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Heading South

rolf

Rolf Peterson
I am heading south from Solomons MD tomorrow morning with an initial goal of Beaufort NC, then Jacksonville FL, then Lauderdale, Marathon, then East or West ???? I plan to see Jeff and his boat in Beaufort, I've seen Jay Green's boat (great hard dodger!!), met with Jim Cleary in Annapolis, chatting with Jeff Kane as he moves south, and I look forward to meeting other Morgan owners on my way. Let me know if you are in my path, some of you already have. Randy M is along as crew and is considering an M382 for singlehandling, but has been sailing in San Diego for years, so I'm expecting to learn a lot.
 
Rolf
Have a safe passage! Hope you get fair weather. Norfolk to Beaufort is about 200 miles with lots of places to anchor up in between. Good luck.

Jim
 
Thanks Jim, yes, things are going well. I am in Beaufort NC and have been spending time with Jeff Lovett. The crew with me so far has had a medical emergency come up in his family and returned home to Raleigh yesterday, but the good news is Jeff decided to come along with me on my "delivery" south for a week +, so we'll be leaving in the early morning freeze here from Beaufort heading to the Masonboro inlet in one daylight trip, then down to Southport where we'll pick up another crew member from Minnesota. Plans are to jump off for another run to Charleston (but weather not looking as good as yesterday), inside to Beaufort SC, then depending on weather, outside or wait for a jump to St. Mary's River. After that its Fort Pierce, then Miami. No plans after that. It might be aggressive, and we'll be completely watching the weather and winds all the way down so we can be safe.

Chris - if all goes well, we'll be stopping in the St. Mary's river maybe over the weekend, but we will be watching the weather. If we stop for long, it will be because of weather or necessary repairs.
 
Seems to me we need some photos of the trip and of you & Jeff, eh?

I did that trip in November & it must be a little chilly now?

My favorite stop was Jekyll Island.

I hope you guys have some fun! We wish we were there instead of the record setting rain in Oregon.
 
Been a very cold trip thus far. 22 degrees F, 20kt winds, freezing spray, and ice on deck during or off shore jump from Beaufort to Masonboro Inlet. Fortunately that is only a 10 hour trip. Started today with snow flurries and gusts to 25kts in Georgetown, SC. Currently motoring towards Ashley Marina in Charleston, SC. Our plan is to jump back offshore early tomorrow morning and come in St. Mary's or St. John's sometime Monday afternoon.

Based on long range forecasts it looks like we will me motoring south in the FL ICW next week.

Looking forward to some warmer temps.

Will get some images posted when internet allows.
 
NW through Sunday night. Becoming light and variable early Monday. Looks like we will end up motoring into FL.
 
Jeff & Rolf
At least the NW winds gave you a reach instead of beating into it. Good luck. Stay Safe.

Jim
 
It was 39 degrees this morning on my back porch ! and winds from the north Winter ! But now at 3PM its 67 degrees.
I want my summer back already. Florida
 
32 degrees last night on the boat here in Green Cove Springs Marina. 63 degrees at 3 PM.
Ditto to what Lee says.
 
Rolf - If I can help you in anyway when you reach St Marys GA & Amelia Island (Fernandina beach, FL) area; email me. I'm here until Feb 2
dlahlers51@gmail.
Dave
 
Thanks Dave - We went offshore and the weather and conditions enabled us to go in at St. Augustine - so we missed Fernandina beach and St. Mary's.

We arrived in Miami at Dinner Key Marina at 10:55 am Thursday after a blustery, rainy run overnight among the barges, cruise ships, dredging operations, and huge private yachts. A HUGE thank you to Jeff Lovett who joined us in Beaufort on a whim, what a great source of knowledge and experienced both with the boat and the route. I have been very lucky on my trip so far.

Staying in Miami on the moorings at Dinner Key for awhile. I will likely push on to Pensacola in the next month or so.
 
Rolf
Very glad to hear you guys made it safely to Florida. This is not a great time of year to make that trip.

Jim
 
We had an exciting overnight to Miami. There were heavy gusts, but my wind instruments stopped working so we don't know how strong. We ran under the HydroVane, but the gusts unbalanced the sails regularly so the Vane rudder struggled. Eventually facing too much back and forth searching, we then hand steered for awhile. Attempting to start the underdeck autopilot, it frizzed out, most likely from the moisture that was appearing under the lens, so, while we got it back on line, it would not respond to directions. Meanwhile hand steering became difficult as the HydroVane rudder put a lot of pressure on the water coming off the main rudder. We eventually took off the Vane rudder and completed the journey comfortably hand steering the rest of the way (thank goodness there were 3 of us). These boats are really very comfortable and take good care of you if you sail them well. I will be looking into my installation of the HydroVane to see if it can be corrected to accommodate the conditions we were in. It is offset to starboard and could be too close to the main rudder and therefore picking up backwash. Overall conditions were not extreme, just extremely variable. I would guess 20 kts with gusts to 30, rain, a front passing, and waves choppy but very manageable. Wind from the NW so not much swell.
 
Rolf
Those are wonderful photos. Jeff did a great job. Photos taken offshore never seem to portray the true conditions you were in. Looks like you all ate well. Hope it is warm for you in Miami.

Jim
 
Thanks Jim. Yes, Miami at 78 is nice, though the water was cold for me, Ben swam for quite a while.
 
Rolf - thanks to you and Jeff for the photo album ... that's great and I recognized a lot of the sights from my trips down. It looked pretty darned cold (!).

It's funny, I was at the Seattle Boat Show last weekend. I was talking with the Monitor & Hydrovane folks quite a bit because we are considering a wind vane. The Hydrovane folks found out I had a Morgan 38 and promptly showed me a photo of your boat with the Hydrovane installed (!). I noticed you were using it in some of your photos in the photo album. This is thread drift, so I'll start another thread in the main 'Morgan 38 Forum' because I'm curious how you (and other wind vane users) like their rigs.

Cheers, and congrats to you and Jeff for persevering!
-Mark
 
Thanks Mark, yes, there were some cold parts of the trip, thought not as cold as where the boat has been every winter for the last ? years - Wisconsin! I will respond in the other thread re the HydroVane.
 
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