For the next few days I am going to be using every spare minute training the crew on boat systems, navigation, watch duties and safety. There is a lot to take in and I expect to be going over and over this stuff on a formal and informal basis for some time to come.
Last minute tasks and provisions all complete before the tide but someone has parked 10,000 tons of bridge and a crane on a barge five feet behind us and we have ten in front. We are manoeuvrable but can’t go sideways so managed to beg a tow from the bridge construction team.
The weather channel has decided that Huricanne Ana is not in fact on the way and as none of my other weather sources predicted it I suspect they conjured it up to increase viewing figures.
Through the 5:30pm bridge opening and anchored ready to catch the tide I did the condensed safety and systems brief. After 2 hours I ran out of steam and decided the rest could be done underway. Our official departure time 7:30pm.
The crew: Jim, French Canadian cameraman and seafarer; Justin, young experienced great lake racer from Chicago and Louise, another Canadian and a dinghy racer with as yet no sea experience - the famously bumpy exit through the St. Augustine cut must have made for an interesting first taste.
From 7:30 to midnight was pretty bumpy as we were into wind and sea but with sails and motor we still made good progress and we saw some whales. Jim and I did our own night watches plus another with Justin and Louise to get them used to the job and using the plotter and Radar. Despite lots of large traffic and the AIS not working all coped very well (other than an accidental reset of the plotter and engine shutdown), the new day dawned bright and clear though with not much wind.
I had only a few catnaps but a cup of coffee and Jim’s pancakes had me up and running again.
We saw our second set of marine mammals at a distance either black (Rissos) dolphins or killer whales just before catching a beautiful Mahi-Mahi and reeling it right up to the transom. We got some nice pictures but the fish was very effective at avoiding the gaff and wriggled free at the last second before it became lunch.
Last minute tasks and provisions all complete before the tide but someone has parked 10,000 tons of bridge and a crane on a barge five feet behind us and we have ten in front. We are manoeuvrable but can’t go sideways so managed to beg a tow from the bridge construction team.
The weather channel has decided that Huricanne Ana is not in fact on the way and as none of my other weather sources predicted it I suspect they conjured it up to increase viewing figures.
Through the 5:30pm bridge opening and anchored ready to catch the tide I did the condensed safety and systems brief. After 2 hours I ran out of steam and decided the rest could be done underway. Our official departure time 7:30pm.
The crew: Jim, French Canadian cameraman and seafarer; Justin, young experienced great lake racer from Chicago and Louise, another Canadian and a dinghy racer with as yet no sea experience - the famously bumpy exit through the St. Augustine cut must have made for an interesting first taste.
From 7:30 to midnight was pretty bumpy as we were into wind and sea but with sails and motor we still made good progress and we saw some whales. Jim and I did our own night watches plus another with Justin and Louise to get them used to the job and using the plotter and Radar. Despite lots of large traffic and the AIS not working all coped very well (other than an accidental reset of the plotter and engine shutdown), the new day dawned bright and clear though with not much wind.
I had only a few catnaps but a cup of coffee and Jim’s pancakes had me up and running again.
We saw our second set of marine mammals at a distance either black (Rissos) dolphins or killer whales just before catching a beautiful Mahi-Mahi and reeling it right up to the transom. We got some nice pictures but the fish was very effective at avoiding the gaff and wriggled free at the last second before it became lunch.
Squalls threatened the afternoon but melted away before us and the breeze came around to make the sailing both faster and more comfortable. During the afternoon we fitted new red tell tales on the mainsail. These help us to see how efficiently the the sails are working and whether we need to adjust them for changes in the wind.
Our next lot of marine mammals were definitely dolphins and lots of them as they came very close but they distained our bow wave and left us too soon.
I had a brief afternoon nap and woke up to a snap from one of our reels as a large fish tore the whole line straight off. Fortunately, I used up my last dollar bills buying extra lures and line so we should have fish yet despite a rocky start.
Justin is on galley today and produced multi coloured sandwiches for lunch with a chicken and rice dish due for our dinner. We have run 87 miles by the log and about 92 over the ground thanks to the Gulf Stream. A good start and everyone shaping up nicely.
