Saturday October 25th, 2008
Here are a few more shots from Charleston. They don’t capture the true essence of it all but it should give a prospective. The house is a typical home in the Charleston area and the other night shot is the “mega dock” . This is where the people with mega boats spend their mega dollars. These people seem unaffected by the recession. It is officially a recession now isn’t it? These boats typically have a crew of 4 people, several dinghies (about the size of our boat) and pay thousands and thousands to fill up on fuel. We have seen ships like this all the way down the coast but have yet to be invited onboard for cocktails.
Al and I did our first overnight ocean crossing. We were awakened by one of the mega boats leaving around 4:45 am on Tuesday so we got up ourselves and by 6:15 we had our anchors up and were ready to go. This was also our first cruising in the dark. It was quite odd going out of the harbour, as the lights of the city conflict with the markers on the water. You think you are looking at a red marker but it is a red light on shore. Thank god for technology that helps point you in the right direction. We could have figure it out on the paper charts, with a compass etc. but that would be lots of work and lots of stress. We were out of the channel in the ocean by 7:15 and on our way to Jacksonville. Our estimated time at the St. John’s inlet 7:00 am Wednesday. During the day we had two sea turtle sightings; huge things just bobbing away in the ocean. There were lots of dolphins throughout the day. They played in our wake and by our bow a few times. The difference out in the ocean, is that the water is clear so you can actually see them under the water coming up to the boat.
Al took the first shift while I slept from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. I took over, and at 9:38 I had to wake up Al as this white light kept getting closer. By the time he was on the bridge, there was also a green and a red light. Al thinks I was coming up on a boat that then turned. Anyways, all was good and Al went back to sleep until about 10:30. I then slept from about 11 pm until 1 am. I had to sing to stay awake. “Sing like no one is listening” … that must have been very scary for all the dolphins in the area. Al took over from 4 am onward and I got up around 6 am.
Overall the overnight voyage was great except for a big concern about our transmission. We knew there was a problem with the cooler for the transmission but thought it was a slow leak when we left Charleston. Al checked it late Tuesday afternoon and it was full of sea water. Then, while underway, he did a blood transfusion (changed transmission fluid) and by pass surgery (took the cooler out of the system). It worked great however we were very worried about it overheating the whole trip. If it would have overheated we would have had to run on one engine and would have had to do a full knee replacement (transmission rebuild) which would not have been good and couldn’t have been performed while at sea.
We arrived at the St. John’s inlet right on schedule at 7:00 am. The sun was just rising as we pulled into the channel. There were several boats anchored outside as we started in. We were just at the break-wall when Al decided he needed to use the facilities. The timing was not good for me as there was a very big (ok monstrous) ship coming in behind us and gaining on us. Anyhow I did fine but this thing that passed us was like an apartment building. The great thing was that the dolphins obvious like big ships better than little ones like Painkiller. The dolphins were actually diving in the air in front of the bow of this ship. (See picture) The trip up to Jacksonville was painful given we had not slept much in 24 hours and the current was against us. At the throttle (rpms) we were running we should have been traveling close to 8 knots but instead we were at 4.3 knots. It took 4 hours from the inlet to get docked at Jacksonville. All told we had a very successful 180 mile 30 hour ocean crossing.
We were greeted by a nice gentleman who helped us tie up and then proceeded to tell us his life-long woes. Well he was the first of many homeless people we encountered on the waterfront in Jacksonville. It is very sad. These people are definitely feeling the effects of the recession. On a brighter note, we were here about 4 hours or so when Marion, Theo and Skye on Double Dutch showed up. It was nice to see familiar faces.
We spent 3 days in Jacksonville waiting out the winds (gale force) again. Our timing was excellent being here as Mom, Uncle Basil and Aunt Mary were driving to St. Petersburg this week and passed by. They joined us for dinner which was a real treat. They came baring gifts, GuyLian chocolates, roses and a bottle of whisky. Great goodies for us to enjoy over the next few weeks.
The winds have dissipated and Al has fixed the transmission and we are ready to continue down the Florida coast. Next port St. Augustine.
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