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I caste off from the Haverstraw marina at 0600 on Friday morning, the
24th April. There was an eighth of an inch of ice on the decks which made moving around interesting. I then motored
down the Hudson River, under the George Washington Bridge, past Manhattan, past the Statue of Liberty and then out to Sandy
Hook, South of the mouth of the Hudson. It was a long day, arriving near sunset after motoring the last few miles down
the ship channel into a strong head wind.
I took departure from Sandy Hook at 0700 the next morning and motored
out in a flat calm. The wind slowly rose from the South and for the next few days, in a steady 50 degrees (F)
of cold, I was pushed out to the East as I tried to make 32N 72W which should have been the North wall of the Gulf Stream.
I ended up crossing at 71W and was very glad to be able to warm up as the water temperature went from 50 to 75 in a few miles.
I had difficulty making any headway South thereafter as the wind blew from there quite strongly and I got as far East as 69W
at one stage before tacking back to the West. I got a couple of good days heading South-South-West and
then got held up by daily calms before finally picking up a good breeze and being able to lay the Providence Channel through
the Bahamas.
The Channel was usually with no wind from about 1000 in the morning
and then with a fair breeze from midnight. The only issue was dodging the cruise boats that seemed to mill around
in the relatively calm waters of the channel each night, their movement being quite erratic. The fact that the ship
has passed you heading in the opposite direction does NOT mean it will not turn around and come at you again from astern.
Sleep was 15 minutes at a time for a few nights.
I tried working down along the Western edge of the bank after I turned
South, and had a good first evening but the wind veered later and I opted to head West directly. Later the next
morning I ended up motor sailing, across the Gulf Stream, heading 240 but tracking 286. At last the drift diminished
as I worked in close to the reef off the Florida Keys. Again, being in close to avoid the Stream meant sleep was in
very small chunks. I worked offshore (3 or 4 miles) at night and inshore (half a mile off the reef) by day, getting
some good runs, and being able to sail wing-a-wing for two days. The slow roll and gentle motion were very well remembered.
As the timing turned out I had to transit the Key West ship channel
in the dark. Even with the main up (reefed) she rolled quite heavily when I turned across the wind to the fairway bouey.
Quite an act of faith turning into the reef in the dark with the lights all but impossible to identify with the heavy lights
of Key West behind. Here the Furuno chartplotter was wonderful, allowing me to choose and track the right side of the
right side of the channel. Still, the transit was quite stressful and I was not clear again and sailing until 0300,
after a very severe squall just after exiting the channel. I was waiting for everything above deck to depart at one
stage it was so strong.
There were a couple of good days as I headed North and closed the
Florida West coast. Then the usual Summer pattern asserted itself and I had to deal with thunderstorms coming off the
land in the afternoons. Late on the 15th May I motored round the North end of Anclote Key. Even at half tide
(rising) I got down to 7.4 feet, but did not touch. At 0500 it was anchor down just short of the channel, and after
50 minutes sleep (a luxury) I motored up the Anclote river at full tide and was tied up in the marina by 0720. This
was 21 relatively uneventful days at sea. I did, however, lose 13 pound during that time. The earth continued to move for 3 days, and when
I first stepped onto the dock I thought it was a floating dock. No, it's solid and attached to pilings.
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