Our Luck Ran Out

All good things eventually come to and end and so did our luck with Bonnie Lee. We actually had pretty good weather to start the day. Seas about 2 to 3 feet with wind from the south, so we had the waves on the stern. We rounded the sea buoy at Cape Romain around 8:45. We had visions of a 250 mile day up to Beaufort, NC. It was not meant to be. At 10:00am we got an alarm on the Starboard pod; "High Gear Temp". We had to shut down the engine and limp in on one. Seas increased to about 4 to 5 feet with some big swells in there. We changed our course to Cape Fear and came into Southport Marina last night at 5:00pm after 146 miles and 10 hours. We made the best of a bad deal. We will run on one engine up the ICW to Wrightsville Beach today, about 35 miles where we will have more access to marine services. We should be able to have someone on the boat Monday to take a look and see if they can resolve the issue.

Favorable Seas take us to Charleston, SC

Another successful day on Bonnie Lee. We pulled out of St Augustine this morning at 6:55am to a beautiful sunrise and flat calms seas AGAIN! We set the one waypoint for Charleston Harbor which was 214 miles away. At 4:00pm on the nose we hit the inlet marker and came into Charleston Harbor. Seas were flat for the most part today, but by around 1:00pm the wind started to pick up and the seas began to build to 3 to 4 feet. They were not bad at all since it was a following sea, but tomorrow might be another story as the wind is supposed to shift to the north. We are tied up at Charleston City Marina tonight. It is hot as blazes here with temps in the low 90's and it feels like 100% humidity. I am wetter than the boat by the time I am done washing it.


A cargo ship this morning heading to Jacksonville.


This was a car carrier also heading to Jacksonville.


Not much to take pictures of today so....




You know I must have been bored to take a picture of a sailboat.


Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC

On to St Augustine

We had another successful day aboard the Bonnie Lee III. The A/C repair man came this morning around 9:30. He checked the A/C units and everything seemed to be working within spec. He then turned his attention to the generator which was cutting off due to lack of water flow. At first we thought it was an impeller, but it turned out it was a bad pressure switch. He got that all sorted out and replace the switch and we were underway from Port Canaveral at 11:00am.

We got out around the Cape and the seas were ideal. The seas were flat calm with light winds which made for another absolutely beautiful day at sea. We ran 132 miles up to St Augustine where we are staying at the Conch House Marina tonight. We got in just before 5:00pm. Tomorrow it will be on to Charleston, SC as the forecast is for another pretty good day off-shore. Just a few pictures from today.


A casino boat heading out of Port Canaveral.


The helm of the 541


Seas were so flat I had to take a picture.


Coming into the channel of the marina with the lighthouse in the background.




The Conch House Marina

Bonnie Lee: Ft Lauderdale, FL to Buffalo, NY

7/6/15 - I hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend. Time for the work to begin again as I boarded a Meridian 541 in Lighthouse Point, FL today on my way to Buffalo, NY. Trip should take about 2 weeks and cover about 2,000 miles. The SPOT locator will be on and I will try and post some pictures and a write up of the first day at sea tomorrow.

7/7/15 - We had a great first day aboard Bonnie Lee III. We departed this morning around 7:15am and headed out Hillsboro Inlet. Seas were 2 to 3 feet and a bit choppy, but not really bad at all with the wind and waves coming from the Southeast. About 2 hours into the trip we had to dodge a huge thunderstorm cell. Fortunately the radar picked it up very well and I just ran east about 8 miles or so to get out around it. Once on the trailing edge of the cell I could start to head back north and gradually head east again toward the shore line. I haven't had to dodge a Florida thunderstorms in awhile, but it worked out very well today.

After the close encounter with rain and lighting, the seas got calm and we had a great run up the coast. The boat is running well except it is having a few A/C problems so we called ahead today to make arrangements to get the units looked at in Cape Canaveral. We pulled into Ocean Club Marina at 3:00pm today after 165 miles. We hope to get those fixed quickly and be on our way early tomorrow. Not too much to report today other than a few sea turtles and a couple of dolphins off-shore. The water was really beautiful today.


Departing Lighthouse Point this morning


Very hard to see, but we had a double rainbow as we went out around the storm cell


Tied up in Ocean Club Marina at Port Canaveral.