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Miami Passage - Day 5, October 6
Miami Passage - Day 5, October 6
Hello from the Atlantic Ocean, 32*51'N, 79*17'W. We left you as we were about to cross the Frying Pan Shoals - well, sorta, as the wind and waves weren't very cooperative and we were rocking and rolling more than we were moving forward. None the less, we continued dead downwind in 3-4 knots of apparent wind, making somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 knots. I went down for an early bedtime, to try to get Lydia off the night shift, where she's landed by chance for the last couple of nights. The wind and waves continued in pretty much the same fashion other than that they clocked around a bit, back and forth, making for some angular points on the SPOT track. Were it not dead downwind, we'd just be making sailplan tweaks, but as it is, to prevent (as much as possible - there's still plenty of it) sail flogging, we're keeping the wind at our back. On the subject of wind, NOAA's saying that it will remain light - 10-15 - for the next several days, but, unfortunately for us, will clock around to the SE in a couple of days, just when we need it to stay generally north. Of course, right now, as we plod along trying to go nearly west, SE would be welcomed, but by the time it arrives, we'd be getting ready to turn south. At that, our speed is a bit better than when I started this log, now more on the order of 4.5-5.5 as the wind slightly increases. However, it's also shifted, which means we're headed much more south at the moment than would be our needed direction for a rhumb line run. The good news is that our course of travel is taking us roughly parallel to the Gulf Stream edge, about 15 miles or so off, so we're not having to adjust our course to miss it. And, if we continue along this course for another 50 miles or so, the angle of attack for our changed rhumb line (more below) will be better - perhaps a broad reach. We'll see what Chris has to say about where the wind is really going today; it may well be quite different than NOAA's expectations (usually is! - and exactly on target), but for the moment, unless it clocks further East, we'll have a better point of sail. We're making reasonably good progress, with CMG (course made good) of 121 and 132 nautical miles the last couple of days. Unfortunately, a goodly portion of that is due to having motorsailed, and it will cost us a visit to Charleston, more on which later. Today's very light winds, aft, will make for a much shorter run, I expect, but after dawn we should be able to reset the sailplan to be on a broad reach. That should increase our speed slightly, as well as damp some of the rock-and-roll. We crossed the Frying Pan Shoals, offshore of Cape Fear, at about 2 this morning. Lydia came to wake me at about 1:30, having gotten to her limit for attentiveness for the day. My nap refreshed me, and when she gets up on her own steam (I'll not wake her), I'll go down for another nap, or longer, depending on circumstances. The early morning was relatively uneventful - except for one thing. I'd been watching a light way off in the distance for several hours, and suddenly, it seemed to turn my way. I got out the binoculars and glassed him as well as I could with all the rocking and saw that the port light was prominently visible. Then it got very obviously closer, and appeared to be on a crossing course with me. I hailed on both 16 and 13, getting no answer. I hailed again, asking if they saw me. Still no answer. I dashed down to the circuit panel and threw on the foredeck, spreader and aft spotlights, then hailed again. Still no answer. In all of the excitement, I can't be sure, but it appeared that he sped up as he got closer. In the end, he passed not 50 feet in front of me, close enough that I could read the transom without aid, and very clearly see his radar going around. I hailed him again, by name, several times, on 16 and 13, and still got no response. So, if any of you know a (presumed - the aft was all lit up, but they weren't dragging anything) fishing boat named Captain Star, black (looks like in the dark - coulda been dark green or navy blue, too) transom, round cabin like a tugboat but not nearly that high, nor shaped nor dressed like a tug, in the area near the south of Frying Pan Shoal, give him Hell for me and high marks for rudeness at the very least. I have no idea if anyone was at the helm - but as far off as I started my hailing, he could very easily have diverted two degrees and gone behind me, or slowed, or any other simple change. Instead, his beam was right in my face, no further, I'd bet, than 50 feet. There was no incident, but if I'd been 10 seconds faster, he'd have T-boned me. This morning (5AM as I write) has been very warm, generally speaking. I've been in shorts, with a light sweatshirt jacket left open, in