Day 7 - Back to sea again!
I'm up at 6am after a great night sleep and I am starving as I hadn't had anything to eat the previous day so I grab some cereal before heading up to see what's up. Kent is up and is taking a smoke and has made coffee (it needs the generator) so he's my new best friend! It's still blowing like crazy and although we're in a wide open area with only sea reeds for protection, Kristy is barely moving. The wind is pushing the waves right into the bay but we're about at high tide (supposed to be at 7am) so prepare the boat for departure to Jacksonville where Kent had found a marina that he could berth Kristy at until December.
We haul up anchor and I wash it and the chain down as it comes up with the wash down pump up front (what luxury). On my boat, I use the Armstrong method and drag everything a few hundred yards to clean off all the muck. We're doing 6 knots through the water but only 2 over ground... hmmm... the tide must still be coming in... nope, that's not it... oh... it's those waves pushing the water in to the bay. It takes us a full hour to get out of the channel so that we can turn south for Jacksonville.
We haul up anchor and I wash it and the chain down as it comes up with the wash down pump up front (what luxury). On my boat, I use the Armstrong method and drag everything a few hundred yards to clean off all the muck. We're doing 6 knots through the water but only 2 over ground... hmmm... the tide must still be coming in... nope, that's not it... oh... it's those waves pushing the water in to the bay. It takes us a full hour to get out of the channel so that we can turn south for Jacksonville.
The waves are 8-10' and the winds are 28-22 gusting to 25 but it's a great ride as it's almost on our tail. I go up front to install the traveller and it's so wonderful up there in the wind and it's warm, that I decide to stay. I was almost going to go up to my favourite seat but I remembered that we'd have to turn broadside to the waves again to get into Jacksonville and I'd likely get more than a little wet so I stayed put leaning up against the windscreen in the sun. If this was my boat, I'd be hanging on for dear life but up here it was like a big gentle waterbed... fun to watch the other boats getting splashed and banged around.
As we got close to Jacksonville, we started to see all these helicopters going out to sea... and I could see what looked like a small aircraft carrier on the beach. Turns out it was a small Marine Aircraft carrier (the Iwo Jima) and next to it was one of the new stealth destroyers! After a while many of those helicopters came back to Jacksonville so I'm guessing there was another Marine boat out there that they were practicing landing on.
We had to turn broadside to go into the long channel again (I never realized it was so shallow along the US coast... even 40-50 miles off shore we never saw much more than 100' deep). It was a good thing that I didn't go up front, I would have gotten pretty wet! As it was, I was happy to sit there and watch the helicopters lift off the Marine Air Base, climb up over our channel and then head straight out it to the phantom carrier offshore. I probably counted 20 of them. You could tell who the rookies were as they'd turn on to the heading of the channel and quickly get blown off that and would have to crab their way back. The pro's would hardly budge.
We passed a huge car containership on the way out and gave him lots of room. Luckily we were well inside the breakwater (but still out in the Atlantic) so the waves weren't pushing us around. The tide was doing almost 6 knots against us so we had a slow ride in (and I'm sure the container pilot was quite concerned as he didn't have much steerageway going downstream of it while trying to keep his speeds down.
Our marina was just around the bend and Kent was getting pretty concerned about his ability to dock there as it was clear we'd be docking into a very strong current with an opposing strong wind. To get into the docking area, he'd have to put the nose into a little harbour area and then back into the slip against the current (but with the wind pushing him). I lined the side of the boat with fenders, Steve was ready at the stern with lines I'd rigged and I was at the front. Kent put the nose in but didn't like how it was going so used his bow thruster to get back out for another run. He then did it again, used the engine to walk the stern over to the slip, ran the power up a lot to back it in and used the bow thruster to straighten her nose out. Worked just like magic and he made it look easy. He said that was the toughest challenge he'd had but I thought he did a wonderful job of it (and I'm pretty good at it if I don't say so myself). We tied her up and then spent the next day and a half putting her to bed so that she'd be in one piece when he came back in December for her. His brother-in-law is about 30 miles up the road and he trained the dock guy what to check on a twice weekly basis. If another hurricane pops up, he'll have time to come down and move it inland.
