February 2009 Archives

This was the final return leg of our trip down to Miami to attend the Miami Boat Show. We had hoped to make the entire trip in one leg straight from Miami up the gulf stream and back to North Carolina (which would have taken less than 3 days). However, the weather did not cooperate. We had one good passage from Miami to St. Augustine. But, we had to pull in before we hit bad weather. When we left St. Augustine, we ran into head winds the entire way and ended up pulling into Charleston, SC to avoid even worse weather ahead.

After arriving to Charleston we rented a car to go home for a day and a half to take care of home matters. Then we returned on February 19th to prepare for the final leg departing on Friday the 20th. Wind forecasts said we would have a bit of sailing winds up the South Carolina coast, but it would die off during the afternoon of the 20th.

First thing in the morning, I arranged to get fuel, and pay the marina fees (the Charleston, SC City Marina dockage fee is higher than I'm used to at $2/foot - or $100/day for our boat). We would have preferred to anchor, but with our leaving and the thunderstorms that hit while we were gone, but we were glad to have Tahina tied up and watched by the marina staff. The marina had good quality facilities and staff and is convenient to the city.

We left about 9 AM and started out the harbor. There was a bit of wind and we flew the jib out the inlet. Once we started to sea, we raised the main for a short while, but the forecasted winds died off much sooner than expected and we soon dropped the sails and began motoring on calm seas. In fact, we motored non-stop the rest of the way back. You can see from the track we were on a straight path to the Frying Pan Shoals cut.

Download track into Google Earth

The Frying Pan Shoals cut is a narrow path through the shoals which was only a little nerve-wracking in the calm seas because we went through at night. But, the radar, GPS, and our spotlight all agreed we were in the right place when we spotted the buoys marking the cut. We had timed our arrival for shortly after dawn (since we were motoring), and we had an awesome dawn about 20 minutes from the Carolina Beach inlet. I took a bunch of pictures of the dawn which you can see in the slideshow below (click on the link to see bigger pictures at the Picasa Web Albums site). You can see in the dawn pictures that the seas were practically glass smooth. The Atalantic Ocean looked more like a lake than a sea. Noticealso that the photos have been geo-tagged according to where they were shot. The slideshow also includes a few shots when we were departing Charleston.

We left Miami on the 14th of February to head home (read about the first leg from Miami). Under ideal weather we could have jumped on the gulfstream and sailed all the way to the Carolinas and made it home in under three days to Carolina Beach, NC. However, ideal weather was not what we got. First, there was a front coming through points from northern Florida along the coast north. Then another front was expected a couple of days later. So, we chose to pull into St. Augustine for a night and check the weather.

After arriving in St. Augustine, we went ashore and found a hotel with free WIFI. We found out the other front was if anything moving quicker than expected. We would barely have two days to make it from St. Augustine to North Carolina. And, the wind would be on the nose and strong even close to shore.

We got up early the next morning (February 16th) and went to a marina for fuel. Then we began motoring north. The seas weren't too bad initially, and the winds were ok. But, as the day progressed the winds got stronger and waves more choppy. We hugged the coast as much as possible. When we reached Jacksonville, the tide must have been coming out. We had even bigger chop and that combined with the winds really slowed us down (we were barely making 4 knots over ground for a while). We briefly considered going up the ICW from Jacksonville to St. Mary's - but, realized it would be dark and we would have to stop.

The constant headwind combined with chop made for a bit of a bouncy ride, but the real problem was the slowing of our speed. Even past the Jacksonville inlet we were often not making more than 6 knots (with the same engine RPMs we would normally make 8 knots with no wind). I began worrying I didn't buy enough fuel, and that we wouldn't beat the weather front which would produce 30+ knots of wind off the Carolinas and storms.

That night, we had some fresh Mahi Mahi from the catch back near Miami. It was delicious! But, the winds continued to bend almost directly on our nose (as forecasted). We were a bit nervous because there was no moonlight until the last-quarter moon rose later in the evening. This was prime mating ground for Right Whales. But, at our speeds they would presumably move out of our way. We never saw any. We occasionally had to run the generator a bit to warm up the cabin - temperatures were in the 50s or lower outside. It was a bummer after the warmer Florida weather. We had a similar problem with the out-going tide at the Savannah inlet and had to slow again for a bit.

