Offshore we go

Wednesday December 2^nd

With the cabin and all the topside gear already stored or secured for going offshore we were able to enjoy a very relaxing morning. 

The Savannah River, which was just over an hour further south from where we anchored, can have strong currents of over 2 to 3 knots. Consequently, we wanted to ensure that we were traveling down the river either on an Ebb or Slack current so we wouldn’t be fighting it on our 10 to 12 mile journey on the river while heading out to sea. According to the tide tables for the day, slack current was going to be around 930 am, followed by an Ebb for the next several hours.

We got underway at 0830, entered the Savannah River shortly after 930, and were in the Atlantic by 1045! Our timing was perfect, and we were blessed with a few knots of current flowing with us and were doing between 7 and 8 knots as we traveled down river.

We weren’t the only ones who had timed our trip down river to take advantage of the currents. Several large cargo ships also were on the river at the same time. We moved over outside the right side of the channel and made sure they had plenty of room to pass by us.

Once we cleared Tybee Island, we continued to motor for another hour so that we could get a few more miles offshore before turning our course south. Finally, around noon, we turned the engine off and except for a 30 minute period around dinner time, the engine remained off until 630 in the morning.  There is something so peaceful about traveling at sea without any sound other than the wind in the sail and the water moving along the boat.

The wind was relatively light (less than 10 knots) and basically behind us for most of our trip so we were slowly moving along at between 4 to 6 mph. The trip from Savannah to Fernandina Beach was just over 100 miles and we wanted to time our arrival for anywhere between 7 to 10 am Thursday morning so that we would once again have favorable currents heading up the channel. This time we wanted either a Flood or Slack current.  That meant as long as we averaged just under 5 miles an hour for our trip, we’d reach the channel entrance at our intended time.

The wind, sea, and weather cooperated throughout the day and for the duration of the sail, so we faced no issues with our arrival time.

We weren’t able to capture the highlights of our time offshore on camera so I’ll briefly describe them for you. I wish I could report that one of the highlights included “caught a fish” but I was once again skunked in that department!

Late in the afternoon I was down below and Diane was at the helm. She called for me to come up on deck and was pointing for me to look off to the left.  There, about a 100 yards or so off our port bow, was a school of a dozen or so dolphin. They were jumping in the air as they moved by us chasing , I’m sure, a school of fish. They apparently were having a successful fishing! We were able to watch them for at least 5 minutes as they moved along their way.

Another highlight was the night sky for the first couple of hours after sunset and before the nearly full moon rose sometime after 9. With a clear sky and no background light pollution the stars really popped. Before we left for the trip Diane found a copy of her grandfathers 1936 edition of Field Book of The Skies and has been studying it so that she can identify more planets and constellations on our trip.  She had several hours to practice before the moon came out.

Moon rise was a mixed blessing. Being nearly a full moon and clear sky, the moon lit up the sky enough that the ocean didn’t look dark and you could see the horizon most of the night.  With that much light though, it quickly washed out all the stars, putting an end to our star gazing for the evening.

The final highlight of our time offshore was the fact that we weren’t alone out there. Throughout the night there were close to a dozen other sailboats within a few miles of us all heading south, sailing about 20 to 30 miles offshore like we were.  We could see their lights off in the distance, and some even had AIS transponders on like we did, so we could electronically ‘see them’ on our navigation system. Even though we weren’t really traveling together, it was comforting to know there were other boats around you could call if something did go wrong throughout the night.

Fortunately, nothing did go wrong and we arrived at the entrance to the channel right at 0630.  We turned the engine on and made our way up the channel and to our anchorage off the banks of Cumberland Island Ga.  We anchored at 0900 and went below to take a short nap with another safe passage under our belts.  Thanks for all the prayers!