We spend all our time here working on Questeria. It’s time we take her out of the slip and enjoy her. It’s a nice day for a sail. We might go out for a few hours or a few days.
Newfound Harbor
We back out of the slip at around 1:00 PM. It has been a long time since we have been away from the slip. It is a beautiful day on the water. We head towards Newfound Harbor, at bearing of about 250º T. The wind is light (6-8 knots), out of the NNE. A good direction for sailing to Newfound Harbor.
We put up the sails. This takes a while because our Mack Pack is worn out and we are using our old sail cover. Then the Lazy Jacks get hung up. It is also difficult to stay headed into the wind without a wind instrument. Ours has not worked for over a year now.
We finally get the mainsail up and unfurl the jib. We shut down the engine and sail towards Newfound Harbor at 2-4 knots. We decide to anchor out for at least one night.
At this pace we will make it eventually. We’re not in a hurry, but we would like to get there before dark. We start the engine and motor-sail at 6 knots.
We enter the harbor and anchor near picnic island at 6:30 PM. We check WindFinder to see the weather forecast for the next few days. The winds tomorrow look too light for sailing, but Saturday looks perfect. We’ll stay here and check out our SSB and watermaker, and leave on Saturday.
Checking Things Out
Today’s weather is great for being at anchor. It rains at 1:40 AM, and we have to close up everything. It doesn’t rain for long, and now it’s sunny with a slight breeze.
We haven’t taken Questeria out for almost a year, so we’ll use this opportunity to check out our equipment. We want to check our Single Side Band (SSB) radio, because it doesn’t work well in the slip, surrounded by buildings. We don’t like to run our watermaker at the slip because the filters get clogged.
We send and receive email using the SSB radio. It works great. This verifies both the transmit and receive are working. We also receive some weather faxes.
We also try the watermaker. Normally you have to pickle a watermaker that is not being used, otherwise the membrane goes bad. But we have an automatic watermaker that flushes with fresh water every five days. The problem is that the boat was stored for several weeks after hurricane Irma with the batteries turned off. We haven’t tried it since then.
We start it. It gives us an error. We restart it and it doesn’t work at first, but then starts making water at about 7.5 gallons per hour.
Not everything is working. Our rudder stuffing box leaks while underway and our dripless shaft seal is wearing down, and leaks occasionally. Our house batteries are not keeping up like they should. We are down to only two solar panels and the batteries are getting old. We have to run the generator to charge the batteries enough to keep the refrigerator working.
Apparent Wind
We start planning our trip back. We would like to sail if the wind is right. We look at the forecast on WindFinder and receive a GRIB file for tomorrow and Sunday. NOAA National Weather Service calls for winds from the South, at 10-15 knots, becoming Southwest at 5-10 knots on Saturday and Southwest at 5-10 knots on Sunday. Windfinder shows the wind dying out on Sunday, so we decide to leave on Saturday.
We start discussing our course and the apparent wind. We take out our Maptech ChartKit: Florida East Coast and the Keys. The recommended route shows a course of 79º M. We need true. We can use the conversion on the chart compass rose. It has variation of 4° 30′ in 2003, with an annual increase of 8′. 15*8=120, or 2°, so we have a -6.5° adjustment for a true course of 73°. Another way to get a true heading is to use the CrowdMag app on our iPhone. It says we have a declination of -6.1° so we need to go 73º T.
We discuss the apparent wind that we will have if the forecast is right and I show Fran the Apparent Wind Calculator on www.questeria.info Tools For Cruisers Utilities.
We plug in the numbers and come up with this table.
| Hour | TWS | TWD | AWS | AWA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 EDT | 9.7 kts | 132° | 13.4 kts | 38° |
| 8 EDT | 12.8 kts | 155° | 14.6 kts | 60° |
| 11 EDT | 14.1 kts | 171° | 14.4 kts | 76° |
| 14 EDT | 11.1 kts | 186° | 10.3 kts | 84° |
| 17 EDT | 5.5 kts | 215° | 3.6 kts | 71° |
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On Sunday the wind is forecasted to be Southwest (225°) 5-10 knots. That will give us an Apparent Wind Speed of 3.7 knots and an Apparent Wind Angle of 108°.
We conclude that the wind direction is good either Saturday or Sunday, but the wind speed on Sunday may be too light. We will go on Saturday.
Saturday
We get up and check the weather. Our wind instrument is not working, but it seems stronger than predicted. We check the National Data Buoy Center – Sombrero Key, FL. There is a problem and none of the buoys are reporting. The forecast says the winds are supposed to lay down later. We’ll wait and check the wind later.
It’s 2:00 PM, the buoys are still not reporting and the wind still seems higher than expected. We decide to stay until tomorrow. Tomorrow’s forecast shows winds too light to sail, but it should be fine for motoring.
Sunday
We pull the anchor at 8:30 AM and head out the channel. The wind seems stronger than forecasted. It takes about an hour to get out of the harbor. The winds and seas are higher than expected. The wind is from the south, rather than the southwest, as predicted, and it is higher than the 5-10 knot forecast. Seas are higher than 1 foot and the waves are hitting us on the beam, so we are rocking.
We decide to put up the sails, if only as a stabilizer. It takes a while, because we are rocking so much. We have to secure the loose items and the dinghy. We bring up the main and it helps the rocking immensely. We unfurl the jib, and motor sail at 6 knots, 78º T.
The seas are calming down and the wind is decreasing, and shifting more to the SW, as predicted. At this course, we are afraid we will jibe. We decide to change course to get a better point of sail. We change course to 85º T. We turn off the engine and sail at 4-5 knots.
After about an hour, we do a controlled jibe and change course to 6º T, to head towards our marina. We continue sailing for another 30 minutes. Then we drop our sails and motor into the marina.
Here is a screenshot of Garmin HomePort showing our route and track. Notice how we deviated from the route to get a better sail in.
Back in the Slip
We get back to the slip in the afternoon. It was a successful trip. We had a good sail. We found some problems, but most things are working.