Kent rented a car and went and got a spare antenna (an emergency one with a long cable). The second we hooked that to the AIS unit, we started getting all sorts of new targets and we were finally able to see ourselves on the Internet (findaship.com). The VHF started to work much better too. Still think the splitter is fried so we took them out so he could get his "professional installer" to replace it.
I had a 6am flight out the following morning so arranged for an Uber to pick me up at 3:45am. When I got up Kent, was up to see me off. What a great guy. He said he'd love to have me back as crew anytime and offered Jen and I the opportunity to sail for a week with them in the Caribbean this winter as well. I was so happy to hear that he thought I'd pulled my load. I knew this was a dream come true for me and left a very happy man.
As we got close to Jacksonville, we started to see all these helicopters going out to sea... and I could see what looked like a small aircraft carrier on the beach. Turns out it was a small Marine Aircraft carrier (the Iwo Jima) and next to it was one of the new stealth destroyers! After a while many of those helicopters came back to Jacksonville so I'm guessing there was another Marine boat out there that they were practicing landing on.
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| USS Iwo Jima - loaded up with helicopters but it also carries the new F-35's (which we didn't see). |
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| USS New York. I didn't take these pictures as I didn't think it was a good idea for a Canadian to be taking pictures right beside these massive ships with all the zodiac's, helicopters around obviously running interference. |
We had to turn broadside to go into the long channel again (I never realized it was so shallow along the US coast... even 40-50 miles off shore we never saw much more than 100' deep). It was a good thing that I didn't go up front, I would have gotten pretty wet! As it was, I was happy to sit there and watch the helicopters lift off the Marine Air Base, climb up over our channel and then head straight out it to the phantom carrier offshore. I probably counted 20 of them. You could tell who the rookies were as they'd turn on to the heading of the channel and quickly get blown off that and would have to crab their way back. The pro's would hardly budge.
We passed a huge car containership on the way out and gave him lots of room. Luckily we were well inside the breakwater (but still out in the Atlantic) so the waves weren't pushing us around. The tide was doing almost 6 knots against us so we had a slow ride in (and I'm sure the container pilot was quite concerned as he didn't have much steerageway going downstream of it while trying to keep his speeds down.
Our marina was just around the bend and Kent was getting pretty concerned about his ability to dock there as it was clear we'd be docking into a very strong current with an opposing strong wind. To get into the docking area, he'd have to put the nose into a little harbour area and then back into the slip against the current (but with the wind pushing him). I lined the side of the boat with fenders, Steve was ready at the stern with lines I'd rigged and I was at the front. Kent put the nose in but didn't like how it was going so used his bow thruster to get back out for another run. He then did it again, used the engine to walk the stern over to the slip, ran the power up a lot to back it in and used the bow thruster to straighten her nose out. Worked just like magic and he made it look easy. He said that was the toughest challenge he'd had but I thought he did a wonderful job of it (and I'm pretty good at it if I don't say so myself). We tied her up and then spent the next day and a half putting her to bed so that she'd be in one piece when he came back in December for her. His brother-in-law is about 30 miles up the road and he trained the dock guy what to check on a twice weekly basis. If another hurricane pops up, he'll have time to come down and move it inland.
Kent rented a car and went and got a spare antenna (an emergency one with a long cable). The second we hooked that to the AIS unit, we started getting all sorts of new targets and we were finally able to see ourselves on the Internet (findaship.com). The VHF started to work much better too. Still think the splitter is fried so we took them out so he could get his "professional installer" to replace it.
I had a 6am flight out the following morning so arranged for an Uber to pick me up at 3:45am. When I got up Kent, was up to see me off. What a great guy. He said he'd love to have me back as crew anytime and offered Jen and I the opportunity to sail for a week with them in the Caribbean this winter as well. I was so happy to hear that he thought I'd pulled my load. I knew this was a dream come true for me and left a very happy man.
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| Kristy safely at her slip in Jacksonville. I hope to sail again on her soon (and maybe someday own one of my own!) |
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