the cockpit with all the windows rolled up, very comfortably. Weather in general is forecast (at least by the NOAA broadcasts we can hear - and I've learned to look out the window to see what's happening rather than actually *rely* on NOAA) to be much the same for the next couple of days, so it will be comfortable, reasonably good sailing, and we'll continue to press on. Our stop in Charleston is prompted by the concern for our fuel level, but also because of a very good internet buddy who also happens to be a component-level electronics repair guy as well as a battery guru. Our wind indicator's light is out in the cockpit, and it's not such a big deal right now, with light winds, but having a relatively accurate assessment of the current wind speed is very useful to us in contemplating our sailplan. At night, currently, that requires a flashlight. For the direction, we can look at the Windex on the mast, and also turn on the red LED rope lighting which confused the tugboat captain a few nights ago; it's more than sufficient to illuminate the face. But the bulb in the cockpit unit is internal, and a stable work surface, with good lighting, would be much more effective than doing it on a rocking boat! Thanks, Larry - another one of our angels... So, once we get the sails back into a conventional rig after dawn, we'll set sail to Charleston, rather than the GA/FL border, our expected next waypoint. We're under no pressure timewise, other than to get together with another of our Saints in Miami, so a couple of days in Charleston will allow us to accomplish some chores, maybe even get in some sightseeing, and refresh for our next leg. Back when I was doing sales and management training, I used a Vince Lombardi film featuring Jerry somebody, a recently (at the time - that was a very long time ago) retired famous player for the GBP. He used one of the signs Lombardi put up in the locker room to help coach the sales guy in the film. "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." I expect that was at work with Lydia's discontent a couple of days ago, having just spent the previous day seasick with the dry heaves, not even being able to hold down water. So, a couple of days of R&R may help :{)) The morning dawned clear and bright, warm enough that I had to ditch the sweatshirt jacket, and I'll soon be back to starkers, it looks like, given that I'm already warm in just shorts and a tee shirt. After I make contact with Chris, I'll reset our sails. Our setup allows us to furl the genny with the pole out; once it's secured, I'll come upwind and remove the preventer from the main, allowing me to tighten up the sail, and, I fervently hope, damp all this rock and roll. Once it's stabilized on the new point of sail, I'll deal with the pole and then run the genoa out the other side. That done, about 9AM, we turned onto the course for Charleston, and it was a broad reach, almost a run. Chris' report called for building winds, moving to the ENE, which we were afraid would be right on our stern again, but it worked out that our course was fair, and, as promised, the winds built, along with the seas. However, we were going in the same direction, this time, and the resultant period was about 9-10 seconds. With the relatively constant pressure on the sails, the boat rocked considerably less, and our speed picked up dramatically. As we threw off an impressive bow wave at 6.5-7 knots, we were joined by a pod of porpoises, including a couple of what I presume to be mother and child, as they stuck together in every maneuver, at 11 AM. For more than half an hour they leaped out of the water, doing acrobatics for us, charging the boat and then looking up at us as if to laugh at those simple humans who couldn't even swim, let alone do what they were doing. What a marvelous creature, and so entertaining. If our wind speed and direction holds, we'll be in Charleston before midnight, as we're on a perfect course, and exceeding 6 knots. I'm going down for another rest at noon, but will finish up around dinnertime. The wind and the seas cooperated, mostly, for the last few hours of this report. I got up after a couple of hours of very sound sleep - nothing like the rocking of the boat, and the soft sunshine coming through the hatch to promote sleeping! - and we retired to the patio to become more acquainted with each other, having had little time together due to all the watchstanding which caused Lydia to be asleep during the days of late. Marvelous sunshine, gentle breeze (12 knots apparent) and the comfy cushioned adjustable chairs obtained during a West Marine two-fer sale enhanced our pleasure. Finally we tore ourselves away, and I did my 1-2-3's (boat maintenance chores). Today's were to put up the hanging basket which supporting eye hook had come loose during the storm, adjusting the port shroud which I'd overtightened slightly a