Underway!

Weather: Overcast most of the day; showers in the morning; heavy downpour with 27 knot winds in the morning; temp range 68o – 79o in the bubble. Winds were 15 20 with gusts 30 knots out of the south and clocked throughout the day. They ended up at NNE.

Comment: We were up early today to get underway by first light. Our plan is to use as much of the south and southwest wind as possible and get a good way up river before the winds change to the north.

We were riding with the jib out and making between 8 and 9 mph. At 1000, the wind clocked to the northeast. That a a very angry looking dark cloud caused us to roll the jib in at 1000, Seconds after doing so, we were hammered with a 26 knots gust. We were in a blow that lasted about 15 minutes before it dropped back into the high teens.

During the day, we heard vhf radio traffic from “Tar Heel,” “Carolina,” “Royal Serf,” and “Pamonetti.” They were all heading to Titusville for the night. To a person, they were worried about anchoring in the 20 knot wind and bouncing at anchor all night. They were going to put up with the “snot” so they could try for the Palm Coast tomorrow. That seemed pretty ambitious to us. We were on our way to the Canaveral Barge Canal where we have reserved a slip for the week. We’re getting ready for Disney World!

Our only problem for the day was the Route 3 Bascule Bridge located on the barge canal about one mile before the marina. It is restricted from opening between the hours of 1500 and 1759. We arrived at 1620 so we had to tread water for an hour and a half. We did so with out problem, although it seems the engines are idling rough and have a tendency to stall while at idle. We haven’t had this problem since the first day of the trip, but it’s been a concern since we left Marathon. We had the engines serviced when we were in Marathon and I wonder if the new plugs were gapped properly. We’ll check it out while we are here if we can.

We arrived in the marina at 1830 and tied up to slip D-4. We took our time in getting the bow and spring lines just right. We’ll need to borrow a 50 adapter as the docks have no 30 amp service.
Shelley called to tell us she’s been stuck in traffic for a while. She was thinking about driving straight through to Sandi’s (in Mrytle Beach) but the traffic might cause her to change her mind.