3 June, 2015

YaHoo

0730, and we’re an hour away from Bald Head, where we’ll rest up and get the Girl ready for the next leg.  We’re not sure if we’ll run the Intracoastal for a ways, or go offshore again-depends on the conditions.  We do know that tonight and tomorrow night will be spent at the dock.  Suzanne took over the webmaster duties for our owners group last November, and will be able to meet with Betty, the former webmistress, who recently bought a home on Bald Head.  Meanwhile, I’ll do some boatcleaning and maybe ride my bike a little bit.

The last 45 hours were pretty quiet as far as boat traffic went.  We saw 3 freighters outside Charleston, 2 shrimpers in Mayport, and 2 small fishing boats along the way.  Other than these-nada.  Nothing but us and the ocean on all horizons.  We were treated to a nice dolphin show off of Charleston, with a half dozen being pushed along in our bow wave in the azure blue water.  Later, 2 jet fighters, presumably from the Naval Air Station in Mayport, provided us with ringside seats for a high-altitude dogfight.  I dragged a line for about 3 hours.  After losing my bait in the first 10 minutes, I thought it’d be a target-rich environment-Nope.  I was thinkin’ it was about time to reel in and call it a day when the line went screaming off my reel.  HaHa, got a small Blackfin Tuna for my efforts.  4 pretty steaks will make a couple of good meals.  Last night, the International Space Station passed overhead at 2103.  Years ago, we saw the Shuttle go overhead on Lake Michigan, but have never seen the ISS.  With the help of stabilized binoculars, and no ambient light, we were able to make out the solar panels and running lights on the station as it passed 60 degrees above the horizon in around 10 minutes time.  Nerd time.

The weather was benign.  The first night, we experienced 2’-4’ swells with 9 second intervals on our Starboard beam, and small wind waves.  After that, the swells dropped to 1’-3’, with almost no wind waves for the duration of the trip.  During the days, the sun was out in full force.  By nights, the moon was waxing gibbous, 90% and 99% visible.  Kinda makes us want to do it again.  Well, just about to the channel at Bald Head.

-See Ya