Greetings,

You may have heard something about a late season hurricane, and wondered if the crew of Younger Girl were involved.  Well, I’m quite glad to say we’re alive and feelin’ fine.   Here’s the short story:  The storm is likely to pass through the middle of the Bahamas on Sunday.  We’re in So. Florida and intend to stay here, until well after Sunday. 

The longer story goes back to Brunswick, Georgia, where I landed on Tuesday morning of last week.  My crew, Tom, joined me the following day.  The plan was to sail south after a large FedEx box I’d sent myself from Portland, arrived.  We’d hoped for Friday, but we got nothing until Tuesday of this week.  So, we got a relatively late start on our trip south, and on to Bimini. 

Tuesday, November 04, 2008  1240 Hours

After a short ride out the Brunswick River, we turned south and motorsailed south, staying about 10 miles offshore.  Although it was actually rather warm (about 60°) it seemed very cold on the night watches (4 hrs. on / 4 hrs. off) .  Generally, the wind was blowing 8-12 kts. on our stern (from behind).  Normally, we’d have sailed this, but as I was getting used to the boat, we avoided using the spinnaker (parachute-like sail).  About one day (24 hrs.) later, we found ourselves off the coast of Daytona Beach. 

Wednesday, November 05, 2008  1200 Hours

As mentioned above, Wednesday found us off Daytona Beach.  About 0800, we’d decided to make a sailboat out of this thing and shut down the engine.  All afternoon, we were sailing quite smartly under the spinnaker.  By noon, we’d rounded Cape Canaveral and were abeam Jupiter.  For the next couple of days, we’d be sailing with “one foot on the beach” (close to shore) to avoid the strong northbound current of the gulf stream. 

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Again it was pretty chilly overnight.  But, things warmed up nicely with the sunrise.  At about 0800 (eight in the morning) we shut the engine down and set the spinnaker (similar to a nylon parachute).  Sailing was pretty good:  7.0 kts speed with 10-15 kts. wind sailing nearly dead downwind (DDW).  Throughout the morning and early afternoon, we discussed our options regarding the predicted hurricane forming under the Cayman Islands.  By mid-afternoon, we’d determined that it was likely to be way to close to our intended destination of Bimini, in the Bahamas.  So, we decided to wait it out in south Florida.  We ducked into Palm Beach and anchored up for the night along the Inter-coastal Waterway (ICW).

Friday, November 07, 2008

Today was lazy motoring down the ICW from Palm Beach toward Ft. Lauderdale.  It was metro scenic, but slow going, as we had to deal with 18 draw bridges.  They open twice an hour, and we often were about 5 minutes too late.  This meant standing off waiting for about 25 minutes.  We made it only 34 miles by 1915 (seven-fifteen), when we anchored up Lake Santa Barbara (not really a lake, just a wide spot in side channel) for the night.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

This morning we motored into Ft. Lauderdale proper.  Here, we had to go back out to the ocean as there is a low fixed bridge between Lauderdale and Miami.  There was no sailing out there, though.  It was almost dead calm as we came down the coast.  Once in Miami, we motored through Biscayne Bay to the Coconut Grove Sailing Club.  These guys gave a mooring for the night, and welcomed us to their restaurant/bar.  There were a few characters in attendance, reminding me of home at SWYC!

Sunday, November 09, 2008

This mooring we went on a walkabout of central Coconut Grove.  It’s kind of quaint, with sidewalk cafés.  There we had breakfast.  We then walked the bay front, checking out the boats.  We stopped by the Coral Reef Yacht Club for a beer.  As they had no reciprocity agreement with SWYC, they wouldn’t even let in for a beer at the bar:  Too reminiscent of Bushwood!