I spent October working on the boat and cajoling the yard to get a couple of important jobs done before crew arrived to sail Mantra south. Repairing the dent we’d put in the keel was one that I’m thankful they completed. There were times I despaired of the yard getting anything done. Though she was still on the hardstand when Shalako arrived she was launched before Rob and Brian showed up.
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| Shalako, me and Brian with luggage |
Enis isn’t retired like the rest of us so I’d agreed we’d pick him up from New Haven, part way down Long Island Sound, on Saturday. The airport is right by a good anchorage so on Friday we sailed out from Portsmouth, anchored for a few hours at the mouth of Narraganset bay to eat and get some rest, then raised the anchor after midnight bound for New Haven. We sailed and motored to arrive in good time to collect Enis from the beach.
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| Motoring out of Narraganset bay |
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| Enis on the beach |
We raised anchor and continued west down Long Island Sound, close hauled, over a flat sea with the boat completely steady and the water hissing by the hull. It felt like we were sailing on ice. Brian commented that the boat was so steady he couldn’t get the good view ahead that he’s used to from a boat rocking over the waves. By midnight we were approaching rocky narrows just as a huge barge pushed by a tug came round the corner. We hugged the side of the channel to let him pass and strategized how to get the sails down as we turned in towards Port Washington. By 1 am we had the anchor down in a spot I’d anchored before, somewhat sheltered from the wind.
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| Rob on the bow enjoying the New York skyline |
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| Lady Liberty and Manhattan |
We were up early to catch the current into the East River and through New York. The weather forecast said we’d have to wait till the evening of the following day before heading out into the Atlantic so I booked a slip in Liberty Landing Marina, just north of the Statue of Liberty. We motored and the current rushed us through fast and we were tied up at the dock by 1 pm after a sightseeing circuit around Lady Liberty. Time at the dock allowed us to get organized and settled in. We set up lines to the spinnaker pole and hanked on the staysail, furled on deck.
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| New York Bagels for breakfast |
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| Sunset over New York Harbor |
We set off on Monday afternoon, motoring out through busy New York Harbor. The sun came out and the wind shifted to the west, off the land, as we motored out under Verrazano narrows bridge. The wind continued to clock and soon picked up so we jibed downwind along the Jersey shore under a full moon. Rob and Brian teamed up for one shift and Enis and Shalako for the other, taking 3 hours on and 3 hours off, with me on call. By midday Tuesday we were crossing the mouth of the Delaware bay and pulling in to Breakwater Harbor behind Cape Henlopen, a large & well protected anchorage, to wait for another system to pass over. We were the only boat anchored there, sharing the anchorage with birds and dolphins.
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| Practicing one handed bowlin knots |
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| Rob at the helm |
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| The Pyramid at Ocean City |
The sail to the mouth of the Chesapeake was fairly uneventful apart from the strong wind and big waves hitting the ebb current at the entrance to the bay. Hurricane Nicole had formed quickly near Hispaniola and was crossing Florida so we ducked 50 miles up the bay to Deltaville to get good shelter in case its remnants came our way. This was a good excuse for me to visit friends in Deltaville. We docked for two nights at Regatta Point Marina where we got a warm welcome and a protected inner slip. We took a tour of Juno, a Sundeer 60 which my friends Mick and Christine have been restoring and updating over the past three years and which they recently launched. They’ve done amazing work to bring her back from close to derelict. We had dinner with friends Don and Sharon and got a tour of Don’s boat which is getting even more extensive rebuild, and his workshop which is stuffed with machines, fiberglass and boating stuff.
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| Stormy weather, staysail set |
After the remnants of Nicole passed to the west we motored down toward the mouth of the bay and anchored just after sunset under the flight path of Langley air force base. Luckily it was the weekend with no activity so we enjoyed a peaceful night, and were up at the crack of dawn to set out around the capes. The wind was behind again so we jibed downwind off the Virginia coast, getting buzzed one time by an air force jet. The wind steadily rose and we reefed down the main, then set the staysail, and still felt we had too much sail. The best course was between 120 degrees and 90 degrees, the most difficult for the autopilot and it was regularly getting overpowered so Rob hand steered for a couple of hours. We were making good progress so passed by my favorite anchorage, Cape Lookout bight, headed first for the Cape Fear River and then as it looked like we could make it before the next bad weather, Winyah Bay, where we stopped for a night. We didn’t see crocodiles or alligators this time.
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| Watch out for crocodiles Enis! |
Our weather forecasts from Chris Parker classify strong conditions as salty or inclement. Rob wanted to know what the difference was. Roughly salty means the wind will be strong but hardened sailors will enjoy it. Inclement means don’t go out, you’ll regret it! I’d classify the leg from the Chesapeake to Winyah Bay as very salty.
