11/29/2008 St Augustine, FL to Miami (End of another chapter)

11/20/2008 I decided to make an off-shore run today. The plans are to go from St. Augustine all the way to Key Biscayne. I expect this trip to take about 55 hours. This will be my longest non-stop trip so far. This will allow me to by-pass all of the bridges along the ICW from here. These bridges are lower than the 55’ I require to get under them with my mast. They will be draw bridges that will require some timing and probable waits for specified opening times.

The weather is calling for north-east winds, which aren’t too bad, but not as good as north-west winds. The problem with a north-east wind at this time is that there will be building seas that will cause somewhat of a rough ride.

I left right at daybreak, even before the sun rose. I took off in great winds and was able to shut down the motor as soon as I was out in the ocean. Shortly after that I was also able to set the spinnaker. The weather was perfect and I had a great sail all afternoon. Right as evening came upon me, the wind died for about 30 minutes. Then the breeze kicked up. It was building from then on as the night went on.

I was sailing about eight miles off-shore as the gulf-stream was about 25 miles or more off-shore in this area. There was no moon this evening and a clear sky. It was very dark and the skies were filled with stars. As the night went on the winds and seas kept building. I decided to try something I had not done yet and that was to reef the main sail while underway. I knew I would have to do it sooner and later and now seemed a good as time as any. For some reason I had a fear around doing this. I planned through all of my steps and it went off just as planned. The only thing was the boat went faster. It wasn’t too rough for the boat, but my dinghy that is hung from the stearn of the boat was taking a beating from the waves coming from behind and when I would have a wave come from between the hulls. The winds kept building so I put another reef in the main. I then tried to hove-to. This is a maneuver in which you tack the boat , but do not release the jib so that it is back-winded. It work very well, except on this tack the boat was driving in the opposite direction that I wanted to go at about 1.5 knots. If I did this the rest of the night ( I did this about 2 AM) I would give up about 6 miles and be further out to sea. I tacked the boat back and took the main sail all the way down and just ran with the jib. This slowed the boat down to 5 knots and the dinghy did much better.

Because of all this work I did during the night and I was having issues with the dinghy that I needed to resolve I headed back into shore and arrive at Ft Pierce, FL around 10 AM. I then proceeded to sail down the ICW again for the rest of the day and stopped to get a good nights sleep.

11/22/2008 Today I will stay in the ICW. This was primarily do the weather that was being called for, high winds out of the east which make for a very bumpy sea. I pulled anchor with the main sail up as the wind was blowing about 20 knots. It was a great start of the day as I passed two other catamarans that were motoring.

As the day went on I started to get in more protected areas and had to motor. I did this with the main sail up as I did get an extra push and the wind kicked up I would be ready to sail some more. I then started to come upon the bridges I was trying to by-pass when I left St. Augustine. Today I passed through seven bridges. Some of the bridges would be raised at request, another I had to wait because of some boats close enough to me that the bridge tender wanted to lift only once instead of multiple times and other bridges had set schedules.

Towards the end of the river I had to drop the main because there was very little room to maneuver and there were more and more boats queuing up to pass through the bridges.

I dropped into Lake Worth which is a large water way the Palm cities (North Palm, East Palm, Palm, Palm Beach) are built around. The great this is the weather has warmed up and so has the water. After I anchored I was able to go for my first swim since Annapolis.

11/23/2008 I now need to decide whether to go off-shore again or head down the ICW and deal with about twenty bridges today. The concern was that NOAA has been calling for small-boat warnings for the last two days and it was not suppose to lighten up until late afternoon. I am still trying to determine what a small-boat warning is and what a small boat is. I had sailed in these kind of conditions in the Chesapeake and decided to go off-shore. That turned out to be a great plan.

I came out of the cut at Lake Worth and set the sail immediately. I was off-shore about four miles looking for a counter current that would help push me south. Also another catamaran, a PDQ 36, Inspiration, came out of the inlet. I started tagging with them and chatting on the VHF radio. We sailed about the same speed until I found the counter-current and then I took off. They sailed very close to shore I figured it was more bouncy due to the wave action.

We talked back and forth about a good place to anchor. It kept changing as we had great winds and really good speed. We were looking at a lake in Ft Lauderdale. I indicated I would get back to him when I got closer to determine what time it was in the day.

As I came to Ft Lauderdale, it was so early in the afternoon and I was making such good speed I decided to push onto Miami, even if it meant I would need to go into the Government Cut at night time. That turned out to not be a problem as I made it to the cut at around 5:00PM, just in time to share the Cut with three cruise ships leaving port. Then the fun began. As I jibed the main sail (jibing is when the wind passes from one side of the stearn to another and the main swings across the back), the line that controls the traveler (a sailing trimming device on a track) broke and the main flew down the track and knocked off the end cap of the traveler track. I now had a main sail out of control and no propulsion with three cruise ships coming at me. Cruise chips fill up the channel real quick. I was able get the motors started to keep out of the way of the cruise ships and then get the main sail down and under control again. After that little excitement, I headed over to the anchorage I found behind Fishers Island. I was met there by Inspiration and we shared a great sunset, a couple of beers and dinner together.

This marks the end of my journey down the ICW. Starting next is sailing in the Keys, which is what I have always said is the beginning of my trip. After reflecting on it, this last 5 weeks has been a real journey in itself as I have learned a lot about No Rush and myself. I am looking forward to the next steps.