After sunrise, we evaluated the situation and realized between greater fuel consumption, lower speeds (due to the headwinds), and the upcoming front off the Carolinas, that we would not be able to get to North Carolina in time. So, we plotted a course for Charleston, SC instead. We made some cell phone calls as we approached Charleston and found out the City Marina could accommodate us. The winds started dying off (naturally) and we had a delightful motor into the Charleston harbor shortly before sunset. We had a large container ship pass us while going through the inlet (see pictures). We also passed Fort Sumpter, saw the downtown area, and witnessed some Optimus sailing going on just before sunset as we approached the Marina. GPS Track seen to the right - download track into Google Earth .

Arrival time: 5:55 PM on February 17th. Total distance: 228 nautical miles.

A few photos - mostly of Charleston (we didn't take many during the long motoring phases at sea):

We were glad to have on-shore services again. We immediately made plans to head home for a day or so rather than staying to wait out the weather. Our kids needed our help with a few matters. So, we rented a car and left the next day to drive home.

It turned out to be a good decision as both Carolina Beach and Charleston had a very windy and stormy 36 hours. It was already windy when we left the next morning. On the 19th of February, we drove back to begin the final leg the next day.

The ideal plan would have had us leaving Miami, coasting along the gulf stream with 5 knots of northward current, and making it back to North Carolina in just over 2.5 days. That's with perfect winds, weather, and currents. However, as the weekend approached, it was clear the weather was not going to make that possible. In fact, some cold nasty weather was moving towards the southeastern US. We originally planned to leave on Sunday, but a weather window allowing us to have a nice sail at least to North Florida opened on Saturday. So, we wrapped up our Miami Boat Show projects quickly and prepared for departure on Saturday. We took Virgil ashore so he could continue his boat show work, and said our goodbyes. Then I added gas to the dinghy tank. We weighed anchor by 9 AM.

There was little wind, but a glorious warm sunny day at the start out of Miami. We had a smooth motor out the Miami inlet (Karen was at the helm for a while) and motored our way not far out to the gulf stream. We were soon making over 11 knots over ground thanks to a 3+ knot current. Virgil helped me download some useful charts that proved very accurate for predicting the gulf stream position. Since it was a Saturday, the local fishing and recreational boaters were out in force. But, there was plenty of room for all.

I put in new watermaker filters we bought at the show, and we were soon running the watermaker all day. It was important to fill up our watermaker tank with pure water. The watermaker needs to flush itself every few days with about 10 liters of non-chlorinated watermaker water to keep the unit running smoothly. After running all day, the filters still looked brand new (the gulfstream is good clean water).

Speaking of fishing, I put out two lines since we were in ideal conditions. Within a couple of hours I hooked a beautiful Mahi Mahi! We reeled it in and soon had it aboard. It measured at 39 inches! We have a cold box in a locker in the back, and since we were motoring I put it in the locker to wait for cooler late-afternoon temperatures. Since we had plenty of fresh fish, I went ahead and stowed the lines. That was exciting! Since we were still just a few miles off shore, I ended up calling several of my friends on the cell and telling them about the catch. :-)

The wind started picking up as predicted just after lunch. A little after 2 PM we pulled out the spinnaker from its locker and rigged it up. We only had about 12 knots of true wind dead aft, but with the spinnaker we were making about 6 knots through the water - thanks to the current we were making 10+ knots. This means the apparent wind was only 2 knots. We were close to sailing at wind speed! We soon turned off the engine and the sail was glorious! Beautfiul sunny skies, deep blue gulfstream ocean water, smooth seas, and an awesome multi-colored spinnaker flying. A perfect Valentine's Day sail up the coast of Florida!