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| Flying the spinnaker |
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| Dolphins came to see and play |
The winds were again clocking behind the front and were mild at first. We even flew the asymmetric
spinnaker for a short time. For most of our sail south the actual winds were about 5 knots stronger than forecast. The wind was supposed to be 15 to 20 knots for the this stage to Brunswick but it was much stronger and again we were struggling and having to bear off too far downwind. Luckily the wind clocked enough towards the end of the leg to bring us to the dredged channel and a dock for the night. I would have classified these conditions as inclement except that we’d managed to make great progress.
I wanted to stop in Brunswick to meet Sean D’Epagnier, maker of the TinyPilot autopilot I’ve installed on Mantra. He joined us for dinner and after filling me in on a lot of details about the autopilot, told us stories of circumnavigating alone with a boat with no engine! He’s currently working on his trimaran while sailing slowly down the coast, following the butter latitudes. “When sailing through a bascule bridge, tack through the bridge!”, great advice which I hope never to need to use.
Docks in Florida are at a premium. We hadn’t managed to find one near Ft. Lauderdale so had expanded the search north. Sherri had found a mooring ball near Stuart which we decided to book. We left Brunswick before dawn in order to reach Ft. Pierce or St. Lucie inlet before dark. The sailing was milder with some motoring to keep on pace. I decided to pull in to Ft. Pierce, a deep dredged commercial channel, before dark, rather than risk arriving at St Lucie inlet, a bar harbour, after dark. This also gave us a couple of hours of daylight and good weather to get the sails off. The crew had a good appreciation for Sherri’s sail furling abilities by the time we were done. Bad weather rolled in not long after dark.
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The tide board at the Fort Pierce bridge.
Our 66 ft mast won't pass!
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| Everything piled up on the starboard side |
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| A precarious angle for the evening |
We now had the challenge of getting a 66 ft mast under two bridges that are 65 ft air draught at best, with little tide to help us. We calculated we’d need to heel Mantra about 20 degrees. I thought it wouldn’t be too difficult with a dinghy part filled with water hung off the main halyard and swung out on the end of the boom. I hoped to get the boat over to be able to go under at low tide at noon but that wasn’t to be and the wind was still too strong. By evening, with the dinghy full of water, 5 jerry cans filled with water, the mainsail and two genoas hung from the genoa halyards, we had the boat over to 20 degrees. The jerry cans had started a few inches above the toe rail and were our measuring stick to tell us we’d leaned the mast enough when they touched the water. They were close enough so I was sure we could go under the bridges provided the tide boards read 64 ft or more. The next low tide was at midnight. We hauled up anchor and drove the boat through full turns to port and starboard to confirm that our setup was stable before re-anchoring in the waning dusk to get dinner and some rest before the most technical leg of our trip. I tried to persuade the crew to pull in the weights to get the boat closer to an even keel, but they opted to leave everything set ready for the low tide so we ate dinner at a precarious angle, normally a strong signal to reduce sail.
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Dinghy boomed out, sail bags, jerry cans,
ready for the bridges
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It was raining but at least the wind was below 15 knots most of the time when we set off for the first bridge. Shalako was at the chart plotter helping me stay in the center of the channel. I only realized afterwards that the rest of the crew had stationed themselves strategically ahead of the mast as we headed under the bridge. I made a Securitee call on the radio on the off chance that there might be another boat headed towards the bridge. Of course there were no other fools on the water at that time and in that weather. The current was against us which allowed me to take it real slow under the bridge. As we approached the crew on the bow called out the tide board read 64 ft 6 in so we steamed ahead and under the bridge, not even the antenna touching. After a quick celebration we hauled in the weights allowing Mantra to stand up a bit. Shalako stayed with me as we motored through the dark down the ditch (the intra coastal waterway) for the last 14 miles, while the rest of the crew went below for some rest. They were up again around 3:30 am to haul out the weights for the next bridge. Here the tide board read 65 ft so again we passed safely under. By around 4 am we’d found the mooring ball and were packing and cleaning up the mess.
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| Safe on the mooring |
At 5 minutes to 9 the crew were ashore waiting for an Uber ride to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami for flights out in the afternoon. We’d gone as far as we could and cut it too close for comfort but we’d made it. I spent the rest of the day and too much of the next tidying up and preparing Mantra for a couple of months on her own.
Many many thanks to a great crew for helping me sail Mantra to Florida. I hope you enjoyed the voyage as much as I did. Thanks also for all the great photos.
