Thursday, 12/20: Listening to the weather reports, the day did not sound very good for traveling. 20-25 mph winds from the South (which I am ok with) and chance of water spouts or tornados to the south, strong thunderstorms with lightening and hail also possible. Now we are talking! I made a call the marina…
Go West Young Man (to the icw)
Wednesday, 12/19: I left the Cape Marina just before noon and made my way through the first bascule bridge and locks on my way east. I was a little worried about the locks but turns out they were quite easy as the water level difference was less than a foot from what I could tell….
Port Canaveral – Repairs
After sending Steve, Sam & Michael on their way, I spent the next couple of weeks working on major fixes. Some of the key systems were in sore need of maintenance and updating, so I really had no choice I replaced the house battery bank as they were 10 years old and had suffered from…
To Cape Canaveral
Dec 8 – The day was truly warm and very comfortable. We were all fairly rested and even Sam was starting to feel a bit better having found that hardboiled eggs and small oranges were able to keep him going. Our progress had not been as fast as we had hoped and we were only…
A day at sea
Dec 7 – The wind starting coming back down early in the pre-dawn hours and as the sun came up, we were all exhausted but we had survived. Sam was probably in the worst shape of all of us due to his sea sickness and inability to keep any food down. The sun coming up…
Departure – Act II
Only a few days behind schedule, we confidently left the harbor around 2pm on Wednesday 12/6 in the afternoon and headed out into the Atlantic once again. The wind was good and we made decent time down the coast. We had a good dinner on board and as the sun set, we put a couple…
Vacation at Charleston Harbor Marina
The next morning, I was able to get in touch with the previous owner, Brian, and after some discussion of the issues we had seen and further examination of the systems, we determined we had two primary issues: – Steering issues were cause by our testing of the autopilot. We adjusted one of the switches…
We embark from Charleston
After a quick stop at Charleston Harbor Marina to top off the diesel tanks and get outboard gas, we headed out of the channel into the Atlantic. We immediately were rewarded with a following wind of around 10 knots that allowed us to head South on our intended course under both sail and motor. The…
The shakedown crew arrives in Charleston
Steve, Michael and Sam all arrived in Charleston late on Saturday to join the trip to move Nefertari to the Bahamas. After a few trips to the airport and some good BBQ Saturday afternoon and evening, we spent the entire day on Dec 2, preparing the boat and provisioning. Since the boat had been acting…
Getting the boat ready to leave
I made the cross country trek from Spokane to Charleston over the Thanksgiving Day weekend. It took me 3-1/2 days driving with a quick stop in Memphis to see my favorite niece! I just made it south before a winter storm blew across the mid-west and plains. The boat survived all the storms while I…