We left Ft. Lauderdale at sunrise with near perfect conditions! Seas were less than 1′ with a 10-12 second period making for a nice, smooth ride. So much so that I even put some lines out to see what was biting! After setting the lines out, I stepped back inside for just 5 minutes and when I came back, I noticed that one of the rods was sitting sideways. I thought, that’s strange and as I got closer, I saw that ALL of the line on the reel was gone!! In that short time frame, something hit the lure, spooled out 1000 yards of line and left me with an empty reel! I was left with having to add new line on the reel and the knowledge to never leave the lines in the future…
The sunrises and sunsets while underway are just magnificent and never get old! It’s probably my two favorite times of the day when underway. You’re out in the middle of the ocean, no sight of land, the engines are just quietly purring along and you’re left to just soak in the truly amazing sky. You’ll find a pattern in our posts with lots of shots of the sunrises and sunsets because we just can’t get enough of them!
As the day slowly drifted into night time, the sunset was just spectacular. We hoped that the night shift would be as uneventful as the previous 12 hours but mother nature had other ideas for us…
It was just before midnight and I was on watch. Leslie was sound asleep behind me on the settee and I was watching the radar as this pink blob appeared to our West and slowly moved closer to our position. I watched the wind gauge as well as it slowly increased from less than 10 kts of wind to 20 kts, then 30 kts with gusts to nearly 40 kts across our bow! As the pink blob on the radar approached, rain started falling and then the rain starting blowing sideways. If I turned on one of the search lights, the rain was blowing horizontal and the waves picked up considerably!
The storm, that wasn’t in the forecast, lasted a couple of hours before moving east of our position. The seas flattened out and the winds calmed down and by morning, we were welcomed with an amazing sunrise with high, wispy clouds and the sun trying to break thru to welcome a new day.
Later that afternoon, we appoached the inlet to Charleston Harbor and were welcomed to the same sights that many before us have seen, some all the way back to the civil war!
Overall, the trip went very well. We picked up a very nice “push” from the Gulf Stream allowing us to arrive quicker than we had planned. Total trip time was 37 hours, 41 minutes. Distance covered = 414 nautical miles; Average speed for the trip was 10.99 kts. For those wondering, multiply knots by 1.15 to convert to statute miles.