couple of days ago, occasioned by it's working loose due to my overaggressive lubing of the threads during my tuning of the rig before, putting a new lure on a leader and feeding it with the line on the pole which had the line cut by the fighting tuna, putting it out to join the same tuna plug which had caught our first bluefin, and securing the Ragasco fiberglass propane tank which had broken loose during the stormy section early on in this passage. We sat back down on the patio and enjoyed our fizzies, and just as I was about to stand up, I saw that we'd caught another fish. This one was a bit early for dinner, being only 4:30, and it had little enough resistance that I wasn't sure it wasn't just grass. However, I've never known grass to cut behind the boat or dive, so I continued to reel it in. We were disappointed to see that it was what we think to be an adolescent billfish, about 30" long, very slim, with the distinctive sail dorsal fin. Disappointed, only because we immediately wanted to release it, but the hook had gone in right at the front of his right eye. He was still very full of fight, though, so we took a couple of quick pictures and extracted the hook and let him go. He appeared to swim off freely. I surely hope so - he was a beautiful specimen which, if allowed another 10 years or so, should make a wonderful fight for some other fisherman. As great as we're doing on time, we're not *exactly* on course to make the Charleston inlet's breakwater, so at 5:30, to take advantage of the remaining light in what might become difficult conditions, we turned downwind, prevented the main, and went wing and wing, about 25 degrees south of our prior line. When the mark we've got on the chartplotter gets to about 260 degrees to make it, we'll come back upwind on a slightly harder point of sail than was the case before. All signs point to our being able to sail up the channel in a beam or close reach, make the corner on a broad reach, turn up the creek and drop our sails and nestle into the fuel dock at slack water near midnight. So, we'll leave you as we head downwind wing and wing. Sorry I don't have another fish tale to tell, but the night is yet young :{)) Today's lovely conditions resulted in 123 miles course made good, and, at this writing, rocking and rolling once again, but with sufficient winds that it's much more tolerable than when the day began. Once again, we've been blessed with a great passage... Stay tuned! L8R Skip Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and) "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah) |
#2
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Miami Passage - Day 5, October 6
On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 02:51:40 -0400, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote: here was no incident, but if I'd been 10 seconds faster, he'd have T-boned me. Really?! I think I would have turned to starboard and shown him a red. |
#3
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Miami Passage - Day 5, October 6
"Goofball_star_dot_etal" wrote in message
... On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 02:51:40 -0400, "Skip Gundlach" wrote: here was no incident, but if I'd been 10 seconds faster, he'd have T-boned me. Really?! I think I would have turned to starboard and shown him a red. Given that I was wing and wing, by the time I'd gotten turned I'd have been in irons, thrown over (prevented main, poled genny), and there was less than a minute available before it became apparent he wasn't going to respond. So, instead I showed him an entire boat (all the lights). Whether or not he saw me, before then or never, was moot; nobody answered the phone... -- L8R Skip Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and) "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah) |
#4
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Miami Passage - Day 5, October 6
On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 07:55:45 -0400, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote: "Goofball_star_dot_etal" wrote in message .. . On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 02:51:40 -0400, "Skip Gundlach" wrote: here was no incident, but if I'd been 10 seconds faster, he'd have T-boned me. Really?! I think I would have turned to starboard and shown him a red. Given that I was wing and wing, by the time I'd gotten turned I'd have been in irons, thrown over (prevented main, poled genny), and there was less than a minute available before it became apparent he wasn't going to respond. So, instead I showed him an entire boat (all the lights). Whether or not he saw me, before then or never, was moot; nobody answered the phone... You should be thinking of taking avoiding action when he was 2nm off. Power does NOT give way to sail as some people seem to think. |
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