Seaworld, Disney, back to RT in Florida for a sail to St Augustine - Hello again Spectra!

Right Turn
Mike Goldsmith & Kate Richmond
Wed 22 Apr 2015 21:35

Seaworld, San Diego

 

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And back to Anaheim for Disney Days!

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Hilarious “fisherman’s breakfast” at LA Airport – 2 eggs served with a choice of bacon or sausage!

 

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And back in Fort Lauderdale, big motorboat , Bookends, has this tender with 4 massive red outboards and red lighting!

 

Fort Lauderdale Normal life resumes and we collect all our parcels from the marina office, stock up at supermarket all ready to leave for St Augustine

 

to St Augustine

Mike is up early to see us out but he just can’t manage without me and calls me up to unttie some lines he can’t reach as the tide catches the boat. By the time I’ve found some clothes, he has it all under control anyway. Think it might just have been a ploy to get me out of bed. He gets us out under the first bridge but with the tide against us we don’t quite make the second bridge opening so we potter around for half an hour having been told off by the bridge operator for not checking in with him when we turned up! We are underway by 8.30 though, for a 2 night passage.

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Think this should be our last pic ever of Fort Lauderdale!

 

All goes well and we are recording highs of 10kts over the ground as the 4kt Gulf stream whizzes us along.

 

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Tunas for the freezer – now put the bloody rod away, I’ve had enough tuna for a long while!

 

The end of the second day doesn’t pass so well as we get hit by a thunder squall which is off the dial at somewhere over 50 knots. I was down below getting supper on the go when it hits out of nowhere so I put the bowl of crab salad in the washing up bowl to keep it safe when Mike calls down for help. “You steer while I try and rescue the gennaker which has come unfurled and is shredding itself”. Easier said than done, reach into the heads to get my wet weather gear to find it flooded, wrestle with whatever seacocks I can find. Haul myself out to find the whisk has flown off the shelf and knocked the drinking water tap on which has fllled up and washed out the crab salad. Another lurch tips the hot water from the saucepan on to my legs as I grab to turn the tap off. Didn’t cry at that point, didn’t have time. Launch myself up the steps to take the wheel while Mike tries to release the gennaker. He finally manages to haul it back into the cockpit – can’t bear to look at the damage yet but now I have time to cry and reinforce my certainty that I hate overnight sailing in particular and, probably, sailing in general. Somewhere amongst all this, the cockpit plotter stops working so this is one expensive trip! Feel too sick to eat much of the washed out salad and take myself off to saloon to sleep because I’m not gettng involved anymore! Come 2am, however, we are off St Augustine Inlet and, unless I haul my sorry self back up to watch for unlit buoys in the opening we are going to be out here all night waiting for sunrise. Several trips up and down the stairs later, to check the charts and 2 hours later we drop the anchor somewhere North of the Bridge of Lions and hope we are tucked out of the way and nowhere near any posts.

 

We anchored, in the small hours of the night after 207.8nms by the log and 42 hours (plus 3 hours getting in and out of port). We get a cheery reception from the bridge operator and all is well with my world again. Tying up for fuel and to check in after the bridge opening, we are met by Paul and Norma who are ashore to get clean! Never been a more welcome sight and they’ve had the foresight to book us a mooring ball, which was just as well as the mooring field and it’s occupants seems to have doubled in size since we were last here in 2011. I am feeling enthusiastic enough about food again, and tuna in particular, to invite them over for tuna supper after a large jug of Pina Coladas, of course! As I’m pretty sure Paul is going to mention the fact in his blog that both of us were the worst hosts ever as neither of us thought to pour him a glass, I just want to refer him to the trauma of yesterday’s passage as mitigating excuse!

 

And, just to rub it in, it’s so nice to see Spectra again, back where she belongs – just behind us!

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                                                                                                                                     Dressed overall for The Queen’s birthday