After midnight and through the early hours of the morning, the winds remained very light. Yet, with assistance from the gulf stream current, Distant Horizon moved along at a reasonable pace; quietly slipping past Fort Pierce around 3am.
With the sun up, and morning getting ready to turn to afternoon, the winds picked up a little. There was no doubt that I had found the gulf stream axis. Distant Horizon was sailing at 10.0 knots with just the mainsail and jib!
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| Distant Horizon, Personal Best top speed! |
Historically, distance travelled in a day has been measured from noon of one day to noon of the next. I'm not certain, but before the late 1700s when the chronometer was first used to determine longitude, navigation was constrained to following lines of latitude. For favorable winds, most would sail to the Canary Islands and then sail in the trade winds, westward to the Caribbean. At that time, the sextant could give you your latitude with little math, if you shot the sun with the sextant at noon. Other than an offset for the solstice, the angle would equal your latitude.
Today, Distant Horizon would set another Personal Best record. She travelled 163.7 nautical miles in 24 hours (noon-to-noon). I was just north of Cape Canaveral.
As the day went on, the winds continued to drop. By mid afternoon, the winds were down to 3.5 knots. It was another hot, sunny day. I raised the drifter and was able to keep Distant Horizon going about 6.5 knots; again, with help from the gulf stream.
There wasn't much else for me to do. So, I took pictures of the Sargassum floating by. It's olive green colour against the blue water caught my eye. Due to the circular motion of the ocean currents, the Sargassum is generally collected in one area of the Atlantic Ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Young Sea Turtles spend their juvenile years there. The Sea Turtles depend on the Sargassum's buoyancy to help them gain neutral buoyancy as they grow. Young European Eels and American Eels depend on the Sargasso Sea, as well. This clump of Sargassum is called a pod. On the ocean, you can see long lines of Sargassum moving with the ocean currents and wind. These long lines are called mats. Fish use the mats as cover to hide from sea birds.
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| A clump of Sargassum |
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| A small Sargassum mat |
We slid past Daytona Beach late in the afternoon. I couldn't see it, of course. Ft. Lauderdale was the last time I sighted land.
A couple hours later, I was alerted by the sound of rushing water. When I arrived up in the cockpit, I could see a following sea was building. A following sea definitely indicates a bigger weather system is behind me. It could be a large storm several hundred miles away, or a huge thunderstorm just over the horizon.
Quickly putting on my life vest and safety tether, I furled the jib and started the motor. I wanted to set a reef in the mainsail. To do so, I need to motor into the wind. With the #1 reef set, I went forward and raised the staysail. By the time this was completed (let's say 5-6 minutes), I had to set reef #2 in the mainsail because the winds were building. Safely back in the cockpit, I turned back on course; shut the engine off, and set the Hydrovane to steer the course.
The wind was now blowing 23 knots and gusting over 30 knots. It was just after sunset. I was prepared for the worst, but I couldn't see anything. Not that it was so dark my vision was useless, rather... it was a clear sky, no clouds and lots of stars. I was expecting a thunderstorm or large dark clouds. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. I'm not sure why the wind picked up from 8 knots to 23 knots in 15 minutes. There was a certain amount of angst trying to reason this out. It didn't matter, I was prepared for a gale.
An hour later, the wind dropped to 13 knots and eventually back to 10-11 knots. It was all very anti-climatic. I took it as a good exercise in being prepared.
8-7-2015
Around midnight, a huge thunderstorm appeared straight ahead. I had a reef in the mainsail from the earlier exercise. The staysail was still flying. For two days, the NOAA weather radio has warned about Thunderstorms between St. Augustine and Jacksonville. I was just south of St. Augustine. I had the sense the next day was going to be a tough one: hard work; little rest.
I was already tired and did not want to deal with the thunderstorm. So, I heaved to, which is a technique of slowing a sailboat's forward progress. Once done, The boat does not have to be actively steered, by me or the Hydrovane. My plan is to just sit here and let the thunderstorm pass by, all while the gulf stream carried us north. The winds quickly built to well over 20 knots. Being hoved to, Distant Horizon just sat there nice and calm... not heeled over with the wind.
I cooked some dinner. After doing the dishes, I was tired. In anticipation of the coming day or two, I chose not to continue. Instead, I would take this time to get a little more rest.
By checking with the radar and AIS, I knew there were no ships or other boats around me. I set alarms on both. So, if a boat did show up, the alarm would go off and warn me with plenty of time to safely observe or maneuver. I also set the alarm on my watch for 1 hour; hoping to get a 40 minute power nap. We would remain hoved to while I got some more rest.
Through the rest of the night, and morning, everything remained fair with decent weather (no more thunderstorms) and a good fresh breeze.
During that afternoon, the winds were steady, around 20 knots and not gusting. The sky was filled with cumulous clouds; not much blue sky was visible.
I could have sailed on the Mainsail alone, but that would be too slow. I should have a heavy weather staysail, which would be used at this time, but I don't. So, I put the tiny storm sail up instead. The boat balance surprisingly well. I took over the steering from the Hydrovane. It was doing a good job, but the seas were 8-10 foot and I felt I could steer better; being able to read the rollers (waves). I much prefer big rollers to steep waves anyway. I hand steered the boat for the next few hours.
Passing Jacksonville was uneventful. With all the NOAA weather drama, I had just one close encounter with a thunderstorm. I was now closing in on Savannah, GA.
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