Sunday, July 1, 2007
WE’RE OFF!!!!!!!...............Finally!
It seemed like the day would never come, but we finally cast off and are on our way. After two weeks living on the boat at our marina in Jacksonville , we were finally seen off by our kids Keith and Shannon, and our good friend Fred Does. Fred could never let a good champagne opportunity go to waste so he predictably arrived with mimosas at the ready. Of course we left over an hour late, on a falling tide, and barely got out of the marina.
With the normal lack of morning wind, we motor sailed out the channel, turned north. and headed for St. Simon Island . The light air stayed with us but we got some sailing in and arrived on a fast incoming tide at Golden Isles Marina where we spent two nights. We bicycled around St Simon the next day (folding bikes are great!) and at first light the following day sailed out into the Atlantic bound for Wassaw Sound (Savannah area). Predictions were for good winds 12-15 clocking east as the day went on, a nice beam reach. Of course the predictions were wrong and the winds never got past about 45 degrees and our course was about 32-50 and the winds were more like 18-22. So we motor sailed with a reefed main for a little more speed and pounded into 4-6 ft seas all day. The next day was spent washing the salt off the boat, all the way back to the radar arch!
We anchored for the next several days at Isle of Hope, GA and did some of the work that did not get done before we left, in other words, we started to finish building the boat! Then we were off to Beaufort, SC which we did on the ICW as no wind was predicted (none showed up) where we continued our boat building.
All in all, the first week was about what we expected. We would have liked more sailing, but that is not always in the cards. Cruising has been 8 or more hours working on the boat each day, much of it just stowing, re-stowing, and then re-stowing again all the stuff that comes aboard with you when you cruise. We still don’t have an aft cabin for sleeping (that is where bikes, the dodger, the soon to be installed radar reflector, extra boat bags, cockpit cushions, and spare tools live on the bed), but we can now sit at the salon table and in a few more days might be organized enough to receive company! Good thing, because we expect some in Charleston on Saturday.
So what have we been doing? Let’s see…….stowing, re-stowing, diving on the max prop to dial out some pitch, finishing the wind generator installation, fixing deck leaks, compounding out docking ‘signatures’, moving weight around to trim the boat, pulling out and marking 250 and 100 ft anchor chains, diving on the max prop to put back in some pitch and replace the zinc, cleaning, bleaching and treating teak, tightening all the lifeline stanchions, rebuilding the instrument dashboard, rigging tackle to lift dinghy on stern arch, installing software, etc, etc, etc.
What have we learned? Let’s see………….a stern anchor set to keep from swinging into the channel on 7ft tides cannot be retrieved with the dinghy after being set for 4 days, diving on the prop with 7 ft tide driven current is a bitch, 3/8” anchor chain is HEAVY when you are dragging it around without the windlass, holding tanks get a lot smaller when you live full time on your boat, Tasco grills are crap in any wind, get a Magma, two allen wrenches are needed to change the zinc on a Max Prop……..and only one will go back in your tool box, holding tanks will flow out the vent before they give adequate warning that they are full, C-Map Max electronic charts on a Furuno NavNet 2 radar/plotter are accurate as heck and almost as good as sex, poop exiting holding tanks via the vent stains the side of the boat, trawlers outnumber sailboats on the ICW about 4 to 1, and poop stains on the side of the hull only come out with compounding……..nothing else worked.
Next week we will head for Charleston , SC for a few days to see some friends and then on to North Carolina . Lew is really looking forward to some East Carolina BBQ (he is originally a NC boy) and is ready to get there. We have enjoyed our one day on the ICW and will probably do a few more stints inside on our way north but look forward to some ‘outside’ sailing as well.
Another thing we did not get done before leaving was putting together a web site. So for now we will keep everyone informed via email mass mailing. This will be once a week (we hope) so should not be too offensive. If you don’t want to receive it, just delete, we will not be offended.
It seems like every day is a new learning experience, so much of what you get from this will be our trials and tribulations as we learn along the way. Hopefully, all the mistakes we make will help you keep from making them as you head out onto the waterways. We’ll try and give a color commentary of the places and people along the way so, hopefully it will be interesting as well as helpful.
Best wishes and fair winds,
Lew and Lyn Everline
S/V “SeaWings”
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