The forecast called for rain starting in the afternoon, then pretty much all day Saturday (this system supposedly coming in off the coast), so I spent the initial parts of the day doing what I needed to do “outside”. Mainly that was prepping for possible 35-knot winds by adding extra lines, fenders, and anti-chafe gear to the boat. I also put an extra line on the solar panels to hold them down, not wanting to rely on the little bungee cords that I normally used.
I also prepped the boat for offshore sailing, expecting (based on the forecast) to head outside on Sunday morning for an overnight passage to Charleston. This would allow me to skip the very miserable ICW in Georgia which meanders all over the place through swamps and marshland. You can put 50 miles on your boat but only get 30 miles further north along the coast. There are also very strong currents and high tides to deal with. Nicholay and I could only avoid part of it on the way down in December so I new that I wanted to avoid it if possible.
This offshore prepping meant removing my inflatable paddleboard from the deck (so it wouldn’t get damaged by waves coming over the bow), checking that all my jerry cans and the dinghy were secure, and just giving the boat a general look-over to make sure all rigging was secure and things wouldn’t come loose in a seaway.
After that I headed into town to try out the coffee shop so I could get caught up on my blog (now three days behind).
After a few hours of that, I went back to the marina to see if my anchor roller had arrived. It had, so I took it to the boat to see if it were the right size. I didn’t plan to install it until I was next at anchor (because otherwise the 55 lb anchor was in the way), but I sized it up the best I could. It appears to be the right size, if not a bit too wide. We’ll see.
After that I went back into town to grab a delicious lunch at this little Greek/Israeli place and worked some more on my blog. Then I knocked out some laundry, and on the way back to the boat got a call from Andrei who needed help with his resume for jobs he was applying for in Colorado. (His girlfriend, Ashlyn, got a job out there, and he wants to join her.) So, the rest of the night was spent collaborating on that using Google Docs. (It was pretty cool how we could both be working on the same document at the same time and see what the other was doing in real time.)
A bit about this marina: It is located right in the heart of little downtown Fernandina Beach. It mainly consists of two long docks which parallel the river/ICW. Normally, marinas are sort of laid out with big slips in one section and smaller slips in another, so there is a natural segregation of the huge yachts from the lesser boats. But here, with everyone parallel parking, size didn’t matter, so all different size and value of boats were intermingled. That was one thing.
The other was that the dock was completely open to the public, and it seemed to be the (especially) evening thing to do for all the tourists to come and tour the dock. It was sort of weird, like all the boats were on display or we were in a boat show.
Right opposite Serendipity was the biggest boat in the marina, a 150′ mega yacht. It was so big it actually had two gangways going to it from the dock! It was the best-looking boat in the marina, right across from probably the most beat-up boat in the marina (mine)! That surprisingly didn’t bother me, though, because my 40-year-old, beat-up boat was allowing me to go on quite the adventure, and I had absolute freedom to go where and when I liked. I doubt that many of the other boat owner’s were in such a position (or allowed themselves that kind of lifestyle). And, I did have people ask about Serendipity, mainly the “Sitka, AK” home port part.
Despite the whole adventure aspect of what I’m doing, one thing that I’ve certainly come to realize over the past four weeks is how difficult single-handing is! I knew that it would be challenging at times to sail single-handed, and I knew that getting in and out of marinas single-handed would be terrifying most of the time. But what I didn’t realize was just how tiring it is! I have to do everything (cook, clean, hoist, navigate, do the dishes, laundry, repair everything that’s broken, etc.). I have to plan everything. I have to decide everything. There is no immediate moral support or someone to bounce ideas off of, or someone to point out a flawed way of thinking. And, when I get to a place to visit, there is no one to share it with (in person).
One of the most arduous things is being at the wheel all day long when transiting the ICW. The autopilot is good enough to let me jump below to refill a glass of water or gather snacks, but not much else. Because there isn’t good enough visibility forward when sitting at the helm, I have to stand at the wheel 95% of the time. And, with my deep draft, it is tedious having to almost constantly cross-check two different apps on my iPad and my chart plotter to ensure I don’t drift into shallow water and run aground.
It just seems like there is never a break from having to do something. I’m sure contributing to that is my desire to get north away from the hurricanes as soon as possible. If not, there were a few times I could have just hung out for a day or two (or three) and relaxed at anchor. I’m hoping that once I get far enough north, there will be more days like that. Because up to now it hasn’t really been…fun. It has been exciting, scary, memorable, challenging, and rewarding. But not really fun, yet.
It has reminded me of some very challenging missions I had in the Coast Guard in Alaska, where all of my experience, skills, and concentration were needed to ensure a safe outcome. Exhausting, but with a sense of accomplishment. Rewarding, but not really fun. Too much at stake, too much stress.
A large part of it, I’m sure, is how new all this is to me. I’ve had theories and ideas about how I was going to do this or that on the boat, but I haven’t really tried them until now. Some of them work, others don’t. So, I’m learning the boat, learning techniques, learning shortcuts. When all those click into place, things will likely be less stressful. (I’ve already gotten pretty good at basic anchoring, for example. Oh, and bleeding the engine!) 🙂
So, I’m trying to give myself some leeway–some time–to get used to the whole thing, to let things settle down into my new life before making any judgments about it.
Solo sailing is no joke. SO much to be done, and only one person to do it.
Yes, thought there’d be a break from the management and single-parent responsibilities, but they’ve just been replaced by boat and navigating responsibilities. 🙂