North Carolina to Sister's Creek, FL

 

Waiting out a hurricane in Wrightsville Beach, NC

We planned to head south from Wilmington soon after Halloween, but Hurricane Nicole (not so subtly) reminded us that hurricane season has been extended to November 30. During the first week of November we watched it track up and across Florida and then head along the coast of the Carolinas. We'd been through this drill before, so we moved Positive Waves well in advance of the strong winds. The holding was good in the main anchorage at Wrightsville Beach, but we predicted that the fetch would make it uncomfortable and it was also pretty crowded with other boats. We moved over to a small anchorage in the marshes that our friend Gordon pointed out (local knowledge ftw). It was blustery and rainy for a couple days, but nothing that felt crazy or untenable. We got off the boat both days, enjoying very windy beach walks and lunch out and generally passed the time with a "we're waiting but let's make the best of it" attitude.

Boogie boarding in Wrightsville Beach

Hanging out with friends on PW

Gordon took the kids for a ride in his fun car.

Walking to lunch on the beach on a windy day.

Land school for Matilda

A highlight of our time in Wilmington was Matilda's day at "land school." A friend arranged for Matilda to spend a day as a guest student in a 4th grade classroom; she was thrilled. While Matilda generally seems happy with her life, she also frequently talks about the alternative: a "normal" life in a house, attending school, playing team sports, and having the same friends every day. As her parent, I usually have a healthy dose of "am I doing this right? Crap, I'm completely screwing up. How much will therapy cost in her adult years?" and Matilda's regular laments about wanting to be a "normal" kid have a tendency to push my buttons. It was a treat to let her experience land school for a day; to hang out with a group of her peers and do some academics outside of our boat school. Of course it just stoked her fire to want to go to land school, but that's not in the cards any time soon. To quote one of Matilda's favorite artists, Demi Lovato: sorry, not sorry.

7:30AM and ready to go to school

 More time in Wilmington meant more time with friends and some quality time with our kid boats. We enjoyed some gorgeous beach days, a pizza dinner out with a couple other boats, and some unsupervised kid play on a little island. We did a final big grocery shop, one last meal with our friends Carla and Gordon, and after two weeks we headed south to Florida.

More beach time with friends

Paddleboarding around the harbor

A fast sail from NC to Florida

 We had a forecast of 15-20 knot winds, with some pockets of stronger winds funneling down the coast for a couple days. Solid north winds for a sail south? We'll take it. We sailed out of the Cape Fear inlet and were immediately met with washing machine conditions. Our friends on One Day quickly bailed since their two kids were both very seasick and the conditions didn't look to be improving. By some miracle of miracles, no one on Positive Waves was sick. We were all uncomfortable, but not sick, not even a hint of nausea. The winds kept increasing and we kept reducing sail until we were running downwind in steady 30 knot winds with a double-reefed main. Conditions stayed like that for 24 hours and since we didn't feel unsafe or seasick, just uncomfortable, we kept going. At one point when the conditions seemed pretty stable (still windy and big seas, but stable), I cooked some pasta for myself and the kids and washed the dishes while the pasta boiled. I had the hatch over the galley open and I suddenly heard the wind start whistling. I climbed the steps into the doghouse and saw the wind at 40 knots, 42, then 47. I yelled to Hans (who was napping), "I need a little help out here, wind is above 45 knots!" His initial response as he climbed out of his bunk: "be sure not to gybe!" Helpful... I adjusted course a little to prevent an accidental gybe, then ran back to the galley to take the pasta off the heat. No one wants mushy shells! There were multiple inlets where we could have bailed, but that would have required adjusting course to a beam reach--beam to 30 knots of wind and 3-4 meter seas--no thanks. We kept on course and arrived at the St. Mary's inlet at the Florida-Georgia border in record time. 

We encountered tons of container ships at anchor outside of both Charleston and Savannah waiting for entry into port.

Winds holding steady around 28-30 knots.

