Journey Home

No picture of fuel tanks so figured a sunset at sea was better!

Our trip back started with the engine shutting down about 15 minutes outside of the St. Augustine Inlet.  We got her running again to have it repeat itself 15 minutes later.  The immediate solution was to switch tanks and keep going (despite what was then NOT the conditions we’d planned on!).
 







I was so looking forward to having the perfect sail home – winds 10-15 out of the SE the entire way promised perfection – but we’ve motored the entire way, most of the time with the sails up although not with much effect.  This morning we checked fuel to find we’d almost finished off the tank we switched to so we’re now back on tank 1 . . . so far so good but definitely holding our collective breath!

We’ve had a couple of really fun additions to our trip.  First, we were visited by a little bird that seemed to have totally worn itself out trying to reach wherever it was going.  It came in the cockpit, sat on a halyard and closed its little eyes for a rest.  It wasn’t interested in a cracker or water and after a few trial runs off the stern of the boat, it finally resumed its journey.

The biggest treat is the three different sets of dolphins who have come visiting.  They announce their arrival doing jumps on their approach toward the boat and then fall in line playing in the bow wake.  Each group stuck around for more than 15 minutes and I think they had as much fun as we did! 

 I’ll wrap this up for now but suspect a final entry will be in order.  There’s certainly bound to be at least one more story to tell before we make it to the dock and reconnect the power lines.  But for now, we’re just rocking and watching the miles fall away as we approach the Charleston inlet and home . . .