A victory at sea moment

For the past several days since we arrived in St Augustine we've been working doing boat chores to fix things we found or that happened on our shakedown cruise along with stuff we didn't do in Oxford because it was cold. The weather since we've been here has been highs around or above 70 during the day with lows about 40. But mostly it has been about learning to really live in the cruising lifestyle. While we've lived aboard since June we were transitioning to the boat, then outfitting the new boat in a hurry to get out before cold weather and now that we are here the rest of our life begins now.

In our cruise from Cherry Point to Beaufort before heading offshore some issues developed that we thought should be examined before heading offshore. So, we pulled into a slip at Beaufort Docks for a night and worked them. In the morning after a pumpout we were satisfied that we could head out and anything at that point could be addressed in warmer climes.

We left the dock at Beaufort about 0945 Friday morning the 12th of December and just outside the channel we raised the sails and shut down the engine. Winds were blowing 15-20 with gusts in the mid-20's from the NW. We quickly gained speed and were cruising in the 8 kt range. Coming out of the Beaufort channel we set a course of 234 to a waypoint just past the Frying Pan Shoals off the Cape Fear a distance of about 95 nm.

Once we raised the sails and doused the engine we had that victory at sea moment. The great feeling that we were now on our way with the wind as our engine was doused and we were off to the future. Feeling the power of the wind and successfully achieving all we've done to get here. The feeling is sort of a Master and Commander or Captain Ron event when moving forward knowing that the enterprise is the result of all your own efforts and skill. Anyone can get in a craft, turn on an engine and go. It is far more difficult to evaluate the craft, outfit it properly and sail it skillfully to achieve the optimum result. When the sails fill and 35,000 lbs of boat are sliding across the water at maximum speed there is a great sense of satisfaction and achievement.

The picture above is shortly after we left Beaufort and the sails filled. During that first leg we caught up to and passed about 6 other sailboats who were on the same course. While IP's will never win a race around the buoys, on an open ocean an IP will provide a fast comfortable cruise with the security  of enjoying creature comforts to make the trip fun. We also passed 2 Navy ships that were conducting live fire exercises off Camp LeJeune

We initially sailed the leg with full sail using all of our primary sails. Around dusk the winds seemed to increase and I pulled in part of the jib and we continued with a full main, full staysail and reefed jib. We were able to keep up speed and made our waypoint in about 12 hrs. Our next leg was about 270 nm at 228 degrees so we adjusted course and worked our way through the night.

The sun came up off the coast of South Carolina and as the sun rose the wind died. About an hour or so we went back to the engine as the wind had come off too much and we motored on. Somewhere during the late morning the engine began to gasp and I knew it was time to change fuel filters. So I pulled out the sails, shut down the engine and changed the filters underway. After completing the filter change we tried to sail but the wind died off and we reengaged the engine that would eventually run for the remainder of the trip.

More to follow