The wind was gradually picking up a bit, and an hour later we were making 11-12 knots over ground. This continued through to sunset, but the winds were starting to clock westward. We knew the winds were to clock further, so we lowered the big sail right after the beautiful golden sunset. A short while later we raised the mainsail and were on a broad reach continuing north.

Due to rainy weather near north Florida, and some nastier weather coming north of Florida and off the Carolina coast, we decided we would pull in to St. Augustine to wait for the weather to pass. Unfortunately, the forecast said there was another system just a couple of days behind the first one, so we would have a tight window to make it home.

As the night progressed, the winds continued to clock around. Oh, and the temperatures started dropping. We were soon back to long pants, sweaters and coats. Because we needed to head NW towards St. Augustine, we had to leave the gulftstream, and we soon had the wind on our nose. It wasn't too bad, but it slowed us down a knot. Early in the morning, the winds clocked enough to let us raise our sails again, and we sailed the rest of the way into St. Augustine. We arrived about 3 PM on February 15th - 221 nm from Miami.

As we were arriving at the anchorage near the fort, I noticed the tourists lined up at the fort wall. Obviously they were about to fire the cannons. I checked with the binoculars and sure enough they were aimed right at us! I told Karen to watch and when they fired the cannon I jumped up with my hands over my heart and "fell" back inside the boat. A moment later I popped up waving my hands and the tourists were laughing. :-)

Here is a slideshow of photos from this segment of the trip:

View passage map in Google Earth

After laying anchor, and calling friends/family to let them know we made it, Karen and I both took a short nap and then took showers to go ashore for some dinner and to get Internet access to check on the weather. The weather forecasts were not looking fun for our final run home. The forecast was saying we would need to stay close to shore (the winds would be even stronger further out), and they would be clocking to stay right on our nose even as we curved along the southeast coast. But, it appeared we could make it to Carolina Beach just before another storm system arrived. More on what actually happened in the next post.

After the passage to Miami, and getting settled in the anchorage, I spent part of the morning cleaning the inside of Tahina. Not only was Karen coming back today, but also we had some guests staying on the boat for the next few days. Virgil of EarthNC.com had a booth at the boat show, and I offered for him to stay at Tahina while we were here. His wife was joining him for the first two days.

I also took the dinghy over to the Bayside Marketplace (where the sailboat part of the Miami Boat Show is held). I went to find the St. Francis 50 brought for the show. I soon found the owner of St. Francis - Duncan Lethbridge - and his North American representative - George Godfrey. They were starting the cleaning process in preparation for the show. George showed me the passarelle, and we decided I could put it in the dinghy to take back to Tahina. A few moments later it was put in place. I also got permission to use the laundry at the marina and got a couple of loads going. Then I went ashore and found WIFI and did some blogging. A couple of hours later, I headed back to Tahina.

Back at the boat, I put away the passarelle and made the beds. Then finished cleaning. Tahina was looking brand new shortly after lunch. Karen arrived by taxi by mid-afternoon and I went to pick her up ashore with Cocounut (our dinghy). An hour or two later, Virgil and Sarah showed up, and we gave them the grand tour of our new home. They are active boaters themselves - although mostly limited to the motor-boat variety. A while later we went ashore to do get some provisions (my brother John and I ate a lot during our passage down). We enjoyed shopping at a grocery store at Key Biscayne. It was still a bit cool on the first night, so we ate at the salon dinner table inside.

The next day, we planned to give our guests an opportunity to see Tahina at sail. The winds were a bit strong in the morning, so I suggested we go in the afternoon when they were supposed to die down some. Not only did I want a smoother ride for our guests, but I was hoping not to get salt spray on the decks after just getting Tahina clean!

While we were waiting, an interesting story developed. A boat I had noticed beached ashore was being salvaged by some guys in another boat. At high tide, they managed to two the boat off the beach and proceeded to move it around the anchorage. They started going past us and I was keeping a close eye because they weren't maneuvering well. Then they decided to attempt to anchor in front of us. Only, they missed the anchor. I saw they didn't have the boat under tow anymore and it was drifting towards us. I started motioning at them to move! They started to get it towed, but the boat drifted right up over our anchor and I quickly tried to keep the boat from drifting against our port bow with my feet. Meanwhile they were still trying to tow, but the drifting boat was snagged in our anchor bridles. They stopped towing, and I untied the bridle, then told them to move away. Whew! We got a little scratch on our bow. The guy on the boat - who really only spoke spanish - said "sorry! sorry!". They then moved, and went ahead and anchored in front of us anyway. We decided to pull up our anchor and move away a bit. Sheesh!

