1030
28.6N 80.3W
We departed Port Canaveral early this morning and are on our way to Charleston, a two day passage away.
Katherine (not Kathy!) joined Intermezzo on Friday afternoon, taking the train from Charleston to Orlando and then renting a car to get to Port Canaveral. Katherine is a nurse practitioner who received her doctorate in nursing from NYU, my daughter Hannah's nursing alma mater. Small world. She's a seasoned surfer who loves the water but this is her first real sailing experience. She's standing her first watch now, after a crash course in the basics. I'll be close by if she has questions, needs help or something exceptional occurs. So it's me, Lisa and Katherine sailing triple-handed.
Yesterday the three of us visited the Kennedy Space Center. It was a nostalgic visit for Lisa and me, both of us last visiting when we were kids when the place was called Cape Kennedy and was the thick of the Apollo program, a bustling, working space center. Now it is more a museum/theme-park, although there is light activity related to commercial space ventures, like Elon Musk's SpaceX, and the Orion program which will provide the US with post-Shuttle space vehicle and resume moon missions. It was a very moving experience to relive the spirit of the early space program for Lisa and I, so much so for me that I am writing an essay reflecting on my thoughts and feelings to post on my "non-sailing" blog, Steve's Words.
This should be a calm passage to Charleston. Surface high pressure north of us will shift east and become stationary, resulting in moderate south to southeast winds. Or so it is suggested by the National Weather Service. So far the direction of the wind matches that suggestion, but it is very light. The Gulf Stream moves further offshore as we go north, so we are only getting about a 1-2 knot push. We'll probably end up motoring or motor-sailing most of the way.
