Foggy Foggy Night

It's been a busy time heading ever southward. We had an uncommonly good offshore passage from Southport, NC to Fernandina Beach, Florida. Completely missed both South Carolina and Georgia. Both of those states have some beautiful coastal areas, but we had fallen well behind our pace required to get Sirius to Florida in time to return home for the holidays. The winds for the passage from NC to Florida ranged between NE to NW from 10 - 20 kts. Most of the trip was on a broad reach (nice) or directly downwind (not so nice, as this takes more attention to the helm to prevent an accidental gybe of the mainsail). Our autotiller ("Artie') (named for a love able, but cantankerous old lead dog we once had) is not too reliable on a downwind heading. Following seas ranged from 2 to 6 feet and Sirius tracked well on this heading without excessive rolling. The last day we had thick fog and really appreciated having radar. 

The fog continued for another day even after we were in inside waters in Florida. We left Fernandina slowly and with radar and GPS and only got in the clear after crossing the St Johns River. The St Johns is a major shipping channel and we had the eerie event of passing between two massive ships in the fog with fog horns blaring all around. They looked like huge islands in the river on radar. 

Since then, it's been five days of motoring south in the "ditch" as the ICW is affectionately called. Even so, the winds have held from the north and the jib adds a lot to both speed and fuel economy. 

Yesterday we arrived at Fort Pierce where we will be leaving Sirius for the next month while we return home for the holidays.  Nina's mom joined us yesterday and stayed aboard last night.

(She welcomed us to Florida by beating us at cards)

The journey down the coast has always been regarded by us as the "job" of getting the boat into position where the real islands trip begins. I am, however, always taken by surprise by the interesting and beautiful country of the eastern inner banks. A few areas are touristy and marred by condo developments, etc, but mostly you pass through unspoiled natural coastal areas where the people unselfconsciously go about living their lives. 

The tentative plan on returning to Sirius in mid January is to head across to the Abacos then down to Eluthera, Cat Island, and, perhaps San Salvadore where Christopher Columbus is thought to have first landed. We will then cross to the Exumas and head back north through the Land and Sea Park which we love for its protected reef Eco systems. 

As always, though, the forces of wind and sea and tide will have the last word. 

The ways of man are passing strange,

He buys his freedom and he counts the change,

Then he lets the wind his days arrange, 

And he calls the tide his master. 

Anyone know where those lyrics come from without Google?