We set out Sunday afternoon and cleared the St Johns river entrance by about 5:30 pm. The wind was NW and a bit cool. It carried us offshore and into the night under full main and yankee. The weather forecast was for a rising SW wind throughout the day on Monday.
FêNIX rode out the gale comfortably, keeping George and I safe. An occasional wave top found its way aboard with a splash of not too cool salt water. There we sat for the next 24 hours, just bobbing along, drifting slowly off SSE. As the gale passed the wind clocked through the west and settled again to the NW.
By now we were well offshore and sailing comfortably in a dying breeze. As the morning progressed the wind went NE and we set the full main and poled genoa in order to head back towards the land.
By around noon the wind was just about gone and we were reduced to bearly making steerage way. That did not last long and I decided this would be a good time to try out the assymetric spinakker. Slowly the wind shifted back through the north and held light so FêNIX got a good trial run under just the spinakker.
As the wind continued to build we fairly romped along. I found that setting the spinakker tack outside the bow pulpit worked well and eliminated chafing the sail.
During this period I intently watched the self-steering and how it controlled the boat. I came to the conclusion the it was oversteering, so slight modifications to the design would need to be made.
The weather forecast for Thursday said building winds from the NW. I did not want to be driven too far south and have to beat back to the river entrance against these conditions so we started heading home. During this time the wind increased enough so we changed back to the full main and genoa.
Slack low tide was at about midnight. Throughout the day the winds continued to build and we were able to make good speed on our course. The changing wind direction to the NW brought with it cloud cover and a light drizzle off and on after nightfall. With no moon this reduced visibilty and made it hard to pick out the lights marking the river's entrance.
We finally made it by about 1am Friday morning. Coming up from the south I entered the breakwater a bit too far on the south side. With the strong NW wind blowing us toward the south rock jetty of the river's entrance we had a few tense moments manuvering for position. We gybed and I started the motor to get us on the north side of the entrance.
From then on into the river it was pretty easy going. But by now the strong NW wind was getting very cold. The temp was in the low 40's and George and I shivered as we powered along into the wind, hiding behind the dodger as best we could.
We were both pretty pooped. By sunrise we still had a way to go so we dropped the anchor, which at first refused to hold in the soft silty bottom of the river bed. Finally we got it to hold against river current and the outgoing tide and plopped into our bunks for some well earned rest.
Five hours later we were up again and underway headed back to the slip.
The short trip was a success. I got to try out many of the, new to me, sails including the brand new main. I found out what had to be done with the running rigging leads and such. Also found out that the many previous leaks in the hull to deck joint and portlights were now history.
The self-steering gear needed minor modifications. The stuffing box leaked a bit too much. But all in all FêNIX performed quite well. The newly installed bulwarks are great as are the higher coamings. The new rudder, which I designed, built and installed, steers the boat with ease and is strong enough not break under gale conditions.
Modifying the rig to two headsails provided flexibility in the rig and very good balance at the helm, even though I moved the headstay one foot farther forward. During the end of the gale when sailing under staysail alone I noticed a bit of mast pump from the staysail stay. I am going to add two padeyes and have the ability to use the intermediates as running backstays. This way I can set the backstays as standing intermediates under normal sailing conditions and for storm conditions easily convert to runners for better mast support.
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