Skip to main content

Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars! (Day 5)

Image
By

Wow, very delayed in posting this; got stuck in "drafts".

Favorable Wind!!!

This was a great day to be sailing!  We were able to leave No Name Harbor with daylight, so we were able to take the tighter, quicker path out to the Atlantic, passing behind Stiltsville. 

We decided to sail ESE to the 3 mile line to empty the holding tanks. We then turned North to head up to the cut at Ft. Lauderdale. The wind was variable, but was mostly coming from the NW, given us just enough angle off the wind to be able to sail along the Southern Florida coast without having to tack too often. 

We played around with the auto helm and learned how to use the auto tack feature, which let us press one button and switch to the other “side” of the wind, the same angle off the wind. We would press the button, then easily move the Genoa from one side of the boat to the other, quickly and easily right from the helm. 

The trip took about 6 hours but only required a few tacks. We were close hauled and fine tuning just how close we could sail to the wind, to limit our number of tacks.

Sue noticed something large floating in the water right in our path. We altered course to port to avoid it and as we got closer noticed it was a Sea Turtle!  I snapped a picture, but it took me a while to get to my phone, so the turtle is not that close and it had just started to dive when I snapped the picture. 

As we got close to the jetty at the cut at Port Canaveral, we dropped the sails and turned on the engines.  We entered the cut and realized that if we picked up our speed we could make the next bridge opening instead of having to wait for the next opening in 30 minutes. 

We got in sight of the bridge and got the bridge operator on the VHF just in time and were granted passage for that opening! After passing under the bridge, and traveling north on the ICW for a few miles we arrived at the entrance to the harbor where Counting Stars will be tied up until she is loaded onto the container ship, bound for the Pacific Northwest. 

Bob brought the boat to the back of the marina, found the target slip, and very expertly pulled the boat into the slip, like a seasoned pro with years of experience just docking. 

We tied up Counting Stars to the dock and rested for a few minutes and then broke out the cleaning supplies and thoroughly cleaned off all the salt that had accumulated during the trip. The water pressure at the dock was not great but manageable. 

With that done, we all cleaned up ourselves and headed off to dinner a short walk from the marina. Bob and Melinda treated all of us to dinner, which was super nice and also thoroughly undeserved; if anything WE should have been buying their dinner for how much we enjoyed the trip. 

Sue and I decided that we could change our Thursday flight back to Raleigh to a Wednesday flight instead for a reasonable fee, which would give us a little more time at home before hoping into the car to drive up to the Spring Annapolis Sailing Show on Friday after work. 

We returned to the boat, hung out for a little and then turned in.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Victron Isolation Transformer - How to lower the output voltage

By
Re-configuring a Victron Energy isolation transformer This is a companion article to a YouTube video  covering the same topic. What are they and why do I need one? Victron Energy isolation transformers are often used on boats that connect to shore power in order to provide a means of providing isolation between the shore power and the AC power that exists on the boat.  The transformer sits in between those two worlds and isolates that two power supplies through magnetic flux and an air-gap. The reason this is needed on a marine vessel is because without it, small leakage currents can flow between the earth ground for shore power and the "earth ground" connection on the boat, which is usually connected to water through a propeller shaft, out-drive, sail-drive or sacrificial zincs. That creates a loop and that small leakage current greatly accelerates any galvanic corrosion that naturally happens. Current flows through the water because of the salt content, or even in fresh-wat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Raising the dinghy, easier!

By
The Davit System The Vision 444 comes with a Carbon Fiber Davit system that is used to hoist a dinghy.  As time has gone on, some of the exact specifics of the davit system have evolved and changed slightly, but for our boat (Hull #11) and the ones near to it, this is how it operates.  Two Main Steps First, after attaching the dinghy to a forward and aft attachment line, the davit arms are raised; pivoting on axles which mount the davit to the transom of the boat.  This step is accomplished by attaching a line which runs through several blocks to the starboard, aft power winch.  Pressing "2" (low speed) on the winch power buttons and raising the davit into its full upright position, where it can be lashed to the boat with Dyneema loops. Second, is to raise the dinghy to be close under the horizontal beams of the davit arms.  The dinghy attachment lines, that are attached to the dinghy's bridle, run up through a fixed block at the end of the davit arms and then t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vision 444 - How to (hopefully never have to) use a Storm Sail

By
 How to use the Storm Sail on a Vision 444 My fellow Visionary Pierre on Umbono reached out recently wanting to review the steps for deploying the Storm Sail, since he was forecasted to be in less-than ideal sailing conditions in the next day. What better opportunity to write a blog article! This is going out quickly to support Pierre, but I will come back and add pictures and maybe link a video later. Preparation Keep the Storm Sail and everything you need for it somewhere where it is easy to get. We keep ours in the large lazarette under the Cockpit table seating. If you think you might need the Storm Sail, you probably should have the jacklines put out too.  The system we use to deploy the Storm Sail reduces the time we need to be forward, but wearing a life vest with harness and being clipped into the lazy jacks is the way to go here. Our Storm sail is in it's own bag with the following: A port sheet attached to the clew with a bowline A starboard sheet attached to the cle...
Post a Comment
Read more