Life at Sea

Honestly, my memory isn't that good any more and some times it's hard to remember what I cooked last night not to mention recall the last three days!  And what a "three days" it has been!

Fernandina mill behind boats at anchor.

The weather had been so bad in Amelia and didn't look like it was going to shift until Wednesday - so when Tuesday started looking good, we jumped on it pretty quick.  Kev and Judith woke up to find that their dinghy motor had recovered itself overnight and made it back to their boat with no fanfare.  Funny, but we never even thought to check it again before we camped out, go figure!  Anyway, we started making preparations to head out at the change of tide at 1030.  Off to the fuel dock, filling the water tanks, pumping out the holding tanks, etc. While all of that progressed, Judith and I headed back into town for a jaunt to the post office, a quick walk and hopefully a chance to buy two paintings I had seen the day before at an antique shop.  Much to my chagrin, the pecan sticky bun place AND the antique store were both closed ("island time", you know!) so I struck out on all of my "fun-ness" but the walk felt good nonetheless.

The weather did look better and we pushed off looking forward to a good day of sailing.  Oh - not so

Fort at Fernandina

fast, my faithful ones!  You guessed it . . . the seas were, let's say in the 8-10 foot range and although the winds were favorable, the waves were NOT and the ride was another roller coaster adventure.  It'samazing how much the sails help to stabilize you in these conditions compared to not having them raised, but OMG, I'm glad we had our "little pills"!  Bonine is the drug of the day and we faithfully took them before we headed out - good move!

About all we could do was navigate, sleep and stare for the next 24 hours - okay, let's be honest, about 48 hours - but that's getting ahead of myself! ( I can't even tell you how many moments I spent wondering how I was going to break it to Rob that I didn't want to do this any more, but let's keep that between you and I for now.)  So . . . we're talking big seas, the motor clumping along (the starter was giving fits before we left and we couldn't chance it not restarting so we left the engine run at low rpm's the entire trip . . . lovely), the sails whipping with winds shifts and wave action . . . getting the picture?!


It wasn't entirely bad.  Rob and I have fallen into a nice rhythm.  We talk nice, encourage and generally sooth each other and that in itself is like a golden pearl AND after you get used to the wave action, it is possible to fall into it.  We took turns napping throughout the day and night and even had a few moments of relative peace and calm as conditions came and went.  After the first 24 hours, we conferred with Viagem and we both were strongly considering putting in before the day ended.  Unfortunately, that meant doing so after dark because there were no navigable inlets between our position and Fort Pierce which was too far to make during daylight.  Anyone who's heard our previous sailing stories knows of our adventure entering an inlet at night but, needless to say, it wasn't something I was excited about repeating. The plan was to see how the day progressed and go from there.  Remember, sailing is NOT a planned sport . . . NO SCHEDULES ALLOWED!

As the inlet approached, a funny thing happened.  Okay, well it's funny to me at least.  I didn't want to go in.  I felt like I wanted to get this trip OVER WITH and if going in meant I had to come back OUT . . . well, it just didn't appeal.  Ha, nice attitude for less than a week into this!  I did manage to relay this thought without sounding like a quitter however and was actually met with similar viewpoints from all concerned.  Why go in under less than optimum conditions, try to get settled at an anchorage in the dark, wind down, TRY to sleep after all this, wake up and head out again?  NAW.  NOPE.  NOT REALLY.  So we kept on.

Back a few hours now . . . the sun setting is always an amazing thing no matter where you are but at sea it seems to take on a whole new splendor.  Between the heavy seas and sea salt spray everywhere, it was near impossible to capture any of it on camera but, boy, do I wish I could have.  Along with being beautiful, however, the sun setting means another level of awareness that requires some real effort offshore.  With our full enclosure of glass and eisenglass all around, any light from equipment in the cockpit reflects and made it really hard to tell if it was coming from in or out of the boat.  And after 32 hours on the water already, it just meant you had to be that much more alert.   BUT, we were all in for another 14 hours of darkness and we settled in and the time and distance passed . . .

We made it!  And, look, it's warm!

And then the sun rose!  We made it another night on the water and although we weren't as far along as we had hoped, we were nearing our destination.  Already the air was warmer even if the seas were still throwing us from hell to breakfast.  The whole of the previous 12 hours had us following the Florida coast within 2 miles to avoid the opposing gulf stream current so we had the shoreline to watch as we moved along.  We finally made the inlet at almost exactly 48 hours from our departure and were thrilled to see the 17th Street Causeway bridge rise just in time for us to pass under and make it to our anchorage within 1/2 hour of making the cut!  We safely entered Lake Sylvia anchorage, dropped anchor and let out a BIG SIGH!!!

Had a computer crash and lost the rest of what I had for you . . . but did realize there's one thing you must hear of!  Shortly after regaining our collective composure, celebrating with some nachos and beer and generally recovering, we saw the strangest sight!  A man with a jet pack came buzzing by the boat looking like something out of the Jetsons!  No kidding, you see the craziest things.  Apparently, this is something you can pay to do (go figure!).   It was almost surreal having this thing show up just as we were finally feeling human to a degree!  Ha!  Anyway, this guy buzzed around the anchorage for a few hours.  What a kick!

We did manage much needed showers and general clean up and re-settling and then met up with Rob's broker friends at a close by restaurant for conch chowder and a fish sandwich.  We enjoyed the Christmas lights on all of the fancy houses along the canals on our dinghy ride home and then fell into a hard and fast - and much deserved - sleep!