After a quick night and shower at Isle of Palms marina near Charleston it was time to head offshore for Florida.
We motored the last few miles down the Intracoastal Waterway, through the last bridge (Ben Sawyer) who held us up 10 minutes so they didn't have to open twice in a short time, then into Charleston Harbor and heading out to sea.
The harbor and inlet were a bit rough as the wind was against the tide, but once we cleared the breakwater it smoothed down some. It wasn't to last....
Genny looks calm but, check out the left front paw claws clenched - and this was after things settled down.
The forecast was for winds 20-25 with gusts to 30 from northwest and shifting to west during the night. Hopefully we could sail with winds on beam heading south.
The reality was the winds were just slightly too far forward for us to sail on course and we slowly got pushed out to sea where winds and waves kept growing. Check our track on "where's Tides Inn" and you can see how we were pushed out to sea from Charleston - that wasn't intentional, we would have liked to follow the coast closer where winds were supposed to be lighter.
By midnight the winds were steady at 30 gusting to 35 and higher. The waves were 5-8ft and steep and rolling us 45deg every few wave trains. I had to admit to Sue "this is not fun anymore". The boat was doing ok with 3-4 reefs in the sails, but we were slowly being pushed towards the Gulf Stream where the conditions would be worse and the current would start taking us to the north away from Florida. Then we started hearing an ominous grinding noise from under the helm seat near the shaft and rudder. We decided to "hove-to", basically stopping in the ocean and sitting with sails backed away from wind, to check out the noise. That meant clearing the aft cabin of all our stores to get to the hatches. That done, the shaft was fine, a great relief, for now we at least had a reliable engine if needed. We then figured out the noise was coming from the wind generator transmitted through the hull. Turned it off and the noise went away. We decided to stay hove-to for a couple hours while we got a bit of sleep (at least I laid down, Sue sat on watch).. We drifted/were pushed back 5 miles in two hours by the wind, but that was better than going forward towards Gulf Stream.
The forecast was for the wind to ease and veer to northwest at dawn and that's exactly what happened at 6am. As the wind shifted we were able to start sailing on course again. Over the next two days the wind eased to 15-20kts and slowly clocked all the way around to east, but always behind us and always pushing us towards the warmer, Florida waters.
We arrived at Fort Pierce an hour before sunset, pushing all the way. We had one more challenge to surmount though before we could anchor and crack a brew, entering the inlet with a brisk 15kt wind opposing the strong 3kt outgoing current. With our trusty Island Packet and Yanmar diesel we pushed through, but it was a challenging task. Probably would have been more prudent to sail/loiter offshore for 3hrs waiting for the current to shift but that would have meant entering in the dark with its own challenges.When Sue took Genny up to the bow once we anchored she found a hitchhiker, a small flying fish signifying we were finally in the warm tropical waters.
Tonight we will head back out to sea when the southerly winds ease off and motor the final 100 miles to Miami. 100 miles offshore (16hrs) is far better than 3 days down the ICW with the numerous restricted bridges between here and Miami.
