St Augustine to New Orleans

 Monday

I had been discussing a position with my previous employer, and they made an offer in Baton Rouge.  I accepted, so the trip is coming to an end quickly.  The girls took our new car my brother drove down from up north and left for Augusta, marking the end to their cruise.  It was very emotional.

One last walk off the dock

Back to car life

The day they got there the forecast could not have been much worse, south winds, 20 mph.  The wind was as unprecedented as the storms it caused in the south.  Tornados always follow that kind of wind.  We headed outside but barely made it to Fort Pierce by morning.  It was a miserable slog, 3 knots over the ground most of the way.  We decided to go in the intercoastal so that we would only be fighting the wind, not waves to boot.  

My Brother

Tuesday Wednesday

We anchored and had a nice dinner near the south end of Merrit Island, we did see the Shuttle on the launch pad.  Then on to Fort Pierce, we had a night on the dock there, and an uneventful ride to Lake Worth.  We were then as prepared as we could be for the trip to Marathon. 

Near Lake Worth

Thursday

The wind shifted and we were able to start sailing, Just off the beach in Fort Lauderdale my brother caught a king, and we had it for dinner. 

Carts fish

The weather turned pretty bad with squalling and thunderstorms.  We missed the first set but the second came over us, broke back apart, and cam over us again.  We could see it on radar, and normally you cannot see rain.

Quite a Storm, Small Craft Advisories

Storm on radar at night

We heard a report of Haitians on a raft in the straights of Florida, and the next day we heard someone reporting they had seen them, but it was a hoax.  Sad that someone would report seeing that when they had not. 

Friday afternoon

We stopped off in Marathon, where we spent the holidays, for a gas and go fuel stop.  Then we continued  on our way headed toward Tampa. The autopilot was not working really well, so my sister in law and I replaced the gyro compass before we got into deep water. The wind filled late in the afternoon and we began the stampede to Tampa.  There was a lot of wind, from just the right direction. And we were making time.  The wind smelled of smoke, some significant fires in south Florida, and we could smell them almost 200 miles away.

Saturday

We made it to Sanibel Island and kept going up the coast.  Cart got another king.  The wind was coming off the land and so were the love bugs.  They covered the boat and us.  Since we were the only place to land…. we were a magnet.  They covered the boat to the point we could not see out the isinglass.  After about two hours I started the wash down pump, because the only place I could see them was on and around the boat.  I must have washed 10,000 of the darn things into the ocean.

Lots of Big Dolphin

Sunday

Made it to Tampa by nightfall and decided to keep going.  We have seen three shrimp boats and one cruise ship.  I have not seen so little traffic the whole trip.

 

Monday

Across the gulf and on towards the panhandle or were ever we land.   We put up the big spinnaker, we have not burned much fuel until today.  It lasted about two hours, but the swell was so big that there was no way.  We put up the iron spinnaker and set off for Mobile.  We had several riders, including Andy, as cart named him.

Andy

Tuesday

As the sun rose, so did the wind, about 15 knots from the southeast.  We put the spinnaker up and got great speed, about 9 knots.  We heard the weather, and there were small craft advisories issued for later in the day, west winds and then north winds at 30.  We decided to make a bee line for Pensacola.  It was a great day of sailing, about 5 miles out of Pensacola the west winds came, for about 10 seconds, and then north at about 35.  We motored into the wind and tide, making as little as one knot over the ground.  We tied up after dark, and had a great night sleep.

Screamin reach to Pensicola

Another Sunset