Yes, I know….

I’ve been pretty lazy getting a new post out but there hasn’t been a whole lot of stuff happening over the last couple months that’s been related to the trip. I know I left everyone hanging about just who the “crew” will be for the return trip back to Connecticut so I’ll reveal that further down in this post (no peaking….🤨).

As mentioned in the last post, I had a few options to choose from for the continuation of the trip….

Option #1: Continue heading south to Florida after I got back from the holiday break, wait for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas, and mosey around the islands for 8 weeks before flying back home to get Denise, fly back down, then cross back over and head for home.

Option #2: Leave the boat at the marina in Hilton Head until early March then head back down and head for home

Option #3: Go back to the boat right after the holidays, get her ready to move, then head up to Lady’s Island Marina (where Pegu Club is), hang out there until the end of February, go home to get Denise, then head for home around the middle of March.

Option#4: Sell the boat down south and take up gardening back home.

How’s that for options? After much thought, I decided that Option #1 would be fun but I had no desire to spend 8+weeks by myself in paradise (yes, it’s paradise but I really wanted to share the experience with people I knew…). I did take a wee bit of flak for not going this route (especially from the gnomes cos they were upset that I didn’t consider them “people I knew” 😬). I moved on to Option #2 and I wasn’t too keen about leaving Infinity at a place where I had to beg them to check on her once in awhile and bring away to that long of a time (I guess I should qualify that last statement by saying that I would drive to Groton at least 3 times a month during the winter just to make sure Infinity was ok even though she wasn’t even in the water…🤪). You boaters know what I mean….!! Option #4 came about after too many visits to the bourbon cabinet so it was quickly dismissed…🤣. So that left Option #3 as my best choice!!

The day came for my departure from home back to Infinity. I had a 23-hour train ride back to Savannah that I had mixed feelings about. I really didn’t want to leave home cos I knew I’d be missing my bride a lot but I also wanted to check on my mistress (what Denise sometimes calls Infinity) to make sure she was safe!! The trip south was pretty uneventful and Infinity was in exactly the same condition that I had left her in…YAY!!

I had to be out of the slip I had rented in Hilton Head by 2/8/24 so I kept an eye on the weather and tides. It looked like 2/7 would be the best day to make the 18 mile move up to Lady’s Island Marina so I got busy prepping the boat. The day came with sunshine, light winds, and fog. Fog?? Not the really thick kind like Maine gets but fog? Really?? Oh well, I had to go anyways so I pushed off the dock and headed north back up the ICW towards Beaufort, SC.

I had a mile on the ICW before I headed out into Port Royal Sound so I unfurled the jib, thinking I’d have the chance to sail across the sound to the Beaufort River with the winds being what they were. I was pretty rusty from not being on the boat for awhile and I figured this would be a great way to knock off some rust. As I came into the sound, the winds were behind me at about 10 knots so I shut off the engine and sailed downwind at about 5 knots…it was a beautiful sail for about the 10 minutes!! I also noted that the fog was completely gone too!!

As I relaxed in the cockpit, the autopilot kept me on a course that would bring me to the perfect spot to turn up the river. The sun was shining and I had a dolphin come say hi to me!! I saw that the boat speed had gone up to about 6 knots so I looked at the wind gauge on the boat and noted that the winds had increased to about 15 knots. A look behind me showed some whitecaps forming in the sound. It was about 4 miles across the sound and I was making good time so life was good…then the wind gods decided to poop on my head…😖.

The first gust hit me from behind and even though I didn’t see what the wind gauge registered, I knew it was over 20 knots by the way the boat accelerated up to almost hull speed. This is how I looked at that moment…😳. The second gust came in a few seconds later and decided to never leave!! I had a pretty steady wind of 18 knots with gusts into the 20’s as I sailed along under full jib. I quickly decided to put a reef in the jib as I knew that once I turned up into the river, I’d be sailing on a close haul and would definitely have too much sail out if I didn’t reef.

I was able to get a few wraps of the jib pulled in but by then I needed to turn up the river so I left it as it was and started turning. I actually had a smile on my face as the boat came around and I started trimming in the sail for the new angle to the wind. Of course, now that I was sailing back towards the wind, the apparent winds got a lot stronger. It was about this time that the wind shifted so I wasn’t going to be able to sail up the river…time to roll up the jib.

I started the engine and got ready to turn up into the wind so I could roll up the sail. The winds were blowing around 25 knots and there was water coming over the bow so I had to get this done quickly. Oh, did I mention I was heading towards a sandbar too? I turned to boat up, set the autopilot to keep it into the wind, and cranked on that sail like a madman!! The entire time I was doing this, the lines used to control the sail were flailing around so hard that one of them actually shattered the window in the dodger (like the front windshield of a car…kinda). I didn’t even notice it until I got to the marina though.

I got the sail rolled up and tied off so I could get back to the helm and get the boat turned away from the sandbar. The boat was rolling all over the place but I was making good speed up the river so once I got behind the land, the water flattened right out. I cleaned up all of the lines and then went back to the helm for the rest of the trip north. I’m happy to say the rest of the trip was uneventful even though I struggled backing into the slip at the marina (no biggie…). 

At the very end of the trip up to Lady’s Island Marina, I had to go thru the Lady’s Island bridge so Jeff and Kimberly walked down to the bridge and took some pictures as I went thru!! They then met me at the dock and welcomed me to the marina. It was great to see them again for sure!!

So my plan was to hang out at Lady’s Island Marina until the end of February then go home to be with Denise for her retirement and birthday before heading back south to get Infinity. I made it about 2 weeks before I decided I wanted to head home so I booked a flight home the following week. I was so much more comfortable leaving Infinity this time as I knew she would be in excellent hands with Jeff and Kimberly being at the marina. They are taking good care of her while I’m away and for that I am grateful!!

So as I’m writing this on Valentine’s Day, I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day and to also let everyone know that pretty soon I’ll start posting about the trip back home with my crew onboard. Most of you probably know this but my crew will be….

         Denise!!

More adventures to come in the following months so hang on to your hats!!

❤️❤️❤️