Meanwhile, it was soon time to head out for our sail. I did check the tides because of the shallow passage across the bay. Unfortunately, I neglected to think about the outgoing tide and its effects on the incoming seas in the channel. As we headed out the channel, we encountered short, choppy, 4 foot waves. Soon, Tahina had a few douses of salt spray. Oh well!

The seas were still a bit choppy, but Tahina was soon sailing along Miami Beach. The winds and seas did gradually ease while we cruised along for our two-hour sail. But, we had a brisk (and salty) ride. I wish we had waited a bit later in the day, but I was glad Sarah had the chance to go out because she needed to leave the next day. On the way back to the anchorage, we briefly considered moving to a different anchorage. The only challenge was the necessity of going under a bridge. One set of charts showed the bridge had a clearance of 76 feet, others (obviously older) said 26 feet. We could tell the bridge was closer to the former. But, when we approached the bridge there was no height-indicator to tell us its clearance. Since Tahina has a mast height of 72 feet, we opted for the safe course. We went back to the fuel dock near our anchorage and got more water so we could wash down the boat.

A short while later we were back at the same anchorage and the salt spray was rinsed off. Karen wanted to grill, so I got the grill out for the first time. It was tricky getting it out of the locker - I may have to consider a different location. Once I finally got it out, I was disgusted to find out that the grill had been used before we took possession, and NOT cleaned. Yuck! Virgil and I took it with the dingy to a nearby beach and washed it down thoroughly. I do like the grill though. We got it set up on the back transom area and the gas turned on, and soon we were cooking nicely.

The weather was warmer, so we opted to have dinner at the cockpit table. We had a nice time with our great view of downtown Miami. Since the winds were died down, we attempted some night photos of the skyline using some longer exposures on the cameras. Some of the photos turned out pretty nicely.

The next two days were spent at the boat show. Karen and I had a long list of equipment and supplies we wanted to either learn about, or buy. In the morning, we took the dinghy over and found St. Francis. They were kind enough to let us park under their boat during the show and even supplied us with badges for the show. Thanks Duncan and George! After a quick familiarization trip, we soon ended up at the Sailrite booth to look at their sewing machines. Karen is great at sewing, and wants to learn to sail canvas. After just a few minutes of demonstration, we soon were placing an order. Other important purchases/equipment evaluations included: wind generator, LED lights, foul weather gear (Karen needed a set), satellite communications gear, signing up for Seven Seas cruising association, finding the pump manufacturer for our broken A/C pump, washer/dryer company, water-maker filters, and much more.

The pump for our A/C had gone bad back in January. I had tried numerous things to analyze the problem, but I believed it was broken. We found the manufacturer, Dometic, at the show. They in fact had the pump in their booth. After describing the problem they showed me how you could disassemble the pump to check for problems. I discovered it was in fact broken. The next day, I came back and told them. They said - "Wow, that doesn't happen very often." Now, here's the amazing part : we explained we were going to leave the next day. They offered to come out to the boat and replace the pump - UNDER warranty, no cost - that night! And, they did it! On a Friday night, they showed up at 8:30 PM and spent an hour replacing and testing the pump. What amazing service! It works perfectly now...

On Thursday night, we were looking at the weather for our passage home. It was looking that we would leave on Saturday instead of Sunday like we planned. So, on Friday Karen and I accelerated our boat show process. We were pleased that by the end of the day on Friday, we had achieved all our items on our list. Some of the purchases will be waiting until we get home, but we got all the questions and evaluations we had planned done.

Here's a slideshow of photos from this segment:

Picasa Web Album

View daysail GPS track in Google Earth.

