We Made It Back... Well... Kinda.

Day One:
Thursday, January 26, 2012

Left Savannah, Ga in a fully packed minivan just before 1pm. Managed to arrive in Stuart, Fl around 7pm. Loaded all our stuff in several buggies and took them out to the boat - which was still happily floating since we left her - phew.

Jack took the rental car back to the Budget place and dropped the keys in the "drop box" - which turned out to be an unmarked hole in the window, and then walked the two miles back. Meanwhile, the girls and I unloaded all belongings, and Erik set to changing out some lines, checking the bilge and some other miscellaneous tasks. All was said and done around 9-9:30pm. We then started the motor, unhooked all the lines and pulled out of the dock. Everything seemed to be running smoothly and we pulled into the channel. Remember this particular channel is shallow - the deep spots running about 3' below the keel. And its narrow - not much room before you run up onto dry land. Our plan was to motor all the way to the Intracoastal Waterway, and even then motor for some time until the channel widened. We were going along searching for markers and minding our business when all of a sudden the motor slows down and then dies. Eek! We started floating as Jack tried to restart the motor, but she won't turn over. "Oh no!" we are all thinking, "Did we really just buy a lemon?" but no one says anything. Quickly we loosen the jib, which miraculously spools out easily. Jack's still trying to restart the motor with nothing happening except the GPS shutting off. Turns out whenever you crank the motor on the GPS shuts down.

An ideal situation.
Pitch black night, unfamiliar shallow waters, without a motor, and now no GPS or depth finder.

A recipe for running aground, which we shortly did. We didn't hit hard, and some rocking and the wind in the jib were able to get us right off the sand. I take the helm as Erik and Jack try to figure out what's going wrong with the diesel engine. We had remembered to turn on all the fuel valves and to open the water coolant valve after starting her up. What could be going wrong? Perhaps the lines were clogged, so Erik and Jack proceeded to try and bleed the line, but nothing was coming out. We think and think, and everyone does this and that accomplishing nothing. I remember Greg, the previous owner, informing us that this whole boat was made of valves, and I was trying to think if we had missed one, when I remembered the valve behind the bed! This was the main gas valve, the other two were secondary valves. We had completely forgotten to open that one. So after we opened the valve, Erik and Jack bled the line, and we were back in motion. We managed to get out of that bay/onto the ICW hitting ground only three times, but never getting stuck. It was very tricky getting out, and it was slow going. We traveled only 30 statute miles that night. Very little wind the whole night, so the motor whirred.

Day 2:
Friday, January 27, 2012

We stopped in Vero Beach Marina at 7am where we refueled and used the facilities. We were uncertain of how quickly the engine would drain the fuel, but it looks like she gets pretty good gas mileage. We were able to actually sail the boat some this day, as the southwest winds were in our favor. We were worried most of the day about the forecasted storm, but amazingly we dodged in and out of the storm bands. We only suffered a drizzle here and there. Our sails held despite a few holes that kept getting larger, and Erik was able to easily bring her up to 7.9knots. (He holds the record right now...) That night the wind died down and we had to crank up the motor. From this point on we motored. We made much greater progress the second day and into the night as the Intracoastal Waterway mellowed out and we learned more tricks of the trade. Things to point out. At some point during the evening, we discovered the front potty was not really working. The toilet is supposed to pump into a holding tank, from which we can either have it sucked out at a harbor or pump it into the ocean. We soon came to discover that the piping to and from the toilet was a "custom job." And either a valve or the pump wasn't working properly. The end result being that the holding tank, which is located beneath the V-berth (where the girls would be sleeping) leaked out foul water all over their bedding and foam mattresses... Savannah and Jack did a fine job of fighting off poop and peep. The toilet also repeatedly filled with fouled water and would have to be pumped out using the manual bilge pump and a bucket, We termed that potty un-operational and switched to the bucket system. The aft potty only had a holding tank, but we were uncertain at this time if that one was full or if it too would back up. One potty spilling all over the place was more than enough.

That night we cruised by Ponce Inlet (the last entrance to the ocean for a while) - on the theory that the winds would be shifting further north as forecasted. And then we sailed by Daytona Beach. Lots of bridges in Daytona. At about 5:00am, a very tired Erik, who had taken the 3:00am-5:00am shift, accidentally drove us up onto an oyster bed. We were going in between two bridges, lots of lights and channel markers, and it seemed as if there was a direct path in between the two bridges. We were settled in for the next bascule bridge when the bridge operator warned us over the VHF that it is not a straight path to the next bridge, the channel cuts to the left to avoid some shallow oyster beds. As soon as the words are out of her mouth we hit the oyster bed, crunch, and we stick for a while. We revved the engine in reverse, than forward, pulled the jib out as we rocked around on the bed, and eventually we managed to get off. We called the bridge operator back, and apologized to her, confessing that we did have an Italian captain on board...
Jack and I then took the next shift, sailing us through a chilly sunrise.

