On the 20th we departed Port Canaveral and set off to Brunswick, GA. On the way out we passed a cruise ship ghost fleet of five ships anchored offshore.
You have to go several miles out to get past the shoals to turn north. We had the coordinates of the gulf stream and went out a bit further to catch the edge of it. The wind was light the whole trip so we wound up motor sailing most of the way. A look at the engine log shows we used almost as much fuel on this leg than the whole sail from Antigua to Florida. We saw lots of sport fisherman in the stream and had dolphin escorts a few times. The lack of wind made the wave action minimal which made overnight sleep breaks pleasant. We were amazed the following day on the length of the channel into Brunswick. We did not realize the tides were sizable in this area and fought a 1.5 knot current all the way up the channel. As we reached St. Simmons we came across the capsized ship Golden Ray blocking part of the channel. A safety boat quickly came up and gave us hand signals on how to get around the wreck. We found it interesting they did not hail us on the radio until we were mostly past the ship.
A storm popped up as we came closer to our marina as we passed under the Sidney Lanier Bridge. After the bridge we turned right down a channel and backed in to our slip at Brunswick Landing Marina. It is good to be in the land of electricity, fresh water, AC, and WiFi again.
2 comments
Well, you’ve completed your first “cycle” of a voyage out and back, and I’d say its been one heck of a trip, with lots of amazing experiences along the way. On the bright side, your next trip is only going to be better!
One of my favorites movie lines is from The World According to Garp — Robin Williams character and his wife are looking at homes with a realtor, and while they are standing in the driveway a small plane flies into the home they are looking at. After a momentary pause, he looks at the realtor and say “we’ll take it!” When his wife looks at him dumbfounded, he simply states “Honey, the odds of this happening again are astronomical.”
And so goes your first full-time cruising experience … the odds of this happening next time are astronomical 🙂
Yes, quite a convergence of low probability events!
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