The next posts will be about our passage home.

The next day, after our arrival to St. Augustine, I took Karen ashore and got her a taxi to the Jacksonville airport so she could get home for the family emergency. Meanwhile, we needed to continue to get Tahina down to Miami by Tuesday. Karen was going to need to be home for at least three days. So, I started recruiting for someone to help me sail Tahina to Miami.

After 24 hours of phone calls, the best candidate for crew turned out to be my brother John. As mentioned before, he lives in St. Marys, so he was already close. It would also be cheaper to fly him home from Miami than a lot of my other friends/family. Ironically, the last time I sailed to Miami was on PatiCat from Jacksonville (I just realized I never wrote that tale on the old PatiCat site). Almost the same situation occurred where it turned out I needed someone to help crew, and my brother came to the rescue to sail to Miami. Funny how things work out.

Anyway, on Saturday morning, John drove his car to Jacksonville airport, and took a taxi the rest of the way down to St. Augustine. I picked him up with the dinghy. We already had the provisions on board - thanks to Karen's preparations back in St. Marys. So, we were soon raising anchor. But, before we departed, we stopped at the Conch House Marina to get some fuel. The weather was forecasted to be a bit mixed along the way. Fortunately, it was also a bit warmer (in the lower 60s F). The fuel stop was smoothly done and we were soon back on our way out the inlet.

We were following two other sailboats - mono-hulls - on the way out the inlet. All three vessels slowed down, turned our bows into the light breeze, and raised our sails. The winds were too light for just sailing, so we were soon motor-sailing along. The sails helped add a knot or so to our speed, so we were able to run one engine at a slower RPM and still make good speed.

With the light breeze, the seas were basically calm. It was a pleasant afternoon sail under clear sunny skies, with the enticing salty air and a long slow swell. We heard some reports of right whale sightings on the VHF. We kept a close watch as we continued along.

Around mid-afternoon, the port-side engine started revving down. This was a problem Tahina has been having off and on since we bought her. It seemed fuel related, and only on the port side, but we couldn't determine the cause for sure. But, this time she developed a symptom that narrowed down the problem. When we checked the primary Racor pre-filter, it was only half full. So, the engine was starved for fuel. All the previous times we checked this, the Racor would have fuel by the time we checked it. Clearly, something was fully blocking fuel between the tanks and the Racor.

The good news is that we fixed the problem! The bad news is that we started at the wrong end - the tank side - and ended up taking about 1.5 hours dis-assembling the lines and testing before determining where the blockage occurred. The blockage was at the last connection point - an elbow joint - at the Racor filter. It was about a marble-sized piece of vegetable or insect substance (possibly both). Diesel fuel can accumulate growth if not treated properly. Since we had the intermittent problem when we first picked up the boat, I naturally began fuel treatment right away. After purging the line, we had no further problems with fuel on the port side.

The other interesting development is that while we were out front (near the trampolines), where the fuel tanks are located, we spotted right whales! This was about 4:30 PM. Three different pods of them were seen in the matter of an hour. The closest were over 1/2 km away and so I grabbed the telephoto lens (300mm) and began snapping pictures. John got an even closer view with the 15X binoculars. We were both thrilled by the experience, and called in the location by VHF to the US Coast Guard. We heard the other boats (which were now miles behind us) call in the whale sightings on the VHF as well. John was amazed to notice several dolphin apparently "playing" with one pod of the whales.

A little while later, we had a visit from some dolphins who love to play off the bows of our catamaran. Watch this video clip:

The first night we spent passing Cape Canaveral. We could see the launch towers lit up at night as we passed, as well as the Vehicle Assembly Building. A shuttle launch was supposed to happen in a week or so. The rest of the night was mostly uneventful except for one interesting twist. Apparently when I measured the distance from St. Augustine to Miami, I fell victim to the Google Earth ruler which defaults to "Miles". I intended to be measuring nautical miles. So, it turns out the distance was less than I expected! As a result, we actually needed to slow down or we would get to Miami in the middle of the night. Oops.

