We have left Palm Coast.
Our visit there lasted longer than we expected. We ordered some stuff from Amazon and part of
the order was delayed. Delayed to the
point we have not gotten it yet, they keep moving the arrival date out from the
original. Our friend Jim is willing to
pick it up for us. Jim has done a lot
for us while we were there: loaning us a vehicle, including us in runs for shopping
and to visit other friends passing through St. Augustine and providing airport pickup
and delivery and much more. Thanks Jim!
We decided to leave because our weather advisor stated in
his Friday report that “you need to get where you want to be for Christmas by
Wednesday.” There is some nasty weather coming
in later in the week. We did not want to
be in Palm Coast but would rather be in the Bahamas, more specifically Green
Turtle Cay. We made the decision Friday
evening and were moving on the water Saturday by 8:00 am. We had wanted to go back up to St Augustine
and go out the inlet and sail or motor offshore to either Ft Pierce or West
Palm Beach and then make the crossing.
Two things changed that plan. The
weather offshore for Sunday was going to be nasty. Also there is a report of a barge losing 25
shipping containers somewhere around Cape Canaveral. Hitting one of them will really ruin your
day. We know they are out there because
stuff has been washing up on shore: coffee cans, pet food, boxes of wine and
other assorted flotsam.
We made it to New Smyrna on Saturday and anchored for the
night across from the yacht club. We
were treated to dolphins swimming around the boat in the dark and then the Christmas
boat parade passed by. We had a very
eventful evening then a quiet night at anchor.
We were up before dawn on Sunday and had the anchor up by
7:00 as the sun came up. We are on the
ICW so it is a motorboat ride but we made the best of it by raising the
mainsail and motorsailing for part of it.
Having the sail up while you motor will give some extra speed if the winds
are right. We are anchor down at Dragon
Point near Melbourne FL. We had a good
day traveling 58.8 nautical miles which converts to 67.6 statute miles. A long day on the water running ten hours at
around 6 knots.
We plan another early and long day tomorrow in hopes of
making the crossing on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Our next report should be from the Bahamas.
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