{"id":4323,"date":"2014-11-13T13:14:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T17:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/?p=4323"},"modified":"2014-11-13T13:14:33","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T17:14:33","slug":"underway-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/?p=4323","title":{"rendered":"Underway South"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beaufort Town Docks are popular stop along the ICW with many transient boats coming and going. There’s a strong current due to tidal change which makes timing of arrival and departure important. \u00a0 Our timing for arrival had been less than ideal but for departure everything was in our favor at 6:00 am Monday November 3. \u00a0With a temperature was 39 degrees and a good weather window to travel south we were quickly off the dock and headed out the inlet to the ocean.<\/p>\n

The day started well, with full main and Screecher up we were seeing speeds from 8 to 9 knots. \u00a0After a while we pulled out the spinnaker for the first time on the new boat. \u00a0All went very well until as predicted, the wind disappeared.\u00a0 We were then under engine power for the duration of the journey.<\/p>\n

We put out a fishing lure for the first time in months and soon had a fish on the line. We lost him just before pulling on board but no worries as we soon had another. We are feeling optimistic that we have upped our fishing game with the new boat. Given that we now travel a bit faster, at more of a trolling speed, we hope to be much more successful in our efforts. We plan to upgrade our fishing gear before heading off shore again and are considering adding a filet table to make fish cleaning a bit easier.<\/p>\n

It continued to be an eventful day. \u00a0We had to perform another flag burial at sea – winds are tough on flags. We discovered a stowaway. \u00a0A small bird was flying around into the cabin and since we were 50 miles from shore he had to have hitched a ride. \u00a0We heard several warships on the radio and even caught a glimpse of one on AIS.\u00a0 They like to travel more stealthily and don’t often seem broadcast their location.<\/p>\n

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\"Folding <\/a>
Folding flag for disposal <\/div> <\/div>
\"Flag <\/a>
Flag disposal at sea <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Flying <\/a>
Flying the Spinnaker <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Fish <\/a>
Fish on the line <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Fish <\/a>
Fish on the line <\/div> <\/div>
\"Warship <\/a>
Warship nearby <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Stowaway\" <\/a>
Stowaway <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Jeff and I have continued with our 3 on 3 off watch schedule on passage and fell into it much easier than any previous trip. We both did experience a bit of queasiness the first day with 4 to 5 foot swells, we used patches and wrist bands to get us through.<\/p>\n

It was a treat to be out with a full moon but our first night brought an odd occurrence. During my midnight to 3 watch the seas and wind had calmed to nothing yet all of a sudden there was a patch of small close together waves that caused the boat to rock around quite a bit for about a minute or so. \u00a0 Then back to completely calm seas. We speculated about several possible causes but have no idea why it happened. Given that we were 100 miles off shore with no other boats in sight it’s hard to imagine what caused the disturbance. Was is it a whale? Was it a sea quake? Was it a tsunami? \u00a0We will never know.<\/p>\n

\"Skipper <\/a>
Skipper taking a nap <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"View <\/a>
View out the windshield <\/div> <\/div>
\"Full <\/a>
Full moon passage <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Morning <\/a>
Morning coffee <\/div> <\/div>
\"Hard <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Taking <\/a>
Taking a stroll <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

By Tuesday morning we were southeast of Charleston (still 100 miles off shore) enjoying a much warmer temperature.\u00a0 This was a less eventful day with little traffic.\u00a0 Mid afternoon we began feeling the effect of the strong northerly current of the gulf stream.\u00a0 Although we were running both engines at full speed we were making only 4 knots over ground.\u00a0 We had to move in closer to shore to get out of the current.\u00a0 Unfortunately there is more traffic nearer to shore.\u00a0 Not a big deal, just have to watch things closely and adjust course as necessary.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Watching<\/a>

Watching Dolphins at sunset<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

At sunset Tuesday we were treated with a visit from several Dolphins playing in our bow wake. Always magical!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When heading out Monday it had been our intention to go as far as Stuart Florida, arriving early Thursday. \u00a0Wednesday morning we had difficulty hearing Chris Parker’s weather report over the side band radio and we were consuming fuel at a faster rate that anticipated. \u00a0Although we probably could have easily made Stuart, we opted instead to head in to Jacksonville that afternoon.<\/p>\n

By that point we had traveled 365 miles in about 2 1\/2 days. Had we gone from Beaufort to Jacksonville along the ICW it would have been 550 miles and would been accomplished in segments of 50 miles per day while anchoring or docking each night. \u00a0So when you want to make tracks and the weather is in your favor, the ocean is the way to go.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The ICW does have it’s charms. There are beautiful anchorages and nice towns to stop in; a variety of shore birds along with manatees and dolphins; you get to sleep through the night; usually have flat water and weather conditions don’t often stop you; you sometimes benefit from a fast current heading your way and you can grocery shop or stop at a nice restaurant. Some of it’s challenges include the fact that you can only make 50 miles per day; sometimes your nice flat water is severely disrupted from a big cruiser’s wake; you almost never put a sail up and always burn fuel; you need to pay attention to bridge opening schedules and tide clearance boards on fixed bridges; your bow acquires an ugly brown mustache from the water and those fast currents impede your speed when they are flowing opposite of your direction of travel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pretty <\/a>
pretty anchorage <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Silly <\/a>
Silly Manatee! <\/div> <\/div>
\"Jelly <\/a>
Jelly Fish <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Cool <\/a>
Cool Shorebirds on the ICW <\/div> <\/div>
\"Coco <\/a>
Coco Beach yogurt shop <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ponce <\/a>
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Once back inside at Jacksonville we continued on the ICW. \u00a0We stopped in some nice anchorages, one near Saint Augustine and then at Fort Matanzas where toured the fort there and hung out in the beach. We also stopped for one night at Harbour Village near Ponce Inlet. \u00a0We had stopped here in the spring with Echo 1 and visited with out friends Angie and Kelly. \u00a0We were happy to see them again and show them the new Echo. \u00a0We had a great visit and a wonderful dinner with them.<\/p>\n

\"Echo<\/a>

Echo at Harbour Village<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Nate<\/a>Hard to believe another year has passed, Nate would have been 23 yesterday.\u00a0 We recently had many memories of traveling the outer banks with him when he was young.<\/p>\n

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The boat is now on the dock at Titusville Municipal Marina for the next few weeks while we take another quick land trip to Washington and Michigan.Still undecided as to where exactly we will head once we return to the boat but certainly further south.\u00a0 We are feeling more confident with ourselves and Echo as we continue to get more miles under our keel!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~ Jeff and Mary ~<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Beaufort Town Docks are popular stop along the ICW with many transient boats coming and going. There’s a strong current due to tidal change which makes timing of arrival and departure important. \u00a0 Our timing for arrival had been less … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2y1a7-17J","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4323"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4408,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions\/4408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}