Peacocks and Pelicans

After fifty hours and 33 minutes the first leg of our winter trip is complete. We left Brunswick on Saturday, Nov 12 at 9AM. We passed under the Sidney Lanier Bridge, cruised past St Simons light house and three hours later we were in the Atlantic and headed south—the two of us and a guest. Randy, a fellow sailor from Dock 6 joined us for the trip. He was a big help, a great crew member and fun to have on board. We spent two moonlit nights on the ocean and witnessed two glorious and very welcome sunrises. Monday afternoon, we pulled into Ft Pierce inlet with great trepidation. The inlet can be the “inlet from Hell” with huge, erratic waves that toss the boat about like a cork, especially on a falling tide. As it was, we approached the inlet 3 hours into a falling tide! It wasn’t planned that way; we were supposed to arrive before high tide but the wind just wasn’t cooperative. Luck was with us and our worries were for naught, the inlet was calm.
The only excitement during the trip occurred sometime Monday morning. Passing Cape Canaveral, we heard a heavy thud but couldn’t identify its source. We were sailing close-hauled in about 12 knots of wind and the rig was loaded. Peter noticed that the shrouds on the leeward side were pretty loose but attributed that to the fact that they were not really doing any work. Later, when he went below, he noticed that the base of the mast must have shifted since a bilge cover had been displaced. The mast was becoming unstepped! Furl the ginny and douse the main! Get the load off the mast!
Thankfully the seas were kind and didn’t toss us about too much, sparing any further stress on the mast. The problem was caused by galvanic corrosion between the aluminum mast and the steel mast step. We’d been monitoring the problem for quite some time but didn’t realize that it had progressed so far. So, next stop, Playboy Marine in Ft Lauderdale where we will have the stick pulled and repairs done.
Meanwhile, here we sit in Ft Pierce waiting for a weather window and watching pelicans dive for their dinner. Yesterday, Randy rented a car and chauffeured us from errand to errand. Once, all traffic on Orange Avenue came to a standstill in order to allow a peacock cross the road.