The Struggle for Power

White Pepper left her month long berth on a mooring ball at Green Cove Springs Marina today in the teeth of a Lake Winds Advisory (20-25 knots out of the WNW gusting to 35).  The reason for this madness was a hard freeze warning tonight (28 degrees F.)  Our destination was the Municipal Dock at Jacksonville 28 nautical miles to the North.  Dockage there is free, but  electricity is available for $8.95 per day. White Pepper does not have any internal way to make heat except body heat and candles.  We do have a ceramic heater, but the power consumption is so great that the device needs shore power.

Another issue was the Florida RR Bridge in Jacksonville which currently has a broken bearing, It is only open from 2 pm-4 pm. The next opening is at night which does not help at all.

Dear White Pepper's engine is so under powered with all the added gear that she can not motor well anymore, and any wave action just brings her to a stop.  However, the racing hull is  easily driven and if any amount of sail can be added, she motor sails quite well. Today on those legs of river that were North (about 20 n. miles), we would motor sail at 6 to 7 knots with about 25% of the jib rolled out.  There was an ebb tide helping as well. But on the legs that were Northwest (about 8 n. mi.) we had to roll in the genoa and motor at about 1.5 knots.  The current added a knot at the price of a vicious wind-against-current short chop. Hence the picture above.  These tired pelicans tucked in behind the stern thinking we were stopped!

Finally we cleared the RR Bridge at 2:30 followed by the Main Street lift bridge. We got to the Municipal Dock about 3 pm.  I felt like I had crossed an ocean. Jan was thrilled with her first day of our 6 month cruise. Most importantly Jan, Aphrodite cat, and I will be warm tonight. One pleasant side effect of today is that Aphrodite spent all day struggling with the motion and has been especially mellow this evening.