24Feb2013

The weather forecast for today looks perfect. I was going to hold up at St Simons for a few days letting this weather system play itself out but today is calm, sunny and warm. (Oxford comma?) "Move when the conditions are right, stay put when they are not." I stopped at the Golden Isle Marina for fuel, water, and what I hope will be a lifetime supply of transmission fluid. I left the marina with the engine at low revs, but I had good speed. The current was going out. Awhile later I noticed that my speed was 7.0 knots. Holy Cow that's fast! Just for fun I turned 180 degrees, and the speed was, conveniently, exactly 1.0 knots. The boat was going 4.0kts and the current was 3.0kts. Then for fun I speeded up the engine, and for a bit I was going faster than 9 knots. Zoom! Even at that it took 1h:45min to get out of the long channel and head south.
  The forecast for today is NW 5-10 veering to NE 5-10, tonight E 10, tomorrow E 10/15 - E 15. Unless the forecast changes this afternoon I will bypass Jacksonville and go down to Ponce De Leon Inlet south of Daytona Beach. I want to get there about mid-day, before the south-east wind. At 14:00 there are 101nm to go.
  We are trying to get a website up and running. Please look it up: adventtwo.blogspot.com  Note the two t's in adventtwo. Go to the upper right corner and click on "Location" I have a satellite device called a "SPOT". With it I send my location. For example, when I turned south out of the St Simons channel I sent the location. It was about 10:15. Change from "map" to "satellite" and zoom in. You can plainly see the deeper water of the channel, and why I had to go so far out to get to deep water. I typically send the location when I leave, every four hours, and when I arrive. That is  adventtwo.blogspot.com
  Bill Doar
  17:00 I just heard on the VHF radio. A natural resources airplane reported to the Coast Guard seeing a debris field, oil slick a mile long and floating life preservers and a life ring about 15nm from me. It is ahead but upwind so I cannot pass through to see if I see anything.
18:00  Pinching, motorsailing to maintain course and speed. If the wind starts going to the south and I can't make it I will turn and head for Jax. No problem. Otherwise everything is OK. 150ml fluid in 8 hours. I bought 6 qts today. This debris field is really something. Now, 17:45 the airplane is leaving scene.