Cruising NJ to Fort Lauderdale
Sailing With Bruce Luis and Val Oct 2024 New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale
The Boat: Second Mates | Sloop | Length (AOL)- 39' | Beam - 13' | Mast Height – 54' | Power – 56 HP Yanmar diesel
The Crew: Bruce Schwartz | Luis Oliveira | Val Uzum
The Journey
10/7/24 – Over night at Bruce’s Condo in AC and provisioning at BJs – Dinner at famous White House Subs in AC.
10/08/24 - Left Atlantic City at 10:00 AM under sail and engine with light NW breeze that soon after died down and shifted to S. we had to roll the jib.
We were visited by a small yellowish bird, that stayed with us for a while hunting flies.
Around 3:30 PM off Cape May the breeze picked up to 12/13 knots from the SW and we were able to unfurl the Jib doing about 6 knots with engine at 2,200 RPM.
Also, at 4:00 AM started my watch after Bruce and Val. SW breeze at 10 knots, jib up, engine at 2,500 RPM doing 6.5 knots.
11:30 AM - 12 Knots gusting 14 with some ocean swells, engine at 2,000 RPM doing 6.5 knots. Clear weather no clouds, a little cool, beautiful weather. Arrived at anchorage in front of the Norfolk Naval Hospital ~6:30pm 10/9/24. Nice sunset. Watched the cruise liner head out.
10/10/24 -7:45 AM - left the anchorage in front of the Naval Hospital under power only. And headed down the intercostal which in this area is called the ”Ditch”.
Very crowded area with several barges and some pleasure boats.
Gilmerton bridge was under repairs, and we had to wait for about 40 minutes for the bridge to open. There was also a train bridge next it to the south it was closed but opened soon after we got there.
Had to wait again at the Great Bridge Lock and in the back and forth we ran aground hard, it took a bit of effort to get off it and we almost lost the Lock entry which is on the hour.
Around 7:00 PM we dropped anchor a little south of Coinjock, very remote area, lots of stars in the sky and had turkey burgers for dinner, plus mashed potatoes and salad.
10/11/24 - Raised anchor at 7:45 AM a lot of mud on the chain and anchor.
Had a small delay at the Alligator River Bridge, waiting for it to open, very friendly bridge tender. At this bridge they ask for the boat document number, either Coast Guard or State Registration.
Have been using the jib in the wider areas of the ICW.
2:30 - we got to the Alligator River Pungo River Canal at 2:30 PM with one knot of current against us. Tall trees on both sides, no wind, Rolled the jib.
3:45 - Fairfield Bridge at about 60% of the length of the canal coming from the north.
6:30 PM dropped anchor about a mile beyond the end of the above canal. Very peaceful and still.
10/12/24 - 8:00 AM left anchorage bound to Oriental. In the Pungo sound/ Pungo River we were able to put the main and jib up and sailed for a couple of hours with the engine on idle or at 1,500. Nice sailing with 16 knots of wind and basically flat water, doing 6 to 7 knots.
3:45 PM arrived at the Oriental free public dock. Took a shower and we all went for a walk, later had dinner at the M&M Restaurant and unfortunately, they had ran out of their famous carrot cake. We had a huge brownie sundae.
10/13/24 - 8:00 AM left the fuel dock at Oriental, on the way to Mile Hammock Bay NC, where Camp Lejeune is.
Some shaling on the ICW around Bogue sound. Need to follow chart closlely. Aqua Maps very usefull.
At 5:15 PM had to wait until 6:00 for the Onslow bridge to open, as it only opens on the hour.
6:45 - arrived at Mile Hammock Bay and anchored. For dinner had
Top Ramen noodles and leftover chicken. Val tried his luck at fishing with success in catching several Catfish, throw backs.
10/14/24 - Left the anchorage at 6:45 heading to Southport.
5:45 PM - Arrived at Southport. Free docs at the provisioning Co.
Nice night at free docs in town. Walked to restaurant on water. Passed film crew making boating film. Nice sunset.
Sailing With Bruce Luis and Val Oct 2024 New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale
10/15/24 -8:00 AM left the fuel dock at Southport with cold north wind around 12/15 knots. Went out the Cape Fear channel outside destination Hilton Head
Most of the afternoon was with no wind.
The forecast called for NW 20/25 later in the night and 2/3’ seas, this up to 20 miles offshore, stronger beyond that.
Extremely calm, eerie lake calm in the afternoon and evening until 4:00 AM of 10/16/24, then the breeze picked up and built to a strong 25 gusting over 30 with a couple of 37 knots, very bumpy, we reefed the main to the second reef, but couldn’t do it well, the outhaul couldn’t be tightened properly due to the strong winds and the jib could only be rolled to roughly a 100, this because the sheet was caught under the dinghy. We were overpowered and going very fast.
