Fort Pierce to Beaufort, NC

We left Fort Pierce three days ago at noon. As we motored down the fairway we waved goodbye to Karen and Hugh from our sister ship, Trekker. They were preparing to have Trekker trucked back to Canada.  

I have already mentioned seeing the missile launch from Cape Canaveral, it was quite a treat. 

Once we were in the Gulf Stream we moved right along. We saw just two dolphins this time and they weren’t interested in playing with us. I was surprised to see a laughing gull circling our boat when we were 100 miles offshore. I presume it was hoping we had some fish scraps to throw overboard. The trip went smoothly until my watch last night. The wind was forecast to be 17-25 kn, gusting to 32 kn.  It was actually in the upper 20’s  to low 30’s with gusts as high as 38 kn. The seas were big, too. A large wave hit us once or twice during a gust and heeled the boat until the rail was in the water. Although those conditions are too gnarly for my tastes I always believed that Breeze On would take good care of us. George was off watch and trying to sleep in the cabin but the noises of wind in the rigging and waves rushing by the hull kept him awake much of the time. The wind calmed down after he came on watch—of course!—and I was able to get right to sleep. I was surprised when my alarm woke me, I normally wake up several times. I got ready for my watch and came up into the cockpit. 

         GEORGE:  What’s up?

         ME:  (feeling rather tired and cranky) What’s up? I’m up.

         GEORGE: Why? It’s just after 3 am. (My watch doesn’t begin until 6 am)

         ME: Oh crap!

So, I went back down into the cabin to try to get another 3 hours of sleep. I use my iPhone to set the alarm. I usually don’t delete old alarms and must have touched the 3 am alarm by mistake when I put the phone down.

We had heavy fog when I arrived for my watch at 6 am. It didn’t lift until well after we arrived at the marina at 10 am. A coast guard cutter was on it’s way out the the channel as we were on our way in. 

Our trip total was 520 nautical miles in 70 hours with an average speed of 7.4 knots. In those 70 hours we motored 20 hours, which included some motor sailing. One nice thing about being at sea for three days, we hardly thought about the coronavirus. We still washed our hands frequently but didn’t have to worry as much about the virus. We were definitely practicing social distancing while traveling 100 miles from shore. 

Large following seas. 

Sunset last night. 

Passing the coast guard cutter in the fog.