until 0600. Now (0800) we are motor sailing. We expect to reach Ferandina by noon. Remarkable. What a fast passage.

We are also about to cross the magic 31 north line of latitude. It is magic because our insurance policy says we aren't covered for named storms below 31 north until November 1. So if a surprise hurricane pops up in the next 6 days we'll have to perhaps turn around a flee northward. I think the chance is slight.

Is our migration complete? No. Reaching Florida is a milestone but we still migratory until we reach Vero. We'll take the opportunity to poke around Northern Florida for a week or so. We have friends in Ferandina and we have places not visited yet.