An Ocean Passage

A Passing Container ship under the sail


I wrote this for our hometown newspaper:

I started my day as usual, going through a large stack of fan mail, actually I have never gotten any fan mail. In reality however, the question keeps coming up “how can you spend all that time just floating in a boat and what do you do”. So maybe this will give you some insight into an ocean passage.
Fernandina Beach Florida is the northern most point of Florida’s east coast. Our plan is to “bypass” Georgia and make landfall in Beaufort South Carolina, or if things went really well, continue on to Charleston. The reason to “bypass” Georgia is not that we don’t like it, but it is a pain in the butt to navigate due to its nine foot tides, heavy currents, and winding and shallow waters. For us, we prefer to do this one outside …in the Atlantic Ocean.
After picking a good “weather window” , a period of good weather with the winds blowing the way we want them, we weigh anchor, leave the Intracoastal Waterway and turn to starboard into the Fernandina Inlet at 1300 hours. Inlets can be the most exciting part of any passage, if not downright horrifying, and the timing of current , wind, and incoming ocean swells are good so it is a “sweet” run through the inlet, out the long rock jetties, and into the Atlantic.
The forecast is for east wind moving to the south overnight which is perfect for this trip. After entering the ocean, reality is a bit different. The wind is out of the north, dead on the nose. Well Godspeed can sail against the wind at a 45 degree angle, but not directly into it, we have a limited time (36 hours) to get Godspeed back to safe protected waters before the next heavy weather bears down on us so we opt to deploy the “iron genny” (start the diesel engine) and make some wakes in the right direction until the wind shifts easterly and we can sail.
Now we are at sea, the depth is dropping off, the seas are a gentle one to three feet, “Otto” the autopilot is driving perfectly, and here come the dolphins! They are a never ending source of entertainment, sometimes they are busy group fishing and sometimes they like to come over as our escort and play in the bow or stern wakes, jumping, diving, flipping, blowing…you know, important dolphin stuff! Next business is to get the fishing lines in. Several times we saw the water boiling with baitfish so we circled the area hoping the sea monsters below them would take our lures but no fish.
Believe it or not, there are roads all over the ocean called shipping lanes and we will cross two on this passage, the first one is Brunswick Georgia. This port supplies southern Georgia including Atlanta and there is one massive ship leaving but it is several miles away. Lorrie always has the binoculars and a book bird close by, educating me on the never ending supply of seabirds. Afternoon turns to evening as we sit in the cockpit and have conversation, snacks, compute navigation, and enjoy the wilderness with no land in sight.
At 1950 hours, the sun is setting and we need to prepare for night operations. Navigation lights… on, red cabin lights…on, Dinty Moore beef stew…on. The wind is still on the nose so we motor on! We always slow the boat at night so if we hit something undetected by our radar it will at least be gentle, so the throttle is pulled back and after stew, Lorrie goes below and curls up for a nap. At 2250 hours, I have had enough and “heave to” the boat and crank out a few Z’s. “Heaving To” is where you can position the two sails and rudder to cancel out each other and very effectively “park” in a steady, comfortable angle to the wind and waves, as opposed to just being adrift- tossed like a rag doll. At about midnight I awake to find Lorrie checking our position. We curl up in a blanket are in awe of the moon, stars, and finally a wind change, so we set sails, for the first time on this passage. Sailing at night is very serene and peaceful. Only the gurgle and quiet whoosh as you slip through the water. “Slap…slap…blow…splash” the friendly dolphins appear. By using only red lights tonight, we have good night vision and can see them quite clearly as the moon reflects off their fins and backs, they escort Godspeed along with their silly antics. We laugh and talk to them which seem to egg them on and make them even sillier. Godspeed is in now in a groove and in harmony with the sea, sailing and steering herself on a perfect course, doing what this battle tested sea warrior was made to do! Now all that has to be done is watch the radar and the horizon for other traffic. At night, the seabirds get very curious, brave, and vocal. Some sing a sweet lullaby while others seem to be angry and squawk at our intrusion. Tonight they are very active and welcome visitors indeed. We take turns on watch or below napping until dawn.
At 0630, there is no stunning sunrise this morning due to the light overcast sky, but the sun does find its way through and burns off the morning dew from the deck. At 0800, I am below in the galley making breakfast and coffee, “Big ship to port” Lorrie the admiral says with concern. Sure enough, our second and final sea lane is the port of Savannah, and a supersize containership is headed out on a direct collision course with Godspeed. After a few quick calculations, it appears when we cross, he will be out of the channel and at sea, this gives Godspeed the right of way as we are under full sail power. It is our responsibility to stand on our course and his to change...It’s kind of like a game of chicken. We are just about to declare “chicken” when he does adjust his speed and passes a quarter mile in front of us giving us a sense of awe at the massive vessels and how tiny we are on a big ocean!
The morning was calm, sunny, and warm. Land begins to appear on the port side as we approach the outer buoy to the Beaufort Channel. We line up between the buoys marking the channel, red on the right-green on the left; we make a turn to port, and point Godspeed straight into the seven mile long entrance to the inlet. All is going well until I notice we are quickly being swept out of the channel into dangerous shallow water by a strong side sweeping current. After making corrections to track Godspeed straight through the channel, her bow is now pointed at a thirty degree angle to the channel. For the next seven miles we crab her at this angle to counter the side sweeping current. About half way in a big beautiful shrimp trawler passes as he headed to sea giving us a chance to gawk at him up close and underway.
We enter the inlet under full sail and into Port Royal sound. You may think it’s time to take a deep breath and sigh of relief being inland…not! It gets very busy as a large barge and tugboat pin us to one side of the channel as he takes his half straight down the center. Now we are in inland travel mode, bridges, traffic, and shallow water keep us busy and on our game, far from a relaxing ocean passage. At 1500 hours, we set the hook (anchor Godspeed) in historic Beaufort. Now we plan to enjoy this place for a few days, ride our bikes, explore, maybe meet some of the locals and and enjoy the local color. This is by far what we spend most of our cruising time doing, not aimlessly floating the oceans. At anchor, Godspeed is a comfortable little floating house and our ticket to enjoy many places with no check out time or flight to catch…well at least until the money runs out…which it always seems to!
Our last ocean passage was a bit different than this one. We caught four tunas, had a beautiful sunset over the Kennedy Space Center, a stunning sunrise, caught two more tunas after breakfast and without any shipping traffic. The next passage is to Charleston. This will not be an ocean passage but a sixty mile run up the Intracoastal waterway, through constricted waters, draw bridges, heavy current, six foot tides, tugboats with barges, and vessels of every size and shape…all in close quarters…a completely different kind of passage-but well worth doing!