This is why we boat!

Well, as bad as the weather was the first two days of our voyage, today more than made up for it.  It was the kind of day you dream about.  Crisp, clear blue skies with almost no humidity and the sunshine just sparkling off the water.  The owner thought he was in heavy today.

Y Knot Now tied up in Titusville

Boat continues to run very well.  We finally topped off the fuel and have good numbers to work with.  Today we ran 162 miles and took on 143 gallons of fuel over the 11 hours and 40 minutes we were underway today.  That equates to 1.13 mpg.  We ran the boat pretty hard all day.  In a few of the no wake zones we were traveling at 7 to 8 mph and only using 1.1 gallons per hour.  Now that is pretty darn efficient.  Must have been going with the current, but still, very impressive.

We tied up in Fernandina Beach tonight.  Had a nice meal at the Crap Trap.  Some of the best hushpuppies I have ever had along with a crabmeat stuffed Mahi.  Tom went for the side of cow tonight and had a 16oz ribeye.  A couple of cold beers washed it all down along with a piece of Key Lime pie.  That is living.

Tomorrow on to either Hilton Head or Beaufort, SC.

A few pictures from around St Augustine today as we went through.

Wet and Tired

This delivery has gotten off to a bit of a difficult start.  Rain, rain, rain and more rain.  It rained so hard last night it woke me out of a dead sleep about 3 times.  This morning at 7:30am it was just pouring down buckets of rain.

We finally waited as long as we could, but decided if this boat was going to make New York during 2013 we need to start moving north.  So at about 8:45 we untied the lines is driving rain and started making our way on the ICW.  By about 10:00 it finally let up enough that we could run faster than 7kts. 

By about noon  time we finally cleared the St Lucie Inlet at Stuart and got out of the never ending "No Wake and Manatee Zones" and were able to run up on plane.  The boat ran great and we made pretty good time cruising about 15kts/17mph with her single Yanmar diesel.

We originally thought about stopping at Cocoa Beach, but got in there early around 5:30, so we continued another 20 miles up to Titusville.  We arrived at 6:45pm were able to top off with some diesel fuel.  We covered 140 miles today in 10 hours.

It continued to rain off and on all day, but the sun finally came out in the last 2 hours of the trip.  We are hopeful that the worst of the weather is behind us and we get some nice weather to run up to St Augustine tomorrow.

Sorry, again no pictures today.  We couldn't see much past the bow rail to take a picture today anyway.

Y Knot Now

Hello from cloudy and rainy Riviera Beach, FL (just north of West Palm Beach).  I picked up Y Knot Now, a 2007 40-foot Mainship Trawler in Ft Lauderdale this morning.  She is a beautiful boat with a cherry interior and teak holly flooring throughout.  She is powered by a single 440hp Yanmar diesel and a 8.5kw Kohler generator both with about 400 hours.  She is in excellent condition and was ready to begin her trip north.

After a brief safety inspection and a thorough check of all the systems, we got underway just past 1:00pm in the afternoon.  It was very cloudy and windy, but always nice to be making way and smelling some diesel burn.  About 3:30pm as we were waiting for the Camino Real Bridge to open, the rain came... and boy did it come down.  After a 30 minute gully washer, it finally just drizzled the rest of the day.  The drizzle was only an inconvenience as we continued north on the ICW. 

We arrived at Riviera Beach Municipal Marina at 7:15pm or so putting 47 miles under the keel.  We got Y Knot Now tied up in a slip and finished a few odds and ends before heading over to dinner at the Tiki Bar around 8:00pm.  It was not a very eventful day, but a good start to our long trip ahead.  We will need to settle up with the marina in the morning since they were closed when we got in tonight.

We are looking forward to another productive day tomorrow.

Julie Said Yes!

Sorry for the delay, but when you have your head down running full out for 3 days, something has got to give, and the blog was it.

I will try to recap the last 3 days in short order.

First, this might be one of the best boat names I have come across:  "Julie Said Yes!".  I love it.  It sums up how a lot of us ended up having a boat.