Day 3:
Saturday, January 28, 2012

As the sun came up we found ourselves around Flagler Beach. Instant Grits and Instant Coffee for breakfast. Jack and Erik did some more tinkering with the potty and thought they had figured out matters. Both the girls took turns steering for awhile, and each took us under fixed bridges. We motored the whole day, a little bit of the main up, as the wind switched around in front of us. In the late morning, the girls and I scrubbed down Wind Mistress' deck. She was in need of a good bath, and she looked ten times better after some grooming. At a little past 1:30 we reached St. Augustine and docked at the marina. The bridge in St. Augustine only opens on the half hour. We decided to top off our fuel, and pump out the aft potty to ensure that its holding tank was not full. As a result we should be able to use that second bathroom and just have it pumped out at marinas, but everyone kinda wanted to stay on the bucket system until we were 100% certain. Since we had some time to kill in between bridge openings we decided to eat out at Harry's a New Orleans' themed restaurant right off the main street. We got going again at 3pm. We took turns motoring that afternoon and that night reached Jacksonville. Over night I steered us across the St. John's river, up Sister's Creek, past Fernandina (loud, huge factories, bright and scary at night), and across St. Mary's into Georgia. Who says navigating the ICW at night is hard? Actually, it was pretty hard, and sometimes I was just guessing at markers in front of me. Some of those big rivers/sounds have hundreds of blinking lights, plus the shore lights. It didn't help that the wind had moved to directly in front of our face. We had taken down all sails and were just motoring hard. The currents also decided to always be against us, so it was slow moving. 2.8-3 knots against wind, current, and big waves. I was terrified crossing into Georgia that one of those huge cargo ships would come barrelling down, and I would have to turn around quickly and pray to get out of their way. Even in a 40' boat, you feel like an ant in the middle of a puddle. Finally at around 4:30, when we were almost to Cumberland, Erik took a shift. I went to bed right away, and Jack was "on-call" for emergencies. Some point during the night, we ran aground twice, in one of the shallower areas. All I know is we got off the marsh okay.

Day 4:
Sunday, January 29, 2012

That morning I woke up as we were crossing the St. Andrew sound. Big waves and cold winds in front of us. That morning the girls and I all started feeling a little sea-sick for the first time this trip. We popped some Dramamine ate some beef jerky and were feeling better in no time. We all took turns motoring through this area. We stopped at Jekyll Island Marina at around 10:30/11:00. We topped off our fuel and brushed teeths. We then kept going. At some point the wind shifted so that we could pull up some sail. We unfurled the jib, but as we had noticed the roller furling system was getting harder and harder to operate. We messed with the halyard and manually unfurled and tinkered with the sheets, but things were not getting easier. We motored around St. Simons, I made a wrong turn at the fork between bridges and had to loop back. Eventually I went down for a nap, and discovered when I woke that I had missed a lot of excitement. Apparently the girls had steered and Jack and Erik had taken down the jib off the roller furler. Lots of flapping cursing and forearm muscle building. I don't know the full story, except that Erik claims he's never going to have another bright idea again in his life. We had by this point decided that we were not going to be able to make the trip all the way back to Coffee Bluff, still another 10 hours or so by boat (only an hour and a half by car). Well, we could make it, but the girls had to go to school the next day and they would be wiped out. That and Erik and Jack had to teach. So we settled on docking at Two Way Fish Camp in Darien, Georgia. We twisted and turned up the river, about 45 mins off the ICW to get to the dock. When we arrived, the harbor master and everyone knowing anything about boats had already left for the day. (It was only 3pm). The only person there managing things was the owner of the restaurant. The dock was packed with other vessels, and there were no clear places for us to dock. Eventually we had to drop Erik off (with a very nice bit of driving by Jack as he touched the bow to the dock and then reversed out). Erik then helped the restaurant manager, an elderly woman, move a 32 footer named Perfection forward. (They had taken up two spots). Then we pulled in right behind her. At this point, Dee life-savingly pulled up in her car and met us at the docks to drive all of us back home.

So we left Wind Mistress in Darien, Georgia to be picked up again next weekend. Actually it looks like just Jack and I will head down on Thursday and sail back Friday, when the winds will be in our favor. Our plan now is to head out to the Atlantic and head up the coast and then come back in at Green Island Sound. Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative. Lots of to-do lists developing.....