July 16th - Hey!! Wasn't that Daytona Beach??

After an extraordinarily short sail last night in very light wind, we
again
gave up and fired up the Iron Genny. We continued to get a great lift
from
the Gulf Stream,. 4 knots of lift, in fact, most of the time. In the
times
we've had a decent wind, we're making 10 knots over ground. Lydia and
Phillip had the dawn patrol, and it was a very good one at that.
Lydia's
been rather gun-shy of night watches after the wreck, but this one was
very
productive. Thunderstorms and squalls were skirted after spotting on
the
radar, her understanding of the operation of the chartplotter and GPS
was
enhanced, and in general she felt much better about night operations.

As it was my turn off-watch, I had another good night's sleep, other
than
that Erkki and I elected to allow the relief watch to sleep until
1:30, so I
got a late start. When I arose, I found that the crew had mutinied and
demanded to go to Savannah. We'd been making such great time, and the
route
looked feasible, that - I think - they didn't want it to end quite so
soon,
and so wanted to press on.

That sounded good to me, other than that I was concerned for our fuel
and
water. Fortunately, upon investigation, we found that our smaller
water tank
was the one which we had exhausted, and so the larger, nearly half
again the
size of the original, was the one we were working from now. In
addition,
we'd
already resolved to do salt water showers or swims, again, using the
fresh
water shower at the stern, or the regular cabin showers, for (just)
rinsing.
As it turns out, that won't be necessary, but it's good practice,
anyway, as
Lydia and I expect to be enroute to New York in a few days, and not
come off
the water except for emergency or disastrous weather.

However, there were several complications to the plan to go to
Savannah,
having to do with transportation, scheduling, and others. In the end,
the
problem which cinched my desire to go to Jacksonville (even though
we'll
have to go to Savannah, anyway, in order to mail off our proof-of-
export to
the tax people in FL) was that after detailed calculations, Erkki and
I (who
very much wanted to go to Savannah) determined that we would be out of
fuel
well before our arrival. On the other hand, we could comfortably make
Jacksonville, in the early morning hours, at the rate we expected to
go.

In my absence (while I was asleep), the fuel tank had been sounded
with a
stick they'd found. I had a chart of the tanks aboard as well as an
indicator of the depth as related to percentages of volume. The
dipstick
which came with the boat had ¼ tank markings on it, and we had
slightly more
than ¼ tank available. That was informative in that we could now
extrapolate
our fuel usage, and how much more we had available.

In their enthusiasm for all the lift we'd obtained from the Gulf
Stream, and
neglect of the impact of the fuel we'd have to burn while coming
ashore from
the great distance we were out, the fact that we'd nearly certainly
run out
of fuel before our arrival had escaped them. So, Erkki and I did a
more
detailed analysis, and determined that we could safely - but with only
a
small reserve - make Jacksonville. So, that's where we headed.

As usual, there's no wind today, so at about 5 we got ready to take
our
swim. Oops. There's no wind because we're motoring in the direction of
the
wind, at the same speed as the wind. Stop the boat, and there's a
small
breeze. Boats tend to blow around when there's a breeze, and this was
no
exception. Flying Pig is such a sailor that she doesn't want to stop.
No
luck whatsoever in putting her in irons - heaving to - which makes her
sidle
sideways with small jogs. So, we dumped all the sails, lay a-hull
(sideways
to the waves and wind), and jumped in.

Because we headed in toward Jacksonville, we were now out of the Gulf
Stream, and the water was a few degrees colder. More, it was a very
different color - not nearly as pretty as in the Gulf Stream. However,
it
was refreshing, and that was really the point. Notably, though, the
wind
continued, and it was sufficient to allow us to put up the sails
again. This
time, as it was nearly dead astern, we put out the spinnaker and set
the
main sail in a wing-and-wing configuration. As I write this, we're
making
more than 6 knots through the water, in dead silence - other than the
splashing of the waves from the bow. When the boat stands up, as it
does
under spinnaker sailing (vs heeled over under standard sails), the
water
flies off the bow, very impressively and entertainingly for those
sitting in
the bow seat over the anchors.

Depending on our winds, we expect to be at the Jacksonville inlet
shortly
before dawn. We'll make our way up the St. John's River and make
arrangements for our crew's car to go home, try to get connected to
the
internet, post all the log notes and collect our email, and even more
importantly, attend to some of the repairs we need doing. It's been a
great
run. We'll have done over 700 miles in about 5 days, and everyone's
still
talking to each other!

My attempts to check in on the Maritime Net tonight were again
frustrated.
As was the case a couple of days before, I learned that the difficulty
was
some inconsiderate HAM using a digital form of communication. With
thousands
of frequencies available, and this being a very long-standing net, an
experienced hobbyist (one who would use this type of communication
would be
very experienced) should surely know that this frequency had a
significant
purpose, and should have avoided it.

On the whole, however, if that's the only thing I can find to complain
about, I guess it's doing pretty well. I'll take another nap in a
while and
then take the dawn shift with Erkki. We'll bring her home.

L8R


Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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