We ran the water filter for a bit, but this close to the shore the filters clogged up too quickly. We only managed to make 60 or so gallons of fresh water. This ended up using our last batch of clean filters in the process. We plan to get more at the boat show.

We alternated between sailing and motor-sailing during the night. We got some wind at about sunrise and started just sailing again. A little later we spotted a halibut! These are really weird fish that are like a giant 1-sided flounder. They sometimes float upside down to the surface exposing their white meaty side. When we first noticed it we thought we were seeing a jellyfish. We hoped he'd get caught in our fishing lines, but no luck. The rest of the day was mostly uneventful until around 3 PM when we had some dolphin visitors. They came and danced off our bows for a few minutes as we clapped and cheered them on.

Mid-afternoon, we decided we could stop at Fort Worth Inlet (near West Palm Beach) at about sunset and go ashore for some dinner while we stalled a bit for time (so we wouldn't arrive too early in Miami). We arrived right at sunset in the anchorage and spent a few minutes looking for a good spot in the large anchorage. A few minutes later we dropped the dinghy and went looking for food. We tried going to a mega-yacht marina, but believe it or not, we couldn't find anyone to ask where we might find food. Finally, I pulled out the iPhone and did a Google Maps search and we were soon racing to the downtown area about 2 miles south. We walked around the delightful restaurant area for a few minutes and finally ended up at a pizza joint. But, the food was good, and we ate at a nice street-side patio table.

We ended up parking the dinghy at a brand new dinghy dock. So new, in fact, that when we walked down the dock to the street it was fenced off. But, we had no problem walking around the end of the fence to get ashore. We reversed the process on the way back and rode back to Tahina. We rested, took showers, and chatted for a while before pulling anchor and heading back out for the overnight ride to Miami.

We were motor-sailing for a good portion of the night, but a couple of hours before sunrise we had enough winds to shut off the engines and just sail again. We also had to get increasingly close to shore in order to avoid the counter-current from the Gulf Stream. There was a mono-hull headed the same direction, but it was no contest. We ended up passing the mono-hull within an hour or so. Soon we could see cruiseships on the approach to Miami and some ships at anchor.

As we made our approach to the Miami inlet, the sun rose (we timed it perfectly), and a Carnival cruiseship raced in ahead of us. We gladly let her go by, and then made our passage inwards as well.

We planned to go to the Miami Marine Arena - a large area created for motorboat races which includes a now-defunct arena stadium. The area is often used as an anchorage now. It looked perfect for Tahina since it was opposite the bay from the downtown area where the Miami Boat Show was held, and didn't require Tahina to go under any bridges. After a short ride across the bay, we arrived and quickly found a good spot to drop anchor. Total distance was just over 280 nm. We immediately took a nap for a couple of hours.

About 10 AM, we got up and took the dinghy to the nearby marina to ask about getting fuel and water. Fuel was not available, but they had water. So, we brought Tahina over and filled the port side tank. We then went back to the anchorage and began washing off the layers of salt covering Tahina. Before we could finish, it was time to get John to a taxi so he could catch his flight home. I was thrilled to have his help on the trip down, and it was great he still had the energy left to help with the cleaning. After taking him to his taxi, I finished washing the boat about 1.5 hours later. Tahina was sparkling clean again.

The view from this anchorage of the downtown area is stupendous. Unobstructed view of the colorful skyscrapers and surrounded by turquoise waters with a small tree-covered island in the foreground. The sunset was pretty, and the night-time view of the city was even more amazing!

Before the sun set, I scouted about and found a dinghy dock near the Miami Arena Marina. Although it isn't open to boats at anchor, they didn't mind if I dropped off and picked up people there. This would prove useful in the coming days. I finished off the night by sipping a soda on Tahina and reading while staring at the beautiful Miami skyline to the west, and with a warm breeze blowing and a nearly full moon rising in the east. Fortunately, my wife would be returning the next day - as would some guests who were planning to stay on Tahina during the next few days. But, that's the tale of the next segment of this saga.

