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Another offshore jump
Currently 70 miles east of Daytona, Florida, underway to Beaufort NC
(see http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/winlink.cgi?KG4EYP for latest position)
No wind today in the ICW, so we had to motor to the Canaveral Barge Canal. Then we had a drawbridge, a lock, and a second drawbridge, so no sailing there; anyway, we were heading east into a light east wind, so there was no hope. Amusingly, as we passed through the second bridge, two sailboats passed through heading west, and we recognized one - Bluejacket, which we'd last seen in the Bay Islands of Honduras in early 2002. We chatted for a while on the radio with Geoff until he had to get ready
to lock through.
(The previous time we went through the barge canal, we had a crosswind that made it really hard to get over to the lock wall and tie up for lockage. We were messing around trying to bring both ends of the boat to the wall, and didn't notice the lock closing and the water level changing. To our embarrassment, by the time we were ready...the lock was finished! This time, everything went smoothly, although I'm sure it's only my paranoia telling me that the lock tender saw our boat and thought, "Geez,
not THEM again.")
We motored out onto a calm ocean. There's a big northeast swell, but it's slow and smooth, lifting us up and over rather than crashing into us. Just after 11:00 am an Atlas V rocket was launched from the space center, and that was cool to see, a corkscrew of white smoke spiraling up into blue sky.
Around 5 pm we picked up the edges of the Gulf Stream and started angling northeast, allowing us to sail. A close reach, with the wind forward of the starboard beam, but the wind's fairly light so it's not too bad. And hey, we're sailing again.
We've got just under 400 miles left to go to Beaufort (it's a lot shorter offshore than via the ICW, which winds around a lot and goes west first, to Georgia, before angling northeast), which should take us around two or three days if the weather holds and we can do it in one go. Bad weather may force us in early - we'll see. Cross your fingers for us to have perfect winds and no storms, please!
