Adventure to Georgia

On the 28th we left Grand Bahama for Brunswick, Georgia. We had good westerly winds making for a speedy passage on the first day and a half, then the wind clocked to the south with slower sailing as we exited the Gulf Stream. Here are some highlights of the trip:

The rockets red glare – I was working on fixing a squeak from the instrument cluster under the hard dodger around midnight on the 28/29th when a light caught my eye to port. I had just looked at the radar moments before and we were clear in that direction. There was no VHF traffic on 16. What vessel was this? A surfacing submarine perhaps? I watched it going upwards. It is a flare, I better change course to rescue someone! Then it went higher than any flare and in front of the boat. It is a rocket from Cape Canaveral! I woke Amy to come out and take a look. As the rocket sped off into space I wondered if a stage was going to drop. Sure enough an orange object started descending to the east. It turns out that this was the Starlink 25 mission and the descending object was the first stage firing to land on its recovery ship.

Flight of Poseidon – Later that day a P-8 Poseidon sub hunter flew directly overhead only a few hundred feet of the deck! That will get your attention. It made a slow turn and came over us again at about 800 feet. Last year near the same location a P-3 flew over us and afterwards we sailed past its sonobouy chute. I do not know why they do these close flybys. Perhaps we are target practice.

Dolphin Daze – On the 29th we had five or more dolphin pods throughout the day escort us from noon into the night. I guess they were going our way and hitching a ride.

The Wrecking Crew – We anchored in St. Simmons Sound in the early morning because the marina was closed. We arrived in the morning and were washing the salt off the deck when the marina staff moved a big disabled sailboat with a powerboat. It turns out the powerboat did not have reverse function which allowed the big boat to loose control and wack us. We have damage to our port stainless transom rail and davit. Why they would attempt a move without proper equipment is beyond understanding. The marina said they will pay for the damage but they seem to be having some sort of internal debate on the process.

For the next few weeks we will be tackling some boat projects and finally getting Covid shots!