When we left Green Turtle Cay to head to Great Sale, we thought we had a window to cross in a few days. It closed en route. Little did we know, this would be a frustrating pattern our entire trip north. We were only carrying 33 gallons of diesel and we had to motor the entire way to Great Sale Cay, but we were hoping the next window would have enough wind to get us to Jacksonville or Cumberland Island. Alas, it was not to be.
With our weather window closed, we waited for a few days at Great Sale with more boats than we had ever seen there. Obviously the weather was clogging travel plans for everyone. Great Sale Cay has virtually no internet, so we were VERY happy we had installed the SSB the previous summer so we could get weather forecasts from Chris Parker. Those of us with SSB gave the weather forecasts on the VHF to the boats without SSB or Starlink.
After the blow passed at Great Sale, a short window opened up to cross back to the U.S. Yay for a window! Boo for not having any wind. If we wanted wind, we were going to have to wait for another week and even then there was no guarantee the forecast would hold. Time to regroup.
We knew we didn’t have enough diesel to make it to Jacksonville, but we were hoping that if we could get a bit of wind we could make it to St. Augustine. Our friends on SV Minx and SV Purrfect were heading there, but with bigger boats they carry much more fuel. We said we’d hopefully meet them there, but we were going to have to see how the weather panned out.
Before we left we had routes set for Fort Pierce, Port Canaveral, New Smyrna, and St. Augustine. Where would we end up? Even we didn’t know.
Our Pelagic autopilot was on the fritz so this was going to be a hand-steering motorfest. Not our idea of a great time, but you do what you have to do. Raising the anchor around 1:00 a.m., we waved goodbye to the Bahamas until next season.
Big Red performed like a champ and we motored along, adding diesel from the jerry jugs as the hours went by.
We quickly crossed Fort Pierce off the list and hoped we could make New Smyrna or St. Augustine. But by sunset that night we knew we couldn’t risk it with the fuel we had left. The little wind we had was in the wrong direction, so Port Canaveral it would be! This was going to be a new one for us.
Around 2:00 a.m. I got up for my shift, and as I grabbed my iPhone and AirPods (I listen to podcasts with one ear bud to pass the time), I noticed that the quarterberth that they were lying on felt warm. I lifted the lid off the battery compartment, and that was REALLY warm. It also smelled a bit odd. Uh-oh. I mentioned it to Jeff who said it was probably heat from the engine. I VERY skeptically agreed and we kept motoring along.
Normally we try not to enter new inlets or anchorages at night, but we were going to be at Port Canaveral about an hour before sunrise. We weren’t too concerned, however, because it’s a major port for cruise ships. We knew it would be lit up like an airport runway and at least equally wide.
Going through Port Canaveral ended up being easy-peasy, and we wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. We were accompanied by manatees and dolphins as we went through the lock, enjoyed a pretty ride through the canal out to the Indian River Lagoon, and stopped to get much needed diesel at Titusville Marina.
We pushed on to our regular anchorage on Callalisa Creek near New Smyrna and finally, 205 nautical miles later, we gladly turned off the engine and let go of the steering wheel. As for the heat in the battery compartment? That’s a story for the next blog.
Adventures on the Club 