Sailing Downtown Jacksonville

This past weekend, my friend Chuck from Texas came down to visit and sail around with me. Since my last post, I had been tied up in the marina just getting to know the boat. So I was really glad to have someone visit and help me sail. Chuck is a great sailor and we both learned some new things about the boat. Hopefully our little weekend adventure was enough to inspire him to get his boat out of the lake and into the ocean! Come on Chuck, we'll sail over to the Bahamas together.

On Saturday, we left around 11:00am and headed north up the St. Johns River. The wind was pretty nice, blowing probably 8-10. The trip from my marina to downtown Jacksonville is about 20 to 25 miles and we made it in 4 hours, putting us there right at 3:00pm. Plenty of time to eat a late lunch and take a siesta before going out for the night.
The area downtown is called the Jacksonville Landing. Not a bad little place hang out for a night. There's plenty of room to tie up to the docks and you can stay for up to 72 hours for free. So we found our spot and secured the boat. The area is sort of a horseshoe-shape with a stage in the middle and surrounded by restaurants, bars and shops. A couple of bands played that night and we pretty much just people-watched and listened to the music - at least that's all I'm willing to share.
The next morning we got up and headed back up the river (yes, up the river is actually south in this case). Quite a bit more wind this time, probably 12-15 knots and coming across the beam (that's directly sideways to the boat for you landlubbers). I didn't think she would do it, but we actually sailed around 6.5 knots and even hit 7.3 a few times. That may not sound too fast, but I was surprised that a full keel boat with a 24.5 foot waterline would get up like that.
We found a little river to sail up into for the afternoon. Fueled up at a marina there and walked about a mile up to a shopping center for lunch and browsed around a boat store. After that, just headed back to the marina for the night.

Monday morning, we got up pretty early and decided to take her out one more time before he left that afternoon. The wind was light and I have a spinnaker that the previous owner had never used, so we decided to try to figure it out. A spinnaker is that big, colorful, ballon-looking sail that you sometimes see on a sailboat - used in light air to get a lot of extra power. Chuck had no problem figuring out how to hoist it and we had a great time with it. The wind picked up a little while later so we decided to drop it so we didn't get overpowered. We probably could have kept it going but didn't want to chance it. Here are a couple of pics of the spinnaker in action.

So we went back into the slip and Chuck went to the airport. I'll probably be going back to Texas in a few days to pack up the house and move everything on up to Oklahoma for storage. If anyone needs anything for their house, just ask because I'm probably selling it!

Brandon
s/v Sirius
__/)_
~~~~~

Done Deal-E-O

I finally broke down and bought one of those wireless cards from AT&T so I have internet on the boat now.

Well, the survey turned out really well and I went ahead and bought her! Closed the deal last Thursday and spent all of Friday motoring and sailing up the St. John's River in Jacksonville, FL to setup shop at a marina that I liked better than where she was at. Here's a little breakdown of Friday's adventure:

I was planning to head out at 9 am, but I like to sleep. So I ended up leaving around 10:30, making my way north up the ICW into downtown Jacksonville. The day started out cold and windy with a solid 20kn breeze right on the nose. I donned my foul weather jacket and settled into the cockpit as the spray from the waves crashed up and around the dodger, keeping me dry. Withing 15 minutes of leaving that morning, I had bottlenose dolphin breaching on the sides of the boat. I had no idea that there were dolphin this far up the river. I wished that I had my camera with me in the cockpit, but it was below and there was a lot of traffic, so no dolphin pics this time. A few hours later, the wind and waves had died down so I opened up the dodger and took off the foulies - it turned out the be a beautiful day! Sailing downtown was great! You go right past all of the downtown buildings and the stadium where the Jaguars play.
I had a little adventure with a bridge controller downtown though; I tried to hail him on the VHF but got no response. I used the airhorn with one long and one short blast, signaling I needed a opening - again no response. So I just circled back and forth around the bridge until he came out waving his arms like he didn't know what I wanted. I tried again on the VHF and he finally answered and raised the bridge.
After motorboatin all morning, I was bored and decided it was time to put up some canvas. I was a little nervous since I was alone and had never single-handed this boat before. I started out by just letting out the jib and backing down the RPM's on the diesel. By this time, I think the tide had started running with me and I was moving along at about 5kn. Still, the engine was churning and I wanted it off. I pulled the cover off the main and hoisted her up. Shut off the engine and finally relaxed. The boat is setup fairly well for one person and most of the controls are in the cockpit. It was very exciting to find out that I could handle this boat alone, at least in mild conditions.
I moved along mostly at about 4 to 5 knots, but occasionally saw 6 according to the GPS. I pulled in the marina around 5pm that evening and had a few hands waiting to help me dock. All tied up and snug, I would say the day was a great success.
I did have one small event though. In the process of raising the main, I was going forward to unfoul one of the reefing lines. Well, my ports are stainless steel and stick out a little bit. I managed to catch my pinkie toe right on the damn thing. I thought I had broken it but was still maneuverable until I got back to the cockpit and sat down. My little toe was turning black and was swelling fast. I didn't have any ice onboard so I just held a cold sandwich against it and kept it elevated when I could. Fortunately, there is a Coast Guard medic that lives on his boat in the same marina. Once I got tied up, he came over and wrapped it up, also confirming that it probably was broken.

Since then, I have been tied up in my slip. I'm just learning my way around the boat and finguring out what I want to change/add. The list keeps getting longer everytime I look at it. From what others are telling me, that will never change. BTW, I have some great neighbors. There's a couple right next to me that are outfitting to head to the USVI in a few months.

Life is great. I couldn't be happier with the boat or the decision to go forward with this thing. There's going to be some bumps and learning curves, but if everyone is as great as the people I have met so far then I will have plenty of support along the way.

Brandon
__/)_
~~~~~

Gettin Started

Howdy. Welcome to my new blog. This will be the space to keep track of me and my adventures aboard s/v Sirius, my 1988 Island Packet 27. I have no specific plans, destinations or itiniraries so who knows where I'll be or what will happen. I'm just going to set out and see where the wind takes me. Follow along to find out...

Last week I flew from Dallas (where I currently live) out to Miami to do a little boat shopping. After 15 or so boats and a leisurely drive up the coast, I found Sirius in Jacksonville Beach. I spent at least 5 minutes aboard before I decided that she was for me and I made my offer. A few days and negotiations later, we agreed on a price. Right now the survey is scheduled for Nov 2 and, if all checks out like it should, she will be mine that day.
I guess the plan for now is to keep the boat in NE Florida for a few months while I get aquainted and outfit for extended cruising. It looks like I'm going to head back to Baghdad for 3 months beginning in mid-December to stash some more cash. After that, I will probably head down through the Bahamas and island hop my way from Puerto Rico down through the island chain. Or maybe I'll head east to Bermuda. Don't really know just yet.

I've tried the blog thing once before but didn't make it much past the first post or so. I need all ya'll to keep on me and make sure I don't slack off this time. I'm going to have some exciting stories and nice pics to share I'm sure so let me know when I start to get wrapped up in the excitement of it all and forget to post!

Brandon
s/v Sirius
__/)_
~~~~~

P.S. - This was a post I made on a different blog site but didn't like the way it worked. This post was originally made on Oct 23, 2007.