And then the exciting moment when we hit 47 knots!

Are we there yet?

We anchored behind Cumberland Island at 2AM next to Scout, another aluminum expedition-style boat from France that we met in the Chesapeake Bay. Hans made us both a sturdy hot rum toddy which was more than welcome after our most intense sail yet. It was definitely an uncomfortable sail but also a good baseline to know what we can handle. Now we know that we can sail in 30+ knots of wind with big seas and the boat (obviously) can handle it comfortably and the crew, while uncomfortable, can handle those kinds of conditions with solid seamanship and little fear. Definitely a confidence booster. Perhaps the biggest reason we love Positive Waves is the motion at sea. When the winds increased from 30 to 45, then 47, the only indication I had of the increase was the audible whistling sound above the open hatch. At the same time, all four of us were inside the cabin with the door assuredly shut. No one was falling overboard. I haven't sailed on every single 44' monohull (tbh, I haven't sailed on many 44' monohulls) but I can't imagine there is a more comfortable and secure sailboat when the conditions start getting feisty.

Cumberland Island

So, after a fast 36 hour passage, we had a few days to explore Cumberland Island. Donated to the National Park Service by the Carnegies, Cumberland Island is largely NPS and, as such, wild and undeveloped. There are ruins of an old Carnegie winter home (read: mansion), miles of beaches, a maritime forest, and wild horses. Park rangers were on hand in various places around the park to answer questions and share information about the history and ecology of the island.

Beautiful Cumberland Island

A combination of marshland, beaches, and maritime forest.

Gorgeous maritime forest--gnarled live oaks dripping with spanish moss and short palmetto palms at ground level

There were over 10 kid boats at anchor at Cumberland and they had a great game of tag around the ruins.

Freja piggybacking a younger boat kid

A park ranger gave a short talk on common shells, the creatures who live inside them, and their predators.

Matilda with the wild horses of Cumberland Island. They are completely feral with zero interaction or assistance from humans.

Fernandina Beach to the St. John's River

 Our next stop was the small town of Fernandina Beach on the Florida/Georgia line. The whopping 5 mile trip turned out to be rather exciting as we crossed the inlet at the exact time the Navy and Coast Guard was escorting a nuclear submarine back to St. Mary’s sub base. The Coast Guard asked us to stay as far off the channel as our draft would allow and even though we were a distance from the sub as it went past, the Coast Guard still ran alongside us to make sure we didn’t get any nefarious ideas. The sub was HUGE. It slowly glided past us, half out of the water, with multiple big military ships on all sides. After that excitement, we anchored off Fernandina Beach and went ashore to meet one of Hans’s colleagues from residency for lunch and then poked around in the little shops in the sweet little town. Fernandina definitely has one of the most active, traditional main streets I’ve seen in the US. The next morning we moseyed down the ICW another 20 ales to the free dock at Sister's Creek, just north of Jacksonville and also home to Hans's old fishing grounds. We spent a day washing the boat, doing laundry, and cleaning out the sail locker. (Did I mention the dock has free water?!) The kids rode their scooters and we joined them in the evening for a game of soccer on a flat grassy patch of land.

A nuclear sub--not a sight you see every day!

Dinghying around the creeks north of the St. John's River

Laundry day!

It's always fun to meet up with friends. Hans and Helen worked together in Jacksonville, but this was the first time Helen and I met in person even though we've been chatting online for years.

The next morning we motored out of Sister's Creek and onto the St. John's River where we rendezvoused with friends from Jacksonville who had just bought a catamaran. We motored alongside them in the river, yelled some congratulations and then both boats went out the inlet together and turned south to St. Augustine. We had a mooring ball reserved for Thanksgiving week and were excited to share a week of cruising life with our friends. Unfortunately that week turned out to be socked in with strong winds and rain, but the weather, of course, doesn't always cooperate.

Hi friends!!! Congratulations on your new boat!