11/28/18

Greetings from Florida!  I said it was all about the weather and it was too cold in NC.  Here we are in Stuart, FL with tonight's temperature forecast: 38 degrees.  Brrrr!!!  We have 80 to look forward to by the weekend though.
Our first leg from Beaufort, NC to Jacksonville - 72 hours.  We knew we'd have some southerly winds to bash into at first.  It ended up a little longer bashing than we'd anticipated but the wind finally came around to the west and north.  And "the new" Persephone doesn't really bash like "the old" Persephone where we'd lose teeth bashing into the seas.  Now, head on seas knock down our speed some as we bounce up and down but no bashing.
We arrived and anchored on the St. John's River in Jacksonville in the same spot as last year at the same time.  We had the anchor down at 6 am took a nap, and then started in on cooking up turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes......

Thanksgiving Dinner on the St. John's River

We called our friends Chris, Amy and Andrew nearby and they came and spent the next day sailing on the St. John's River.  We tacked back and forth, back and forth into the wind, against the current, explaining "This isn't what we usually do!".  Our sailing back and forth between NY and the Caribbean or Bahamas involves very few tacks!  It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed every minute of it and were so glad to have friends who appreciated the sailing opportunity.

Amy takes a turn at the helm after building up her winch muscles.

Amy at the wheel looking down the St. John's River.

We had to do a short tack to avoid the container ship you see in the background.  The pilot called us to ask our intentions when they spotted us coming up the river at them. 

Chris relaxes at the helm for the downwind part of the trip.

Andrew at the wheel on our way back to the anchorage.

Andrew and Chris down below.

Then the next leg: Jacksonville, FL to Stuart, FL.  A 36 or so hour sail close to the coast.  There was a cold front coming off the coast so we started with southwest winds and went through areas of heavy rain and gusty winds before the winds clocked to the west.  Then a nice downwind sail to Fort Pierce and short jaunt down the ICW to Stuart.  We are sitting at our friends Dale and Roni's place right now, the savory smell of soup wafting from the kitchen, sure is nice to have good friends where ever we go!  Look forward to seeing Arnaud, maybe Benedict and Ocean if they're around, and Ken and Aunt Susan while we're here too.
We are in Stuart for a short time before heading out again to wait at West Palm for the right weather to head to the Bahamas.  Not sure if I will have wifi again to update the blog so you'll have to keep checking the SPOT next week to see where we are.