Farewell to the Land of Palm Trees

We departed St Augustine with the 1130 opening of the Bridge of Lions. Tide was flowing out strongly so we had a quick ride down the river to the channel but knew that the tide going into an opposing swell would not be pleasant. In the Bahamas they call that a rage when the wind and swells oppose the tide. Many ocean passages are impassable during a rage.   

Our final views as we were leaving the warm climate that we crashed into in mid-December with a 57 hour offshore passage and now we were heading back to the land of cold and no palm trees. It was like taking a plane flight only longer when we came down leaving cold and waking up in warm and surrounded by palm trees. Since mid-December until now in mid-May we were living summer in tropical surroundings (Except for the quick trip north to sell our 380). 

As we motored off into the future blue it was really like going back in time heading back north. As we came out of the channel we were propelled by the outgoing tide but the incoming swells caused what looked like a boiling sea in the cut and in the channel as breakers crashed to shore on each side of us. The turbulence subsided when we got into deeper water and when we got to the sea buoy we routed our course to the 1st way point about 110 miles northeast that would put us in the Gulf Stream.

The seas were running 3-5' and at times 4-6' right on our nose. Initially the wind and waves were both on the nose so I pulled out the main and fell off several degrees to get lift to help cut through the waves. Eventually the wind began clocking to the south and we could work our way back to our course as the waves continued to reduce our speed. We passed several other sailboats heading in a similar direction. We started building speed and at about 2300 and about 20 miles before our initial way point we routed to our second way point since it was on the same heading. The first night was rough and we took turns sleeping in the main salon.

We hit our second way point about 1100 in the morning and the waves were beginning to come down in size. When we hit our third way point about 1800 on Sunday the seas were laying down and we were still hitting great speeds. While on the way to our first way point we began hitting 9+ kts and from there until well after our third way point we were pretty consistently running 9-11 kts with a high of almost 12 kts although the chart plotter is showing a high speed of 13 kts.

From our third way point we set a direct course to Beaufort about 110 mi NNE. Following our course on shore our first way point was only as far north as Fernandina Beach, Fl but as far east as Charleston, SC. Our next way point was as far north as Savannah and as far east as Myrtle Beach. Our third way point was as far north as Charleston but was farther east than Cape Fear, NC. When we hit our final leg made vertical progress quickly. In our offshore passage we passed hundreds of cruisers strung out along the ICW from Jacksonville to Morehead City.

While offshore we passed very few ships or other vessels. About 0300 Monday the wind came up just behind our beam. With about 60 miles left we pulled out the sails and turned off the motor. We were able to sail right up to the Beaufort channel. As we approached the channel it looked like we were coming in from way offshore when our course from the south actually took us right into the channel because the shore runs almost east-west from Cape Lookout by Beaufort.

We got into a slip and began to cleanup. Surprisingly we weren't as tired as we thought we would be so we worked n getting the boat ready for the next couple months of inshore travel.

So we relaxed for our one night on Beaufort.