The boat chart plotter had the coarse cutting through halfway the Hilton Head inlet, as we approached it we could see a series of what looked like shallow breakers and I mentioned it to Bruce, but the chart showed a depth of 20’ and Bruce felt confident it was deep enough. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, and we ran aground badly, fortunately it was a sand bottom, but it took many long minutes to finally get the boat free.
The first reaction was to make a “U” turn, but with engine at full throttle the boat was hardly moving, luckily, we still had the sails up and I was able to keep the jib sheeted in tight until it back winded and helped turn the boat. However, it rotated again towards the shallow end and at times it felt it was going backwards. We spun a number of times as the breakers kept pushing us more into the shallow water.
In the middle of this confusion, the engine, because it was at full throttle, overheated and stopped running, I cranked it a few seconds later and luckily it started.
We kept working with the sails to both lean the boat and to use as additional power to move it and after many very long minutes we were finally pointed in the right direction and at this point I eased the jig and asked Val to the same with main, as we were at a beam to the wind, with the additional power of the sails we were able to move to deeper water.
10/16/24 -6:30 PM we arrived at Hilton Head Skull Creek Marina.
Ubered to a shopping Ct where we provisioned and went to dinner at a cool tex/mex place
10/17/24 -9:45 left fuel dock at Skull Creek Marina in Hilton Head, heading south on the Intracoastal.
Had a nice day, sunny with mostly light NE winds covered by the tree line.
6:00 PM, we anchored at Rainbow Bend, all marsh land around us and at night a few lights in the distance.
10/18/24 - 7:05 AM we raised anchor and soon after raise the main motor sailing through the twists and turns of the Intracoastal. The main proved to be a better choice because it’s easier to handle than the jib and still works downwind (wind consistently from the N or NE).
We were undecided about going outside or not, the wind is NE 17/20 for the day outside and waves first 2/3’ and later 4/5’. We decided to stay inside, but at the last minute when going by the inlet we made a last-minute decision and went outside.
The forecast called for 3/4’ and 16/20 knots. We got that for a few hours, but then it piped up to 20/25 and the seas got a little bigger, 5/6 feet. Bruce was planning to make for St Simons inlet and spend the day in Jekyll Island, but it was only ~2:30 when we approached the inlet and the inlet needed to be approached from the south and the channel was ~ 2 miles long so we decided to go for St Mary’s.
Close to St Mary’s it picked up to 25/30 with occasional gusts of 37 with seas up to 7 feet.
We were sailing with the main only with one reef, all downwind just slightly to the port quarter and with a preventer that Bruce went to install and both myself and Val worried and hopping he wouldn’t slip, but the old salt even asked for pictures in the middle of all the rolling back and forth of the boat.
We finally came in Saint Mary’s and anchor on the Georgia side of the harbor at 6:20 PM.
10/19/24 -7:25 AM anchor up, had a bit of struggle to get it up as it was stuck on the bottom. Continued In ICW. We raised the main soon after and motor sailed. Kept the first reef, a good thing as the wind blew N 25 knots for most of the trip except when we were under the cover of shore trees.
Val took his first practice at hand steering in the Nocatee area of the intracoastal.
Arrived at the bridge of Lions in St Augustine, just north of the marina, at 4:01 and the bridge tender would not open the bridge until 4:30. We got a slip at the Saint Augustine Municipal Marina.
Had a nice walk around the town. Stopped by an art show with some amazing paintings and met the artists. Nice dinner at the OC White’s (town was crowded).
10/20/24 – After a great Breakfast at Morgans Bar on the waterfront, Luis rented a car and departed the trip to head home and take care of his cat.
Trouble with Auto pilot as rainwater seems to have leaked in (Not functioning and incessant beeping). Tough getting out of slip as strong current.
Fueled up and continued with Just Val and I (Bruce). Set off in the ICW to finish the trip to FLL. Even though the weather was nice, the outside routes did not look promising with very high seas.
Anchored in Smyrna Beach. Dinner shrimp on the Barbi
Val caught some Catfish.
10/21/24 -Auto pilot fixed after a night in desiccant. Proceeded down ICW (Weather forecast was not good for any outside passages- high seas) motor sailing in a good N wind with the Jib.
Passed Cape Canaveral and Anchored just N of Melborn.
Had freshly caught Catfish for dinner.
10/22/24 ICW -Anchored in Peck Lake just south of Stuard
Steak and potatoes for diner
10/23/24 -Took the ICW all the way to Hillsboro Inlet where we anchored. 21 bridges
10/24/24 -Outside to Port Everglades and to an anchorage in Hallandale Lake in front of Bob Shuty’s condo. Cleaned up, unloaded and headed home.
Another great trip.
