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Arrived St Mary's GA
Cruising at Last!We left Charleston at 9am and headed out into the ocean.
A bit on Jib preventers:If you put them too close to the mast then it's an awful lot of stress on everything especially with over 600sq feet of sail. Not to mention the boom it's self, but if you move them too far back the stretch in the rope is enough that they just pull through and fold to the other side anyway. We chose about 2/3 down the boom and tied to the midship cleat. It worked but during an unintended jibe we nearly broke the rope and I was afraid we were going to pull off the deck cleat. They are designed for sideways movement not upwards. So we moved the line to a midship fitting for jib sheets. That didn't work as well because the line was too vertical and didn't keep it from moving. Still, it did prevent a crash jibe. I think the horse with a boom brake is probably better but I wouldn't want to to have to cross the lines all the time.
I have decided I like night sailing. You can feel the boat better when not distracted by what you can see. I could almost sail with my eyes closed just listening to the sound of the sails and feeling the boat's movements. The nights are beautiful and lonely but then I like being alone and the stars are simply amazing.
In the morning we were on our final leg to St. Marys and suddenly our friends boat dropped off AIS and I realized I couldn't see their sails. They had been within 2 miles. I decided to turn on the autopilot and of course I couldn't turn past -8 AGAIN. We started making calls on the radio and no one had seen them even the other two boats that were also near by. All we knew was a short radio call saying they had lost all power. So we called the coast guard to report a ship in distress and started searching for them. Finally we did find them when we got close enough to land to get a cell text message through. And we followed them into St. Marys. Getting the main down in these conditions is miserable and took us nearly 30 minutes. The lines always tangle around the front of the mast with the steaming light. The topping lift was tangled in the lazy jacks and the spare halyard. Trying to untangle that mess with waves crashing over the deck and the boat pitching 15-20 deg in every direction is not easy. And need I remind you I can't turn port? ugh...
The sea should always be respected. We are very careful with jacklines and life vests as overboard in those conditions would be very dangerous. I can't imagine doing things like this without the big deck we have.
We keep the lazy jacks tight along the boom when we stow the sails and then deploy them as we drop the sails. That way they don't get tangled in the battons when you hoist the sail. But with everything flopping around in the wind and waves I think the tangle and effort to deploy them is worse than haveing a batton caught.
As we arrived in St. Marys inlet it was cold rainy and miserable with breakers on the beam all the way down the entrance. It took us an hour just get in. We motored to town and anchored in front of the town docks with all the other cruisers and since our friends still don't have proper power they are coming over for dinner and hot water if they want. There were several cool boats there but our favorite was a wooden 38ish foot double ender ketch with a hard dinghy. Amazing boat.
We will be staying here for Thanksgiving and to make repairs to my steering and their electric. Oh and Hannah's new pump siphoned all the water back into the main tanks... We will have to re-design the drinking water system.