My journey started very late on Sunday (4/28).  I flew from Wilmington around 7:45pm up to ISLIP airport on Long Island, NY and didn't get in until 11:30pm.  This not my normal routine as I like to get to the boat early to complete my inspection and get ready for the first leg of the voyage, but prior commitments kept me in Wilmington until late in the day.  Gene, the owner, was very understanding and we did our inspection and had a brief chat, before we called it a night.  His brother Chris had already called it a night, so those introductions would wait until the morning.  All of our dialog leading up to the this point along with a spotless survey led me to believe that there would not be any issues with the boat which turned out to be the case.

We were up at 6:00am the next morning.  I got to meet Gene's brother Chris who was making the passage with us.  Gene and Chris are as good as they come.  Both guys have a great sense of humor, so I knew this was going to be a fun trip.  We were now just waiting on a fuel truck to top off our tanks before we left.

The fuel truck was right on time showing up at 6:30am.  By 7:00 we were topped off and ready to roll.  Just one small issue, Hurricane Sandy has left the great south bay a total mess and Fire Island Inlet is almost impassable.  I had spent a few hours on Sunday afternoon making phone calls to obtain some local knowledge on how to get out the inlet.  I got very lucky and spoke to Capt Paul at Sea Tow.  He agreed to meet up with us at the mouth of the Patchogue River and lead us out the sound and through the inlet.  We waited for Capt Paul to give us a call and at 7:50 we shoved off the dock to begin our journey.

Capt Paul did a great job of leading us out and at 8:50am, we cleared the Fire Island Inlet sea buoy and had nothing but 160 miles of open Atlantic Ocean between us and Cape May, NJ.  The seas were a bit bumpy running 3 feet with an east wind at 10kts.  The 44 Sea Ray took the seas flawlessly and we had a good run down to Cape May.

We came in the Cape May inlet at 2:30 after 170 miles from Patchogue, NY.  The boat was thirsty and needed some more go-go juice to get us the last 72 miles to the top of the C&D canal.  We pulled into Utsch's Marina in Cape May and took on 242 gallons before heading back out.  We were racing to make Summit North Marina before they closed at 6:00pm.  We had called ahead to let them know we needed fuel and we made a slip reservation for the night, so we were feeling really good when we got to the marina at 5:50.  Unfortunately for us the fuel dock was closed (they let the dockhand leave early) and the restaurant was not open on Monday.  I guess they didn't really want us to spend $500 bucks at their marina.  So we turned the boat right around and got back on the C&D and ran a few more miles to the Chesapeake City Marina & Inn.  There was no fuel, but at least we were going to get a nice meal.  The Inn was great and we had a fantastic meal.  By 9:00pm it was all over but the snoring.

The next morning we were up at 5:30am and off the dock at 6:05.  We knew we needed to stop one more time for fuel since we were not able to top off the night before.  We had quite a bit of fog, rain an mist on the Bay all day long, but the Raymarine Radar was really dialed in and we had a clear picture that allowed us to run hard all day.  By 8:15 we had already covered 55 miles and were pulling into the Bay Bridge Marina on Kent Island, MD to take on our last bit of fuel before finishing the Chesapeake Bay and running up the Potomac River.

After the fuel we were on the Bay again at 8:50 making our way for the last 160 miles.  We turned at Point No Point Light into the Potomac River around 11:30.

Then a funny thing happened.  I had given a call to a friend of mine in Wrightsville Beach that I knew was traveling up to DC on his trawler.  He had left our marina about 2 weeks ago.  I gave him a quick call to see if he had made it yet.  Come to find out he was about 10 miles ahead of us heading up the river.  So as luck would have it.  We got a few running shots of each others boats.

We pulled into Belmont Bay Harbor marina at 3:00, right on schedule.  I got to met Julie and we settled "Julie Said Yes" into her new slip.  We finished 452 miles in just 2 days.  By 5:00pm I was in a rental car driving back home to Raleigh.  This was just a great trip that could not have gone any better.  Thanks again to Gene and his brother Chris for a most enjoyable voyage.