The last post on 3/31 was at Man-O-War Cay in the Bahamas. The day before my birthday! Ada and Persephone sailed over to Manjack Cay where we snorkeled the ocean reefs. We celebrated with our good friends Dustyn and Brandon and my sister Susan the next day. No joke!
From Manjack we sailed to Great Sale Cay using the spinnaker. It was a beautiful, sunny long day, anchoring in the evening, and having our last dinner in the Bahamas, scheduled to depart at midnight for West Palm Beach.
Jerry caught a mutton snapper (my new favorite fish) while sailing with the spinnaker. We’ve never fished before when sailing the spinnaker. No stopping the boat. Jerry was able to land the fish with no problem.
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| Nice catch!! Mutton snapper for dinner! |
At midnight, another first for Persephone, we sailed off the anchor using the spinnaker. With a full moon!!
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| A full moon to light our spinnaker sail! |
The spinnaker came down in the morning when we reached the edge of the “banks” of the Bahamas where the depth goes from 8 feet to 1,000+ to enter the ocean and the gulf stream. With a destination of West Palm and a southeast wind, our excellent captain adjusted course and sails to accommodate the north push we’d get from the gulf stream to arrive south of where we started from. It was a wonderful sail!
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| Approaching Flagler Memorial Bridge just north of our anchorage at West Palm. |
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| Susan captures a great shot of a local out sailing under full moon as we come to anchor at West Palm. |
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| Susan's view from the v-berth hatch. What a change of scenery from the peace and quiet of The Bahamas! |
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| West Palm anchorage under full moon. |
We showed Susan all over West Palm before she had to take the plane back to Maine.
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| We're sad that Susan is leaving but smiling for the camera and the delightful time we've spent together the last few weeks. So happy that Susan came to share our lives onboard! |
From West Palm we sailed north to the St. Lucie Inlet. All was fine until we came to the “crossroads” where the ICW crossed the St. Lucie River going to Stuart. It’s always sketchy here with shifting sand and strong current. Low tide, full moon, no engine, full sail…..we were hard aground for a few seconds until we were able to furl in the jib, jibe the main over and sail ourselves off to continue on our way with shattered nerves and looking forward to putting the anchor down and relaxing in Stuart.
Our friends Dale and Roni had invited us to Easter dinner. We were last here in December and had a blast riding around their park in golf carts singing Christmas carols. Another filling meal and good company with Dale, Roni and the rest of their park community for Easter. Dale also loaned us his van again and we filled our propane tanks and reprovisioned the easy way. All of the stuff could be carried a short distance from the van to the dinghy instead of by backpack for miles. Thanks Dale and Roni!
Next stop….Fort Pierce. We waited until almost high tide to depart the St. Lucie River. The wind was howling and the rain poured down but we had plenty of water!
From Fort Pierce we sailed to the St. John’s River inlet. A peaceful sail other than the quick squall with rain and 30 knots that passed offshore just north of Cape Canaveral!
Our timing was perfect coming in at St. John’s inlet as the tide started to come in. Great for us but not for the guy who drove his truck along the jetty as far east as he could go. The water was quickly creeping up the wheels of the truck.
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| Ok, so maybe not a good idea! |
Luckily, there were other fishermen in the area with winches on their vehicles and they were able to pull him out before the water came up too high. Last I saw with the binoculars the truck was quickly driving to higher ground with water halfway up the tires. Good thing - the water continued to rise and the current ripped up the St. John’s River.
We picked up our friends Chris, Amy and Andrew after anchoring behind Blount Island. Chris brought chicken and asparagus to grill. It was a lovely evening! For those of you have been aboard Persephone to share a glass of wine - Amy is the artist who made the cups in a pottery class using different corals to create the designs on the outside of each glass.
