Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars! (Day 5)

Wow, very delayed in posting this; got stuck in "drafts".

Favorable Wind!!!

This was a great day to be sailing!  We were able to leave No Name Harbor with daylight, so we were able to take the tighter, quicker path out to the Atlantic, passing behind Stiltsville. 

We decided to sail ESE to the 3 mile line to empty the holding tanks. We then turned North to head up to the cut at Ft. Lauderdale. The wind was variable, but was mostly coming from the NW, given us just enough angle off the wind to be able to sail along the Southern Florida coast without having to tack too often. 

We played around with the auto helm and learned how to use the auto tack feature, which let us press one button and switch to the other “side” of the wind, the same angle off the wind. We would press the button, then easily move the Genoa from one side of the boat to the other, quickly and easily right from the helm. 

The trip took about 6 hours but only required a few tacks. We were close hauled and fine tuning just how close we could sail to the wind, to limit our number of tacks.

Sue noticed something large floating in the water right in our path. We altered course to port to avoid it and as we got closer noticed it was a Sea Turtle!  I snapped a picture, but it took me a while to get to my phone, so the turtle is not that close and it had just started to dive when I snapped the picture. 

As we got close to the jetty at the cut at Port Canaveral, we dropped the sails and turned on the engines.  We entered the cut and realized that if we picked up our speed we could make the next bridge opening instead of having to wait for the next opening in 30 minutes. 

We got in sight of the bridge and got the bridge operator on the VHF just in time and were granted passage for that opening! After passing under the bridge, and traveling north on the ICW for a few miles we arrived at the entrance to the harbor where Counting Stars will be tied up until she is loaded onto the container ship, bound for the Pacific Northwest. 

Bob brought the boat to the back of the marina, found the target slip, and very expertly pulled the boat into the slip, like a seasoned pro with years of experience just docking. 

We tied up Counting Stars to the dock and rested for a few minutes and then broke out the cleaning supplies and thoroughly cleaned off all the salt that had accumulated during the trip. The water pressure at the dock was not great but manageable. 

With that done, we all cleaned up ourselves and headed off to dinner a short walk from the marina. Bob and Melinda treated all of us to dinner, which was super nice and also thoroughly undeserved; if anything WE should have been buying their dinner for how much we enjoyed the trip. 

Sue and I decided that we could change our Thursday flight back to Raleigh to a Wednesday flight instead for a reasonable fee, which would give us a little more time at home before hoping into the car to drive up to the Spring Annapolis Sailing Show on Friday after work. 

We returned to the boat, hung out for a little and then turned in.