Did I mention that a Pershing 64 is the yacht equivalent of a Lamborghini? Well in fact I did (see my last article( Life in the Fast Lane: Italian Style") and it truly is!
As I started to write this article at 12:36 PM on Thursday we had just encountered our "official" no wake zone. From 7:40 AM when departed Fernandina Beach to the "present moment," we have traveled 104 miles in 5 hours on the ICW. I'll get to why we are on the ICW later. But first I want to talk about Lamborghinis. The ultimate thrill for someone who owns a $400,000 performance machine is to take in out on the track and push it to its limits.
The ultimate thrill (at least for now) with a Pershing 64 is to run the Intracoastal Waterway at speed, which is what we were doing until we hit the "caution flag" (i.e., No Wake zone). Consider that to average 20 MPH we had to run better than 40 MPH in order to make up for numerous slowings to pass other boats. At speed we were curving left and right to follow the magenta line making 30 degree, 45 degree and even 105 degree turns at 40 MPH while concentrating intently to keep Estremo in the deep water through some VERY narrow channels.
In many ways it's like playing a video game. Our "game," which David, Soph and I played magnificently, involved following the magenta ICW course line on chartplotter, looking out the windshield to spot buoy's, verifying the buoy's location on the chartplotter and, where necessary, using binoculars to identify the buoy number. Unlike a video game, where you simply start a new game if you "die," there is no tolerance for error. Make a mistake and the journey ends with the boat stuck high and dry on the hard or worse.
Now to the journey. Monday and Tuesday were spent at Ferretti's Fort Lauderdale facility learning about the boat and dealing with issues discovered in the process. By Wednesday we were ready to leave. Only problem was the weather. Seas were forecasted to be 3 to 5 with 15 to 20 knot southeast winds off Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday with deteriorating conditions along our route through Sunday as a massive cold front running north to south across the country made it way east.
You may recall when I started this series it did not look good for offshore running. As of Sunday May 11, a strong cold front associated with a deep low pressure center over northern Lake Michigan that trailed south to Texas was forecasted to move east slowly. NOAA was forecasting for each of the preceding four days winds out of the southeast at 15 to 20 knots with seas of 4 to 6 feet and a chance of thunderstorms each day. This raised questions as to how the 64 would handle the range of seas (head, quartering, beam and following) that we would surely encounter on a 2,460 nautical mile run.
Well we found out very quickly. As we exited the Port Everglades inlet we encountered 4 to 5 foot waves in the channel related to the southeast wind. The 64, like most boats, does not like a head sea. She pounded on some of the five footers. First important lesson. Running at speed in a head sea is hard on the boat. She needs to run a head sea in less than 3 feet to run at speed.
We quickly turned north and ran close to shore. The 64 sort of liked the beam sea and we were able to run at 34 knots (39.1 MPH). I say "sort of" because while the boat handled the turbulence the crew and contents were another matter, Moving around on an unstabilized boat is difficult (and dangerous) at speed in rough seas. Further side loads dislodged stuff in the salon refrigerator resulting in bottles and cans rolling on the salon floor. We knocked the power operated port window shade off its mounts.
We had departed Fort Lauderdale at 8:45 AM. At 11:05 AM we were off the St Lucie Inlet (Stuart Florida) and were considering the possibility of a run to St Augustine as originally planned. However, we had a fuel question. We knew that the boat was topped off when we arrived on Monday for the orientation and sea trial. What we did not know was how much fuel was burned on Monday's run off Port Everglades and Tuesday's local ICW cruising and docking practice session. Hence, we decided to pull into Fort Pierce to refuel the boat.
Explanatory Note: Fuel consumption and fuel remaining are critical issues when cruising long distances. My 48 Sundancer's fuel gauges were notoriously inaccurate. Sea Ray "dumbed them down" so that owners would not run out of fuel. When my gauges showed empty I still had 100 gallons (50 in each tank). Same problem on my old 44 and, for that matter, every other Sea Ray that I was involved with.
The Pershing 64 suffered from a programming problem on its engine monitoring system. The port and starboard monitors each showed 925 gallons or a combined total of 1,850. Since the boat holds 925 we knew that was incorrect. Feretti's technicians were unable to reprogram the computer before our departure. As a result we could not determine fuel remaining. Nor were we sure of the monitors "Trip Totals" as it pertained to usage. Hence the stop to refuel at Fort Pierce. We would start out with full tanks and have plenty of reserve to get to St Augustine and have a baseline from which to measure. We took on 391 gallons.
Explanatory Note: According to Pershing's "Trip Totals" we had burned 329 gallons since Monday. Note the 62 gallon discrepancy. What part of that was Trip Total was inaccuracy and what was generator burn. Again the need for a baseline.
We were back on the water in exactly one hour. Again we ran close to the coast to take advantage of lower seas, which were still running in 4 to 5 footers with high southeasterly winds, and the ability to quickly turn into the ICW at Cape Canaveral if seas worsened. We also had an "out" just north of Cape Canaveral at the Ponce Deleon Inlet if we decided to go around the Cape.
Explanatory Note: Winds and seas can change dramatically in the vicinity of a cape as proved by the number of wrecks that occur in these areas. Cape Hatteras being a notorious example. I'm sure Cape Fear in the Southport NC earned its name.
At 5:36 PM we were off St Augustine in 3 to 5 foot seas off the starboard aft quarter. There were few white caps suggesting that the winds were somewhat diminished. At that point we had used 593 gallons and were making 34 knots with a fuel burn of 115 GPH. With 383 gallons remaining and over 2 hours to sunset (8:12 PM) along with "tolerable" seas we decided to continue to Fernandina Beach. We called Fernandina City Marina for dockage and fuel. They accommodated us by holding their gas dock open unitil we arrived at 8:25 PM. We took on 792 gallons, 18 more gallons than indicated by our Trip Total (774 gallons). The 18 gallons represented 7 hours and 10 minutes off generator usage suggesting that the 23 KW generator burns 2.5 gallons per hour. We had validated that the fuel consumed by each engine were extremely ("Estremo") accurate. This is a big deal. We now have confidence on fuel consumption and fuel on board. WOW.
We attempted to celebrate with a bottle of Caymus 2004 Special Selection. However, it needed to breath. So we had a late dinner at the Salty Pelican and then adjourned to the boat to drink the now "perfect" wine. A fitting end to a very productive day. We had traveled ____ miles and were now just a few miles south of Georgia.
Stay tuned for Part 2. It's exciting!
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