Cumberland Island, GA

Last night I took the 9-midnight shift and Kevin had the midnight-3am shift. Not much happened during either of those; we didn't see many boats, the wind was very light, and we just scooted along in the Gulf Stream at 10 knots with sails up and one engine. However when I came on the 3am-6am watch, the wind decided to pick up to about 16-18 knots on the beam. Our speed went up to 11.5 at times and our comfort level went down a notch as the boat started to pick up speed. Unfortunately around 4:30 I altered course to starboard to avoid a container ship and by turning away from the wind, I lost our speed and couldn't get it back due to the angle of the wind (westerly) vs. where we wanted to go (north westerly). Solstice just does not point well into the wind. So our speed decreased to 7.5-8 knots. We had hoped to reach the northernmost anchorage on our list (Brunswick), and we were almost there but turned around for St. Mary's Inlet instead. Why did we turn around? In a word: cowardice. Mine, not Kevin's. We were only 2hrs/20 miles away from Brunswick but the waves had gotten bigger and we were really taking a pounding right on the beam. One hull would lift up on a wave, and then the other would follow a few seconds later, like being on a seesaw. After 38 hours of no sleep, I just couldn't take it anymore. My distressed shrieks and mutters of "ohjeezohjeezohjeezohjeez" finally got to be too much for Kevin. Even though he was willing to slog it out he turned the boat around and headed instead for the St. Mary's inlet that we'd just passed. It added an extra hour but going downwind was so much less terrifying for me.

But that was only the last two hours of the trip -- the rest of the journey was wonderful. This morning around 9am as we neared the continental shelf the wind and waves started picking up (on my watch again!), not big but hitting right on the nose, and in the chop the bow would rise on one wave and get smacked by the one right after it. Luckily the waves were maybe 3 feet, not huge but just close enough together to make some big splashes as they spanked the bow. All the splashing around our bow attracted a couple pods of Atlantic spotted dolphins. Maybe they thought we were some kind of dolphin or whale jumping up and down in the water and they just wanted to join the fun. They lapped us several times and began to play in our bow wake and it was like nothing we'd seen before. Usually dolphins just swim around the boat, jump maybe a couple times, and then take off to go do whatever it is that dolphins do in their spare time. But these guys were with us for a good twenty minutes just enjoying the ride and jumping in tandem in front of our bows. We just watched them dumbfounded until we remembered the camera! We tried to take a million photos but in every photo instead of seeing a magnificent leap all you can see is a nice splash with no dolphin anywhere. But we shot some decent video and we'll post it soon. We also had a small stowaway, a little brown and white bird who spent most of the morning catching bugs in the cockpit and looking for a spot on the boat that was out of the wind. The elusive mahi-mahi did not make an appearance on this trip. We did catch a couple pounds of seaweed that snagged on the hook every chance it got.

Interesting note: take a look at a small-scale chart of the southeastern US coast sometime. You'll be amazed at the number of spots where you see the words "Explosives Dumping Area" or "Chemical Munitions Dumping Area". You'll also be amazed at how big some of these dumps are. There must be all kinds of unexploded ordnance down there just waiting for someone clever with the ingenuity to dry it out and use it, most likely against us. Maybe the dolphins (and pilot whales, if they pass the IQ test) are stockpiling the stuff for their future bid to take over the world from the humans. I would not be surprised. Not at all.

So after 334.5 nautical miles in just over 40 hours, we arrived safely and were settled in by 8pm. We are anchored off Cumberland Island which is a nature preserve and has great hiking and wild horses but unfortunately we can't go ashore here. We haven't checked in with customs and immigration yet, and we have to go to Brunswick (38 miles up the ICW) in order to do that. So basically we are just here to finally get some sleep. We are both zombies, walking around like a couple of college kids during finals week. Remember when you would stay up for 36 hours straight to cram for an exam and then you'd go to class and take it (and get a slightly lower grade than if you'd really prepared) and come back home still wired and you'd want to sleep but were still too strung out on Mountain Dew and No Doz? Well that's how I feel right now. Say goodnight, Gracie.

Where we are:
Lat: N 30 46.204'
Long: W 81 28.254'