Here is a slideshow with more photos from this passage and the anchorage in Miami:

Picasa Web Album

View passage map and photos in Google Earth (Other details included in the map such as the dinghy ride to dinner in Palm Beach and the new dinghy dock location).

It was a bitterly cold, but sunny morning. We got up and, thanks to our preparations, quickly had the engines running and cast the lines. Winds and currents were perfect and we simply drifted off the dock as Karen stepped back on board.

Bundled in our warm clothing and gloves, we had a nice motor down the curvy St. Marys river.  As we began the lengthy ride out the St. Marys inlet, I noticed several ships entering the far end of the inlet. As I looked closer, it appeared at least one was a Navy destroyer.  Usually you would only see a Navy fleet at the Jacksonville inlet.  But, I had a nagging suspicion what might be happening. I pulled out the binoculars, and just as I realized what I was seeing the VHF blared on:

"This is the US Coast Guard to the sailing catamaran in the St. Marys Inlet. We are escorting a naval operation and ask that you move to the side of the inlet and hold your position. Do you understand?"

Given what I had seen in the binoculars, I wasn't surprised. St. Marys is a very small coastal Georgia town. But, the one thing it is known for around the world is that it is home to a US Navy submarine base.  So, you guessed it!  The fleet we were seeing was an escort for an incoming nuclear submarine!

I couldn't believe it!  The odds of our seeing a returning submarine are incredibly low. They usually are gone for several months at a time.  The chances of it happening while we were headed out the inlet are even lower!  As we held our position, the large USCG cutter (complete with armed guns) came by accompanied by a fast armored inflatable boat with a 50-caliber machine gun and fully armed coast guard personnel.  They held position just off our bow to make sure we didn't move.   When they left as the submarine passed, a similar-sized Navy gunboat (probably containing Navy Seals) also stood by our boat for a few moments.  Before we knew it, the submarine had passed.  Another large USCG vessel stood just off the stern of the sub protecting its aft quarter.  Close behind the fleet were two cargo vessels (I think) which I surmised were held up by the operation.  But, maybe they were part of it? See the slideshow below for more pictures.

After that thrilling experience, we continued our way out the inlet.  I was noticing on the way out we had some icicles forming from water dripping from the sail cover.  Once we rounded some shoals and were able to begin our intended heading for St. Augustine, we checked our winds.  Sure enough, we had perfect winds for flying the spinnaker.  Thank goodness for our cold-weather clothing! Karen and I had already raised it twice on the trip to St. Marys, so it only took a few minutes to get things set up and raise this huge powerful, and colorful, sail. We soon were making at least 8 knots on a beautiful sail that continued all the way down to St. Augustine.

About the only issue on the trip was that the new navigation software on the computer seemed to be incredibly slow when loading chart data from the chart plotter.  Since it ran fine before the upgrade, I could only conclude the upgrade messed up some network setting.

There were reports of right whales in the area, but despite looking out for them, we never saw any on the way down. The USCG asks that you report sightings and keep your speed below 10 knots while whales are in the area to help protect these immense creatures. We did spot a few dolphin, but none seemed to want to brave the cold to visit with us for very long. No bites on the fishing lines either.

About mid-afternoon we were nearing St. Augustine, and put away the spinnaker.  We were soon motoring our way in to the anchorage near downtown not far from the fort.  The anchorage already had about 10 boats, but we found a spot a little further from the shore. We took a brief break and then took showers and changed clothes so we could have dinner ashore. We lowered the dinghy and went to the city marina dinghy dock. A short walk later found us at Pizza Alley. We had eaten there several years back when we sailed in on PatiCat.

Here is a slideshow showing these and other pictures from the day:

Photos at Picasa

We had just enjoyed some of the best pizza around, and had ordered some dessert, when it happened.  We got a call from home with a family emergency.   We soon found ourselves with a major dilemma.  We needed to get home as soon as possible.  Fortunately, we had friends back home who took care of some of the immediate needs.  Major kudos to our long-time family friends the Burkes for coming to the rescue.   But, we had to get one of us home by the next day.  Karen opted to go, and soon we had a plane ticket for her for the next morning.