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| Amy and Karen enjoy a glass of wine in the pottery glasses Amy made many years ago. |
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| A special treat to go out for lunch to meet up with Ralph and Leslie of "Now & Zen" who are on their way to The Bahamas and Russ of "Spirit" who was in the Ragged Islands with us this winter. It's a small world when you live aboard - you're always meeting up with friends as they pass by. |
From the St. John’s River we sailed a short hop up to Fernandina and then up the North River to St. Mary’s where Brandon and Dustyn had Ada hauled at St. Mary’s Boat Services.
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| Ada on the hard ready for some upgrades. |
We spent the week helping them work on the boat and enjoying meals together and card games as well.
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| Brandon taking a picture of Jerry as they work together to fill a no-longer-needed thru-hull hole in Ada. |
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| Cutting out the old thru-hulls. |
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| Brandon's picture of Jerry the epoxy artist. |
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| Dustyn and I use 5200 to put in one of the new thru-hulls. |
As Jerry and Brandon ground off the old bronze thru-hulls Dustyn picked up a few scraps and said I should make earrings out of them. So….here’s Dustyn’s bronze thru-hull earrings….
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| Bronze thru-hull earring rings. Talk about bling!! |
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| Dustyn all fancied up wearing one-of-a-kind designer earrings. Do you think she may be the only one in the world with earrings made from bronze thru-hull scraps? |
Chris, Amy and Andrew drove up to the boat yard and took us to a delicious BBQ place.
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| Amy, Andrew and Chris |
Later in the week Chris drove back up to have lunch aboard and to motor and sail with us back down the North River to St. Mary’s. It was a limited time offer - the depth in the North River limits when Persephone can easily navigate the 3 miles of winding river.
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| Thanks for the photos of the North River sail Chris! |
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| Jerry met Chris and Amy back in 2001 in The Bahamas I think. Before land life, they cruised on their 29' Ericson with us in The Bahamas. Fond memories! So glad we're able to stay in touch and share our lives. |
That night, after dropping Chris off in St. Mary’s, we motored over the St. Mary’s Inlet to be ready to leave in the morning to sail north. We wished for good southerly winds to sail all the way to Beaufort, NC though we knew we would only be going as far north as the weather allowed. We appreciated the southerly winds, even though they were too light for sail only, all the way to Cape Fear where the weather system caught up with us. Dark skies, lightning and rain crept north and overtook us as we made our way in the inlet at 11 pm. Using our chart plotter, binoculars, and radar we made our way in and up the Cape Fear River to find a place to anchor at midnight as the winds howled and the rain came down. The next morning we continued on the ICW to Wrightsville Beach, NC leaving early before the winds picked up again.
The anchorage was full of small sailboats racing - great entertainment! They had set their race course around the boats anchored. Amazing skills as they tacked back and forth, coming within inches of the boats, moving from one side of the boat to the other as they tacked. They continued sailing as the winds increased (with a few capsizing but quickly righting the boat and getting back in the groove). Finally, when the wind gusts were 45 or so they finished for the day.
We thought we were going to stay here for a couple of days for the winds to settle down but the next day's forecast showed lighter winds again for the morning and building during the day. All from a good direction. So off we went first thing in the morning with a double-reefed main and a full jib. The winds started at 10-12 knots, picked up to 15-20 and were blowing 30 by the time we reached Beaufort Inlet 62 miles later. The seas had built and were cresting where the water became shallow at the edge of the inlet. The autopilot could not handle the seas so Jerry grabbed the wheel and navigated the channel with the wind howling and the seas knocking us about. He had taken the main down by this time and we were only on a small hanky of a jib coming in. The steering was exhausting. To say we were “relieved” to get into the protected water doesn’t describe it. We came in to Beaufort, put the anchor down, turned on the furnace to dry out and enjoyed a pleasant evening.
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| A view of Carrot Island where there are wild ponies - taken from our anchorage at Beaufort. The sailboat is "Ruth Avery" - a 31' sailboat that has been around the world and then some! No motor. Kerosene lamps for light and foot pumps for water. |
Next stop - Oriental, NC!
Karen & Jerry
SV Persephone
PS. Thanks to Susan, Chris, Brandon and Dustyn from whom I "stole" pictures to use for this update!