View passage and photos in Google Earth

Monday was a huge day with Google Earth 5 released.  I've never worked so hard on the blog - writing a flurry of posts, creating video demonstrations, reading and sharing other articles, responding to E-mail questions, etc., etc.  I even stayed up late and wrote more stories for the next day.   To complicate matters, I was also doing the final packing for our Miami trip.  Fortunately, we had done a big portion of the packing over the weekend.  Karen was really helpful keeping me free to concentrate on the blogging.

I took one brief break during the evening.  Karen and I picked up a one-way rental car for our drive down to St. Marys.  In the morning, we loaded up the car and began the trip.  We wanted an early start so we would have time to prep the boat if we decided the weather would allow for a Wednesday departure.  As it turned out, the weather would be better on Thursday, so that gave us more time to get provisions and make ourselves more comfortable.   The winds were going to be good, but the temperatures?  It was COLD!  Overnight lows in the 20s (F).  We came south for WARMER weather!?

We went out to dinner with my brother and his family in the evening.  The we made plans on Wednesday for provisioning, checking boat systems, and properly unpacking.  This also gave me time to go to an Internet cafe and get some more blogging done.  Coconut (the dinghy) now has an anchor and rode, so it is fully equipped now.   The engine oils and belts were checked, water and fuel supplies checked, rigging checked, etc. 

One important task I wanted to complete was to upgrade the navigation software on the onboard computer and the firmware on the chart plotter.  This necessitated a memory upgrade to the computer - it only had 256 MBytes!  Had a bit of a challenge finding a local computer store with the right memory (the builder had installed an older machine with older-type DDR memory) so I could upgrade it to its maximum of 2 GBytes.  But, we finally found Bhosted.net which not only had the memory, but offered to install and test it.   Had a nice chat with one of the owners about building "green" machines which won't take too much power.   Once the memory upgrade was done I was able to make the upgrade back on Tahina.  Both upgrades seemed to go pretty smoothly and brief testing showed it working.  Whew!  This ended up occupying a good portion of the day by the time you included the trips back and forth to the computer store.

Finally, we were able to relax a bit in the evening so we could leave early the next morning for St. Augustine.  

Tomorrow we're starting a sailing trip down to Miami for the Miami Boat Show.  We've rented a one-way rental car to take ourselves and our luggage down to the boat.  Taihina is still down at Lang's Marina in St. Marys, Georgia. Once we get down there we'll be prepping the boat for our first leg. We'll be doing a day sail down to St. Augustine where we plan to spend a few days. The weather is looking a little chilly, but we'll manage.

We're leaving early tomorrow if we can, and hope to be there by mid-afternoon. I have a lot going on with the new Google Earth 5 release, but have written a flurry of posts which will post tomorrow automatically. Hope everything goes smoothly on the drive down and on the blog! More tomorrow...

The new Google Earth 5 was released today.  There's a big summary post of some of the new ocean features at Google Earth Blog.   Highlights:

• 3D ocean bathymetry and ocean surface is now shown.
• You can dive under the ocean surface to see the 3D sea floors
• You can create underwater KML and 3D models
• Recorded tours to show specific features you want people to see in Google Earth
• Lots of Ocean-related layers
• A new Ocean Expedition layer for tracking ocean expeditions!

Here is a video I created showing the new ocean features:


Expect to see this blog take advantage of many of these new features to show off our trip!

Tomorrow Google is making a big announcement for Google Earth.  Al Gore is speaking, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt and VP Marissa Mayer will be part of it as well.  This is pulling in some pretty big names for a product announcement.  Google Geo Team leader John Hanke will probably make the technical announcement.   The big tip-off for this announcement is the fact Sylvia Earle of National Geographic Society is also invited.  She's probably the world's most renowned oceanographer.

Yes, I'm thinking the rumors for over a year now about a Google Ocean are soon about to arrive.  These will be happy times for the Tahina Expedition as more useful information about the oceans will certainly be handy for telling the story of our trip.  I'll be posting some initial observations of the announcement and what they mean for sailing here and at Google Earth Blog.